· DreamWorks is in talks with Clint Eastwood to direct ghost movie Hereafter, which Spike Lee will later decry as featuring only white ghosts. ("Where are the black spirits?! You mean to tell me sheets don't come in brown? Another chapter of African-American afterlife history whitewashed by The Man.") [Variety] · The 18th Environmental Media awards (first we're hearing of them, but we're usually tied up this time of year at the Tire Fire Honors) singled out Into the Wild and 30 Rock, the latter commended for "its great strides in recycling older, less-overhyped sitcoms." [Variety] · Because there's no better way to kick off the weekend than a gloomy economic prospectus, enjoy this collection of downward trends and projected fat-trimmings sure to make 2009 your liquor-store-robbingest best! [THR] After the jump: What surely-no-longer-virginal Disney Channel star is about to get her own show on a tanking network?· Hilary Duff has signed a talent and development deal with NBC. They plan on building a new series around the star, tentatively titled, Law & Order: Hilary Duff Unit. [THR] · HD consumers prefer Blu-ray 10-to-1 over other -ray Colorz. [THR]

Are you close personal friends with Kim Basinger? If you are, and you're still looking for a perfect (and really inexpensive!) holiday gift to give her, you can head over to Europe where an ad agency is distributing Alec Baldwin-themed toilet paper as part of a promotion for 30 Rock. [AdFreak]

Few things made us laugh harder than Tina Fey's devastatingly precise Sarah Palin send-ups on Saturday Night Live this season (or the fact that the quote that will be attributed to the candidate for all time, "I can see Russia from my house," was said not by Palin but by Fey). Still, as the hardest working woman in comedy was repeatedly spirited away from her 30 Rock duties, we grew worried for her — after all, she has a show, a kid, a book, an Emmy, an upcoming Steve Carell romcom... couldn't Lorne Michaels let the woman rest? We voiced our concerns after the SNL sketch where Fey appeared with the actual John McCain (her sixth appearance on the show this season), and now Fey is telling EW that she took our words to heart:

Months of sex with pop crooner John Mayer is enough to kill anyone's sense of humor, but Jennifer Aniston appears to have survived it tolerably if her 30 Rock guest spot is any indication. In tonight's episode Aniston plays an old friend of Liz Lemon who becomes an extremely clingy accessory to Alec Baldwin's Jack Donaghy. Of course, we can't help but connect the cameo with the real life Vogue cover story where Aniston lashed out at Angelina's poor manners. Since there's been some extremely unsourced talk about Aniston joining the series as a regular, so now is the time to figure out from these three hot preview clips if Desperate Jen is funnier as a character than she is in real life.This W photoset showed us what life is probably like in the Pitt-Jolie household, but we never got to be a fly on the wall in the early days. This month's Vogue cover story featuring Aniston takes us as far back as the beginnings of Brad's affair: "I felt those details were a little inappropriate to discuss. That stuff about how she couldn’t wait to get to work every day? That was really uncool." Amazingly in the same interview she relates her feelings about whining and complaining, with Vogue providing the emphasis:

As we watch the best comedy on television try to stay alive in the brutal battleground of Thursday night, we respect that the show had to build all of last night's episode around an Oprah guest appearance. (Update: Last night's ratings were down just a bit from the season premiere last week.) But the show reaches its brilliant best with the random flashes sprinkled throughout an episode, succinctly capturing the way that creative types inevitably make everything more difficult for themselves. Last night, Liz Lemon dresses up as Princess Leia, even putting on a throaty voice, just to get out of jury duty. It is strange, but rings very true.The episode's main storyline revolved around the ongoing feud between Tracy Jordan and Jenna Maroney over who has it worse, women or black people. This was largely a contrivance for Oprah's helpful advice — highlighted by Fey's reveal of Oprah's latest favorite things (sweater capes!). The rest of the episode more than made up for the gimmick, especially when Kenneth the Page impressed Jack Donaghy by being overly willing to strangle himself with his own belt to save an elevator full of people. Hopefully the show won't have to work as hard to squeeze in forthcoming spots from Jennifer Aniston and Steve Martin. As long as we get moments like Princess Leia avoiding her American duty by confessing to her ability to read minds, we'll follow you forever, Tina.

