Justin Ouellette's music trading site Muxtape, shut down after failed talks with the RIAA, the music labels' copyright cops, may not have earned him a fortune. But it has secured him a modicum of infamy. He got invited to speak earlier this week at the WebbyConnect Summit in Laguna Niguel, explaining to others on how to replicate his overnight success with making a website deeply popular with Brooklyn's most outspoken Internet users. As Ouellette elaborates in this interview, the key is to just make up something that people want. Guess what? Just because people want free music doesn't mean you can give it to them. Ouellette never figured that part out.

Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of things that actually make money, sat down for a filmed power breakfast with NBC's Today show. Aside from a fib at the start — that she doesn't think of herself as a female Googler, when that's how she's listed in her corporate bio, and how she introduced herself, quite recently, to ABC News, It's a good performance — no nervous tics, no creepy laughs captured on camera. But it's missing something.Mayer makes a convincing argument, at least on the surface, that gender-neutral policies are the best way to advance women's careers. It would have been more impressive if she'd talked honestly about the very real discrimination women — or at least women who aren't Marissa Mayer, ex-girlfriend of cofounder Larry Page — face at Google; how unevenly those policies are enforced by poorly trained managers; and how Google's culture shunts many women into classicly female roles like sales and operations.

Ricky Gervais said recently that Sarah Palin could have played his role in The Office, and it looks like turnabout is fair play for the comedian, who took part in his own Sarah Palin pas a deux on Graham Norton's talk show this week. Never fear, Simon Pegg's portly rival wasn't playing the veep candidate himself — that honor fell to Thandie Newton, extending the political impersonation duties she honed playing Condi Rice in W. Oh, one other thing? According to Norton, the script he had both actors read was a scene from Nailin' Paylin, the instantly notorious, Hustler-produced porn film starring a decidedly more fulsome Palin doppleganger. Lest you ever doubt the ability of British actors to spin gold from dross, the Gervais/Newton recreation immediately racked up five Oscar nominations from an insecure, California-bred Academy. [Graham Norton]

We figured the growing on-air hostility between Republican whistle-siren Elisabeth Hasselbeck and the more moderate panelists on The View would eventually erupt into something appropriately spectacular—and it did, with multiple accounts sent to us of a Joy Behar/Elisabeth Hasselbeck backstage Catfight of the Century. Word of the smackdown, full of detonated F-bombs and wishes of co-host conflagration, quickly made the media rounds, such as the clip above from last night's ExtraIn it, quadruple threat host Mario Lopez—he acts, dances, crunches, and reads showbiz news copy!—capably sums up not just our report, but The View's ensuing damage control campaign. Not only did Whoopi hit the Regis high-chair, but she also reassured GMA's Diane Sawyer that no one's life is in immediate danger—in fact, they all love each other! Yes, yes, we're sure that's all true, ladies, but can we suggest bringing back that effective split-screen technique that hastened Rosie O'Donnell's departure? You're really losing half the fun if the camera misses Joy silently mouthing, "IwillburnyoudownIwillburnyoudown" while Elisabeth defends her theories that a 19-year-old Barack Obama was the one who gave John Hinckley, Jr. his Reagan-shooting marching orders. [Extra] Previously:

John McCain's brother Joe got in a bit of trouble earlier this month for inventing the McCain campaign's new justification for losing in red states like Virginia: the part of Virginia they are losing in is not real Virginia, it is "communist country." Joe McCain, 65, is a former reporter who has largely stayed out of the spotlight this year because he's worried he might say something damaging to his brother's campaign. Something like, you know, calling half of Virginia "communist country" or maybe calling 911 to complain about traffic, cursing at the 911 operator in disgust, and then calling back to complain further. It would really be a shame, a hilarious shame, if the recordings of those two 911 calls were released to the local media, and then posted on this blog. Did we mention that he calls back after cursing and hanging up? Click and enjoy! [ABC7]

"Sorry for the spam but this is important," random play mogul Marc Canter spammed me on Facebook. "Please check out the video version of my treatise. Its easy! Just sit, watch and listen for 33:33." Dude, like I have half an hour to watch Blip.tv now that they've laid off everyone else here. I never know what Canter's talking about, but I love his manic energy. The first minute or two made me LOL the way we used to, before lulz were invented.

It's a stark reality of American politics that (gulp) most of the grainy election spoof videos that you find online are really terrible. Tired old jokes done unoriginally without any thought toward editing and seeing if your joke has been made five thousand times before. So it is a rare treat when you stumble upon a little gag clip skewering the presidential candidates (but, um, usually mostly John McCain—what's that thing about funny Conservatives, again?). Again, there aren't many, but there are a proud few. We've put five of our favorites (plus a little bonus!) after the jump. Feel free to add your own in the comments. Portrayal Of Obama As Snob Hailed As Step Forward For Blacks Trenchant and sad, like all the best 'Onion' pieces.

Official websites give celebrities a powerful way to fighti rumors or promote new projects, free of the pesky filter of the entertainment media. But it's becoming clear vanity sites can backfire. Beatles drummer Ringo Starr recently pissed off fans by admonishing them, via his website, to stop sending him mail. And now William Shatner has taped a long diatribe against his Star Trek co-star George Takei, who allegedly did not invite Shatner to his recent gay wedding. It can't be long before Shatner yanks his YouTube video on Takei's "sickness" and "psychosis" over who got more camera time forty years ago, particularly now that Takei has told AP that Shatner was, in fact, invited to the wedding. And if Shatner really meant to attack "Takei's decision to come out of the closet later in life," as AP has it, he'll probably be getting left off many more invite lists in the future. Click the video icon to watch the highlights.

· Here's a fresh and intriguing concept: Matthew Perry falls off a bridge (no wait there's more) and becomes a teenager again. How will he approach high school? First kisses? Getting his license? The possibilities are endless! · Did you miss Ellen's comments today about Sarah Palin's crusade against gay marriage? It moved us to the point of making us want to find a nice lesbian and settling down. · Warner Bros. was found not guilty of copyright infringement in a $40 million lawsuit that claims We Are Marshall ripped off a documentary about the same college football tragedy. Approached for comment, Marshall star Matthew McConaughey smiled his high-wattage smile and offered reporters a morsel of the most delicious beef they've ever tasted. · "Alyson Hannigan Is Pregnant!" Sorry, brah. · Mr. Phil is getting sued by the memorabilia dealer who just put O.J. away, for editing his interview to make it seem as if the dealer was agreeing with the talk show host's incriminating questions about the case. We realize this is just a civil suit, but wouldn't it be nice if one armed hotel ambush put both O.J. and Phil away?

Frank Addante, CEO of the Rubicon Project, a Los Angeles-based online-advertising startup, mocks himself so you don't have to. Another pointless ad network? Clueless execs? Gullible venture capitalists? His latest video, made to introduce himself and his company to attendees at The Lobby, a Hawaiian tech-dealmaker junket organized by venture capitalist David Hornik, embraces all the possible criticisms one might make of Addante. Except for this one: He has enough spare time on his hands to make videos and go on a thinly disguised Big Island vacation. That's the real joke, in case you weren't getting it.

In New York, the notion that the girl in marketing really wants to be a Broadway singer is taken for granted. In Silicon Valley, it's seen as a bit bizarre. But I'm charmed by Facebooker Randi Zuckerberg's career aspirations. Her singing-and-dancing sideline, first seen in "Valleyfreude," has waxed and waned with the demands of her day job. (Yes, her younger brother, Mark, is her employer.) But she's back with a paean to undecided voters, "Should I Red or Should I Blue?", which she produced (and sang) for Tina Brown's overstaffed, undertrafficked website, the Daily Beast.Something about this arrangement smacks of social climbing. But who's climbing whom? Randi Zuckerberg, one of Facebook's early employees, who helped the site grow to 100 million users? Or a has-been magazine editor, famous in Manhattan but nowhere else, grappling with how to adapt her outrageous spending habits to a far leaner medium, and leaned on her pal Barry Diller to fund and launch the site, rather than trying the entrepreneurial route? From a Left Coast vantage point, it looks like Brown is trying to attach herself to Zuckerberg's star, not the other way around. Zuckerberg, cleverly, registered her own website, shouldiredorshouldiblue.com. A wise hedge, should Brown's website go down in expensive flames.

Ah England, home to both world-class soccer hooliganism and a world-class reputation for stuffiness. What we're implying is that any outwardly polite Brit is, at any given moment, seething with murderous rage. Well! It seems that a BBC radio interview this morning took a turn for the wacky when the interviewee's cell phone went off, live on air! Which caused the host, John Humphrys, to threaten to take the man out back and shoot him dead. Funny Brits! Click to listen to the tape. Gunshot not included.

· That's why you need the Zyliss Ultra Peeler: Your lady will barely be able to keep her hands off your kiwis! · These two delightful finds—one featuring nothing but inverted canines, the other, a gallery of impressively morbid creations using chicken bones, KFC containers, and ketchup—do nothing but reconfirm our love of the Internets. [All via b3ta] · We found an actor willing to go on record in support of Proposition 8: Latin heartthrob Eduardo Verástegui. Enjoy having terrible hair and makeup and looking fat in jeans for the rest of your career, Eduardo! (Wily stylists.) [Guanabee] · Tears For Fears's Curt Smith will be playing the third of four dates at the Standard Hollywood's Cactus Lounge tonight at 7 p.m. An intimate, free evening with your high school fantasy boyfriend! How can you pass that up? Here's "Head Over Heels: Literal Video Version" to get you warmed up, from the guys who brought you "Take On Me: LVV." (Not as good as the last one, but whatever—it's also free.) · Does Chace Crawford have a hamburger for you!

