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]

Returning alumni Will Ferrell (as George W. Bush) and Tina Fey turned last night's Thursday edition of Saturday Night Live into a veritable class reunion, but one other notable name returned behind the scenes: Ferrell's frequent collaborator Adam McKay. Little over a month ago, McKay (Step Brothers, Anchorman) lit up the left with a sky-is-falling Huffington Post blog entitled "We're Gonna Frickin' Lose This Thing," but to judge from the opening sketch he co-wrote, he now finds the Republican ticket about as threatening as a Jackie Mason PSA. The clip, after the jump:Click to view

Handbags and Gladrags: If the presidential election doesn't work out for Sarah Palin, Ricky Gervais thinks she has a future in television comedy. Comparing her to the role he played in the UK version of The Office, he says, "Sarah Palin is David Brent. She is! There's so much comedy value in watching her talk." Certainly, we can't think of an Office moment as awkward as that Katie Couric interview — but does that make John McCain her Gareth? In other news, Gervais is playing hard-to-get when it comes to the Oscars, which he has been tipped to host. "I don't think I'd get the freedom I needed," he told the BBC. Executive producer Bill Condon, if we even hear you so much as mention the words, "Howie Mandel"... [Yahoo]

BREAKING HEADLINE NEWS over the wires from Extra! We'll cede them the floor: "An outspoken activist for autism awareness, Jenny McCarthy speaks out about whether [Sarah] Palin, who also has a child with special needs, can make a difference in Washington. McCarthy responds, 'You know, I don’t know.'" MUST CREDIT EXTRA! [Extra]

When Elisabeth Hasselbeck wore a John McCain-boosting T-shirt on Tuesday's installment of The View, little did she know it would set off a 24-hour, Defamer-consuming chain reaction that would lead to booing, a now-notorious backstage conflict, and a through-the-looking-glass emergence of this humble blogspot as one of the show's Hot Topics (also, it introduced us to Sheetzucacapoopoo — thanks, Elisabeth!). Now, as Hasselbeck prepares to introduce vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin at two Florida rallies this weekend, one of our agents at The View informs us that the problematic T-shirt was the subject of a contentious ABC conference call today:

Today we offer a new pair of videos as an addendum to our recent, authoritative list of Dos and Donts for Making the Perfect Celebrity PSA. First up: Absolutely DO coax Ron Howard and Henry Winkler into whatever outlandish pro-Obama Happy Days reprise they can stand, such as the one after the jump that premiered today at Funny or Die. And if Andy Griffith agrees to join Howard for a bewigged ride all the way back to Mayberry, all the better. However: DO NOT, under any circumstances, enlist Rhea Perlman, Valerie Harper and/or Garry Freaking Marshall as your elder voice of reason. Especially Marshall! This election is just too close — and Georgia Rule far too recent — to risk some new, William Ayers-like smear campaign this late in the game.Click to view

This could make that planned Nov. 1 appearance on SNL a little awkward: during an interview with a D.C. news station, Barack Obama was prompted by some "gotcha journalism" to dis his Saturday Night Live portrayer, Fred Armisen. "Are you disappointed at all that the person who parodies you on Saturday Night Live just isn't very funny?" said the interviewer, asking the late-night comedy version of "So when did you stop beating your wife?" A trapped Obama then conceded that Armisen's interpretation was definitely a run or two below its high Tina Fey watermark. Clearly, Obama is in the tank for 30 Rock. [WUSA9.com]

We must admit that when we turned on the television this morning and heard the words, "Today on The View: Bill O'Reilly," we knew it would take more than a loofah to scrub the ensuing political confrontations out of our brains. Still, despite the fact that O'Reilly straight-up called Barack Obama a Communist, the real fireworks came before his arrival, as Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck hashed things out sans the careful moderation of Whoopi Goldberg (who was sick at home today).After Elisabeth claimed that she entertained the thought of voting for Obama following his DNC speech, Joy demurred with a sarcastic "Oh, come on." The resulting "Call me a liar then, Joy!" instantly kicked things into the high-pitched crosstalk zone we know and love from The View, with Elisabeth eventually serving Joy with a mug full of "Barack Obama Kool-Aid" (producing a vocal audience revolt against Elisabeth for the second day in a row). There may be less than two weeks until the election, but how long until Elisabeth finally uses that mug she keeps brandishing on the audience?

