Click to viewBoomp3.com Opting to go without her trademark glasses, Emmy nominee Tina Fey still had to fight off the Sarah Palin comparisons and questions while leaving LAX baggage claim. Even the limo driver assumed that she was the wildly popular vice presidential candidate. Fey explained that she just played the Alaskan air huntress in a sketch and that she was becoming a bit tired of the comparisons. “She hunts moose and doesn’t know a thing about password protection," Fey said. "I made Saturday Night Live watchable for four years. I think I have more executive experience than her. Serkplatt!” [Photo Credit: Bauer-Griffin] *A Call To The Bullpen is a work of fiction. Although the pictures we use are most certainly real, Defamer does not purport that any of the incidents or quotations you see in this piece actually happened. Lighten up, people ... it's a joke.

It's just two days before television's biggest event (that isn't the American Idol finale, the Oscars, or a political convention speech), and we at Defamer are gearing up to fulfill all your Emmy needs — at least, the ones that don't involve white linen slacks. Don't forget, we'll be blogging the Emmys live from the East Coast starting at 7pm EDT/4pm PDT (West Coast spoilerphobes, beware: the Emmys air here tape-delayed). So who do we expect to be taking home the hardware? After the jump, get our official predictions in the Emmys' comedy categories (for dramas, head right here):Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series 30 Rock - Alec Baldwin Monk - Tony Shalhoub The Office - Steve Carell Pushing Daisies - Lee Pace Two and a Half Men - Charlie Sheen With last year's surprise winner Ricky Gervais out of the mix, the stage is set for Alec Baldwin to take home the first of what will most likely be several Emmys for his role as Jack Donaghy on 30 Rock. Clinching the deal? Baldwin submitted the episode containing this season's instant classic therapy scene: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series 30 Rock - Tina Fey The New Adventures of Old Christine - Julia Louis-Dreyfus Samantha Who? - Christina Applegate Ugly Betty - America Ferrera Weeds - Mary-Louise Parker If this is not Tina Fey, Sarah Palin will have all the Emmy voters fired. Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series Entourage - Kevin Dillon Entourage - Jeremy Piven How I Met Your Mother - Neil Patrick Harris The Office - Rainn Wilson Two and a Half Men - Jon Cryer While Neil Patrick Harris has had a career-best year, How I Met Your Mother is still little-seen. The Emmys fear change, especially in the comedy category (five-time winner Candice Bergen and four-time winner John Laroquette both eventually withdrew their names to give other actors a chance), so this award should go to the Pivs in a walk. Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Pushing Daisies - Kristin Chenoweth Samantha Who? - Jean Smart Saturday Night Live - Amy Poehler Two and a Half Men - Holland Taylor Ugly Betty - Vanessa Williams My Name is Earl's Jaime Pressly took home this award last year, but this time she's not even nominated (neither was dark horse Jenna Fischer for The Office). Kudos to Amy Poehler for becoming the first modern Saturday Night Live performer to score a supporting actor nomination, but Emmy loves a veteran, so we expect this to go to two-time winner Jean Smart. Outstanding Comedy Series 30 Rock Curb Your Enthusiasm Entourage The Office Two and a Half Men Curb Your Enthusiasm is a weak-fill in for last year's nominee Ugly Betty; frankly, we're surprised that the dazzling Pushing Daisies pilot couldn't muster up the votes to fill that fifth slot (the strike-truncated season could have sapped its momentum). All the buzz is with 30 Rock right now — not only did it win in this category last year, but none of its challengers are coming off their best seasons. If anything besides Tina Fey's expertly crafted sitcom wins, we promise to liveblog an episode of Two and a Half Men as penance.

