Today on her show, Ellen brought attention to the Hug-e-gram, a bizarre plush stick with Mickey-type hands on either end that provides its wearer with disembodied hugs.

• NBC's coverage of the Winter games began on somber note today. [LAT]
• Vogue's on a roll! Not only was Tina Fey's scar airbrushed off the cover of the March issue, the mag screwed up the letter sent out to promote it, too.
• Harold Ford has taken a leave of absence as a political analyst for NBC while he decides whether to try and carpetbag his way to a Senate seat. [NYO]
• Ellen DeGeneres is the new Oprah Winfrey, apparently. [NYT]
• Project Runway contestants showed their work at Fashion Week today. [AP]
• Madonna will make a rare TV appearance as a "marriage referee" on Jerry Seinfeld's forthcoming reality show. Here's hoping she won't be asked to dispense advice on how to keep a marriage together. [Reuters]
• On the off chance you're interested in taking part in a reality TV show, you may wish to note that there's now a job board for that very purpose. [Wrap]
• Is 82-year-old Condé Nast boss Si Newhouse a Lady Gaga fan? Indeed! [P6]

• More layoffs at the New York Times may be on the way. Uh oh. [Wrap]
• NBC was planning to lose $250 mil. on the Olympics before the games even started. Now it's worried about low ratings/injured athletes, too. [LAT, NYP]
• More bad news for NBC: A poll finds that 69 percent of the people who used to watch Jay Leno have no plans to follow him back to The Tonight Show. [TVG]
• Two-in-one magazine/catalog Lucky has a new publisher. [WWD]
• Movies: The next Twilight installment will consist of two separate movies (everyone gets to pay twice!); Brittany Murphy's final film will hit theaters this summer; and Valentine's Day is expected to top the weekend box office.
• Related: Julia Roberts makes a six-minute appearance in Valentine's Day. That means she was paid about $500,000/minute for her services. [NYM]
• MySpace has clearly seen better times. (Like 2005.) [NYT, LAT, ATD]
• TV: The Ellen DeGeneres Show is staying on NBC, not going to ABC; evil empire Wal-Mart is planning to produce "family-friendly" television programming; and Sarah Palin's fave show, American Chopper, has been canceled, gosh darnit.

Penelope Cruz is in Pirates of the Carribean. (Sorry for the pun.) Susan Sarandon is typecast as a matriarch. Spider-Man will be in 3-D. Ellen DeGeneres is back. Alice In Wonderland angers Britons. Almost too much trade to roundup!

• The New York Times Co. actually turned a profit in 2009. Glory be! [NYT]
• Did you read (or hear about) Playboy's new interview with John Mayer, the one in which he managed to make himself look like even more of an idiot? Mayer's been busy today apologizing for his comments, not surprisingly.
• American Idol's ratings were up big last night. It's the Ellen effect. [TVG]
• Get ready to see ads on magazine covers; it's so happening. [AdAge]
• Another symptom of the times: While Gourmet didn't survive the great magazine meltdown, Food Network Magazine continues to be a big hit. [NYP]
• Since MTV no longer has any connection to music whatsoever, it's changed its logo. The "music television" bit is gone. And the logo has put on weight. [BC]
• The next Spider Man installment—coming July 3, 2012, just in case you happen to have your calendar in front of you—will be in 3D. Naturally. [THR]
• Speaking of things in the far-off future, Tom Cruise has signed on to star in Mission Impossible IV (coming May '11!). And in what will undoubtedly come as the best news you'll hear all week, Celine Dion returns to Las Vegas in '11.

Finally we're in Hollywood. Finally we have Ellen! Dear old Hollywood. Friendly old Ellen. Two good things. We should be happy, right? And yet... Mostly we're just so sad. Hollywood Week is just terribly, terribly cruel, isn't it?

It's finally Hollywood week! No more dancing midget ninja mimes that warble out notes in a desperate grab for fame. Now it's actually a talent competition instead of a circus sideshow. And some stood out more than others. And Ellen!

Mission: Impossible 4 will star Tom: Cruise. New evidence suggests Howard Stern will not be on American Idol. Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks get picked up by Universal. Snowpocalypse 2010 got you down? The Trade Roundup has powerfully heated seats!

• The Jay Leno Show ends its run tonight. It was actually scheduled to conclude on Thursday, but NBC moved it up to tonight to take advantage of the lead-in from The Biggest Loser. Make of that what you will. [NYT]
• Ellen DeGeneres takes Paula Abdul's seat on American Idol tonight. [LAT]
• The second season of Jersey Shore will be set in one of the few places in America that's cheesier than the Jersey Shore: South Beach. [Movieline]
• Were CNN's ratings so lousy last week that it sent Anderson Cooper and Sanjay Gupta back to Haiti in the hopes it would give the network a boost? Hey, it's a theory! (And from CNN's co-founder and former CEO, no less.) [HP]
• A Playboy shareholder has filed a class action lawsuit against the company, claiming Hugh Hefner's been sabotaging efforts to sell the company. [TMZ]
• Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit issue has been unveiled. It's the issue that keeps the lights turned on at SI, as you probably could have guessed. [MW]
• The White Stripes are kind of ticked off that the U.S. Air Force used one of its songs in a commercial that aired during the Super Bowl. [NYT]
• A Sopranos-themed musical is not coming to Broadway. Reassuring! [NYM]

In case you hadn't already heard about it, a woman recently fainted on The Price is Right. Ellen, always up for a good joke, brought her on the show and bought her a gift in case she faints again.

Before the announcement that Ellen DeGeneres would replace Paula Abdul on American Idol's judging panel, Victoria Beckham (aka Posh Spice) was rumored to be a candidate. Thankfully, she wasn't chosen, because—as a guest judge tonight—she was horrible.

Ellen pulled a familiar stunt again on her show today with Josh Duhamel. His reaction was priceless, as he starts to swear and runs away screaming, jumping over a table to get away from a giant stuffed Panda.

It's a sad world, but there are things to make us happy, like births and newly-single male models! Look for birthing, dying, and marrying info about Ellen DeGeneres, Erich Segal, Pernell Roberts, Octomom, and a host of others.

Which of Brad Pitt's body parts bodes well for Brangelina? Bill Gates dances on a banquette. Topless Donatella Versace shows us what young Hollywood will look like in old age. Natalie Portman has a scandalous new beau. Tuesday gossip cometh.

Ellen DeGeneres turns 52 today. Retired hockey star Wayne Gretzky is turning 49. Rocker Eddie Van Halen is 55. Orlando Magic guard Vince Carter is 33. Actor David Strathairn turns 61. R&B singer Anita Baker is turning 52. Singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams is 57. Model Frankie Rayder is turning 36. Actress Sara Rue (Less Than Perfect) is turning 31. Mega NYC real estate broker Serena Boardman is turning 40. Top literary agent Suzanne Gluck is 50. And perma-tanned socialite Denise Rich celebrates her 66th birthday today.

It happened: Avatar has beaten out Titanic to become the highest grossing film of all time. And as Avatar towers above, petty American Idol squabbles continue, Arianna Huffington's sit-com is green lit and Forest Whitaker stars in a crime drama.

For the second time in the show's history, Dennis Quaid got mic'd-up on Ellen to go undercover. He was Ellen's slave; shouting, spinning and following Ellen's every command. This time, some poor delivery guy was victim to the Quaid/Degeneres creepiness.

Dennis Quaid stopped by Ellen today to promote her new movie and Ellen—always the prankster—had something special waiting for him. A man in a giant rat costume, to be precise.

While demonstrating the gift that wife Portia De Rossi bought for her, Ellen accidentally shows us how not to use a Segway. She notes, "Did we get it on tape? Because that's the most important thing." Yes Ellen. You did.

Today Ellen announced Simon Cowell will be leaving American Idol on the very day she begins her stint as a judge. She did not, however, make any predictions about the future of the show in his absence.