Samuel L. Jackson and Barack Obama may have a certain amount of preternatural cool in common, but there's one thing Jackson can do that the presidential candidate can't: curse up a storm! While promoting his new film Soul Men, the actor opined at length on all things Obama, and thanks to Hollywood Outbreak, we have the NSFW audio (caution: as though he were back on the set of a Tarantino film, Jackson lets fly with a torrent of "n-words").You may be interested to hear Jackson hold court on Sarah Palin rallies, how Obama is hamstrung by what society wants to see in a black man, and his greatest fear involving the candidate, but our favorite moment was Jackson's brief, jowly McCain impression. Hey Sam, we hear SNL is hiring — sure, there's that whole racial barrier thing, but that hasn't stopped Fred Armisen from playing Obama, has it?

With the Sarah Palin-skewering SNL ascendant and the Republican-helmed satire An American Carol flailing at the box office (because of those pro-immigration chihuahuas), Boston Globe writer Lisa Wangsness has a provocative point to make: that events like these illustrate "the extent to which comedy has become a liberal genre in America." If you take the success of left-leaning satires like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, and couple it with the mileage wrung from the McCain/Letterman War of '08, does it augur a bold new era of Democratic ha-has?Says Wangsness:

Though she's received widespread acclaim for playing Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live, Tina Fey is typically self-effacing about the gig. First, she claimed that her uncannily accurate impression was the easiest voice to do since Billy Bob Thornton in Sling Blade, and now, while talking to TV Guide about the physical adjustments she makes to play Palin, she belittled her own looks in comparison to the candidate's:

And now, for what will presumably be its last trick before tumbling into a three-and-a-half-year election hangover, Saturday Night Live is rumored to have booked Barack Obama for an appearance on its Nov. 1 episode. The cameo replaces the candidate's original guest spot on last month's season premiere, which Obama was said to have backed out of in anticipation of Hurricane Ike. But one blogger's recently posed conspiracy theory is way more fun, suggesting that Lorne Michaels and Obama campaign overlord David Axelrod instead colluded at the time for a November surprise. But like Alec Baldwin, whom Michaels is said to have coaxed to the set last week with Harvey Levin's home phone number and a week's supply of gay venison, Obama, too, is pay-to-play through Election Day:

Sure, we can usually count on Elisabeth Hasselbeck to make fashion statements that are almost as loud as her constant shouts of "But what about William Ayers...!" Still, even we were impressed by her chutzpah when she showed up to today's edition of The View wearing a salmon-colored t-shirt emblazoned with the words "Great AmeriMcCain Hero." The audience, however, was in a less forgiving mood toward the conservative co-host today.During a discussion about Barack Obama's Titanic-beating money haul, Joy Behar asked Hasselbeck if she thought John McCain would have abstained from the public financing system if he could have made similar money. Her indignant response, "John McCain is a man of his word and a man of honor," drew laughs, groans, and only a smattering of applause. Perhaps chastened by the reaction (as well as a later interruption from Whoopi Goldberg), Hasselbeck announced she was simply going to imagine the rest of her thoughts and not even bother talking. We're imagining that her imagination has something to do with a keffiyeh-clad Obama and four bloody, feminine scalps.

Kudos must be extended to tyro presidential helmer Barack Obama, whose record $150 million fundraising haul in September put him over the $600 million mark and finally allowed his campaign to overcome Titanic's heretofore-insurmountable domestic gross. 23/6 envisions the Variety ad announcing the whammo development; now, the Obama/Biden ticket must hope that with two weeks until the election, no iceberg is in sight (still, he'll never let go, Joe... he'll never let go).

