[Photo Credit: X17]

· Paramount bought Steve Martin's pitch From Zero to Sixty, which legend has it he apparently sold with three words: "Steve. Diane. Lamborghinis."[Variety]
· Will & Grace star Megan Mullally returns to sitcomdom playing opposite Alicia Silverstone in ABC sitcom pilot Bad Mother's Handbook. [Variety]
· American Gladiators tanked in the ratings, leading the order, "Skimpier costumes! NOW!" to reverberate out of Ben Silverman's office. [THR]
· CBS gives that show with Christine in the title and How I Met Your Mother full-season pickups. [THR]
· ABC is only ordering two new series, including a final, 13-episode order for Boston Legal.

"What Would NPH Do?" If we have asked ourselves that question once while staring deeply into the eyes of Neil Patrick Harris straddling a unicorn, we have asked it a thousand times. But now, the Shoe Fairy himself has agreed to provide his fans with the answer to that timeless question. Only problem is, he's not quite sure. "I can't decide between crack cocaine and Paris Hilton," he tells Time Out New York. Which is very winky and cute, but Neil shares more than second-rate stand-up bits in this piece. More on his very detailed description of "cans" (that's "boobies" in NPH-speak) and how he feels about jump-starting his comeback by snorting drugs off a strippers ass, after the jump:

We're beginning to think that Larry Rudolph may truly be the master of spinning scandals into gold. Ever since reuniting with her former stardom wizard, Britney Spears has gone from umbrella-swinging, gurney-riding American Tragedy to a slimmed down working girl with vastly improved extensions to boot. Rudolph's latest strategy has been sending Spears to the gym to shed any leftover pounds from her previous diet of lollipops and Cheetos, in addition to making damn well sure she treks to the recording studio. But the news isn't all sunshine and rainbows: it seems tension between Spears and unicorn-rider Neil Patrick Harris, coupled with a return to some bad habits, are threatening the comeback we've been patiently waiting for.

Over the protests of How I Met Your Mother's Neil Patrick Harris—who in the wake of Britney Spears's recent guest appearance openly bemoaned the slippery stunt-casting slope that threatened to compromise the integrity of his politely tolerated CBS sitcom—the singer has been reportedly asked by producers to return for another ratings-goosing helping of her comic chops. People reports:

Despite the increase in ratings Britney Spears' guest appearance brought to How I Met Your Mother, unicorn-loving star Neil Patrick Harris wasn't pleased with the producers' stunt casting plans. And he's not afraid to say so. The shoe fairy is so confident in the allegedly in-danger-of-being-canceled show's content that he's intent on maintaining the show's integrity based on content alone, sans tabloid names to keep it afloat. As he told the AP this week:

Just as the Britney Spears Comeback Tour was picking up fuel with that promising role on HIMYM and a temporary absence from the tabloids, it appears that Spears may be regressing. The National Enquirer is reporting that Britney and her recently reunited manager Larry Rudolph are shopping around a reality show that would look, talk and walk far different from Chaotic: no K. Fed, two babies to feed, and no one to drug her and prompt intelligent conversation:

Should Britney have skipped that whole "comeback" disaster at the MTV Video Music Awards and just headed straight to television? TV Guide is reporting today that Spears is "in talks" to reprise her role as a dermatologist's secretary in love with Josh Radnor's character on How I Met Your Mother, due to critical approval and a dramatic increase in the show's ratings that night. Yahoo reports that the allegedly sinking show drew in 10.6 million viewers tuning in to Britney's episode, compared to the average 7.8 million average for the season. Paired with reports that Brit has reunited with her former manager Larry Rudolph, it looks as though her Comeback Tour has finally been given some fuel, albeit slightly later than scheduled...

Even without going to the stunt casting well, last night's How I Met Your Mother managed to rate. Take a gander at the throwback tag that reunited Neil Patrick Harris with the giant-cursored royal blue diary screen and plonky soundtrack that made him famous in the first place. After an episode in which Harris' Barney revisits all the schemes he's employed to get women into bed, he thoughtfully types the evening's lesson:

Despite reports that How I Met Your Mother has already ridden the Britney ratings train to fourth season security, the show can't ... stop ... stunting! In a season that's already given us the varied guesting talents of Enrique Iglesias, Mandy Moore, Heidi Klum, Vanessa Minnillo, Sarah Chalke and, of course, Miss Spears herself, E! is reporting that James Van Der Beek is now paddling himself out of the increasingly swampy confines of Obscurity Creek and into the Land Of Laugh Tracks.

Sometimes, two seemingly mismatched things from disparate backgrounds and decades can come together in unlikely harmony. Just tap Catherine Zeta-Jones on the shoulder the next time you spot her sucking face with Michael Douglas and ask her. Or, alternately, you can watch the video above:

The tabloids are sick of the pantyless-Britney Spears-faux-British-accent-high-on-unknown-substances-bad-mother yarn. Easter just passed and resurrections are hot right now. OK!, People and Us Weekly have all given her cameo on How I Met Your Mother raves. And to be fair, they probably know more about TV than accident-prone New York Times critic Alessandra Stanley, who described Ms. Spears' performance as "a relief." [Jossip]

Last night, Britney Spears returned to her legitimate sitcom stunt-casting roots for the first time since her Will & Grace guest spot of two years ago. This go-around, she was called upon by lesser-threatening CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother to play Abby, a dermatologist's receptionist smitten with the show's main character.

After the chilling lessons of last night's South Park, in which paparazzi and handlers carried on mistreating the surviving bottom-third of Britney Spears's blown off head as if nothing at all was wrong, we thought we'd take this opportunity to instead focus on some of the more exciting and positive things going on in her life. For one, Britney released an album this year! It's called "Blackout," it's available on iTunes, and mark our words when we tell you, this thing is going to pop up on more year-end Top Ten lists than you can shake a stick at. (We wish we were even kidding.) Moving along:

We have to admit, when we first heard that Britney Spears would guest star on the struggling How I Met Your Mother, we had our doubts. Would she really find enough sanity-laced moments during the day to play a Working Girl? Had all the gurney trips and 5150s left her sharp enough to memorize lines and interact with actual actors? Would the length of time required to remove all umbrellas from the Fox lot overlap with her scheduled appearance? But apparently our (and Neil Patrick Harris') worries were for naught. Britney has officially shown up, donned her costume, and put her acting skills to the test. Click through for the first shot taken of Brit playing secretary alongside fellow guest star Sarah Chalke:

This just in: A Defamer operative on the Fox lot sent in a sighting of How I Met Your Mother's heavily stunt-casted Britney Spears, which includes a Defamer! World! Britney! Sitcom! Walk-On! Exclusive! description of what she'll be wearing in the episode:

After hearing from Pink is the New Blog that Britney Spears is slated to guest-star in an episode of How I Met Your Mother, we fear that the CBS producers behind the idea haven't had the pleasure of sitting through her 2006 appearance on Will & Grace. W&G gave her the one role she wouldn't even have to "act" her way through—a perky television personality with a right-wing agenda—and she still made the episodes featuring J. Lo and Janet Jackson look downright Emmy-worthy. And despite sunny reports about the cast's read-through this morning (a source says Spears was "really funny" and "very professional"), TMZ is calling gimmick: