Anyone can report that YouTube deleted loads of clips from Comedy Central, including South Park and the Daily Show.

Talented media reporter/secretary Jon Friedman plays it close to the vest this week with a cagey, contemplative piece on an oft-overlooked player's comments at a classified event: Jon Stewart's chat with David Remnick at the New Yorker festival. (God only knows what sort of deep cover Friedman had to undergo to nab that score.) The intrepid reporter goes out on a limb, declaring that Stewart has "an uncommonly sophisticated understanding of journalism" — but it takes one to know one. Friedman's so sophisticated that he effectively conveys Stewart's impact within only the first few words of every paragraph! You don't even need to read a whole sentence to get the point:

Not surprisingly, Owen "The Butterscotch Stallion" didn't say much during his Daily Show interview last night—the Stallion is a creature of majestic, beautiful deeds, not words. But at the onset of his chat to promote You, Me, and Dupree, Wilson seemed to be having so much trouble coaxing from his brain appropriate verbal expression of his Stallionness that a bemused Jon Stewart felt compelled to ask, "How high are you right now?" Wilson's resulting laugh and hypnotic swiveling in the guest chair gave us all the answer we already knew: Very, very high.

Oh, dear Jon Stewart. Oh, dear fearless progressive gay-rights-loving Jon Stewart. How many questions, we wondered yesterday, would Jon ask our beloved Anderson Cooper, his guest last night, about the quasi-mysterious "Julio"? The answer: Zero. But Jon did talk Anderson up for a while on the topic of just how hot Angelina Jolie is — while the Coop held up his end of the conversation by giggling like a little girl and shifting nervously in his chair.

We just want make sure you know that our beloved Coopie will be Jon Stewart's guest on The Daily Show tonight. This is, in itself, not terribly newsworthy, as Anderson has long been willing to appear on just about any talk show or magazine cover that will have him, and that habit has become even more pronounced now that he has a book to promote.

• Jenna Elfman defends Scientology by screaming in public and asking people if they've raped babies. If only she were allowed to take her medication, these outbursts could be prevented. [TMZ]
• If you watch that Thomas Friedman video again carefully, you just might notice a young lady in the background, swilling champagne. Apparently, she's his daughter — and she just graduated high school. But who doesn't booze their way through Daddy's big night? [Fishbowl NY]
• Lower East Side stinkpit Rothko shuts its doors — but where will the little hipsters dance now? [Brooklyn Vegan]
• The mathetmatical formula for Bridget Harrison. [Julia Allison]
• Andrew Hearst — the man just hired to edit Vanity Fair online — brings you Sementeen, for adolescent and teenage boys everywhere. [Panopticist]
• You kind of knew Jon Stewart would be a good tipper. [New York Hack]
• The rights to John Steinbeck's works have been awarded to his son and granddaughter, neither of whom will have to lift a finger ever again. [AP]
• Surprisingly enough, wearing your Anderson Cooper fan shirt to Anderson Cooper's book signing does not scare the silver fox. [Understandish]
• Our worldly brother Gridskipper is in desperate need of interns in New York and Los Angeles. Come join our abusive family, won't you? [Gridskipper]

There's huge cachet to be mined in the netting of a high-profile celebrity to speak at your institution of higher learning, and so the DaVinci Academy in Ogden, Utah could hardly have been blamed for shooting high: Comedy Central golden boy Jon Stewart, still shimmering from glittery Oscar-hosting residue. What they can be blamed for, however, is booking the wrong guy.

• George Clooney eats hot dogs! Let's sabotage hot dogs! [Gallery of the Absurd]
• And another one bites the dust: Hachette says it'll shut ELLEgirl after the June/July issue, leaving it as a web- and wireless-only brand. [WWD]
• Folio: announces its list of the 40 most influential/ successful / annoying / evil people in magazine publishing. The Daily Show's Jon Stewart makes the list — it's a long fall from the Oscars, ain't it? [Folio:]
• Meanwhile, Daily Show correspondent Rob Corddry begins his long climb up the special events ladder by hosting the Webby awards. [PR Newswire]
• Why we prefer the foreign press: They know we want to read about a dude who took 40,000 hits of ecstasy. [Guardian]
• Death Row Records head Suge Knight may have declared bankruptcy, but he's never too poor to pop a cap in your ass. [TMZ]
• Rosie O'Donnell is back in our good graces. According to her profile in New York, she shares our love for the Schtick Intuition. And last night on Leno, she called herself a 200-lb. lesbian. Good, clean fun — Rosie's back! [Fish Drink Water]
• Someone has stolen Jerry Garcia's toilet. Authorities believe the priceless porcelain may have been traded in for Big Gulp, Doritos, and two packs of Twinkies. [CNN]
• Ben Smith launches his Daily News political blog — complete with a sexy picture. Too bad he hasn't left the Observer yet. [Daily Politics]
• Drudge reports on Couric's move to CBS by reprinting the Mary Tyler Moore song. The Gay never lets us down. [Drudge]

Adfreak reports on the new campaign by New York's woeful National League franchise: The Mets have a series of radio ads in which celebrities claim that the team's skyrocketing popularity has cost them their seats at Shea. The first two ads have starred envelope-opening presenter Jon Stewart and stretching-the-definition-of-celebrity John Leguizamo. While Adfreak seems somewhat dubious about the campaign's efficacy, we're slightly more upbeat: Anything that guarantees us we'll be somewhere that Leguizamo isn't certainly gets our attention.

This press release arrived in our inbox a bit ago:

Regardless of where you stood on the "love-tolerate-hate-Jon Stewart-Oscar-hosting-assessment-continuum," the numbers don't lie: 100,000 additional viewers not-hated his performance enough to tune into The Daily Show in the days following the telecast for an extra helping of his pointed political satire and overcooked double takes:

Last night's Daily Show had video of Sharon Stone's recent Middle East peace press conference with Simon Peres in Israel (yes, from the same trip one where she said she "would kiss just about anybody" for peace). Refreshingly, however, Stone refrained from making the event all about her and her upcoming return to graying-beaver-flashing form in Basic Instinct 2. OK, maybe not so much, as this partial transcript our her typically batshit ramblings reveal:

Fans of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report not satisfied by the fifteen times a day the shows are played on Comedy Central can now download episodes through iTunes, either on an a la carte basis or through a monthly subscription of $9.99 for a month's worth of episodes. [Variety]
The success of My Name is Earl and The Office fill trendfucking networks execs wild with single-camera lust, as nearly half of all comedy pilots ordered will eschew the laugh track. [THR]
Despite the fact that CBS is trying to sue him back to the telegraph era, Howard Stern will appear on Letterman on Monday to battle Les Moonves on his turf. [Variety]
More pilot casting madness: Dennis Miller and Joe Mantegna join the cast Bonnie Hunt's untitled detective comedy (detectives are the new psychics) for ABC, Chris Elliott signs up for a semi-autobiographical comedy with CBS, and The CW risks comedy crib death by talking with Nick Lachey about starring in its first sitcom pilot. [THR]
John Cusack will star in the adaptation of the Stephen King short story 1408 for Dimension, granting him a temporary stay of romantic comedy career execution. [Variety]

We're sure that Jon Stewart will have no problem shrugging off the reviews calling his hosting of the Oscars "too safe" or claiming that Hollywood doesn't "get" him, but no man can feel the sting of the Shaggy DA's rebuke and not be plunged into existential crisis:

• Penguin wins auction for Alan Greenspan memoir with an offer believed to be nearly $9 million. Obligatory question: Irrationally exuberant? [NYP]
• The dude behind the allegedly forthcoming mags Everything for Men and Everything for Women is a con artist and a felon. Unlike most mag people, who are merely con artists. [WWD]
• Arthur S. holds his State of the Times meeting; reporters question why he gets paid so much and they so little. [Media Mob/NYO]
• ABC's Bob Woodruff reportedly now conscious and talking, though heavily medicated. [ABCNews.com]
• Air America could lose its New York affiliate on April 1. We'd be bummed, if we ever listened to it. [NYP]
• The Jew and the gays brought Oscar his second-worst ratings since 1987. [WP]
• Does Diane Sawyer want to anchor World News Tonight? One gossip site says so. [TMZ]
• Candace Bushnell to launch weekly Sirius Satellite Radio show giving advice to women. First piece of advice we'd like her fans to hear: "They're just cupcakes. Stop waiting on a line around the corner for them." [NYDN]
• Will Nick Sylvester be a Stephen Glass, a Mike Barnicle, or a Janet Cooke? [Media Mob/NYO]

Variety thinks Jon Stewart played it "safe" and "right down the middle" by not going too political or biting the industry hand that fed him. To be fair, he didn't have anyone as appealing as Jude Law to kick around like Chris Rock did last year. [Variety]
Ang Lee, like pretty much everyone with taste, was shocked that Crash beat Brokeback: "I was backstage enjoying the buildup I was familiar with: the writers (winning), then me (winning). It was a surprise, frankly. But congratulations to the 'Crash' filmmakers." [THR]
Crash's win gives Lionsgate its first-ever Oscar. Pardon us if we're not exactly popping champagne corks on their behalf, as that Best Picture fiasco probably cost us our Oscar pool. Thanks, LG! [Variety]
Everybody works during pilot season: Blair Underwood in CBS drama Company Town, Mena Suvari in CBS drama Orpheus, Lori Loughlin joins ABC comedy In Case of Emergency, and Rebecca Gayheart joins Fox drama Vanished. [THR]
Let's all climb back in our time machine and return to two days ago, when Brokeback took home the Independent Spirit Best Picture Award, and all was still right with the world. [Variety]

A uncharacteristically spastic Jon Stewart was just on the Today; he eschewed any real questions about his gig hosting the Oscars and instead chose to mock most of America by acting like a crack-happy tourist outside of the empty Rockefeller Center studios. As he climbed around the fencing normally used to corral inanely giddy Today fans, a slightly irritated Katie Couric (interviewing from Torino) asked if Stewart was nervous about the Oscar ceremony. When he explained that Xanax would get him through it, she warned against mixing the pills with cough syrup. She would know, of course.

All eyes have turned to Jon Stewart, as we scan the Daily Show comedian for signs of weakness and nerves in the days leading up to the biggest gig of his life, hosting the Oscars. Will he manage the required mix of measured irreverence and exuberance, a la Billy Crystal or Steve Martin? Or would he falter with something closer to Chris Rock's "In your FACE, fat ego movie stars!" routine that both fell flat and suggested the biggest ego in the room was probably his own? Ultimately, we won't know how Stewart fares until the show airs March 5, but by way of preparation, here's an Oscar Host Round-up:

Daily News TV Editor Richard Huff doesn't like The Daily Show, and he doesn't understand why it gets so much attention when so few people watch it. So how many people do watch it, Richard?