LA's Prop 8 protests reached a high point on Saturday, as a Silver Lake rally/march drew an estimated 12,500 — and, crucially, a higher class of celebrity endorsers! We spotted actors like Milk's James Franco in the crowd, and when thousands of protesters broke away from the main group to head west on Sunset, they were eventually joined by Drew Barrymore, who addressed them at Sunset and San Vicente. After a tearful speech, the Beverly Hills Chihuahua voice actress descended into the crowd, while an organizer reminded the Drew-lovin' masses to treat her as just another protester (translation: no autographs, and please, no Facebook profile pics). [YouTube]

What? Why... why is this happening? What is Keith Olbermann doing on The View? Look, there he is, looking weird and uncomfortable. He told them all he doesn't vote (!), and they all yelled at him. All of them! Even stupid Elisabeth Hasselbeck yelled at him, for this not voting, and she is actually totally in the right. Keith does this "not voting is a symbolic stand" thing because he is obsessed with the idea that he is a Big Serious Important Old-Timey News Man. You know who else makes a big point of saying he is so non-partisan that he doesn't vote? Len Downie, the former executive editor of the Washington Post. Len, in the words of Michael Kinsley, "does not even allow himself the luxury of deciding whom he would vote for if he was into that sort of thing." We'll freely admit that it is stupid and unfair to say "Keith Olbermann is a big fat liberal" just because he hates George W. Bush with great intensity. It is quite possible to intensely hate George W. Bush as a conservative, a moderate, a libertarian, an Anti-Federalist, a Whig, or a fascist. It is reductive and stupid to equate hatred of George W. Bush and the modern ruling Republican party with any political ideology beyond an affinity for competence and morality in government. And, you know, genuinely unbiased objectivity does sometimes mean saying "Jesus Christ this administration is terrible." That's not a political statement if it's true! But, Keith, it does not make you Serious to say you don't vote. It doesn't change the fact that you would've voted for Obama. It doesn't actually fool anyone, either. None of those View ladies would have any of it! You disappointed Whoopi. So we'll agree that we honestly have no idea what Keith Olbermann's political leanings are beyond hating George Bush if he'll stop pretending to be too Serious-Minded to participate in the vast voting conspiracy. And hey, maybe we'll get a chance, in an Obama administration, to figure out what Keith Olbermann's politics actually are! Because he just signed on through Obama's re-election campaign, hosting Countdown on MSNBC through 2012. NBC even gave him primetime "essays" on the network news and he gets two specials a year on regular NBC. Man. NBC had to give him network gigs to keep him from taking his show and moving to another channel, supposedly, though there is not a channel left, on the TV, that Keith Olbermann has not already worked at. And he left nothing but bad blood at all of them.

So Joe Scarborough was on his MSNBC show this morning complimenting the Obama team for not going around "saying 'fuck you.'" The problem here, Joe, is that you actually said "fuck you" on air, which you're not supposed to do. Rather, you are supposed to indicate the foul word with a placeholder such as "bleep you" or the more edgy "F-you." But then you'd sound like a serious nerd. On second thought, Joe, just keep on doing your thing. Click to watch the historic video clip of Joe Scarborough, television host, saying the f-word, which leads to Time magazine's Jay Carney grinning outlandishly like a third grader whose best friend just called the teacher a "doo doo head."

At last! We meet one of Decision 2008's most memorable and accidental heroes: Oprah Winfrey's anonymous "Mr. Man," her randomly selected human-leaning-pole and blubber-sponge throughout Obama's historic Grant Park victory speech. Who was this stoic, liverlipped everyman? An intensive search for the mystery face in the crowd—the likes of which hasn't been undertaken since the days of American Idol's Sanjaya-lusting Crying Girl—unearthed unassuming family man Sam Perry, who appeared on her show today to a rapturously appreciative audience. [Oprah]

On The Office last night, we learned that Dunder Mifflin customer service rep Kelly Kapoor threw an America's Got Talent finale party, where she gave out personalized gift mugs featuring every worker's face over a blue star. (In a nice touch, you can purchase said mugs at the NBC online store. We'll take six Phyllises—something about her smile puts us in the mood for warm beverages.)A mugless Jim and Dwight never bothered showing up, however, and begin to realize that a vengeful Kelly was the reason behind their poor performance review scores. All of this is really just set up for the scene above, a perfectly executed comic gem in which the two engage in a role-playing sales call. It eventually climaxes with Dwight shouting something at the top of his lungs which, we think it's safe to say, has never been uttered on network primetime before. We'd suggest it veers on NSFW—but if it's safe for their office, we guess it's safe for yours. Enjoy!

