SENT TO BED WITHOUT SMUT

A federal appeals court ruled that TV stations can no longer air steamy movies or racy talk shows as early as 8 p.m. Instead, sexually suggestive or explicit shows will have to wait till 10 p.m., when the kids presumably are asleep. "It is fanciful to believe that the vast majority of parents who wish to shield their children from indecent material can effectively do so without meaningful restrictions on the airing of broadcast indecency," the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said. Viewers probably won't notice any difference. The ruling doesn't apply to the cable television, which parcels out most of the material in question. And over the airwaves, nearly all shows now scheduled in the forbidden timeframe meet FCC standards of decency.