New York - Conservative author Ann Coulter initially seemed pleased Tuesday to appear on CBS' “The Early Show,” especially after an interview she was set to do on NBC's “Today” the same morning was canceled.

But by the end of the segment, CBS anchor Harry Smith aggressively confronted the writer about the allegations in her latest book, “Guilty: Liberal 'Victims' and Their Assault on America.”

At one point, he suggested that she was crying victim herself and “should have a cross.”

”Here's my problem,” Smith told Coulter at the outset. “Because you try to be funny, because you have this kind of sophomoric, sort of simplistic kind of view of so many things ... who's going to take you seriously?”

”I think any comedy writer will tell you that sophomoric is New York Times code for funny, so I thank you for that,” Coulter retorted.

Smith said afterward that he hadn't planned for the interview to get contentious.

”I was just going to challenge her back,” he said in an interview.

”The thing is, there are things she says that have a real place in our ongoing political conversation in terms of issues of importance to everybody. The point I was trying to make to her was that if she was more serious, she would be taken more seriously.”

In an e-mail, Coulter said she was flattered by Smith's questioning. “He treated me like a Republican vice presidential candidate!” she wrote.

Their seven-minute-long exchange was the latest dust-up involving Coulter, a polarizing personality who is adept at generating attention for her best-selling books. Monday, she cried foul when an appearance she was set to make on “Today” was canceled, telling Fox News' Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes that NBC had booked her only as a “charade” to keep her from going on other shows.

NBC disputed that, saying that Coulter was bumped so the program could devote more time to covering the developments in the Gaza Strip, for which host Matt Lauer interviewed former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

”We've had Ann Coulter on “Today' many times, but because of the news in Washington and the Middle East, we decided to cancel her appearance on Tuesday morning,” NBC spokeswoman Megan Kopf said. “Understanding the media as well as she does, we are sure she knows this happens from time to time.”

After Coulter's complaints - and coverage on the Drudge Report, which reported that NBC had banned her for life, which the network denied - she was invited to appear on “Today” on Wednesday.

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