• Is Jennifer Lopez getting ready to say goodbye to Marc Anthony? She neglected to wear her wedding ring to a premiere last week, which obviously means her marriage is now "at a breaking point." [Us, The Sun]
• Jeremy Piven is heading home. Just two months after arriving on Broadway (and after showing up late to performances and skipping matinees), he says he now plans to return to LA because he's suffering from some sort of "mysterious mercury ailment." [NYP]
• Good news for anyone going to the inauguration: Alec Baldwin says he plans to stay home and watch it on TV. [MSNBC]

How is it Joy Behar has escaped our attention as a masterful interviewer for so long? Subbing on Larry King Live last night, she had her way with a prickly, pushy Alec Baldwin.

Typically, Alec Baldwin uses his platform to come out against easy targets like Sarah Palin and Dane Cook's vagina-like face. However, his ambivalent HuffPo blogging about Caroline Kennedy has been messing with his audience's mindgrapes.

It's winter, and Anderson Cooper has a European friend to help stock his closet. Britney Spears turned to her ex-husband for warmth, and Alec Baldwin's rising blood pressure warmed an entire Westin ballroom.

A few weeks after Alec Baldwin stood up Washington Post readers expecting his chat-room take on 30 Rock, answering-machine etiquette and other topical news, the actor finally — and dramatically — upheld his commitment.

A stalker emails: "Alec Baldwin came into Equinox on Broadway and 91st this morning trying to get into my spinning class at the last minute. He was denied because the class was full and lifted weights instead. Didn't have much of an attitude and was pleasant to the other people working out around him." Also:

Washington Post readers expecting an audience with Alec Baldwin last hour were disappointed when the star backed out of his live chat appearance at what appears to be the last minute. "Alec is running a few minutes behind schedule," the editors noted shortly after 1 p.m. "We should be starting soon." And then, not long afterward, the final indignity: "Alec Baldwin had to cancel. We will try to reschedule for either later in the day or a future date." Probably just something about an overlooked sushi date with his daughter; that's the life of a working Dad for you.

Anderson Cooper arriving in LA after a flight from NYC ... Ed Westwick leaving his trailer on the Gossip Girl set ... Matthew Broderick helping son James with his scarf in the West Village ... Kiefer Sutherland signing autographs outside NBC ... Kirsten Dunst walking down the street... Katie Holmes getting out of an SUV outside the Schoenfeld Theatre ... Alec Baldwin and Salma Hayek standing on the set of 30 Rock ... Madonna's daughter Lourdes walking with her father Carlos Leon ... Madonna carrying son David into the Kabbalah Center and later visiting a preschool on the Upper East Side ... Twilight star Robert Pattinson leaving his hotel ... Rosie O'Donnell and Becky Newton outside the Conan O'Brien show ... and Alex Rodriguez getting into a cab in Midtown and having lunch with music manager Guy Oseary at Da Silvano yesterday.

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]

Hollywood PrivacyWatch: Alec Baldwin in Love Edition! 11/8 — I saw him picking up sushi on Sat. night in the Valley with some really leggy, gorgeous, young looking blonde. They looked like they were on a date. He looked bigger but, happy... Damn I would be happy too, if I had that girl he was with on my arm... She didn't look famous but like a model, kinda familar. They were talking very intimately and looked like they liked each other a lot... [UPDATE: The shocking reveal (maybe!) after the jump!]A tipster follows up:

Alec Baldwin appeared on Late Show last night to reprise his own, sub-Tina Fey impression of Sarah Palin while recounting to Dave the (completely justifiable!) circumstances of Palin's visit to SNL. Unlike her offer to Fey that night, Palin did not serve up Bristol as a potential babysitter to Baldwin's daughter, but that's not to say these two unlikely scenemates didn't find something in common to talk about.Still, even though the two bonded while discussing Baldwin's "right-winger" brother Stephen, Alec's vote is all sewn up. And, as he says, the candidate he's pulling for is not the "guy running with Bible Spice." Still, if Bible Spice would be down for a February sweeps cameo on 30 Rock, then bygones!

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.

• After starring with Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live, Alec Baldwin said the Republican vice presidential nominee was not "someone who I wanted her hand on the nuclear button at any point." At least that's what he told David Letterman, before impersonating Palin. Video after the jump. [Extra]

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]

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]

• Michael Phelps is dating Barbara Walters' assistant "Marina," with whom he went to college. Wait, that's a fake name right?? Is someone playing a trick on poor old Cindy Adams? [Cindy Adams]

Doggone It: Though he once compared Sarah Palin to George W. Bush, Alec Baldwin aided her cameo appearance on Saturday Night Live this weekend, and the blowback he got for the guest spot has him stymied. "Don't put her on SNL? With all of her exposure and the Tina Fey performance? What reality are you in?" he says on the Huffington Post. "If you think an appearance on Saturday Night Live would sway voters and actually affect the outcome of the election, you may have more contempt for the electorate of this country than the Republican National Committee does. And that's a lot of contempt." Still, we must admit to some surprise that the outspoken, anti-Palin actor was able to bury the hatchet for SNL; what's next, an olive-branch cameo on My Name is Earl? [HuffPo]

Tom Cruise spending some quality time with Suri over the weekend... Katie Holmes leaving her building in sunglasses and a scarf ... Michelle Williams and daughter Matilda bundled up for a walk in Brooklyn ... Sarah Jessica Parker taking a stroll with her son and dog ... Mariah Carey getting out of a car at an event in Midtown ... Uma Thurman walking with boyfriend Arki Busson ... Alec Baldwin and Elvis Mitchell attending the Hamptons International Film Festival's Golden Starfish Awards ... and Keira Knightly standing on the set of her new movie in SoHo, and later snuggling up with her boyfriend Rupert Friend.

If the people who comprise the American electorate ever doubted the power of their influence, they need look no further than this season of Saturday Night Live. They wanted Tina Fey as Sarah Palin. Done! So done, in fact, that we don't even have 30 Rock yet! Drunk with their newfound power, every "Joe the Plumber" and "That One" in the U.S. of A. went into last night's episode of SNL demanding two things: a cameo by the real-life Sarah Palin, and a battle royale between Mark Wahlberg and his livestock-friendly impersonator, Andy Samberg.Did they get it? Well, kind of! Sarah Palin did indeed cameo — across two sketches, even — though she uttered barely more than two dozen words. In the weekend update, she threw limpid hands in the air as Amy Poehler indulged in a Palin rap, and in the cold open, she interrupted (with the help of Walhberg and Alec Baldwin) a press conference by Fey-as-Palin that was made all the more ironic by the fact that Palin herself will ring in Election Day as the only major ticket candidate to never hold a press conference. Comedy or tragedy? You decide! Click to view

Yeah, so, this happened. The real Sarah Palin and Mark Wahlberg opened last night's Saturday Night Live, with help from Lorne Michaels and Alec Baldwin. Stiff discomfort reigned. But at least Tina Fey was still her usual hysterical self, and was only exposed to the actual Palin in passing. That, plus Palin on Weekend Update, after the jump. Click to view