my $status = shift @cells;
my $end = pop @cells;
my $start = pop @cells;
print "<td>$_</td>" for ($status, join(' ', @cells), $start, $end);

##</code><code>##

# Do this once:
my $status_re = qr{\w+};
my $date_re = qr{\d{2}-\w{3}-\d{4}};
my $log_re = qr{^($status_re)\s+(.*?)\s+($date_re)\s+($date_re)\R$};
...
# Do this in the while loop
print "<td>$_</td>" for $line =~ $log_re;