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]

We're 15 days away from arguably the most culturally charged election of the last 50 years, and it's not just David Letterman's outrage or Sarah Palin's SNL cameos moving the needle. In fact, the celebrity PSA crop of 2008 is as ripe as it's ever been — literally so, in fact, with every encouraging offering on the air giving way to three or four smug, pretentious, condescending or otherwise botched campaigns elsewhere. It happens every four years, as sure as the primaries; just when we think we'd seen it bottom out, along come Leonardo Di Caprio, Blake Lively, Carlos Mencia to knock us back to the Clinton era. So enough already, Hollywood! After the jump, find eight dos and don'ts to keep in mind when striving for the perfect celebrity PSA. You have four years to practice — on your mark, get set, go.1. DO let Jonah Hill host more PSA's on his own. As much as we appreciate the condescending, autoerotic flavor of Di Caprio, Dustin Hoffman, Natalie Portman, Demi Moore and a cast of elite thousands, this Declare Yourself ad proved that all it takes is an actual sense of humor about drugs, abortion and the economy to stir potential interest in the issues. 2. DON'T leave the Latino vote to Carlos Mencia, Cheech Marin and co. At least with Cheech around, however, Mencia can't steal Jonah Hill's jokes. 3. DO emphasize Justin Timberlake if you have a choice between him and Jessica Biel. He's just funnier, a better singer and there's always an outside chance of him "accidentally" pulling off someone's clothing. 4. DON'T give Hayden Panettiere her own spot. Especially not on Funny or Die, where she's neither funny nor dies nor so much as dings the McCain campaign she attempts to swear off — literally. Click to view 5. DO give Hayden Panettiere a spot with Jessica Alba. The "Muzzler" commercials are by far the most effective portion of Declare Yourself's multi-phase campaign to register young voters. Which is to say: We're sure the light bondage practiced on nubile, destabilizingly earnest starlets also compelled older men in the electorate to register their own "young voters" all over their keyboards. Remember, guys — you can only register once! No cheating! 6. DON'T let Anne Hathaway dance. Or anyone else for that matter. Perhaps the worst PSA of the season, this Creative Coalition spot is about as fresh as the bumper-sticker rack at a Wasilla scripture house. 7. DO pit Jews against each other. The Jewish Council for Education and Research brought on Sarah Silverman as the spokesperson for its "Great Schlep" — a late spring break of sorts encouraging young Jews to head off to Florida and convince their Nanas that Barack Hussein Obama is not the anti-Israel terrorist the GOP has allegedly made him out to be. Jackie Mason soon fired back on behalf of the Republican Jewish Coalition, smearing Silverman as a "sick yenta" over a saucy klezmer soundtrack. We hate to see such striking discord under the circumstances, but it's either this, or it's Roseanne Barr vs. Jon Voight. Which isn't a choice at all. 8. DON'T rope Blake Lively and Penn Badgley into a PSA together and not insist they make out for the Obama cause. Especially if we have to sit through the whole pasty cast of Fame: The Remake or Emo High or whatever the fuck just to get to Lively's sign-off. Of course, this being the United States of Defamer, your own suggestion are more than welcome below. Let freedom ring — or at least be less painful to watch on a quadrennial basis.

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!

The inter-host squabbling has become so heated on The View that there's little a celebrity guest can do to keep up (short of revealing dramatic, semi-incestuous childhood memories), so it's no surprise that producers have been scheduling more and more all-"Hot Topic" editions, as they did this morning. Also no surprise? Things got absolutely bananas today, as Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar reached heretofore-unglimpsed levels of annoyance with Elisabeth Hasselbeck while arguing about a weekend full of juicy political news.

How big was Saturday Night Live's Sarah Palin cameo? This big: the show scored a 10.7 rating and 24 share, its highest rating in fourteen years. THR's crack ratings expert James Hibberd was quick with the overnights, and in no time, his blog was swarmed by hundreds of gleeful conservatives. "Tina Fey looked liked a drug addict hag next to the natural beauty and class of Sarah Palin!!!" exhorted "zig." Other commenters noted that Fey was probably 50% Egyptian and wants to turn the White House into a pyramid. [THR]

The entertainment industry's GOP delegate count remains at historic lows two weeks ahead of the presidential election, a phenomenon glimpsed today in a new survey over at The Hollywood Reporter. It's surely not for lack of trying — not with efforts like An American Carol and the McCain campaign's brief Beverly Hills incursion raising Republican visibility where they can — but outrage continues to mount among right-wingers like Kelsey Grammer and pundit Andrew Breitbart, the latter of whom chimed in yet again to tout the conservative, "Big Hollywood" blog he's been pushing since before the GOP convention in August: