Food for thought, and it’s free

The stars. The suits. The shrimp. Twice a year, TV reporters and critics from around the country come to Los Angeles to get a sneak peek at the new television shows and hear from the people who put them on the air. This summer, home base for the convention, sponsored by the Television Critics Assn, is the Beverly Hilton, but parties are taking place at various locations around town. The Times’ Paul Brownfield is there, and weighing in with an online critic’s notebook. Here’s a sample of what he’s found at the network presentations so far this week.

Admission: I have eaten more food off CBS’ dime in the last 24 hours than I think is technically permissible under The Times’ ethics policy. That’s not to say the spread was exactly impressive last night at the CBS party, held in the courtyard of the Hammer Museum in Westwood (Volvo SUVs in a valet parking scrum in the underground garage, etc.) and not at the Getty, which I thought was a place you could buy your way into but anyway.

A sushi station was the highlight. There, standing in line like an idiot, I argued with Lynette Rice of Entertainment Weekly about whether “CSI: New York’s” Gary Sinise was wearing a hairpiece. She said no, I said yes (“It’s a little one,” I said, mimicking what my father used to tell me. “You can’t just think in terms of wigs. Like, for instance, that one Kevin Dobson over there is wearing.... “). And if I’m wrong about Sinise (or Dobson) I’ll clarify in a future post.

If you cover television this can be, you know, how you live your life.

Clarification: Yesterday I said “Ghost Whisperer” is a rip-off of “Medium.” But of course it’s also a rip-off of “The Sixth Sense.”

One show “Ghost Whisperer” is not a rip-off of, I’m pretty sure, is “Two and a Half Men.” They’re first up this morning, day 2 of CBS’ press tour, here at the Beverly Hilton, otherwise known as the House of Merv.

And get this: They have caterers wearing “Two and a Half Men” Bermuda shirts that apparently they can’t keep, as I overheard the discussion between several employees.

At 9 a.m., it was time to meet the millionaires and multimillionaires behind “Two and a Half Men.” But boy, what a dud this session turned out to be. I was hoping series creator Chuck Lorre was going to spout off about how his top-rated comedy didn’t get an Emmy nomination while “Will & Grace” did, and “Everybody Loves Raymond” did, and “Arrested Development” did.

But Lorre was disappointingly unperturbed, like he’d come from therapy and was feeling that feeling you feel after therapy, relatively centered and upbeat, and the reporters/critics in the room, for some reason, kept asking about the acting craft. Did they realize these were the people from “Two and a Half Men” before them? These questions about how this or that actor gets into character. It’s a sitcom -- don’t they all get into character when a bell goes off?

Oh well. You learned Martin Sheen’ll be on the show next season. And this clarification from CBS head of publicity Chris Ender: The “Two and a Half Men” shirts the Hilton wait staff can’t keep are “from wardrobe” on the show. Meaning that Charlie wears them and they want them back, which doesn’t quite add up. But I don’t know, that’s all I know at this point.