While Jay Leno's gift of Krispy Kremes (and his accompanying public declaration that "without them I'm not funny. I'm a dead man without them.") to the writers striking outside NBC's headquarters this morning probably seemed a warm expression of solidarity at the time, the bar for talk-show host generosity was quickly set a little bit higher by a beloved peer. Tomorrow, if Leno shows up with only another three boxes of the treats as a show of support, he may to endure the passive-aggressive grumbling of an underwhelmed picketer claiming, "I heard that Jon Stewart brought his writers donuts filled with hundred-dollar bills yesterday. Isn't he on basic cable? Any-way, these Boston Cremes are just as delicious. MMMMmm, yum!" [Franklin Ave]

While we eagerly await reports from the studio front lines about the first picketing writer to throw himself upon the hood of an executive's Lexus SUV and chant Guild-approved slogans until his grip on the vehicle's windshield wipers is pried loose by lot security, we pass along Portfolio's early story of strike-related heroism, which claims that Jon Stewart, in another show of appreciation for the "words" his writing staff provides him every day, will reach into his own pockets to try to ameliorate the suffering his Daily Show and Colbert Report compatriots during the walkout:

A commenter on our earlier post about David Letterman's writers strike segment on last night's episode of The Late Show recommended that we go back to check out Jon Stewart's comments on the same topic on The Daily Show (the program we're going to miss most of all), in which he let viewers know that they could watch reruns during any strike-related hiatus for free on their fancy new website, a gift made possible by the generosity of advertisers unafraid to throw their money away on a medium likely never to generate enough profits to share with the employees who come up with all those "words" he's fond of reading. We followed the reader's helpful advice and found the clip. Enjoy.

Ben Karlin, who was an executive producer and head "Daily Show" writer for eight years, comes out to talk about how jealous "mainstream" journalists are about the Jon Stewart show. "They would always come up to us, everyone without fail would say, and especially like the big on-camera people, would come up to us and say 'God I wish I could do what you do.' Really? Do it! You have a camera, you have a microphone, you have a television show.... It was a prison of their own construction." [Huffington Post]

Yes, PR flacks are typically mindless automatons programmed to spout the company line. But sometimes I feel for them. Take Viacom's Jeremy Zweig, for example. Man's got to be dizzy from all the spin. First, he tells us that Viacom general counsel Michael Fricklas is "delighted" with Google's new YouTube Video Identification tool. Then we spot him telling others the lawsuit is still on. Because Viacom sues people it's "delighted" with? Not exactly.

It seems Howard ("waiting for Drudge to post more about his new book") Kurtz might have every idea that Jon Stewart hates him! According to Gawker commenter sumgiushoodno, who attended the taping of last night's Daily Show, the last ten minutes of the interview, when Kurtz and Stewart really had their claws out, were cut in editing! Transcripts anyone?

The most engaging part of Howard Kurtz's appearance on The Daily Show last night was Jon Stewart's introduction of the Washington Post media critic: "My guest tonight, Howard Kurtz, known of course... as the inventor of the curtsy." Heh. Kurtz was on the show promoting his new book about the protracted and bloody conflict that has occupied the hearts and minds of the American people for the last four years: The deadly battle for network news ratings. He made his first mistake by saying, without a hint of the irony required to survive on-camera with Stewart, "Well, you've heard of Katie, Brian and Charlie." Stewart, we think, thought Kurtz was a Big Three suck-up whose book didn't so much analyze the networks as adulate them. You can see Kurtz reinforce that impression in this clip, where he extols the bravery, the responsibility, dammit, the independent thinkers, of network news journalists. Stewart, for his part, dealt Kurtz his special brand of passive-aggressive napalm by calling his book "interesting." Twice.

· In case you haven't heard, Jon Stewart is going to host the Oscars again. Obligatory press release self-deprecation follows: "I'm thrilled to be asked to host the Academy Awards for the second time because, as they say, the third time's the charm." [Variety, THR]
· NBC greenlights a pilot for Rat Entertainment's cop drama Blue Blood, a project that will see the collision of irresistible party-boy force Brett Ratner with immovable rock-star object Ben Silverman, unleashing a wave of good-time energy that will likely reduce all of Hollywood to smoldering rubble. [Variety]
· The next time Hell's Kitchen star Gordon Ramsay sears his scrotum on a hot oven, it will be an Endeavor agent who holds the bowl of ice water into which he can dip his still-sizzling testes. [THR]
· Fight Club alter-egos Brad Pitt and Edward Norton reteam for Universal's State of Play, a feature adaptation of the British miniseries about a journalist's investigation into the murder of a congressman's girlfriend. We're unfamiliar with the source material, so we won't promise any scenes in which the duo strip off their shirts and stage a much-clamored-for FC rematch. [Variety]
· The Weinstein Company's $2-2.5 million purchase of George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead, ahem, reanimates the Toronto Fest market. [THR]

