Column display, layout differences

I'm trying my hand at a layout with some table-less rows and columns:
etvCAST layout rework

In Firefox (and at a specific page width ), it looks pretty good (would like to fill the gap in the middle). But the main content columns don't degrade very nicely when the browser width collapses. I'd love to know how to fix that and to make the main section more fluid.

But the bigger problem: in IE, it really looks screwy! The degrading is a bit worse, but more importantly, parts of the layout are missing! And the footer is being pushed down, so I assume the right column pieces are "hiding" somewhere below the other content. Am I missing some IE hacks or something?

Oh wow, that's horrible in Safari. It's not that great in Firefox when the browser is resized to a smaller width either. Using fixed width floats in such a wide layout like that isn't a good idea.

Agreed. How would you recommend improving the layout? I'd appreciate any feedback.