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Madonna’s Halftime Show wasn’t her only Super Bowl gig.

She also appeared alongside Jay Leno in a commercial for “The Tonight Show.”

In the short clip, Leno finds himself in an elevator with the Queen of Pop, only to be embarrassed when his phone goes off with one of her songs as his ring tone.

Check out Madonna’s reaction in the video below!

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WATCH:

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Dane Cook isn’t exactly shy, and he showed off some personality — and more — on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”

It turns out the comedian is a big fan of fellow guest Taylor Swift.

Such a fan, in fact, that Cook took off his shirt, revealing a giant tattoo of Swift on his chest, and then serenaded the country star with a song he may want to put some more work into.

Swift was confused by his admiration but played along as a good sport.

WATCH:

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Jay Leno headed to Sarah Palin territory yesterday.

“The Tonight Show,” who was in Alaska to perform at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, also cut the ribbon and shook hands with fans at the opening of a new Air Force Reserve’s recruiting office in Wasilla.

While in Wasilla, Leno, who collects vintage cars, inspected several vehicles that were at the ribbon cutting, including a set of wheels that looked like a giant Radio Flyer wagon.

Thanking the new recruits at the new Wasilla office, Leno said: “I look at these young faces and they look like the kids that we went to school with.”

He added, “I thank you so much for doing this, because I wouldn’t be able to do what I do. Well, people say, ‘You have all these cool cars,’ well, I wouldn’t have them if it wasn’t for you guys.”

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There might be another cold front brewing between longtime rivals David Letterman and Jay Leno after Letterman’s ribbing of “Late Show” guest Brian Williams Monday night.

With Williams in the hot seat, CBS’ Letterman asked the NBC anchor if he ever appears on Leno’s “The Tonight Show.” Williams, complimenting the Peacock Network’s “robust” lineup, admitted that he does.

“I don’t like it when you go on that show,” Letterman replied to much studio laughter. “Could you not go on that show?”

Despite Williams trying to stay neutral, Letterman persisted, explaining that he and the news anchor are “more real guys, as opposed to you and Jay… You and I are the real thing.”

After a several Leno impressions by Letterman and a few failed attempts by Williams to change the topic, the segment ended with Williams mouthing “help me” to the camera.

So, was Williams pretending to be uncomfortable? And was Letterman joking or really revealing how he feels?

Watch the clip below and decide for yourself.

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The Emmys are definitely Team CoCo.

Conan O’Brien‘s short tenure as the host of “The Tonight Show” was rewarded today with an Emmy nomination for best variety, music or comedy series, while rival Jay Leno was snubbed.

NBC submitted both incarnations of the show for Emmy consideration, but the TV academy was only interested in O’Brien.

Other nominees in the category include “Saturday Night Live,” Jon Stewart‘s “The Daily Show,” “The Colbert Report,” and “Real Time with Bill Maher.”

David Letterman‘s “The Late Show” was also excluded from that category for the first time in 17 years.

O’Brien, whose final “Tonight” show appearance also received a nod for best writing in a variety, music or comedy series, tweeted today, ”Congrats to my staff on 4 Emmy nominations. This bodes well for the future of the `Tonight’ show with Conan O’Brien.”

The funny man will resume his late-night duties on TBS this fall.

What do you think of O’Brien’s “Tonight Show” getting an Emmy nomination, and Leno’s not?

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Jimmy Dean, country music legend, television host and sausage mogul/spokesman, has died at his home in Virginia.

He was 81.

Donna Meade Dean, his wife, reports that he’d had some health problems but had been functioning well.

A Texan by birth, Dean wrote the #1 Billboard hit “Big Bad John,” guest hosted “The Tonight Show,” and had his own ABC variety series, “The Jimmy Dean Show,” for three years in the mid-1960s. He also became a staple of the talk and game show circuits and did acting work in movies like Diamonds Are Forever and TV series like “Daniel Boone.”

In 1969, he launched the Jimmy Dean Sausage Company and starred in the popular pork product’s commercials for decades.