Sam Perry, the Reuters correspondent turned startup investor, has always been moderately famous in Silicon Valley circles. But he got a taste of real fame when TV host Oprah Winfrey cried on his shoulder, on camera, while watching Barack Obama's victory speech.Oprah invited Perry on her show, as this clip shows, and thanked him. But Perry should be thanking Oprah. This is why every geek switches from blogging about APIs to blathering about politics. None of Perry's venture-capital investments would ever have gotten him on Oprah — but his volunteer work for Obama's campaign did.

Lynn Sweet is a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times who led the outraged howling over the Obama campaign charging the press extortionate prices to cover his election-night rally in Chicago. Yet even she has been brought in line by the Obama charm! During the just-completed press conference Sweet stood up with a broken arm and allowed that she had broken it covering his rally, and Obama gave a sweet answer and flashed the biggest smile ever and in one fell swoop made Lynn Sweet America's most famous reporter for a day and also a lady who probably would like to smooch Barack Obama right on the mouth. Click to watch the exchange. [UPDATE: Bonus Observer story on Sweet too!]

President-elect Barack Obama's first press conference happened the day the nation shed yet more jobs, it began a half-hour late, and the subject was mostly the miserable economy. Obama looked tired, and lapsed occasionally back into campaign boilerplate when discussing the pressing issues he'll have to address the second he's sworn in. As he reminded us, again and again, "there's only one President at a time." But with one question from Chicago reporter Lynn Sweet, Obama immediately won over the audience, and America. He's getting his little girls a puppy! "With respect to the dog," President-elect Obama said, "this is a major issue." Slipping into deadpan mock seriousness, Obama discussed the crux of the problem—the dog should be a hypoallergenic breed, but they wanted to rescue a shelter dog. "Obviously," Obama said, "a lot of shelter dogs are mutts, like me." Even Fox is being nice to our new President now.

The news media has tracked failed VP candidate Sarah Palin to the wilds of Alaska to get her reaction to the LOL-legation that she thought Africa was a country rather than a continent. Her forceful rebuke of the charge can be summed up as: It, uh, sounds like some bitters are saying I maybe, uh, didn't know the answer to a question so, uh, who was it that said that, anyhow? Click to watch the mush-mouthed meanderings of a geographically challenged woman.

As Barack Obama delivered his presidential acceptance speech, Oprah Winfrey prominently led the nation in a good cry. But when the cameras caught her, she was leaning heavily up against some white guy. Who was that?? Oprah basically owns Chicago, so the Sun-Times promptly deployed an investigative team to find out. The man is Sam Perry of California's Silicon Valley, he is an Obama volunteer and contributor, a former wire-service reporter, and basically one of the nicest guys ever, according to his wife, who should know. Her quote and a clip of the Daily Show making fun of Perry, after the jump.

A while back, Hillary Clinton supporter Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild announced her support of John McCain. De Rothschild—whose title and name, keep in mind, is Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild—said Barack Obama was too elitist. Then, the lifelong Democrat wrote a column about how Obama's plan to raise the top marginal tax rate 4% was American Dream-destroying Communazism. So, as an idiot with no understanding of policy or ideology beyond identity politics, it's understandable that de Rothschild is on the TV defending fellow idiot Sarah Palin. John McCain's hail mary attempt to woo women voters by selecting a disastrously unqualified and wrongheaded running mate with an all-important vagina worked on precisely one woman, Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild.

Video has surfaced of Sacha Baron Cohen's storming of a Yes on Prop 8 rally outside City Hall over the weekend, posted by an irate Third Rail Media who claim the British comedian's crew physically pushed their cameras out of the way. As it's hard for us to get too swept up in the struggles of guerrilla videographers attending a rally protesting basic human rights for gays, we'll instead focus on the antics of the Austrian fashionista: Yet again, Bruno risks his own bodily safety in the name of his higher prank-comedy calling, and in the process secures some mildly amusing footage in which he explains to an angry religious zealot that his sign, "ASHERS ARE FOR SCHEISSING, NOT FOR SHTUPPING," actually places both men safely on the same side of the Gays Are Sinning Sodomites Who Must Be Stopped At All Costs debate.

President-elect Obama asked Illinois Congressman and hard-charging political attack dog Rahm Emanuel to be his Chief of Staff. Emanuel's brother is Ari Emanuel, the Hollywood agent who famously broke away from ICM to start his own agency. On the HBO series Entourage, Jeremy Piven plays an incredibly thinly veiled fictional version of Ari Emanuel, named Ari Gold. Ari Gold, in the new season of Entourage, was weighing an offer to leave his agency to head a studio. Meanwhile, Rahm Emanuel still hasn't decided if he wants to stay on as a powerful Congressional Democrat or move to a position of great power but less autonomy in the Obama White House. Above, watch fictional Ari struggle with the choice, and below, real-life Rahm hems and haws on television. Real life imitates fiction imitating the brother of real life.