After Tina Fey's massive exposure as Sarah Palin on pre-election SNL, the season premiere of 30 Rock was given every chance to succeed. That push resulted in the show's highest ratings ever, but the show is far from out of danger: it still finished in third place in its timeslot behind CSI and Grey's Anatomy, and now it has to contend with the dreaded second-episode drop-off. Fey was obviously planning ahead for that, saving an Oprah cameo for tonight. Click for three clips in the preview, including a classic Alec-Tina scene.Last week's premiere shifted all the puzzle pieces from last season back into a more familiar arrangement. In tonight's episode things are back where they should be, including Jack Donaghy knowing how to put down his inferiors as only he knows how to do. While our favorite part of 30 Rock is the ensemble cast that creates porn video games and frustrates Liz Lemon, new viewers may be more interested in the Fey-Baldwin dynamic. And that's what we really love about the show: a boss and employee that actually enjoy working together and insulting each other...together. In tonight's episode, Oprah plays herself running into Liz Lemon on a plane. Two more clips, including a great Tina-Alec scene, follow. Click to view

One can't help but wonder if Jack McBrayer's character on 30 Rock, Kenneth the page, didn't provide some small amount of inspiration for that Malcolm Gladwell New Yorker article this week on the advantages of being an underprivileged outsider. The hardworking "country boys" once favored by New York merchants went on to run Goldman Sachs and so forth, Gladwell writes, and 30 Rock's fictional GE executive, Jack Donaghy, was similarly optimistic about Kenneth: "In five years, we'll all either be working for him … or be dead by his hand." Salon's Sarah Hepola makes the case in her Q&A with McBrayer that the actor is the midst of an unlikely ascent of his own as 30 Rock's breakout star:

How do you know when campaign season is over? Maybe when the boldest idea of the week comes from film and TV critic Marshall Fine, who argues today for the termination of TV series after one year. Even the hits! (Especially the hits, in fact.) And we might even sign on — with a few exceptions.Fine's logic is exactly that: literal and emotionally detached from the enduringly riveting qualities of shows like Mad Men, 30 Rock, The Simpsons, Grey's Anatomy and a handful of others. But wouldn't the outrage following those and other great programs' predetermined self-destruction after 12 or so episodes would be preferable to their having eventually squandered their legacies on so-called stunt-casting and/or firing controversies? Doesn't going out gracefully a la Rome or The Wire allow for a better fan memory (and presuppose a bump in DVD sales)? Can't we avoid syndication hell with Friends and Two-and-a-Half Men? Yes, yes, and yes, writes Fine, who points to the UK as an example of doing things right:

♦ John McCain's appearance on Saturday Night Live didn't generate Sarah Palin-like ratings, but it was still an impressive showing nonetheless. [THR]
♦ No word yet on who will take over NBC's Meet the Press. Chuck Todd, David Gregory, Gwen Ifill, and even Katie Couric all remain possibilities. [NYT]
♦ CBS is on a primetime ratings roll, although Sumner Redstone is still screwed, apparently. [NYT, NYT]
♦ Another profile of Rachel Maddow, just in case the 237 other pieces on MSNBC's rising star in recent weeks have yet to whet your appetite. [NYM]
♦ In case you missed it, the clip of Sarah Palin getting punked by a couple of Montreal radio personalities, who explain how they managed to get through to her. [ABC]

Though we worried yesterday that 30 Rock was facing desperate times, we can stop worrying for at least another week! The Tina Fey dream ballet sitcom scored series high ratings last night, wrangling in 8.5 million viewers. That's up 20% from last season's premiere! The numbers were buoyed, we assume, by Fey's successful turns as VP nominee Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live. Hopefully there will be another of those. And next week is the big Oprah Jones appearance, which ought to attract a small legion of moms, sitting tentatively on the edge of the couch, a spare Kleenex tucked in their sleeves, their brows furrowed a bit by the confusing Tracy Morgan. But who cares if they like it, as longs as they watches it. We'll have to wait til next week to see what happens, obviously, but in the meantime, below is a fun Halloween webisode, featuring Sexy Cerie!

Lemon Party! Looks like Tina Fey's second, third, fourth, and fifth jobs this year have paid off, as 30 Rock premiered last night to the biggest numbers in the show's history. THR says the sitcom lured 8.5 million viewers and a 4.1 18-49 rating, up 21% from its premiere last year. We're a little confounded by the fact that Rock still lost 800,000 viewers of The Office — what do you people need, every character on the show to couple up? A premature guest stint from Steve Carell? Prolonged sexual tension between Frank and Cirie (actually, that one we could live with)? [THR]

Oh, swoon. Just when we thought we couldn't like him any more, Mad Men star Jon Hamm has to go and do a guest-spot on funniest show ever 30 Rock. As a potential love interest for Liz! So that's pretty great. He ably hosted Saturday Night Live last weekend, so we're confident he'll bring the funny. Is this guy on track to be the next George Clooney or what? He's charming and amiable but stern at times, has rugged good looks, and a relaxed but assured masculinity. He's got it all! Or does he... I mean, he's still living pretty modestly. The first season of Mad Men, given that it's an AMC show, probably didn't pay much and his second season contract most likely didn't give him a huge raise. Last we checked, he was living in Los Feliz and driving a leased Audi. So he's not quite tooling around his own Clooney Manor on Lake Como yet. Nor is Mad Men an enormous success or the Hamm name a household one. Yet. Actually he sort of reminds us of those young lads from Good Will Hunting who stood, some 11 years ago, poised to conquer the world. One went one way, the other another. And that has made all the difference. Mr. Hamm is, yes, about ten years older now than Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were when they broke out, but he's arguably at the same career crossroads. So now does he go the Affleck route and try to make his movie star name in cheesy blockbusters and just become a Big Famous Person? Or does he tread more stealthily, choosing diverse and difficult actor parts with fancy directors, like Damon did with The Talented Mr. Ripley and All The Pretty Horses. We know how all that turned out, so hopefully Hamm will take Damon route and do the art house pictures and become big ticket popcorn star. Just like Mr. Clooney, really, who zipped his way through good schlock (the Ocean's movies) and bad schlock (Batman & Robin) before he could really exercise some muscle and get his own creative pet projects made. Clooney has, really, the perfect acting career—a mixture of dark, substantive work and fun lighter fare—and Damon looks to be following ably in his footsteps. We hope that Hamm can do the same. Right now he's got both an indie and a big blockbustery thing in the can, so... two roads diverge.

30 Rock is back tonight — you may not have noticed. Like most of the show's viewers, we're excited for the return of Tina Fey's ensemble comedy, but the deathwatch will be on in full force after tonight. NBC's continued emphasis on stunt casting (Oprah! Steve Martin! Jennifer Aniston!) already reeks of desperation. We're skeptical a not-so-famous guest star in every episode is going to broaden the show's appeal any more than Liz Lemon's quest for a child will. Is the best comedy on television destined to be ruined in its quest for ratings?The early reviews are already in, with mindless Times TV critic Alessandra Stanley bizarrely noting the show's "satire hews so closely to the original that it is almost mimicry" as part of her "rave." WaPo critic Tom Shales is particularly high on next week's Oprah episode. Though Shales notes that he prefers Fey's Palin to the dour Liz Lemon character, both think Fey's popular Palin impression will give 30 Rock a boost. We want to believe, but we have our doubts. From its inception Tina Fey's show was destined to be a niche comedy that attracted SNL fans who enjoyed the insider-y view of NBC. For this third season, the network's promotional efforts have amped up. NBC is banking on the idea that Fey's Palin portrayal on a few highly rated SNLs and exposure in a modest hit film with a similar plotline in Baby Mama have given the show the exposure it needs to succeed in the high-profile post-Office timeslot. Given that the stunt casting for this episode is Will & Grace shrillster Megan Mullally, we have to question this approach. It's hard to see how featuring Oprah as herself is going to create buzz for the show — Oprah's viewership doesn't care if she's on a comedy show about the backstage life of a comedy show past whatever episode she's on. Comedians Jerry Seinfeld and Al Gore didn't improve viewership, and a slighter higher caliber of stunt casting won't help matters.