Click to viewNow that they've fired Melissa Gira Grant, I've got my first Sex Trade assignment! Owen told me to post about Slate's new clip on the escort business in Second Life. Easy: "This is Samantha Henning with Slate V. Now, some vices are socially acceptable. But prostitution, that's not one I was gonna try out in the real world." Back button. Next on Slate: More Sarah Palin sentence diagrams.

Having already enjoyed the effects of one defribrillation at the hands of master career re-animator Quentin Tarantino, '70s TV acting icon (with occasional forays into B-movies like Alligator and Disney's The Black Hole) Robert Forster makes another deserved comeback on NBC's sprawling super-power fantasia, Heroes.On last night's action-packed episode, Forster reprised his role as the previously-thought-dead Petrelli family patriarch. Our initial fears that evaporated Oscar chances and a recurring role on Huff had inflicted unspeakable damage upon his physical well-being were quickly put to rest when Forster began laying his hands on various deathbed well-wishers, thereby sucking away their youthful supervitality and melting away the years. (We imagine Joan Rivers employs a similar technique.) In the scene above, his own son—played with convincing, Windex-conducting intensity by Milo Ventimiglia—falls victim to Forster's devious ways, stripping Ventimiglia of all his special gifts, including the one where he pretends to care about Japanese dolphins long enough to get inside some indestructable-cheerleader spanky pants.

If you believe what you read in the papers, Sarah Silverman's first full-length performance in the U.K. last night was a disaster unbefitting the Matt Damon-Fucking Jewess Queen of Hollywood. The BBC reports the crowd of 3600 at London's Hammersmith Apollo—who had paid somewhere in the vicinity of $70-$100 a seat for the privilege of hearing Silverman's fishy-smelling-gym-shorts stories—"slow hand clapped and shouted they wanted their money back" at the end of a 40-minute mini-set, then heckled "you're over-hyped Sarah" and "I've seen longer clips on YouTube" until she came back out for an encore. Appropriately enough, we have YouTube video of said encore, and it suggests Silverman wasn't quite as reviled by the inquisitive Limeys as the reviews said. It's after the jump.

In "King of Digg," GangstaDawg4Life takes on FroggietheDestroyer! This is the future of media. Kevin Rose conceived Digg, his so-called social news site, as an experiment in democratizing the consumption of news. Rose's formula: Get rid of middleman editors. Replace them with the wisdom of crowds. Or so he says. But while he was starting Digg, Rose was a TV host on G4TV, the cable channel about videogames. That's the secret of Digg's success: It's a videogame. An old-school journalist would wonder: "Why do they keep score on individual submissions? Doesn't that reveal which of your stories were believed most, or at least read most? Damn, there goes my Pulitzer!" But now, Rose and company are fighting with Digg's most active users, trying to blunt their success. Here are five reasons — from a 13-year veteran of MSM formulas — why Digg's management should hug their top Diggers even tighter.

I don't think kids need to be as coddled and protected from the ills of the world as they are today (Janet Jackson's three-millisecond tit flash = the Rapture, apparently), but some stuff is just not for little ones. Which is why it's always funny/disturbing when someone unearths a clip from a children's television show that really should be anything but. A site called Uncoached has compiled a video listicle of some of the more inappropriate kiddie show disasters (though, one of the ones they claim is real is an obvious parody). I've put my two favorite after the jump. Poo poo! This song is about fucking:

· This recent round of Wheel of Fortune is the most excruciating thing we've sat through in quite some time. "Hmmm....'blank-O-O-D BURNING STOVE.' Jeez, I'm stumped, Pat. Mood? Mood-burning stove? No? Fiddlesticks!" · Madonna and Guy Ritchie would do it about once every 18 months, and when they did, "it was like 'cuddling up to a piece of gristle', Ritchie is said to have told friends." Having, in one of our lonelier holiday moments, spooned a picked-over turkey carcass a week after Thanksgiving—we feel for him. We really do. · "Will Smith used a madame to procure male companionship!" says Internet. · The McCain tongue-flapping grab-ass pic has its own Photoshop contest. We award the top prize to the A Christmas Story homage, replete with an adorable Barack in a duffel coat. Here's another take in animated gif form. · And finally, ladies and gentlemen: Your Ten Most Humiliating Dog Costumes of Halloween 2008.

We're not exactly sure when Ellen took a complete detour into surreality, but it might have happened on today's show, when Ellen DeGeneres asked vice presidential nominee Joe Biden to perform the charity-inspired task of throwing balls at a dunk tank. And who would be sitting in said tank, ready to be pitched into the cold water below should one of Biden's balls hit the target? Seinfeld actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, because why not.The resulting spectacle was like a Republican's fever dream of what could happen should the Obama/Biden ticket make it to the White House: Democrats stoning/drowning innocent straight women in the public square as gay-married lesbians cheer them on. If we only could have brought out Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to do an awkward dance while DJ Tony Okungbowa played "Me So Horny." Next time, guys!