He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in February and was to have been inducted in October.

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According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Jay Leno “wasn’t laughing Sunday while watching [Conan] O’Brien’s much-hyped interview with Steve Croft on ‘60 Minutes.’ In fact, he was spewing curse words.”

The paper goes on to say, “As he watched ‘60 Minutes,’ Leno yelled a slew of expletives at the TV screen.”

Really?

Slight problem: When the interview was airing, Leno was nowhere near a TV. He was onstage performing at the Comedy & Magic Club in Hermosa Beach, California.

Interestingly, the Chicago Sun-Times didn’t mention in its article where Leno allegedly watched the interview and with whom.

There’s good reason, because the newspaper had no idea.

But Gossip Cop does. 

A source close to Leno tells us the “Tonight Show” host actually recorded the interview, but watched it by himself at home. 

Bet there’s a editor at the Sun-Times cursing just about… now.

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O’Brien gives his first on-the-record comments about the late-night shake-up in a “60 Minutes” interview scheduled to air Sunday.

“He went and took that show back and I think in a similar situation, if roles had been reversed, I know — I know me, I wouldn’t have done that,” O’Brien says in an excerpt released by CBS.

When asked what he would have done instead, O’Brien says, “Done something else, go someplace else. I mean, that’s just me.”

On why he left NBC instead of moving his show to midnight as the network suggested, O’Brien explains that he thought the relationship was “going be toxic and maybe we just need to go our separate ways. That’s really how it felt to me… and I started to feel that I’m not sure these people even really want me here… .I can’t do it [anymore].”

So will you be tuning in on Sunday to watch O’Brien blast Leno?

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There will be two red carpet premieres for “The Runaways,” Gossip Cop has confirmed.

The Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning rock biopic will premiere in Los Angeles on March 11. There will then be a New York City premiere on March 17.

“The Runaways” received a lot of attention last month at the Sundance Film Festival.

Stewart, Fanning, and film subject Joan Jett will all appear during Jay Leno‘s first episodes back as host of “The Tonight Show.”

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NBC announced “The Jay Leno Show” with great fanfare back in 2008, and after fewer than five months on the air, Jay Leno will call it quits tonight.

For the show’s finale, Leno will have Ashton Kutcher promoting “Valentine’s Day,” “Precious” star Gabourey Sidibe, and Bob Costas will do the “10 at 10″ from Vancouver, where he will host the Winter Olympics, beginning Friday on NBC.

While the Olympics are on, Leno’s studio will be completely redone before he (again) hosts “The Tonight Show,” starting March 1.

What are your thoughts about him calling it quits tonight?

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(CBS)

It was just 15 seconds, but it was colossal.

We’re talking about the ad that ran during the Super Bowl for “Late Show with David Letterman,” featuring David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey… and Letterman’s nemesis Jay Leno.

The commercial begins with a tight shot of Letterman griping, ”This is the worst Super Bowl party ever.”

The camera pulls back to reveal Oprah Winfrey, who tells Letterman, “Now, Dave, be nice.”

The camera then pulls out further and we see Jay Leno, who responds, “He’s just saying that because I’m here” to which Letterman mocks in a repeating whine, “He’s just saying that because I’m here.”

And that’s it.

Here’s how it all came about.

Though the ad was hatched by Letterman, and written by him, he did NOT personally call his rival about doing the commercial.

A few weeks ago “Late Show with David Letterman” executive producer Rob Burnett reached out to Leno’s executive producer Debbie Vickers, and astoundingly “NBC was onboard from the beginning,” says a CBS insider.

And the motivation for Letterman and Leno was nothing more than they both thought it would be funny.

The next step was Leno flying to the East Coast to film the ad inside Letterman’s studio last Tuesday, a night when “The Jay Leno Show” was off because of an extended episode of “The Biggest Loser.”

And even though the commercial plugged Letterman’s CBS show, Gossip Cop is told that NBC was so into the idea that the network flew Leno to New York on the NBC corporate jet.

As to how the two were when they faced each other after so many years of rivalry, a Letterman source says, they were “friendly, cordial and professional.”

But don’t count on that cordialness to last. The two talk show titans will fight each other for ratings, beginning March 1 when Leno returns to host “The Tonight Show.”

Now check out the video for this historic and hysterical commercial.

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(GettyImages.com)

“Justice” is finally being served for Conan O’Brien at NBC.

Right on the heels of O’Brien leaving the network as the host of “The Tonight Show” comes word that NBC has — believe it or not — picked up a pilot developed by the comedian’s Conaco production company.

It gets better. The NBC pilot will be executive produced by — wait for it — O’Brien.

Ha!

No, “Justice” is not about a late night comedian who goes to another network and garners big ratings. Instead, the show focuses on a Supreme Court judge who leaves the bench to start his own private practice.

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(GettyImages.com)

Just when you thought controversy involving Conan O’Brien was over…

The New York Post quotes a source close to producers behind Friday’s Hope For Haiti Now telethon as saying they were “horrified” to witness the deposed “Tonight Show” host “gleefully saying… he’s spending as much of NBC’s cash as he can, while hundreds of thousands have died or face death in Haiti.”

The item refers to a running gag on O’Brien’s final broadcasts in which he “wasted” NBC’s money on expensive, nonsensical comedy bits involving a pricey Bugati car, Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird, and an original Picasso.

Gossip Cop understands anger toward reckless spending in the face of tragedy, but two points:

1. O’Brien did not actually waste millions on the surreal sight gags. As he made clear during Friday’s finale, they were a joke. He didn’t, for instance, buy a real Picasso just to destroy it with caviar. Nor did he really buy the car or the horse.

2. On the contrary, amid the hoopla over his exit, O’Brien mentioned the catastrophe in Haiti throughout his final week, frequently promoting Ben Stiller‘s Stiller Strong initiative to rebuild schools on the island, pleading with viewers to donate, and running the Hope For Haiti Now address at the bottom of the screen during his last show.

Additionally, several times O’Brien acknowledged the silliness and irrelevance of his own problems when compared to the devastation in Haiti. And his “expensive” gags may have wasted time… but not millions of dollars.

Gossip Cop hopes Haiti won’t leave our minds as it begins to leave our front pages. Please donate if you can.

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UPDATE: 12:30PM -

NBC plans to air reruns of “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” between the host’s departure tomorrow and the start of the Winter Olympics, according to reports.

Jay Leno takes back the chair on March 1.

We’re guessing NBC won’t choose to air episodes like last night’s.

ORIGINAL POST – 7:56 AM

After a couple of weeks of wrangling, NBC just announced it has struck a $45 million deal with Conan O’Brien to leave “The Tonight Show.”

Under the agreement, O’Brien will receive more than $33 million, with the balance going to his staff as severance.

Conan’s last show will be this Friday, and Jay Leno will return to “The Tonight Show” on March 1.

The deal ends a two-week battle of barbs between hosts and the network. Among the many memorable lines from O’Brien was his advice to kids about fulfilling their dreams: “You can do anything you want in life. Unless Jay Leno wants to do it, too.”

Late night rivals David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel entered the fray, too, often targeting Leno and NBC.

“In the end, Conan was appreciative of the steps NBC made to take care of his staff and crew, and decided to supplement the severance they were getting out of his own pocket,” his manager Gavin Polone said, adding, “Now he just wants to get back on the air as quickly as possible.”

According to the settlement, O’Brien can begin a new TV hosting gig as early as September. Fox has made it known that it would be interested in possibly doing a late night show with O’Brien.

Gossip Cop will update when more information emerges…

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(GettyImages.com)

On tonight’s Jay Leno Show, the talk show host addresses the late night spectacle, not in jest, but in a conciliatory tone. Among the many things he says: “Conan O’Brien has been a gentleman. He’s a good guy. I have no animosity towards him.”

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Below are the comments Leno made this evening after his monologue, in full:

*****     *****     *****

I thought maybe I should address this.  At least give you my view of what has been going on here at NBC.  Oh, let’s start in 2004.  2004 I’m sitting in my office, an NBC executive comes in and says to me, listen, Conan O’Brien has gotten offers from other networks.  We don’t want him to go, so we’re going to give him ‘The Tonight Show.’  I said, ‘well, I’ve been number one for 12 years.’  They said, ‘we know that, but we don’t think you can sustain that.’  I said, ‘okay.  How about until I fall to number two, then you fire me?’  ‘No, we made this decision.’  I said, ‘that’s fine.’  Don’t blame Conan O’Brien.  Nice guy, good family guy, great guy.  He and I have talked and not a problem since then.  That’s what managers and people do, they try to get something for their clients. I said, ‘I’ll retire just to avoid what happened the last time.’  Okay.

So time goes by and we stay number one up until the day we leave.  We hand – (applause)-No, no.  Okay, but I’m leaving before my contract is out.  About six to eight months early.  So before I could go anywhere else, I would be at least a year or 18 months before I could go and do a show somewhere else.  I said to NBC, ‘would you release me from my contract.’  They said, ‘we want to keep you here.’  Okay.  What are your ideas?  They said, ‘how about primetime?’  I said, ‘that will never work.’  No, no, we want to put you on at 10:00.  We have done focus groups.  People will love you at 10:00.  Look at these studies showing Jay’s chin at 10:00.  People will go crazy.  Didn’t seem like a good idea at the time.  I said, ‘alright, can I keep my staff?’  There are 175 people that work here.  I said, ‘can I keep my staff?’  Yes, you can.  Let’s try it.  We guarantee you two years on the air, guaranteed.  Now for the first four or five months against original shows like “CSI” you’ll get killed, but in the spring and summer when the reruns come, that’s when you’ll pick up.  Okay, great.  I agree to that.

Four months go by, we don’t make it.  Meanwhile, Conan’s show during the summer, we’re not on, was not doing well.  The great hope was that we would help him.  Well, we didn’t help him any, okay.  They come and go, ‘this show isn’t working.  We want to let you go.’  Can you let me out of my contract?  No, you’re still a valuable asset to this company.  How valuable can I be?  You fired me twice.  How valuable can I be?  Okay.  So then, the affiliates are not happy.  The affiliates are the ones that own the TV stations.  They’re the ones that sort of makes the decisions, they’re not happy with your performance and Conan is not doing well at 11:30.  I said, ‘what’s your idea?’  They said, ‘well, look, how about you do a half hour show at 11:30?’  Now, where I come from, when your boss gives you a job and you don’t do it well, I think we did a good job here, but we didn’t’ get the ratings, so you get humbled.  I said, ‘okay, I’m not crazy about doing a half hour, but okay.  What do you want to do with Conan?’  We’ll put him on at midnight, or 12:05, keeps “The Tonight Show” does all that, he gets the whole hour.  I said, okay.  You think Conan will go for that?  Yes, yes.  (laughter)  Almost guarantee you.  I said okay.  Shake hands, that’s it.  I don’t have a manager, I don’t have an agent, that’s my handshake deal.

Next thing I see Conan has a story in the paper saying he doesn’t want to do that.  They come back to me and they say if he decides to walk and doesn’t want to do it, do you want the show back?  I go, ‘yeah, I’ll take the show back.  If that’s what he wants to do.  This way, we keep our people working, fine.’ So that’s pretty much where we are.  It looks like we might be back at 11:30, I’m not sure.  I don’t know.  (applause)  I don’t know.  But through all of this – through all of this, Conan O’Brien has been a gentleman.  He’s a good guy.  I have no animosity towards him.  This is all business.  If you don’t get the ratings, they take you off the air.  I think you know this town, you can do almost anything.  You get ratings they keep you.  I don’t get ratings, he wants.  That was NBC’s solution.  It didn’t work so we might have an answer for you tomorrow.  So, we’ll see.  That’s basically where it is.