It's hard to tell if magical things just happen to Tina Fey, or if the magic is in the comedy writer/producer's telling. The movie Psycho transforms her three-year-old daughter into a miniature murder detective; she has a life-changing hug with Oprah Winfrey; the Republicans nominate a vice presidential nominee who looks almost exactly like her. And then there was the anecdote the 30 Rock star shared with Late Night host Conan O'Brien last night, in which Sarah Palin offers up daughter Bristol to babysit Fey's daughter on the set of Saturday Night Live. The incident would be a stretch even as the premise of an SNL skit, but there you have it. Click the video icon to watch.

Is there any doubt left that comedian Tracy Morgan's character on 30 Rock — Tracy Jordan — is basically the actor himself, as reimagined by former Saturday Night Live castmate Tina Fey? If Morgan's comments to Us Weekly earlier this month didn't confirm that, the following vignettes from this week's New York magazine profile should finish the job nicely:

Though 30 Rock star Alec Baldwin never fails to give good interview, we still have to give the edge to his costar Tracy Morgan, who is unafraid to tear off his shirt and make romantic entreaties to every lady in El Paso if that's what the situation requires. Now, in an interview with the November issue of Complex, Morgan extends his press tour winning streak with a graphic ode to what he would do to Prince if the singer veered more toward the distaff side of his own love symbol:

If, like us, you have been furiously mainlining Sabor de Soledad thanks to the unconscionably long wait until 30 Rock's third season premiere, you're in luck: NBC has put the episode online in advance of its broadcast airing next week. For those of you who are still trapped at work and unable to spare a half-hour, we've excerpted one of the episode's funniest, earliest scenes: a confrontation between the deposed Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) and closeted usurper Devin Banks (Will Arnett). We can promise you a lot of homoeroticism, but sadly, no anal sex. [NBC]

Oh happy day! 30 Rock, Tina Fey's funniest-show-on-TV backstage screwball fest, isn't scheduled to premiere until next week. But, because sometimes the internet is a wondrous and giving technodiety, the season opener is now available on Hulu! (Thank you New York Observer, for pointing this out to us!) Now some of you delayed-gratification crazies out there may want to wait until next week, but I say poo to that. If the bowl's in front of you, you gotta smoke it. So we've embedded the episode after the jump. Enjoy. Nick, I'm... um, taking lunch.

Sandwich Girls? If the raft of special guest stars hadn't tipped you off that NBC would do anything to draw eyeballs to the new season of 30 Rock, how about this: they're spicing up their promos with hardcore anal sex! According to MyHogtown, a recent afternoon ad for 30 Rock that ran in the Greater Toronto area was inexplicably spliced with a snippet of hardcore porn featuring some backdoor action. If viewers couldn't believe their eyes, they were in luck: the porn-laden ad ran again less than twenty minutes later. Truly, a programming move worthy of MILF Island exec Jack Donaghy. [MyHogtown]

By now everyone has heard Ben Silverman's soggy rationale for reintroducing 30 Rock so late in the fall season — everyone except Tina Fey, it appears, whose sit-down today with the Associated Press revealed that she doesn't know when or even if she will revive her recurring Sarah Palin gig on Saturday Night Live. An NBC spokesperson corroborated the network's uncertainty. Who to believe?Of course, that's not an especially fair question to ask any time Silverman's in the equation. But after his admitted miscalculation in scheduling three primetime SNL specials in place of Fey's eagerly awaited Emmy incumbent, he corrected hard with his insistence in Sunday's New York Times that "she would surely be on the next two SNL specials 'heavily promoting 30 Rock." But if we're to take Fey at her word, she and the SNL braintrust have yet to receive that memo: