Remember when Rosie ODonnell was known as the Queen of Nice?  We adore Rosie, but that seems so long ago.

Rosie O’Donnell might have a deal with NBC in the works.  If everything pans out, Rosie will be the host of a variety show.  They are looking to have the show on the air by 2009 and it will have the same feel as The Ed Sullivan Show.

It should be noted that Jay Leno’s contract is up with NBC in May 2009.  I wonder if NBC would want Jay to host a variety show if the plan with Rosie doesnt work out.

Hmm…

“Saturday Night Live” veteran Jimmy Fallon was officially named on Monday to take Conan O’Brien’s place on NBC next year when O’Brien succeeds Jay Leno as host of “The Tonight Show.”

The announcement, which had been expected for weeks, was made during a press event from NBC headquarters in New York where O’Brien’s “Late Night” show is taped. I wonder what Carson Daly thinks about Jimmy getting Conan’s job. He must be pissed!

The appointment of Fallon, long considered a leading contender for NBC’s 12:35 a.m. time slot, completes a talent shuffle set in motion when the General Electric Co-owned network announced in 2004 that Leno would retire from “Tonight” in 2009 and that O’Brien would replace him.
(more…)

Actress and musician Minnie Driver confirmed rumors she’s expecting her first child on Thursday’s Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

“Are you pregnant?” Leno asked, after joking about her weight.

“Yes, I am,” she replied. “I don’t know why they call it morning sickness… I am sick morning, noon and night, but it’s a fair trade-off.”

Driver said she likes being pregnant “more than anything else.”

The 28-year-old stars in The Riches on FX and released an album last year.

She has not revealed the father of her baby.

Jay Leno, who will leave “The Tonight Show” next year to make way for Conan O’Brien, is not allowed to negotiate for a new job until November 2009. But his suitors are already circling.

Four years ago, NBC made the comedian the lame-duck host of “The Tonight Show,” announcing with fanfare that he would be succeeded by Conan O’Brien in 2009.

Today, Mr. Leno is still the champion of late-night ratings, with no apparent desire to do anything else but continue on top. “What I do,” he has said on several occasions to colleagues, “is tell jokes at 11:30 at night.”

And so, nearly two years before he can officially be courted, suitors including two networks, ABC and Fox, and at least one television studio, Sony Pictures Television, are beginning to circle, doing everything they legally can to make sure Mr. Leno knows that they will make it possible for him to continue doing just that.

Senior executives at ABC and Fox said that their networks had discreetly gotten the message to Mr. Leno that they were waiting eagerly for the time when they would be able to make official overtures. NBC Universal, meanwhile, has repeatedly expressed its intention to retain Mr. Leno with a still-undisclosed plan for a new program.

Sony Pictures Television has made an approach through intermediaries to let Mr. Leno and his representatives know that as soon as he is allowed to discuss his next move, the studio will make him a rich offer for a syndicated late-night show that would make him the highest-paid host in late-night television, put his name on a new theater on the Sony lot and give him a financial interest in Sony music artists who appear on his show.

Executives who have heard the details of the plan said the move was Sony’s effort to stake a flag in the ground, knowing how intense the pursuit of Mr. Leno was likely to be in coming months. (more…)