After calling Fox News Channel to task for its Barack Obama coverage, the Daily Show's Jon Stewart asked Fox host Chris Wallace if the network might need to change its stripes under the incoming Democratic administration. Actually no, Wallace said, because Obama, like all presidents, will inevitably screw up, and skeptical coverage will be rewarded. "Let me just say," Wallace added, "I worry about you. That William Ayers joke bombed. This crowd is not ready." He had a point.

Whenever I read a Twitter, part of me wonders if the person who sent it has any actual work to do. Jon Stewart, cohosting Comedy Central's election-night coverage, wondered the same thing about cohost Stephen Colbert.

We realize you might need a hope-infusion after seeing the voting results on Florida's Amendment 2, Arizona's Prop 102, Arkansas's despicable Measure 1, and of course our own little slice of backyard hatefulness, Prop 8. So it's time to bring out the big guns: Cocoon star Steve Guttenberg, running through Central Park without his pants on, for some reason that eludes us at the moment. Perhaps he was late for his Bottomless Ultimate Frisbee League game in the Sheep's Meadow. Swing free, Gutt! It's a new dawn in America. [YouTube via Videogum]

Key Democratic disco-strategist and AARP leotard-model Madonna had much to celebrate as she brought her Sticky & Sweet tour to San Diego last night. The male species was offered a temporary Shit List reprieve as the singer led the crowd in rhythmic clapping, declaring it "a historical evening. This. Is. A motherfucking important evening! This is the beginning of a whole new world. ARE YOU FUCKING READY?!!!" She then shooed security away and encouraged the crowds to rush the stage and embrace each other in "one evening of togetherness." (Got that? Togetherness, America. Togetherness.) Shit. Now we want to see her at Dodger Stadium. [YouTube]

So that happened last night! And by "that," we refer not to the historic presidential victory, nor to the nationwide propositions that we are still gritting our teeth about, but to CNN newsman Anderson Cooper interviewing Black-Eyed Peas frontman Willi.i.am via hologram. Let us unite as a nation to dissect this clip's best/worst moments, blow-by-blow, after the jump!· "We're joined now, uh, via hologram, uh, with, by, uh, Will.i.am," Cooper begins, clearly thinking, "I'm missing the Bravo Real Housewives marathon for this?" · Will.i.am is beamed in with a Star Trek transporter beam special effect. Cooper stares uncertainly into the middle distance because he cannot see the person he's interviewing, which is a tremendous new innovation. · "All this technology, I'm being beamed to you like it's Star Wars and stuff," says Will.i.am. Not to pull a Liz Lemon, but, uh, Trek. · Cooper corrects him: "It's basically exactly like Star Trek." Thank you, Anderson. Willi.i.am's cogent response: "Yeah, but...yeah." · "Will, we're doing this interview with you this way because it's a lot quieter than having you in that crowd [in Chicago]. It's very hard to hear in this crowd," Cooper lies. · As Willi.i.am rambles on about the "Yes We Can" song, Cooper mentally composes an angry email to the CNN producer who let his boo Donna Brazile go off to ABC so they could spend her hair and makeup budget making a hologram out of the man who produced "My Humps." · "Will.i.am, I appreciate you being with us tonight via hologram," concludes Cooper. Will.i.am thanks him, says, "Check it out," and then does The Worm. · Cooper takes an awkward pause, collects himself, and says, "All right."

So apparently Obama rented an actual orchestra for his big victory speech? That sure added to the cinematic drama at Grant Park. And for those die-hard McCain supporters not softened up by Obama's dramatic speech, the president elect deviously called to the stage his impossibly cute, scene-stealing daughters, and then his VP Joe Biden walked his 90-year-old mom to the edge of the stage as if to say, "look, ma, I'm vice president!" This is clearly a White House that's going to play shameless hardball with the opposition. (Video after the jump.) One minor nit:

Yes, Barack Obama promised his children a new puppy. The president elect also thanked his supporters and praised opponent John McCain as someone who has "endured sacrifices for America most of us could not begin to imagine." But he also seized upon his historic moment to highlight the changes that have swept America over more than two centuries, and to call, in a moment that recalled both the pageantry and message of John F. Kennedy before him, for a spirit of unified sacrifice in the populace.