TVSquad

Ever notice how goofy celebrities seem to gravitate towards each other? Ok, me either, but maybe that's because most celebrities are goofy in one way or another.

Got a note from CBS tonight with a fun little advance tidbit from The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Carrie Fisher tells a story about her brush with Michael Jackson, who was laid to rest today.

"They came to me to go on a travel junket for talking about Michael (Jackson), because I was with him on his last Christmas," the actress tells Ferguson. "”It was fantastic. He had a big tree, and I did the Princess Leia monologue for his children. Yeah, I got paid. …No, no, I got paid nothing. But I got a lot of it, and also he got me a cell phone.”"

I'll give Craig Ferguson credit, he really is doing monologues in a different way. This clip from the opening of Tuesday night's show isn't your typical joked-filled opening, it's more of an essay. Ferguson talks about why everything sucks, and it has to do with you damn kids.

There are a lot of great traditions in the world of late night. Every host has to endure the wrath of Mother Nature's cruel comedy by letting an animal crap in their lap. Every host has to invite a nutball celebrity who is guaranteed to shoot up or snort something in the green room five seconds before their interview.

But one lesser known, some would say downright boring, tradition has gone by the wayside. Maybe that's because the choices are usually something boring. There was Johnny Carson's face mug, Conan O'Brien's Eisenhower mug and some boring old mug that's so dull, they couldn't even sell it in the gift shop to tourists who would buy a bag of puke if it had the Last Call with Carson Daly logo on it.

All of that changed when CBS' Craig Ferguson revived this grand tradition by jamming a cardiac needle of adrenaline into its heart with his mug.

The late night war is officially back on, folks, and it's about to get nasty because Paris Hilton has become CBS' weapon of choice.

Craig Ferguson and his Late Late Show crew plan to turn the tables on Jimmy Fallon's first foray into his late night territory by launching a cluster of MOABs at NBC that are packed to the brim with Paris.

And no, we don't mean Ferguson literally plans to launch Paris into the Late Night offices where she will unleash her demon whore spawn and turn Fallon's staff into a grisly smorgasbord of bloody flesh and gnarled bones. Let's be realistic. Paris would just hire someone to do that for her.

Jay Leno's move into primetime surprised just about everyone with a television and a central nervous system.

NBC's Tonight Show chair might have been the throne of late night royalty, but it's not an aristocracy. That assumption caused the infamous late night fiasco when Johnny Carson retired and pushed David Letterman to CBS. It's that same assumption that has everyone's jaws dropping out of their ligaments.

But just like the Super Bowl, little league baseball, or a hottest-wet-buns-in-jeans contest -- there must be winners and losers. Here are the people who should and shouldn't be loving Leno right now.

I was reading AOL TV's "TV's 50 Hottest Hunks - Ever," and I was struck by two thoughts: "Ugh, can people really use the term, 'hunk' without shuddering?" and, "David Boreanaz? Seriously?"

I get it. Television is populated with pretty people and there are just some guys who are objectively hot (hellooooo, Jon Hamm). Generally speaking though, I'm not drawn to the Luke Perrys and Mario Lopezes of the world. I like quirky guys, and so while most of the dudes on this list aren't going to make it into the People magazine "Sexiest Man Alive" issue, they keep me tuning in every week (heh, that sounded totally dirty).

Follow me after the jump for the undercover hotties: ten guys on TV I secretly love.

And then there were none.

David Letterman has struck a deal with the Writers Guild of America, and both his show and The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson (both produced by Letterman's Worldwide Pants) will return next Wednesday, January 2. The other shows are coming back on that day too, but a key difference is that Letterman's show will be coming back with his writers, thanks to this deal hammered out by Rob Burnett and others. Both sides have been trying to come to an agreement for the past couple of weeks, and it actually looked like things might have fallen through last week.

I don't usually watch Jay Leno's show, unless he has a particularly interesting guest on, and I'll watch "Headlines" every Monday night (it really says something about your show when the funniest, most entertaining thing about it is something like "Headlines"), but he made a joke the other night that made Deadline Hollywood columnist Nikki Finke think that he might be hinting at having another show on another network when he leaves NBC.

During his monologue last night, Late, Late Show host Craig Ferguson talked about all the craziness that Britney Spears has been going through lately (wearing no panties, shaving her head, in and out of rehab - maybe), but he refused to dump on her about it all. He talked about his own bout with alcoholism, and said that even though there's no real evidence that Spears has any alcohol/drug problem, "she clearly needs help."

Ferguson does a great monlogue, because it's very chatty and seems to be a combination of scripted material and just off-the-cuff talking with the audience, and when he talks about his own problems it takes the late-night monlogue to a different level that others don't have. More Jack Parr than Jay Leno.

For the record, we here at TV Squad still feel it's our duty to dump on Ms. Spears, when and if she deserves it.

• The Super Bowl officially begins at 6:30, but CBS' pre-game coverage started at noon. After the game there's a new episode of Criminal Minds.
• TBS has a My Boys marathon starting at 5.
• Animal Bowl has Puppy Bowl III all night (starts at 6).
• ABC, NBC, and FOX all have repeats all night (they don't want to compete with the game).
• At 10, HGTV has a new episode of Living With Ed.
• HBO has a new Rome at 10, followed by a new Extras.
• Also at 10: Showtime has a new episode of The L Word.
• At 11:30 (or after local news), CBS has a special Late, Late Show With Craig Ferguson, with Billy Bob Thornton, Hank Williams, Jr, Gloria Estefan, Dan Marino, and Mike Ditka.

Check your local TV listings for more.

I really like Craig Ferguson and The Late, Late Show. It's interesting that they're still using Craig Kilborn's old set. But all of that's going to change when Ferguson returns from a vacation week on July 24. Kilborn's old set is going to vanish, and a new set from Saturday Night Live set designer Akira Yoshimura will be in its place.

I always thought it was funny that the replacement they got for Craig Kilborn was another guy named Craig. Did they do it so they didn't have to change the towels in the dressing room?

I gotta admit that, even though I really like Ferguson and he's a completely different style from Kilborn, I'm probably one of the very few people who miss Kilborn. I think he brought something really different and offbeat (yet old school) about his show. I thought it was a funny, entertaining show and was sorry to see it go.

[via TV Tattle]