We hardly consider it overstatement to declare this The Golden Age of What's Going On in Alec Baldwin's Noggin, for never before have we—the more-than-casual Baldwin obsessionists that we are—had access to literally reams and reams of the ursine 30 Rock star's internal musings. There was, of course, the recent 8,000+ word profile in the New Yorker, in which we learned that something about the Hamptons air turns Baldwin into a deerstalking homosexual nudist. Yes, that was good—but it wasn't enough! So we dive now—like a hairy, naked gay man into a platter of freshly broiled venison—into leaked excerpts from Baldwin's upcoming memoir, "A Promise to Ourselves." In it, he reveals how villainous, sippy-straw-twirling TMZ suzerain Harvey Levin very nearly drove him to suicide with the release of his infamous Thoughtless Little Pig voicemail:

Free to Good Home: IMDb yesterday uncorked about 6,000 movie and TV titles available for free viewing via Hulu, including recent episodes of The Office, 24 and Battlestar Galactica; site officials also noted that new episodes of some series — 30 Rock among them — will be available in advance of their airdates this fall. Not so with the site's full-length features, however, which, beyond classics like The Night of the Hunter and Some Like it Hot, include Dude, Where's My Car?, Liar Liar and The Scorpion King, finally testing the critical consensus that their makers can't give these films away. We shall see! [IMDb via NYT]

The latest salvo in the ongoing battle between 30 Rock star Alec Baldwin and My Name is Earl creator Greg Garcia is being waged right here on Gawker. Garcia sent us his response to Baldwin's early morning swipe, in which he goofed on Garcia for being a Scientologist. "Alec, I can't tell you how happy I am to once again point out that you are an idiot. I'm unable to answer your question about Scientologists because, although I respect anyone's right to their own beliefs, I am not currently nor have I ever been a Scientologist. Maybe you should have done some research that extended past the comments section of Defamer before you crafted your insult."

Though we noted a while back that Tina Fey as Liz Lemon and VP candidate Sarah Palin share more than a passing resemblance, we were quick to point out their dramatic differences on issues like gay marriage, the economy, and crappy exes. Our Liz Lemon is a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, we insisted — until Good as You reminded us that in a self-flagellating monologue during season one of 30 Rock, Lemon admitted that though she might tell her friends she was supporting Barack Obama, she'd likely cast a secret vote for John McCain. Is Fey, then, that much-pursued Hillary voter who can be lured to John McCain by nothing more than a fellow set of horn-rimmed glasses? Perhaps that Life cover shoot was more prescient than we realized... [Good as You]

As shooting on 30 Rock dragged into the wee hours of the morning, popular actress Jennifer Aniston offered free neck rubs and body massages to day players and crew members to boost morale. Aniston said, "I finally got a chance to put those six months at massage school to good use. It's just so nice to give back." Aniston's makeshift massage tent generated a huge line, despiteher strict anti-happy ending policy. Aniston added, "That's kind of gross. Maybe if the individual was my lover, but a lighting guy, not so much. Love what they do, but not that much."

When we pointed out last week that potential veep candidate Sarah Palin bore a strong resemblance to Tina Fey as Liz Lemon (except for their stances on important social issues), never did we imagine the proof would come in the form of this Life cover from September 2004. Striking a remarkably similar pose to her current Rolling Stone spread (what is it with her and men with ties?), Fey needs little else besides an exotically named brood and a hilarious accent to complete her remarkably accurate Palin impression. In fact, according to Poynter Online, the cover shoot may have given John McCain some ideas:

While we found yesterday's 8,000 word New Yorker profile of Alec Baldwin to be an engrossing (if entirely too long) read, we were able to find one person who was less than impressed by Baldwin's long-winded rants about the perils of being impossibly rich and famous: My Name Is Earl creator/executive producer Greg Garcia. In the piece, not only did Baldwin blast the suits who run NBC's programming and promo departments for "wring(ing) the last drops" out of Thursday night comedy staples like Earl and Scrubs while 30 Rock is treated like a "red-headed stepchild", he also indirectly criticized the quality of said shows by labeling both as "done" and "cooked." Naturally, this irked Garcia, who spoke exclusively with Defamer this morning about his thoughts on his show's performance, 30 Rock's ratings and, of course, Baldwin himself:

Though we'll miss you for the next half-hour, reading the New Yorker's brand-new, 8,168-word profile of 30 Rock star Alec Baldwin is most certainly the best thing you could do all day. Entitled "Why Me?", it's the story of a manic, magnetic actor having a mid-life career resurgence obvious to everyone but Baldwin himself. Though everyone around the actor tries to convinces him that his stint as Jack Donaghy is the role of a lifetime, Baldwin can't quite settle down and enjoy himself; in fact, he initially wanted to do no more than six episodes of 30 Rock per season. That NBC wanted (and eventually got) him to sign up for more earned this hilarious, My Name is Earl-lacerating monologue from Baldwin:

Breaking News: Jennifer Aniston is a desperate, man-obsessed stalker...on a fall episode of 30 Rock, shooting right now in New York! The former Friends actress will play Claire Harper, a "free-spirited, Fatal Attraction-like stalker" (and ex-roommate of Tina Fey's Liz Lemon) who falls for Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin). After his efforts to rebuff her finally sink in, "Claire" will go a bunny-killing rampage that coincidentally claims the lives of Aniston enemies John Mayer and Wendy Williams. "No one told you life was gonna end this way," she will sing, before the clap-clap-clap of her handgun brings the scene to a close. [Us]

Shocking news today as John McCain refuted his choice of Heidi Montag as vice president, instead settling on heavily lip-glossed Alaskan governor Sarah Palin. As Jeff Wells notes, Palin has a certain resemblance to Tina Fey as Liz Lemon: the horn-rimmed glasses, the messy up-do, the required fealty to an older, conservative man in charge. But where does each stand on the issues? We combed through their records (and Hulu) to find out — the results, after the jump:

Click to viewboomp3.com

That slight crisp in the air this morning signals to us that autumn is fast approaching, with its hayrides and pumpkin picking and legion of miserable children tromping off to their imagined doom. But also it means television, sweet and glorious non-off-season TV like Gossip Girl and, um... other... shows. Many other shows! So many, in fact, that you can't-even with the aid of DVR techmologies-be expected to watch them all. But in this increasingly (for the past few hundred years) pop-driven culture, it's important that you are least able to talk about the zeitgeistiest shows out there, so after the jump we'll give you a few key talking points for some of the most buzzed about series soon to be (or, in a few cases, that already are) flickering on your idiot box. SUNDAY

Fun and Games: And now, another installment of "You Win One, You Lose One" (NBC Thursday night edition)! Win: 30 Rock's Tina Fey and The Office star Steve Carell are teaming up to play a married couple in the big-screen comedy Date Night! Lose: It's being directed by the hacky Shawn Levy, who made Big Fat Liar and Cheaper by the Dozen. Win: Fey's costar Alec Baldwin is in talks to romance Meryl Streep in an untitled comedy... Lose: ...written and directed by Nancy Meyers, so it will no doubt be a cream-colored, two-hour-plus slog that looks like it came straight out of a Lands' End catalog. Thanks for playing! [Variety]

You didn't think we'd post last week's Top Ten of the coolest male TV characters without following up with one dedicated to all the honeys, now, did you? And while our definitive men's list—checked and rechecked by a panel of TV experts canvassed at various local correctional facilities and gourmet coffee outlets—surprisingly met with some vocal opposition, we're confident its vagina-filled counterpart will please even the most persnickety of TV-lady lovers. There's only one way to know for sure, however. Click play, and decide for yourselves.

"Then he suddenly stood up and said, 'Lemme go find out something, hold on' and, inexplicably, went to lunch." [LA Times]

[Photo Credit: Bauer-Griffin]

[Photo Credit: INF Daily]

· Wow—the backdoor compliments were really flying when Jane Krakowski took Letterman's couch last night, but luckily most of them flew over the talk show host's head. [Late Show]
· Behold: Today's unveiling of the massive Dave Beckham underwear ad on a San Francisco Macy's. If you think those bloodcurdling sounds at the beginning are bad, just wait until his Volkswagen-sized package is revealed. [YouTube]
· Speaking of which, we hear Will Smith has a similarly proportioned super-endowment in his new movie. [thelondonpaper.com]
· Robert Davis of Paste magazine and Sue Pierman of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel are about to become the laughingstock of the terrible-Mike-Myers-movie-critiquing field. [Rotten Tomatoes]
·And finally: What the fuck is Mario Lopez's problem? No—like seriously. What is up with this dude? [Just Jared]