Gawker: defamer, debuts

Best of Jimmy Fallon's First Late Night

Ryan Tate — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 07:27:00 EST

Sure, Jimmy Fallon was awkward on his Late Night debut, as first-time hosts tend to be. But expectations are so low the comedian just needed to show a little promise. That he did.

The biggest weakness on the show is relatively easy to fix: Crowd control. The rowdy studio audience was way too pumped up, interrupting Fallon to cheer their home states (why do late show audiences always do this?) and to ruin one of his jokes with a well-timed "yeaaaaah!"

Also, the audience microphones were up way too loud; TV viewers could clearly hear chatter and exhaling noises between Fallon's jokes.

Fallon also needs work on his interview skills. His sit-down with Robert DeNiro, for example, was pretty awful. DeNiro barely got a word in edgewise as Fallon defined "Tribeca," told a pointless story about another celebrity (Jack Nicholson), recounted a pedestrian joke DeNiro made on email and at one point said, "I don't know what I'm asking." (DeNiro's laconic manner was maybe part of a meta-joke about how he doesn't talk? It was still awkward.)

The skit "lick it for $10," in which studio audience members lick products made by (we're guessing) show sponsors was a total write-off even though it followed the first commercial break — a prime piece of show real estate.

Picking these sorts of nits is, again, too easy with a brand-new host. On the bright side:

The news "slow jam," performed with The Roots, was inspired. It looks like Fallon plans to make heavy use of his excellent house band, which should keep the show interesting and lively.
Fallon imitated DeNiro to his face. It wasn't a great impersonation, but being willing to make an utter fool out of yourself can come in handy for a late-night host.
The monologue felt vaguely Weekend Update-y, which is good in the sense that there were at least two really solid jokes. Fallon just needs to slow down from the fast delivery customary at Saturday Night Live's fake news desk
Pushing Justin Timberlake to make fun of other singers shows good instincts. Good luck trying to get other celebrities to play ball with that sort of concept.
The opening skit with Conan O'Brien was great, but Fallon has to share credit with his predecessor.

Before They Had Stylists: A Look Back At Stars' First Time On A Red Carpet

Seth — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:00:00 EDT

Like the heady mix of pride and elation that fills you as you witness your own flesh-and-blood pulling themselves up by their lonesomes to take their first wobbly steps across the living room floor, witnessing some of your favorite stars' first times on the red carpet—as compiled in this Us Weekly gallery—is an experience worth savoring. Pictured above, writer's room taskmistress Katherine Heigl presents herself to the world at the 2000 premiere for The Beach in an ensemble that makes several endearing first-timer mistakes: 1. At this early point in your career, showing anything more than 3/4 inch of leg runs the risk of making you look trampy. 2. Flashbulbs' x-ray effect often reveal more about your foundation garments than you'd like to the world to know. Always match your bra to your dark-chocolate turtleneck, lest you want the world to mistakenly assume you're a Mormon. 3. The movie's about a tropical Eden in Thailand, not what happens when your trying-to-be-hip mom is convinced by a Barneys saleswoman that "Fall is all about the Annie Oakley look." Dress theme-appropriately.

More red carpet toddlers after the jump!

Gwyneth Paltrow attends the 1991 premiere of The Prince of Tides, a shooting star followed by a trail of cometary dust streaking the front of mom Blythe Danner's cocktail dress. While she would later adopt a more demure signature style, she has recently returned to the more daring, crotch-baring looks that defined her splashy arrival on the scene.

Julia Roberts and Jon Voight arrive at the 1985 Fool for Love premiere in New York, back when Julia was still flirting with a bad-girl image, and all the Parliament-huffing, older-man-bedding, and Siegfried and Roy Collection™ satin-shirt-wearing rebelliousness that implies.

Most powerful presence in the celebrity universe Oprah Winfrey had not yet refined her public persona when she attended an Oscars luncheon in 1986. After being quietly pulled aside by an Academy official and told the life-sized statuettes were not there for crotch-level mugging, she quickly absorbed the note and has since become associated with Academy Awards elegance and restraint the world over.

[Photo Credits: Wireimage]

My First Time on the Red Carpet! [Us Weekly]

TMZ TV: Deep Inside The World Of Drunk, Incoherent Hollywood Clubgoers

Mark — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 12:23:52 EDT

In case you somehow missed the eerily prescient (OK, maybe they were just playing the odds) "Britney, We Love You" ads adorning virtually every bus stop and billboard in Los Angeles over the past month or so, TMZ TV, TMZ.com's reverse-engineered television product, debuted last night, ushering in an exciting new era in celebrity telejournalism in which the word "douche" can be used to describe their misbehaving subjects. (Somewhere, Billy Bush is silently mouthing the delicious insult, working up the nerve to slip it in to his next Access Hollywood voiceover.) While we were underwhelmed by the premiere episode's big "get," some security camera footage of Pulp Fiction gimp-keeper Peter Greene's inept license plate heist, we did quite enjoy the above footage of drunk chicks stumbling around outside of Les Deux, babbling incoherently in the general direction of a TMZ cameraman while occasionally flashing their goodies, as it saves us the ten dollars in parking fees we'd have to spend to experience the most satisfying part of a night out in Hollywood.

TMZ on TV [TMZ.com]