Worlds collided on last night's Joy Behar Show when Joy invited on Fred Armisen, her SNL impersonator. During the awkward interview, Joy berated her doppelgänger for his age and ethnic identity, exclaiming a few "So what?! Who cares?!" for fun.

We were assaulted by a drunk asshole at a Christmas party last night, so we missed the Did You Hear about the Morgans? premiere. Luckily fictional freelancer Betsey Morgenstern doesn't get invited to anything, so she was around to cover.

Author/socialite Plum Sykes and her twin sister, fashion designer/socialite Lucy Sykes Rellie are turning 40 today. Jay-Z is celebrating his 40th birthday, too. Tyra Banks turns 36. Marisa Tomei is turning 45. Saturday Night Live's Fred Armisen is 43. Actor Jeff Bridges is 60. Ugly Betty's Kevin Sussman is 39. Former porn star Nikki Tyler is 37. And former game show host Wink Martindale turns 75 today. A handful of weekend birthdays are below.

• Renee Zellweger is going to be spending the holidays with Bradley Cooper's family in Philadelphia. Meanwhile, Bradley Cooper's ex-wife, Jennifer Esposito, is now engaged to Australian tennis player Mark Philippoussis. So everyone's happy, right? Well, except for Jennifer Aniston, that is. [NYDN, People]
• Speaking of happy couples, now that they've supposedly inked their pre-nup, Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom went out and inked themselves with each other's initials, too. Marriage after just a couple months, now matching tattoos... what could possibly go wrong? [People]
• Madonna planted a tree to kick off construction of her new girls' school in Malawi. She wore heels. And she looked awkward. [AP]
• At Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's wedding on Sunday, guests were given a gift bag containing a book in Hebrew and flip-flops with a tag that read "Ivanka and Jared—what a pair." Of course, that's a step up from the wedding invitations which contained a promotional flyer for one of Donald Trump's golf courses. [NYP]

It's gross and rainy out, plus there's no news, so here are three funny(ish) clips from morning TV. Lachey doesn't know where Cairo is, Saget likes pot, and Fred Armisen does his best Behar.

Bernie Madoff landed on Saturday Night Live this past weekend with Fred Armisen playing the alleged scamster. The skit involves Madoff trying to get his friends/victims to come over to his Super Bowl party. You can watch the clip—and hear Armisen's excellent old-Jewish-guy-from-Queens accent—after the jump.

Everything in life can be divided up into those three categories, essentially. This week we have a new Grubman baby, possible deaths of institutions, and the beginnings and endings of marriage.

• Lizzie Grubman gave birth to another son yesterday. Little Jack arrived ahead of schedule, though, which must be wreaking havoc on Lizzie's weekend plans. [P6]
• Larry King lost "more than $1 million" to Bernie Madoff. And some sources say Madoff is now contending with some "serious" health issues. [P6]
• Tom Cruise is undergoing an image makeover so he can win back female fans. This will reportedly prohibit him from wearing sunglasses on the red carpet, getting grabby with Katie Holmes, or lecturing TV hosts on psychiatric medications. [Star]

Fred Armisen finally did a politician impersonation that made everyone laugh! But immediately someone was offended: New York Gov. David Paterson went after the Saturday Night Live cast member for mocking the disabled.

This weekend's John Malkovich-hosted SNL featured a great many virable moments, if you'll indulge us the coinage of an incredibly annoying e-jective (make that two incredibly annoying coinages), but we'll set aside the toe-tapping pleasures of interslack ejaculation for a moment to focus instead on the work of Fred Armisen. Always a strong SNL soldier, Armisen's star has dimmed of late for what has been deemed a substandard Obama impression—indeed, by Obama himself.

Both are ubiquitous on the social scene, both have hot husbands, and, as of today, both are 365 days away from turning 40. Author/socialite Plum Sykes and her twin, designer/socialite Lucy Sykes, turn 39 today. Jay-Z is also celebrating his 39th birthday. Ms. Tyra Banks is turning 35. Marisa Tomei is celebrating her 44th. Saturday Night Live's Fred Armisen is 42. And actor Jeff Bridges is 59.

Big news on the Saturday Night Live Obama comedy crisis front: the show is auditioning several comedians who may take the Obama impersonation role from the workmanlike but not-so-funny Fred Armisen. And these new comedians are black, like Obama himself, coincidentally! And even more importantly, one of the contenders is reportedly our close personal friend Jordan Carlos, who already made his case for the role directly to Gawker readers! Three others are also in the running. But we really hope Jordan Carlos gets it, because then we are totally going to demand some free tickets for ourselves! And, of course, for you as well. We totally called it. Maybe. [Daily Beast]

We already alluded to the Paul Rudd-Andy Samberg nude debut on the New York art scene, but now the gracious gods at NBC have released the clip for our repeat viewing pleasure. Plus: in the show's first sketch after the monologue, Saturday Night Live took on family closeness, as Fred Armisen and Kristen Wiig played Rudd's overly affectionate parents. There could be...there might be...yes, there are still jokes to be made A.O. (After Obama), even if the big guy himself didn't show up to say hello.
We've praised the show's digital shorts before, and while this one kinda petered out near the end, it was worth just for the amount of fake blood they had to use. Click to view

