Sundance affords as many opportunities for career setbacks in 10 days as it does for meteoric advancement — not even Robert De Niro or Dakota Fanning could get out of Park City alive.

The set-up: It's some reality show on TruTV (formerly CourtTV) called The Principal's Office. Two male students, Brandon and Logan, are brought into the titular chamber to discuss the grinding epidemic plaguing recent dances. This is definitely one of those clips that rewards repeat viewings. We're currently fixated on how the blockhead principal ducks out of their kiss goodbye, as if they've tried it on him before.
· Don't fuck with Angelyne. Angelyne will cut you. Then run you over with her little pink Corvette.
· Rejoice, despondent Pushing Daisies fans! (Do they have a name yet? How about Pie-Holers? Hmm...That's filthy. Pie-Holers it is!) A movie could be in the works.
· The resplendent Richard Rushfield is blogging a new season of American Idol for the LAT, adding to an impressive body of work that has yet to win a Pulitzer. The campaign starts here.
· "At the after-show party, she insisted on using me as her taxi, riding about the green room on my back. She only stopped when somebody brought in a basket of puppies, which she killed with a hammer. All the staff had to cheer every time she cracked one of their tiny skulls." Gee—we knew The Weakest Link's host was a bitch, but we had no idea. [via b3ta]

Duck and cover, Los Angelenos: it's just been announced that the long-rumored Gossip Girl spinoff will be set here. In the eighties.

· Socioculturalist Malcolm Gladwell ("You may remember me from such bestsellers as Stop, Or That Giant Stack of Hush-Puppies Will Crush Us All! and Venti or Grande: Just Decide Already...") speaks at the WGA Theater.

Misshapen comeback kid Mickey Rourke's been on an upswing since his Golden Globe win, but the real drama is whether he can he stay out of his own way until the Oscars finally get here.

Former writers' sweatshop matron and World's Richest Grandma with a Dick™ Tyler Perry expressed frustrations over his dating life recently to Essence magazine:

Iron Man formula: less Sam Jackson, more Emily Blunt. [Variety]

One night of Idol down, one to go. We feel bad for the hayseed kids who hear "You're going to Hollywood, dawg" and expect the 90028 to be a wonderful, joyous place. Enjoy Baja Fresh.

Sitcoms are rarely created under a veil of intense secrecy, but the creators behind NBC's new Amy Poehler "non-spinoff" of The Office rival even Lost for sheer obfuscation. Now, finally, we have a synopsis.

It's with heavy heart that we pass along news of Ricardo Montalbán's passing today, announced at a City Council meeting by president Eric Garcetti. He was 88.

Their simmering rivalry was thought resolved. But with their new, respective designer ads unveiled on the same day, Katie Holmes and Victoria Beckham appear to have retrenched in a battle for This Year's Look.

In a town filled with dewy mangenues like Zac Efron and Robert Pattinson, is there any actor who producers can turn to for the Steve McQueen biopic just announced in Variety?

American Idol will come under scrutiny in the weeks to come, as one former, batty contestant—that sweet crazy-candy that gets viewers hooked from the start—tragically took her own life outside Paula's home during Hollywood Week.

Celebrity lesbian nexus Courtenay Semel has escalated her scorched-earth game to a stunning, literal new level, reportedly ending a fight with an ex by torching the woman's hair.

Desperate Oscars adopt "guess who" plan for celebrity presenters. [Yahoo]

Though Elisabeth Hasselbeck claims she was a designer in her pre-View life, she's best remembered as a considerably less loathsome Survivor contestant. Today, guest Paul McCartney inspired Hasselbeck to finally share her "art" with us.

· As per our suggestion, Jackie Chan is negotiating to play the Mr. Miyagi mentoring role in the The Karate Kid remake with Jaden "Will's Brat" Smith. [THR]

Granted, it's a worst-case scenario on the fringe of the endless labor imbroglio, but we love a good disaster plot: Could all those outstanding SAG waivers burn movies with studio interest at Sundance?

There's been no new news out of cagey superflack Leslie Sloane Zelnick about Mariska Hargitay's hospitalization for a collapsed lung, but her Law & Order: SVU costar Richard Belzer is finally speaking out.

Michael Cera hasn't done much talking on the Arrested Development movie since he notoriously said he "doesn't see a need for it." That's fine, though: onscreen dad Jason Bateman is happy to talk for him.