It seems that the Academy Awards' Ellen DeGeneres Era, one marked by frequent tuxedo changes and playful trips into the Kodak Theater audience for some daytime-talkshow-quality banter with nominees struggling to stay awake during the punishingly long telecast, is over, as it's been announced that 2006 host Jon Stewart has been reinstalled at the Oscar podium, allowing the comedian to forfeit his membership in Hollywood's shameful Chris Rock/David Letterman Memorial One-and-Done Club.

Viacom and Google, last year, had agreed to experiment with distributing videos on Google's AdSense network, the system that Talking Points and other blogs use to carry ads. That trial, a Google spokesman told me earlier this year, had run its course and wasn't renewed — unsurprising, as Google and Viacom revved up legal hostilities over charges of copyright infringement on Google's YouTube video site. That raises the question: Is this a one-off ad placement — or a sign of detente between the online-video powers.

· YouTube is calling Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert to testify in the suit the comedians' corporate overload Viacom filed against them, perhaps hoping to get one of the hosts to crack and admit that they're secretly uploading unauthorized clips of their shows to the site to spite Sumner Redstone.
· This WowWee Alive Elvis should haunt your dreams for months. Enjoy waking up in the middle of the night, soaked in sweat and begging the undead King not to devour your soul!
· Mark Philippoussis's Age of Love cougar runner-up has a naked past. This is not entirely surprising.
· We remember the dearly departed Scooter from a childhood's worth of Yankee games, but his Money Store spots also hold a special place in our hearts.
· Yeah, 300 parodies are like so Spring '07, but this one's really well done.

As part of its defense of Viacom's billion dollar lawsuit against it, YouTube wants Viacom employees Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to testify. Also "that guy who says 'git 'er done' all the time, what's his name? He's so funny!" [CNet]

Well, this should be good for a laugh: In its pending copyright spat with Viacom, Google has listed comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert as some of the Viacom employees it wants to depose, Silicon Alley Insider reports. No doubt it wants the fake newsmen to fess up to how much of their popularity they owe to free distribution on Google's YouTube. Read the entire legal filing here (PDF).

Jeff Zucker meets with Jon Stewart in case NBC sticks with Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien bolts the network, possibly to replace David Letterman or Jimmy Kimmel. Got it? [B&C]

Angelina Jolie went on The Daily Show last night to talk about her new movie, A Mighty Heart. Jolie addressed the recent exclusion of Fox News from her - yeah, you know what, we don't care either! We just want to know how many more lucky tykes from the Third World are going to join the crew. Host Jon Stewart obliges by asking the question, but chooses a rather unfortunate term to describe her brood. Memo to Brad Pitt: We know you're "waiting for the gays" before you put a ring on that finger, but sack up: They're talking about your kids.

Radar interviews former Daily Show correspondent Rob Corddry, and obtains an exclusive and shocking tidbit. That show's audience is composed of "college kids and NPR listeners" who "just applaud at every reference to some right-wing guest being taken down. Or anything slightly to the left of center." This surprises us, as our favorite thing about the show has always been the seemingly complete political and lifestyle homogeneity of its in-studio cacklers. But apparently the show's host, a guy named Jon Stewart, doesn't feel the same way we do, according to Corddry: "Jon absolutely hates it when people will just applaud at anything remotely liberal. It's a knee-jerk audience. It's so easy."

• Maer Roshan, the "battle-scarred veteran" of the "buzz-intensive media hothouses" that are New York and L.A. is back, and this time "the buzz seems to be moving back in his favor." That picture can't hurt. [WSJ]
  

• The secret to Headline News' success? Bloviators, and plenty of 'em. [NYT]
  

Rush & Molloy tip us off to a profile of Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert (because, really, we need another one of those) in this month's Rolling Stone. What makes this one extra-special is that it's written by Maureen Dowd! Yes, MoDo! Here's how it starts: