TVSquad

It was an historic occasion yesterday last Thursday on NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, didn't you know? The lady who lives to be banned -- and re-banned in the case of The View -- Kathy Griffin appeared as Jay Leno's guest. What's the big deal?

Well, if you recall the first season of Kathy's show, Bravo's My Life on the D List, the comic was rather brutally insulted by Jay when he called her ugly, and in the subsequent episodes of the show, Kathy revealed that she was put on The Tonight Show's "do not invite list."

And yet, the other night, there was Kathy in the prime seat, chatting it up with Jay, dissing celebrities as is her wont, and generally looking like the D List is now just the title of her show, not her true show business status.

Apparently not much, according to this list on Wikipedia, which is part of a larger list of infamous SNL moments. Now, this being Wikipedia, it's hard to say if all the incidents listed are true; in fact, Wikipedia themselves have flagged the entry for not adequately citing sources. But, from what I've read about the history of the show, most of these incidents actually happened.

Anyway, the list carries the most infamous transgressions, like Sinead O'Connor's tearing of the Pope's picture, Martin Lawrence's raunchy monologue, and Elvis Costello playing "Radio Radio" when Lorne Michaels specifically told him not to. But, sometimes, all you have to do is go off script, as Adrien Brody and Charles Grodin found out, to garner a lifetime ban. Or just come unprepared, as Louise Lasser found out. Interestingly enough, Andrew Dice Clay isn't on the list, even though he did a monologue that was probably even more raunchy than Lawrence's. I think the Wikipedia readers just missed that one.

[via digg and Zimbio.com]

MTV's decision to start airing an animated series in Germany called Popetown which features a corrupt Vatican and a childlike Pope who bounds around on a pogo stick is already catching flak from some Catholic groups. The series was created two years ago for the BBC, which banned it at the last minute over fear of controversy. Now MTV has courted even more controversy with a print advertisement for the new series which shows Jesus descended from the cross and laughing in front of the TV, crown of thorns still on his head. Despite threats of legal action, the series will still debut in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland on May 3.

CNN doesn't have a bureau in Iran. Actually, it has nothing in Iran right now at all after a mistranslation of a speech given by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. CNN reported Ahmadinejad saying "the use of nuclear weapons is Iran's right." What was actually said was "Iran has the right to nuclear energy." The subtle difference being between using the power for energy or using it to blow things the hell up. I have my own theories about Ahmadinejad's intentions, which you're more than welcome to try and extract from my brain this evening while I sleep. I'll leave my door unlocked for you. Meanwhile, Iran is off limits to CNN until further notice.