*****     *****     *****

Gossip Cop will obviously have much, much more as the late night saga continues…

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(GettyImages.com)

Conan O’Brien has decided not to accept NBC’s proposal to move “The Tonight Show” to a later time following Jay Leno.

“‘The Tonight Show’ at 12:05 simply isn’t ‘The Tonight Show,’” O’Brien says in a statement released Tuesday.

He has not said what he plans to do next.

Anyone who saw O’Brien’s monologue last night (VIDEO HERE) knows just how unhappy recent developments at NBC have made him.

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FULL STATEMENT:

People of Earth:

In the last few days, I’ve been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second feeling sorry for me. For 17 years, I’ve been getting paid to do what I love most and, in a world with real problems, I’ve been absurdly lucky. That said, I’ve been suddenly put in a very public predicament and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision.

Six years ago, I signed a contract with NBC to take over The Tonight Show in June of 2009. Like a lot of us, I grew up watching Johnny Carson every night and the chance to one day sit in that chair has meant everything to me. I worked long and hard to get that opportunity, passed up far more lucrative offers, and since 2004 I have spent literally hundreds of hours thinking of ways to extend the franchise long into the future. It was my mistaken belief that, like my predecessor, I would have the benefit of some time and, just as important, some degree of ratings support from the prime-time schedule. Building a lasting audience at 11:30 is impossible without both.

But sadly, we were never given that chance. After only seven months, with my Tonight Show in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their terrible difficulties in prime-time by making a change in their long-established late night schedule.

Last Thursday, NBC executives told me they intended to move the Tonight Show to 12:05 to accommodate the Jay Leno Show at 11:35. For 60 years the Tonight Show has aired immediately following the late local news. I sincerely believe that delaying the Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn’t the Tonight Show. Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the Late Night show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot. That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy.

So it has come to this: I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it. My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of The Tonight Show. But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet a time slot doesn’t matter. But with the Tonight Show, I believe nothing could matter more.

There has been speculation about my going to another network but, to set the record straight, I currently have no other offer and honestly have no idea what happens next. My hope is that NBC and I can resolve this quickly so that my staff, crew, and I can do a show we can be proud of, for a company that values our work.

Have a great day and, for the record, I am truly sorry about my hair; it’s always been that way.

Yours,

Conan

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(GettyImages.com)

UPDATE – 12:35AM  1/8/10

After a day of incredible developments for NBC and the late night landscape, TMZ now reports that the network has given Conan O’Brien a choice – to move his “Tonight Show” back to 12:05AM nightly, giving Jay Leno the half-hour starting at 11:35PM… or to leave NBC.

The site claims that Leno will be given a full hour if O’Brien decides to walk.

Whether such an offer is on the table has not yet been confirmed.

Gossip Cop will monitor all rumors closely…

UPDATE – 9:35PM -

As Gossip Cop reported earlier, Leno DID address shakeup rumors in his monologue during today’s taping of “The Jay Leno Show.” Video is below.

UPDATE – 7:55PM -

NBC has released the following statement:

“We have the best comedy team in the business. We remain committed to keeping Conan O’Brien on NBC. He is a valued part of our late-night line-up, as he has been for more than 16 years and is one of the most respected entertainers on television.”

*****     *****     ******     *****

Rumors have gained steam all day that NBC plans to make MAJOR changes to “The Jay Leno Show,” its late night lineup, or both.

Speculation that the network sought to overhaul or cancel Jay Leno‘s prime time experiment took a turn late in the afternoon when TMZ reported a bombshell: NBC was set to return Leno to “The Tonight Show,” the 11:30PM institution he vacated to make way for Conan O’Brien.

Gossip Cop has been on the phone with sources at both programs, sources at the network, and friends of both hosts. What’s been repeated is that NBC is looking to make a change at the 10:00pm slot, but that the timetable hasn’t been set.

Here’s what we’ve learned: Leno is set to address the swirling rumors during today’s taping of “The Jay Leno Show,“ sources at NBC tell Gossip Cop.

Gossip Cop will have updates as soon as they’re available. Stay tuned…

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