Gwyneth Paltrow ducking into an SUV in the financial district ... Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany walking with their son and dog... Alec Baldwin and Steve Buscemi shooting scenes for 30 Rock in Long Island City ... Keri Russell shopping with her husband ... Matthew Broderick opening a car door for son James outside their Village townhouse ... Katie Holmes carrying a stack of fashion magazines ... Kevin Kline standing on the set of The Extra Man ... and Jeremy Piven leaving the Cort Theatre on West 48th Street after seeing Your Welcome America.

[Steve Buscemi reprises his P.I. role on "30 Rock", filming in New York with one of its stars, Alec Baldwin; image via Bauer-Griffin]

[Alec Baldwin at JFK airport yesterday; image via INF]

For all the e-ink spilled over whether 30 Rock gave the McFlurry too much product placement last week (even Jane Krakowski is unsure now!), we think there's a different, far bigger case to be made.

Last night's waste-of-Alec-Baldwin Saturday Night Live was a sour little mess. But, in the interest of focusing on the positive, the three best sketches are after the jump.

Way back in October, people were already saying that NBC's 30 Rock had exhausted its "Yes it's a product placement, but it's also a funny storyline!" justification. Oh, how wrong they were. Mmm, McFlurry!

Somehow we knew Alec Baldwin would come for you first, Joaquin Phoenix. The actor seems as hostile to strung-out hippies as his 30 Rock alter ego Jack Donaghy.

View hostess Sherri Shepherd has worked with Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan, and Andy Dick, among others. So which of these gentlemen was she alluding to when she said she'd witnessed some Christian Bale-sized freakouts?

• Is Jennifer Aniston planning to steal the spotlight away from Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie at the Oscars by showing up to the ceremony with John Mayer and with a ring on her finger? Maybe! [Star]
• Alex Rodriguez either spent last weekend hanging out with Madonna at Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld's East Hampton mansion, or he spent it partying with Bill Clinton and Spike Lee in the Bahamas, depending on what you read. [P6, NYDN]
• Lindsay Lohan's rep says LiLo can't be anorexic since she "ate two full meals" during a recent photo shoot. It's settled! [P6]
• Gwyneth Paltrow's mom says 800 people have already joined her daughter's Tribeca gym, which hasn't even been finished yet. [NYDN]

Who's the newest Six Sigma expert? Tina Fey. The cultish quality process observed by her employer, NBC Universal, is a predictable source of profitable laughs for her show, 30 Rock and all too real.

The emotional devastation caused by the recession, by careers imploding or nest-eggs disappearing, is often of a magnitude that requires professional help. But supposing you can't afford therapy? Luckily, Time is your substitute shrink this morning, and even better, its advice is quick, simple, and doesn't require sitting/lying in a small room for a hour a week. In a nutshell: You have permission to be sad, because sad people shop more and that's what the economy needs; you have permission to be mad, because angry people take risks and risky behavior is what makes this country great. (Let's perhaps not examine that part too closely.) Finally, you are strictly forbidden from being scared, you coward, because fear fosters inaction and pessimism. Basically, consider Alec Baldwin your role model and the country will be back in its feet before Barack has finished redecorating the Oval Office.

• Giuseppe Cipriani hasn't been seen in New York for months, but he says that has nothing to do with the handful of investigations now underway, or because he's banned from the US. He's just "busy" and says he'll return to New York "soon." His son Ignazio has been busy, too. The 20-year-old has been charged with third-degree assault for beating up a limo driver outside 1OAK back in December. [NYP, R&M]
• The latest man to fall into Paris Hilton's clutches: She was was spotted at Sundance making out with MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe. [P6, NYDN]
• Prince William's girlfriend, Kate Middleton, may be planning to move to New York to take a job in fashion, thanks to advice she received from Tom Ford and Anna Wintour. [Daily Express]
• Maureen Dowd threw a big party on Sunday eve to honor of David Geffen. In attendance: Tom Hanks, Jeff Zucker, David Katzenberg, Ron Howard, and George Stephanopoulos, who knocked over a tray of martinis and left the party red-faced. [P6]

Whoopi Goldberg served as emcee at the National Board of Review's annual awards ceremony at Cipriani 42nd Street on Wednesday night. Attendees at the Bulgari-sponsored event included Alec Baldwin, Meryl Streep, Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber (left), Clint and Dina Eastwood, Ed Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Salma Hayek, Anne Hathaway, Julian Schnabel, Diane Lane and Josh Brolin, Sir Howard Stringer, John Patrick Shanley, Eva Amurri, Tim Robbins, Joy and Regis Philbin, Meredith Vieira, Heather Graham, Amy Adams, Debbie Bancroft, Veronica Webb, Bethenny Frankel, CNN's Alina Cho, Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel, director Danny Boyle, along with a smattering of Bulgaris, including Ilaria, Veronica, Nicola, Natalia, and Beatrice. [PMc, Wireimage, The Daily]

Alec Baldwin has never been a shrinking violet, but his recent rash of revelations (like suicidal thoughts and coked-up alien gunfights) is candid to a fault. Now, he reveals his secret to acting: be bad!

New Year, new jobs: Tom Cruise has assigned Katie Holmes reproductive duties, Alec Baldwin's famous voice finally got him his dream job and Lauryn Hill is testing new mounts.

• It looks like Ashley Dupre's 15 minutes of fame isn't entirely over jet yet: She was spotted at HarperCollins' offices and is now reportedly trying to sell a memoir. [P6]
• Hijinks at the Golden Globes: Leonardo DiCaprio asked CAA to construct a ladder so he could sneak into the agency's dinner last Friday and avoid the press. Adrian Grenier and Paris Hilton were denied entry to another event. And Harvey Weinstein appears to be smoking again: He was spotted taking cigarettes out of Hilary Swank's purse. [P6]
• It's not easy being a Forbes: The family is taking its Highlander yacht out of commission until summer and has fired the ship's crew in the meantime. [P6]
• Eddy Curry is being sued by his former chauffeur for sexual harassment, after the Knicks center allegedly tried to "solicit gay sex" from the driver and forced him to "perform humiliating tasks." [NYP]

It's a well-known fact that in the 1980s, everyone did cocaine all the time. But how did people come down from their drug highs? In Alec Baldwin's case, sobriety arrived through destroying enormous insect aliens!

The fight over the impending SAG strike has gotten uglier, now with an anonymous emailer urging the Hollywood community to awards-boycott eight well-known actors who do not support a referendum that would authorize a strike.

It wouldn't be Christmas Eve without fighting: Alec Baldwin supposedly slammed Tina Fey's body; Paris Hilton's uncle got attacked and robbed in his home and Nicole Kidman was haunted by Katie Holmes.

• Jeffrey Epstein is a free man—sort of. The billionaire money manager, who was sentenced to 18 months for soliciting a minor for prostitution, is now working at the office of his non-profit foundation five days as a week as part of a work-release program. [P6]
• Mort Zuckerman became a dad for the second time on Friday with the birth of a daughter named Renee Esther. [NYDN]
• Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey's frosty relationship has turned into "outright contempt" since Baldwin mocked Fey's scar at a recent photo shoot and told the photographer to "get ready to do a lot of airbrushing." [Star]
• Suri Cruise gets 100 fan letters each day, you'll be creeped out to learn. [Star]