Larry King had noted medical expert/softcore video star Jenny McCarthy on the program last night to talk about AUTISM. Specifically, how it's caused by VACCINATING YOUR CHILDREN. This is patent conspiratorial nonsense, but it's very popular conspiratorial nonsense. Of course, in a battle between concerned, credulous parents and medical experts, the media will generally frame it as, say, Debate Rages Anew on Vaccine-Autism Link. Faced with a panel of three trained pediatricians, Ms. McCarthy shouted "BULLSHIT" twice. Then Larry put it to an internet poll. Clip after the jump!

Remember Jason Itzler, the barely-repentant former pimp who explained to a stunned Anderson Cooper why some people pay $5,000 an hour for a hooker? Now he's claiming that, as he was taping the Anderson session, he realized that Eliot Spitzer's hooker Ashley Dupre used to work for him! He didn't say anything to Cooper at the time because he wasn't sure, and in fact he told the anchor of Dupre, "she is not a serious fashion model ... I don't know if her boobs are real or not." But when he got home and looked up Dupre's MySpace profile, Itzler realized he was right, and quickly finagled himself an appearance the next day on top-rated CNN show Larry King Live, where all of a sudden he could not say enough nice things about Dupre. Even credulous King looked like he didn't believe the guy, but if it turns out Itzler is lying and Dupre denies everything, he'll end up with a third day of free publicity for his matchmaking service, DNA Diamonds. Video after the jump.

We fear that after Snoop's flawless performance as a warm and fuzzy "gangsta" on Larry King this past Friday, the ol' suspendered geezer/legend is gonna call one of his 89 doctors and request some of this "medical marijuana" Snoop waxes silkily about in this clip. In the final moments of the show, King, as usual, saves the only question we actually care about for last: Snoop, what's the deal with you and this 'pot' you continuously speak of? After a stoned-out-of-his-gourd grin, the father of three responds with, "I'm on medical marijuana as we speak." Righteous! We just hope that producers from the Martha Stewart show were watching. After all, can you imagine a more awesome hour of television than Martha and Snoop making and eating a whole plate of pot brownies?

Larry King, the friendly bumbling TV interviewer, goes for grits and chicken wings with rapper Snoop Dogg and schools him on the specifics of an "Arnold Palmer" (no gin but a little juice). Instead of being weird/awkward, it ends up being sort of weird/awesome. Also, Snoop invents a new mocktail.

Not surprisingly, the phrase "Heath Ledger" was Google's fastest-rising search term yesterday. The second most buzzy? "Keith Ledger." Who is maybe a video game designer but definitely not a dead leading man. Even HuffPo couldn't get it straight, tagging many of their Ledger posts, including Bonnie Fuller's, with "Keith" instead of "Heath." The blunders weren't limited to the web. On Larry King last night, Daily News gossip columnist and Aussie (Just like Heath! Book him stat!) Ben Widdicombe was identified as "Ben Witticombe," much to his chagrin, we're quite sure. Notice any other bloopers from yesterday's frantic coverage of the actor's death? Let us know.

"I'm here with Bart Pitt—Brad—Pitt in tornado-ravaged New Orleans, a city that Brad—Brad! Wait, I got it right that time, stop correcting me in the earpiece—here has pledged to help rebuild. So, Brad. The kids. How many are we up to now? Fifteen? Four.

We can't say we were surprised that Dr. Jan Adams, the tele-friendly plastic surgeon who performed twin procedures on Donda West the night before she died, would grant his first interview to bony-shouldered broadcast legend Larry King. Wriggling free from the CNN interviewer's trademark softballs and tenuous grasp of the facts on any subject plopped before him, after all, is a damage-control rite of passage for celebrities who suddenly find them tumbling down shit-filled rapids without a life-vest or paddle.

As we mentioned earlier, Fox News anchor Shephard Smith is raking it in, to the tune of $7 million per year in a recently-inked deal with his network. According to today's story from New York Times media reporter Bill Carter, "Mr. Smith would be making more than anyone at CNN—if reports of $5 million for Anderson Cooper and $6 million for Lou Dobbs are accurate." Did Carter forget that in 2002, the Timesran a piece in 2002 about CNN talkshow host Larry King's potential $14 million salary? Perhaps. Harder to believe is that he forgot the piece the Times did way back in 1998 about King's earnings, which the paper reported at $7 million. He wrote it himself!

Hoping to salvage a reputation damaged by the emergence of an audio recording in which he repeatedly detailed his racial preference for potential daughters-in-law, Dog the Bounty Hunter threw himself into the bony embrace of CNN softballer Larry King last night, trusting that the hurt he's feeling would dissipate to near nothingness by the end of the first commercial break.

· Just when we thought there was nothing that could possibly make us smile on this long, depressing day, we flipped back through our copy of Digital Variety, finding Go Fast. For the moment, at least, everything seems right with the world.
· Speaking Truth to Senile Power Dept: You know who isn't especially charmed by Larry King's patented "zero research" interviewing technique? Jerry Seinfeld. Don't you know who he is, Larry? 75 million fucking viewers, Larry!
· EW.com's readers may not realize that the term "of all time" includes the period before Prison Break debuted.
· One clear beneficiary of the writers strike: NaNoWriMo.
· We know we've already been there once this week, but now, more than ever, we think we need a little unicorn magic in our lives.

CNN is opening up a new bureau! And a j-school! Larry King will teach! Weekly news meetings will be run by CNN staffers! Oh, except, all of these things will be happening in alleged virtual world Second Life. Beginning next week, says MediaWeek, CNN will open up shop in the 3-D virtual world, allowing its residents to submit i-Reports on "news" happening in Second Life, learn tricks of the trade from leading CNN personalities, and get their news from virtual newsstands throughout the network. "I love that we don't have to take things from the real world and force them in," Susan Grant, executive VP of CNN News Services, told MediaWeek. We love the total insanity of that rationale.

Howard K. Stern dropped by Larry King Live last night, his first time swinging at the fossilized CNN inquisitor's legendary softballs since he appeared shortly after Daniel Smith's death to assure the world he was indeed Dannielynn's father. (He now explains that minor oversight away to some confusion over ovulation schedules and Anna Nicole hand-off times.)

PrivacyWatch celebrity sightings are submitted by our readers, and are posted several times a week, so send them in often. Submit yours to tips[AT]defamer.com (please put "sighting" or "PrivacyWatch" in the subject line so we don't lose them) and tell everyone about the time Winona Ryder graciously adopted the role of elevator-operator at the WeHo Target.

Maybellined televangelista Tammy Faye Bakker Messner passed away on Friday. If you haven't seen this final interview with Larry King, fair warning: it's pretty creepy. Still, you have to admire the fact that she stuck with that look all the way to the end. You're in God's hands now, Tammy. Thanks for all the fun. [Bloomberg]

No Paris Hilton, no Larry King, no glossy celeb mags, says Simon Dumenco. We'll just go home then. [AdAge]

"Isaiah Washington was a lot of things on Larry King—personable, cool, self-pitying, non-committal, shiny-haired," writes blogger Rich Juzwiak:

· After a summerlong run of sequel-clogged weekends where the eventual winner of the box office battle was all too obvious, the outcome of the upcoming Die Hard vs. Ratatouille fight seems up for grabs. We're not betting against Pixar, even though we'll probably wind up watching John McClane blow shit up. [Variety]
· Oh yeah Die Hard made $9.1 million on Wednesday, its first official day of release. Is that a lot? We're not good with midweek box office record data. [THR]
· Universal signs up erstwhile Biggest Comedy Star In the World Jim Carrey for Sober Buddies, one of those magical projects with a title so concise that we don't have to waste any time explaining it. (OK, OK, Carrey is a Sober Buddy who falls off the wagon while helping an alcoholic pal on a business trip in Vegas. Hilarity ensues, etc etc.) [Variety]
· 3.2 million viewers tuned in to CNN to for Larry King's post-jail interview with Paris Hilton. While this was King's highest rated show since 2005, consider that three times more people watched So You Think You Can Dance on Wednesday night if you'd like to feel a little better about the public's TV-watching taste levels. [THR]
· We would never ask you to start thinking about the Oscars in late June. That's just sick, really. [Variety]

"Ratings for the Paris edition of "Larry King Live" exceeded those for CNN's last two presidential debates." [Variety]

Uh, yeah, says "Access Hollywood."