If you're going to accuse Barack Obama of appeasement, it's useful to know the origins of the expression, in Neville Chamberlain's abandonment of Czechoslovakia to Hitler at the Munich conference. Watch spluttering right-wing radio host Kevin James struggle to deal with an ambush question from Chris Matthews on MSNBC's Hardball yesterday: "What did Neville Chamberlain do wrong in 1939?" Of course, if you're planning to demonstrate a Republican talking head's ignorance of history, as Matthews was attempting, it's also useful to remember that Munich was not in 1939, but in 1938.

· NBC angers its network rivals by working some technically allowed, but "morally" questionable, Nielsen voodoo by repeating its Heroes premiere on Saturday night and adding that showing's ratings to the series' original Monday night number. We think. This developing feud over ratings-reporting gamesmanship is as confusing as it is scintillating. [Variety]
· In simpler Nielsen-related news, House is still huge, averaging 18.1 million viewers in its best-ever performance not artificially enhanced by an American Idol lead-in [THR]
· Creative triple-threat Kevin James will write, produce, and star in Mall Cop. We'll refrain from relating the logline and let your imaginations run wild with the comedic possibilities evoked by the combination of America's most beloved schlub and that offbeat occupation. [Variety]
· Fox calls up Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy from its FX basic-cable farm team to their network major league club, giving a series commitment to Murphy's female workplace drama Queen B. [THR]
· NBC will bottle up eight midseason episodes of Mark Burnett's latest reality TV brain fart, My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad, which seeks to combine "the family fun and kid empowerment of '[Are You Smarter Than A] 5th Grader' with the universally relatable concept of bragging that your dad is best." It's still unclear whether or not the proud fathers in question will be required to beat each other senseless at the end of each show to truly prove their paternal supremacy. [Variety]

Through the Darkness of yet another Monday morning comes the Light of hope: the weekend box office numbers:

Whatever progress Hollywood looked to be making in telling mature, well-observed stories of sheepwrangler-on-sheepwrangler action in Brokeback Mountain appears at first glance to have been set back considerably by the impending release of I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, an Adam Sandler comedy about two straight firemen who unconvincingly masquerade as a gay couple in order to get into Jessica Biel's pants. Don't let the stereotype-laden and unfunny trailer that's been running ad nauseam since April give you the wrong idea, however. A GLAAD authority has seen the movie twice, and stamped it Gay Kosher:

Alexander Payne's follow-up* to Sideways, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, is the Backdraft-meets-Boat Trip story of two firefighters who pretend to be a gay couple in order to receive domestic partner benefit. The fake firemen lovers in question are none other Adam Sandler and Kevin James, who, according to a Defamer operative, are either taking their field research very seriously, or just bouncy-shlong crazy and could care less who knows it: