No Max Weinberg 7 on Conan's new show

A report from Movieline.com indicates that when Conan O'Brien returns to the airwaves this fall, it'll be minus bandleader Max Weinberg.

The original source: a City Pages interview with music legend Al Kooper, who said, "They let [Weinberg] go. This is a big transition, and they're all signing new contracts and everything so they replaced him, as far as I know."

Does that mean Conan will have an all-new band? "No, not at all. That's the only change. But I mean, there was a lotta conflict because of [Bruce] Springsteen. So now he can play with Springsteen whenever he wants."

Movieline reported earlier this month that according to rumor, Weinberg had approached Jay Leno about replacing Kevin Eubanks as the "Tonight Show" bandleader (instead, Rickey Minor got the nod). The web site claimed that Max was "less than beloved by [Conan's] staffers. When O’Brien’s show was still located in New York, Weinberg would send interns to do gardening work at his house on the New Jersey shore, and would involve staffers in his pay disputes with the network — at one point, even enlisting an intern to tabulate every minute of screen time Weinberg had racked up over two years in an argument for a salary raise."