Tuner's suite of cable networks -- TNT, TBS and the outfit formerly known as CourtTV truTV have decided to have an upfront gala on May 14. Notably, the Turner event comes right smack in the middle of when the Big Four through their big presentations for advertisers, hoping that boatloads of jumbo shrimp and premium booze will get Madison Avenue to fork over hundreds of millions of bucks on a bunch of new shows, most of which will fail. NBCU chairman Jeff Zucker has said these events are largely waste of money and used the air cover of the writers strike to say the Peacock Network would probably scale back its participation in these splashy affairs. But I think the Turner folks have the right idea. It's showbiz after all and most media buyers like the facade of being part of it, gorging on fillet mignon, swilling cocktails and getting their pictures taken with the latest hunks and hunkettes. It makes handing over all that cash all that much easier.