This could make that planned Nov. 1 appearance on SNL a little awkward: during an interview with a D.C. news station, Barack Obama was prompted by some "gotcha journalism" to dis his Saturday Night Live portrayer, Fred Armisen. "Are you disappointed at all that the person who parodies you on Saturday Night Live just isn't very funny?" said the interviewer, asking the late-night comedy version of "So when did you stop beating your wife?" A trapped Obama then conceded that Armisen's interpretation was definitely a run or two below its high Tina Fey watermark. Clearly, Obama is in the tank for 30 Rock. [WUSA9.com]

After weeks of massive ratings and huge buzz derived from its Tina Fey-as-Sarah Palin guest appearances, Saturday Night Live extended its political satire into special Thursday episodes beginning last night. So how did the Not Ready for Primetime Players weather the transition to the only NBC timeslot not currently bought up by Barack Obama?Answer: Awkwardly! Without Tina Fey on board or even the much-rumored Sarah Palin-as-Fey meta explosion, SNL's attempt at a presidential debate skit underwhelmed almost as much as the actual debate. Even guest appearances by Bill Murray and Chris Parnell couldn't quite mask the fact that after weeks of mining rich, varied material, SNL returned to its "beat one single joke into the ground over nine minutes" roots. In this case, it was the premise that Tom Brokaw didn't allow the debaters enough time to make interesting points. Laughing yet? Then the entire sketch awaits you below!

Have you heard? Comedienne Tina Fey has played lady candidate Sarah Palin on the tee-vee! Twice! So completely has Fey-as-Palin penetrated the pop culture landscape that Barack Obama found himself on Entertainment Tonight, grilled by Mary Hart not on the economic collapse but on the one issue most important to voters: what does he think of Fey's Palin impression? Obama notes the resemblance is "remarkable" and even heaps praise on Saturday Night Live player Fred Armisen's Obama performance — at which point vice presidential candidate Joe Biden pipes up to remind America that he, too, was impersonated on SNL once!

When Rome burned people enjoyed watching the fiddler, and now that this country is more effed than ever before, we enjoy watching SNL. According to a new report in Variety, “SNL has experienced a hefty bump in the Nielsen polls this election season, boasting a 50% gain over last season’s first two episodes.” The political climate has to be the reason, because it certainly wasn’t Michael Phelps’s mush-mouthed delivery or the searing star power of James Franco that got people to tune in. No, it’s because the cast of characters who parade across CNN on a daily basis are so ripe for parody. There’s McCain, Palin, Hillary, and Obama, and all of them are just begging to be made fun of.In fact, SNL’s brand of political comedy is so hot right now, that NBC’s gonna give you the opportunity to choke on it. Not only are there four original episodes in a row to lead off the season, but starting on October 9th, there will be three special primetime Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday editions, which will run behind The Office. Will they really be able to get Tina Fey to do her Sarah Palin impression that many times before she has to return to 30 Rock? We hope so, because Darrell Hammond’s McCain and Fred Armisen’s Obama are kinda meh. Of course, it’s not just SNL that’s reaping the benefits of all the political insanity. Variety says,"The Daily Show is coming off its most-watched week in history, averaging 1.9 million viewers last week — up 28% from last year.” And Colbert and Real Time With Bill Maher are doing great too. At this point, network executives must be trying to get this election postponed indefinitely so they can keep making fun of it. Sound crazy? Well, McCain did just suspend his campaign. Hmmm...

The Paul Thomas Anderson Stage Revue we'd mentioned a while back was finally unveiled last night at Largo, where Fred Armisen and Maya Rudolph reportedly performed a succession of new sketches with Jon Brion's musical accompaniment. And according to one eyewitness who espied Jack Black and Paul Dano among his fellow attendees, the show was a little less There Will Be Blood than Punch-Drunk Love, with liberal, Altmanesque doses of I Really Don't Feel Like Writing Another Feature-Length Screenplay Right Now tossed in for good measure:

Paul Thomas Anderson enthusiasts, take note: Word from the Largo mailing list (via /Film) has a PTA-scripted performance by Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen going off Aug. 5-6 at the club's new space at the Coronet Theater. Organizers are keeping mum about everything but the price — $25 — and that tickets are available now. As the second home of Anderson's frequent composer Jon Brion (who maintains a regular Friday gig) and other collaborators including Michael Penn and Aimee Mann, Largo seems a reasonable stopover for the filmmaker, though it hardly seems right that Fred Fucking Armisen unofficially inherits Daniel Day-Lewis's leading-man mantle in the "mad, beautiful" continuum that is the PTA canon. Rudolph though? OK, sure, we can see it. [Largo via /Film]

This weekend, the Times TV section broke the news: "Sidelined by the Strike, Comedy Goes Online." The paper then pointed to several good comedy sites that, during the writers' strike, have continued to publish the same stream of comedy that they published before the strike, except now with Fred Armisen. The SNL star surely bolsters public opinion of online comedy by telling the paper it's "kind-of comedy" (so what did he think SNL was?). Armisen also shares the burden of keeping track of all the online entertainment, after being overloaded with fifteen e-mails. But to be fair, there are also quotes from web-based comedians that explain real benefits of the strike for original web comedy.