The Hollywood Reporter passes on word that Huffington has joined forces with How I Met Your Mother executive producer Greg Malins to concoct a new ABC series about three newbie Congressional members trying to make their way in our nation's capital:

The 20th Century Fox TV-produced project centers on the friendship of three freshman members of Congress — two men and a woman — who live together in D.C.

"One is swept up in the movement of change and goes to D.C. to make a difference; one has been in politics for a long time; and one is a master of the media and sound bites," Malins said.

The project will draw inspiration from real-life Washington figures.

Apparently Malins and company think DC is the hottest ticket in Hollywood. You know, because Barack Obama has made the District cool again. But has it really?

A number of DC-based shows tried — and failed — to make it to the small screen this season, yet television big-wigs axed the ideas. And, honestly, we can't blame them. Our nation has become hyper-politicized and the very thought of a fictionalized account of our collective national struggle seems, at best, a lame attempt at zeitgeist-related desperation.

The shows they list as possible killer-offers: Desperate Housewives, 30 Rock, House, Ugly Betty, The Office, CSI: NY, Smallville, Supernatural, How I Met Your Mother, Prison Break, Lost, Gossip Girl, 90210, Grey's Anatomy, 24, and Bones.

So let's see. I'm a really big Grey's Anatomy fan. I think Dr. Finn McHotbutt might die, because his love affair with Special Nurse Practitioner Melloree St. Carmichael has gotten a bit stale. On How I Met Your Mother, Lily and Marshall had that hilarious episode where Barney discussed the merits of "chick farts" and then there was that whole really super sweet subplot about Other Guy and Canadian Girl learning to love and lose and be friends again, so I'm thinking that maybe they should all die. I'm pretty sure Chace Crawford is going to perish in a sexfire accident on Gossip Girl next week. And don't get me started on Eddie Cahill on CSI: NY. I mean, gravelly good looks and terrible New Yawk accents are like oil and fire.

No, but seriously folks. Who's gonna dieeeeee (Chahhhlie)?

Here's your first glimpse at lavender-belt karatetards Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, and amply-caboosed Armenian royalty Kim Kardashian, taping their Mother guest spots. All three will play loose caricatures of human beings (i.e. themselves), who come magically to life on the cover of a fictional celeb glossy called Them. We know! We can hardly wait either!

• Video: 'How I Met Your Mother' meets 'The Hills' [THR]

Entertainment Weekly assisted the actor in his trick, recruiting the How I Met Your Mother cast to act out 2008's biggest moments (captured below). Will Harris's scheme vault him ahead of NeNe? Watch out, Doogie: the Atlanta housewife isn't afraid to get dirty.

• 'How I Met Your Mother' Cast In 'The Best of 2008' [EW]

After the jump: Ben Affleck loses his job, Billy Crystal reclaims his own, and the world contemplates another Star Wars movie.

· Ben Affleck is in talks to star as a downsized corporate hack in Company Men, which we're told calls for a second male lead as well. Matt Damon casting bets are currently paying 2:3. [THR]
· After a six-year hiatus, Billy Crystal will return to the big screen opposite Dwayne Johnson in Tooth Fairy. [Variety]
· On the heels of Capote the Hutt, would George Lucas dare to adapt the new Star Wars video game as an animated feature? On second thought, please don't answer that. [Hero Complex]
· CBS and ABC were up, Heroes was down on the fall TV season's opening night. [Variety]
· Sony is keeping the plot for its newly optioned feature White Dad "under wraps." Meanwhile, the aggressively quick thinkers at Lifetime are angling for a Latino Babysitter MOW sequel as we speak. [THR]

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Singer/How I Met Your Mother star Britney Spears was spotted in Beverly Hills brushing up on her driving skills while using one of her sons' Power Wheels Escalades. Spears enjoyed being back behind the wheel, despite only being able to drive a mile an hour and having no access to a satellite radio or iPod dock. Spears said, "The radio gets KISS FM in pretty good, but you know, it's just the same five songs all day long. I also think that this thing goes too slow to make a Starbucks run." Spears seemed to pout just a bit about her actualization, but then realized she'll just have an assistant make the run for her.

[Photo Credit: X17]

After TONY suggests that the official NPH comeback began not with his critically acclaimed role on HIMYM but with his druggie performance in the original H&K, Neil takes the bait and quips, "I never thought that snorting coke off the ass of a stripper would reinvent my career so well, no." And in case you were wondering, the fake NPH in the sequel has switched mindbenders: "It's mushrooms now." But speaking of strippers, it seems he's seen far more pole-straddlers in his day than you'd expect from a recently outed actor. As he puts it, "I've seen quite a few cans...I like calling them cans. It's fun. Although it's absolutely inappropriate in every way—wrong shape, wrong texture." Though we're not sure what part of that thought is "inappropriate" (the fact that breasts don't feel like beer cans, or that he thinks it's "fun" to call them that), we are delighted to learn that he's grabbed a few in the past. Imagining that is fun, indeed.

• THE HOT SEAT: NEIL PATRICK HARRIS [TONY]

As the Daily Mail reports, Britney may have giggled her way through a treadmill workout in LA last week, but "Britney's hard work may be counter-productive - she was spotted with a packet of Marlboro reds as she left the gym." Reds? Really? Not that we, ahem, smoke or anything, but our friends tell us Reds tend to wreak havoc faster than most cancer sticks. Nevertheless, a giddy cover story in Star claims Spears has shed a whopping 20 pounds since Rudolph put her on the straight and narrow. If only grumpy HIMYM star Neil Patrick Harris would quit whining about her upcoming return to the show, Britney's Comeback Tour could finally progress a bit speedier.

• BRITNEY SPEARS' NEW BIKINI BODY [Star]
• BRITNEY ON THE TREADMILL: IS THE STAR SHAPING UP FOR ANOTHER COMEBACK? [Daily Mail]

"The show is ecstatic and so is Britney," a source said. "She had so much fun the first time around she really wanted to come back. It was a mutual decision to work together more."

The singer/actress will do one episode, the source says.

CBS refuses to verify if the tip is correct, much less divulge any plot details. It's widely believed, however, that Britney would be reprising her role as an emotionally fragile receptionist, picking up from her cliffhanger proposition ("Can we have sex on [your bed], and then go shopping?") for Neil's playboy character. The ensuing real-time sex-romp episode will require Harris to roll around nearly naked with his KFC-breathed co-star for a total of 17 rehearsal and shooting hours, fiendish retribution from producers for having become a little too forthcoming with his thoughts on how best to proceed creatively with the yet-to-be-renewed series.

• EXCLUSIVE: Britney Returning to How I Met Your Mother [People]

"Our show does not need stunt casting in order to succeed...I worry that if they start `Will and Grace'-ing us too much, that the show will suffer...I think we have a great show going, and I hope it's not screwed up by the desire for 700,000 more viewers."

Though NPH has a valid and somewhat dignified point about the desperate nature of stunt casting, we're not sure he has all the facts straight regarding exactly how much attention Britney Spears brought to the show. As he continues, "I think we have a great show going, and I hope it's not screwed up by the desire for 700,000 more viewers." In fact, Yahoo reported recently that the Britney Spears episode hauled in 10.6 million viewers, as opposed to the 7.6 million HIMYM had been averaging until that fateful night. And while he laments the show's decision to stunt cast, he backtracks by lauding Spears' performance: "It was a great character and I think she played it well. ... I'm glad that we didn't sensationalize the character in any way." And finally, did he really knock the incredibly successful run that W&G had? We hope, and should think Harris hopes the same, that HIMYM makes it to an eighth season, or even scores half as many Emmys as the NBC show did. Stunt casting, as proven by canonized shows like W&G and Friends, can be just dandy if done right...right?

• STAR WANTS NO PART OF BRITNEY ON 'MOTHER' [AP]

"She believes a reality show is a no-brainer. She can be herself and not have to study lines...Several production companies are interested in a Britney reality show and are willing to pay her millions."

But considering her lockdown with dad Jamie and void in her social calendar, we're not exactly sure what twists and plotlines Britney has to showcase these days. We suppose prepping for and attending Jamie Lynn's upcoming nuptials down South would make for a couple of quasi-interesting episodes, but we have yet to find an answer to our most burning question: what does Britney do all day? According to Starpulse, most of her time is currently spent meeting with tacky designer Ed Hardy to plan a children's clothing line. Is what the world needs right now really footage of Britney wearing logo hoodies and sewing onesies in her Justin shrine?

[Photo credit: X17]

• CHAOTIC: THE SEQUEL [DListed]
• BRITNEY SPEARS EYES FASHIONABLE FUTURE [Starpulse]

Rudolph, of course, is the man responsible for turning Britney from a cute and quasi-talented blonde girl in a Catholic girl's skirt into an international celebrity and, somehow, magically sustained the act for half a decade. But after allegedly attempting to force her into rehab, the union disintegrated, and we all know what's happened since. And if Spears works her charm on the small screen once more, and gives whatever undoubtedly genius plan Randolph has for saving her career a chance, there might actually be hope for her faded star to light fire again. Strange how Britney's ability to step back into the spotlight is almost directly linked to the time it's taken to grow that damn hair back, no?

• BRITNEY RETURNING TO 'HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER'? [TV Guide]
• BRITNEY SPEARS IN TALKS TO RETURN TO CBS SITCOM [Yahoo]
• BRITNEY SPEARS REUNITING WITH MANAGER LARRY RUDOLPH [People]

Sometimes we search for one thing but discover another. Even though I didn't find the mystery girl, I did find out something very important about myself...I'm awesome.

We'd wholeheartedly agree...if he had managed to get Wanda in as the random hottie beckoning Barney back to bed (Max Casella in drag would've also sufficed).

• How I Met Your Mother [CBS.com]

The Beek, who has capitalized on his teen stardom with a string of forgettable movies (Varsity Blues excluded, of course) and guest appearances designed to play against the "Dawson" type — a serial killer on Criminal Minds, a douchebag ad buyer on Ugly Betty — will play a love interest for Cobie Smulders' character's Canadian pop star alter-ego, Robin Sparkles. No details yet, but if Sparkles last appearance is any indication, he'll win her over with his skateboarding tricks, take her to the foodcourt with a robot chaperone and rock her body until Canada Day.

• Exclusive: James Van Der Beek Gets In on the Robin Sparkles Action [E!]

In it, newest addition to the How I Met Your Mother family Britney Spears reprises her role as a doctor's receptionist who, in a recurring gag we're certain seemed funny in the writers' room, cries whenever she's yelled at on the phone. Throw in a lightbulb moment and some skillful editing courtesy of Defamer videographer Molly McAleer, and Britney is now berated by Ferris Bueller's Day Off's Cameron, one of John "Frannie and Zooey" Hughes's most memorable comic creations (with props, of course, to Alan Ruck). Asked for any insights into her latest work, McAleer simply shrugged, and, in her cavalier, Claire From Six Feet Under - the Art School Years way, simply said, "I just thought it would be hilarlar to have Cameron yelling at her," pausing for a moment before adding, "I thought it also demonstrated that when put up against people with actual comedic chops she's really really terrible, as opposed to kind of decent next to a bunch of hacks."

• Previously: Two Minutes To Save Britney's Career [Defamer]
• How I Met Your Mother [CBS]

Critical reception has been mixed, ("Britney the Trainwreck showed how she can still be Britney the Performer," gushed the AP, while Newsday threw its arms to the Heavens, demanding to know, "What was the point? To what end? Signifying what?"), but the desired effect was achieved: Mother hit an all-time ratings high with the episode. Seeing as we all lead busy lives, Defamer videographer Molly McAleer has compiled just the Britney moments for you, complete with handy timer: It amounts to a total of precisely two minutes, which, as Charo can attest, is all the celebrity guest-starring screen time you really need to turn around a flagging career.

• Spears delivers 'Mother's' highest ratings [THR]
• How I Met Your Mother [CBS]

Have you checked out her latest video? It's some mangajapanimation thing, and, like, way cooler than anything Christina Aguilera or Mandy Moore put out this year. (We'd add Mariah Carey to that list, but then she went and put Kenneth the Page and a freaking unicorn in her video, which pretty much trumps everything.) And then there is her much touted cameo on How I Met Your Mother, for which a promotional clip was posted to CBS's website today. Let's count the things right with her performance:
1. Looks pretty.
2. No accent.
3. Remembers lines.
4. Good eye contact.
5. Nice comic pacing.
6. Uses stage direction as mere jumping-off point.
7. Resists rolling eyes while delivering hacky sitcom dialogue paying off some tired recurring joke about star's moustache.

Britney, ladies and gentlemen, is back.

• How I Met Your Mother [CBS]

Judging by that toothy smile and perky posture, we're elated. Britney looks completely energized, wide awake and completely chipper. After seeing this picture, we're going to remain optimistic about her performance and go-ahead and circle March 24th on our calendars with a big thick red Sharpie. It's Britney's return to the small screen, and with the help of "intellectual" glasses, a conservative wool sweater, and all the power of Neil's unicorn magic, all signs point towards success. As long as the cleanup crew obliterated every last umbrella within five miles, of course.

[Photo Credit: CBS via Star]

• FIRST LOOK: BRITNEY ON 'HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER' [Star]