Yesterday, I posted that the name of Howard Stern had mysteriously disappeared from David Letterman's guest list for Monday night. Earlier today, I posted that I was told that Stern would be on.

What seems to have happened here is that the CBS website had Vin Diesel up as the main guest for Monday. This was wrong or outdated, but it caused several Internet sources to think that a change had been made and they adjusted their listings accordingly. But nothing had changed. The website was just wrong.

The CBS website has now been updated to reflect that Mr. Stern is on with Letterman on Monday night. So apparently, he was never off. It was just a false alarm.

Over at the Chicago Tribune, they have a nice profile on "local boy" Tom Dreesen. Tom's a great stand-up comedian and one of the nicest, most ethical guys I've ever encountered in the business. You'll have to register to read the article, which was pointed out to me by Bruce Reznick.

I am hearing from one source that Howard Stern will be on with Letterman tomorrow night. His name has vanished from some online program listings but that may not be accurate.

I mentioned these before (back here) but we now have cover art and Amazon links for two forthcoming DVDs collecting Laurel and Hardy movies. As Laurel and Hardy movies are just about my favorite things on film, I'm quite happy about this and want to see them do well so there'll be more releases. Neither of these sets really includes their finest efforts and we'd sure like to see those make it to good DVD releases soon.

Coming out in May: TCM Archives – The Laurel and Hardy Collection, a set that includes The Devil's Brother, Bonnie Scotland and some extras, including trailers, excerpts from other features, a documentary on short films, and commentary tracks by Leonard Maltin and Dick Bann. The Devil's Brother is the best thing on either of these DVD sets…a very fine period comedy with our heroes getting involved with a dashing highwayman.

And coming out any day now: The Laurel and Hardy Giftset, a collection that includes Great Guns, Jitterbugs and The Big Noise, plus trailers, some short promotional films, and commentary tracks by Randy Skretvedt. I'm not sure why this is a "giftset" and the three films are from the later, declining period of Stan and Ollie when they made films for Twentieth-Century Fox. But even weak Laurel and Hardy is better than no Laurel and Hardy so I'm getting this one, too. (There will be a Volume Two later this year with their other three films for Fox — The Dancing Masters, The Bullfighters and A-Haunting We Will Go. The ones on the first volume are better.)

As usual, Amazon is offering a package deal where you can buy both sets together and save, save, save.

So here's the big question: One of these DVDs is from Warner Home Video. The other is from Fox Home Video. Is it just a coincidence that the designers at both studios picked almost the same type font, out of thousands and thousands of possible choices, for the names of Laurel and Hardy on the two covers? I'm assuming it is since I can't think of any reason for them to have coordinated such a thing…and if they did, the fonts would be exactly the same, wouldn't they?

It's the video that was made for the White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington during Bill Clinton's final year in office. The short was directed by Phil Rosenthal, who was behind Everybody Loves Raymond, and it was intended to answer the question of what the outgoing president was doing all day. As such, it generally pleased both those who liked Clinton and those who enjoyed seeing him go. You probably fall into one of those two categories so you might enjoy it. Runs about six minutes.

The conversation was a bit more interesting on this week's installment of Real Time With Bill Maher — the episode that debuted last Friday night and repeats throughout the week — but I'm still not enjoying it as much as I did last season.

There's a curious exchange with Maher, Larry Miller, Gloria Steinem and Ramesh Ponnuru. Miller, who is more or less pro-Bush, is making the argument that wiretaps are necessary because, you know, we might hear someone planning another terrorist attack and be able to stop it. This is a reasonable point but it's also, insofar as I can tell, not in dispute.

Miller further insists that time might be of the essence and that there might not be time to go before a judge and get a warrant. And for some reason, no one else on the show says, "Larry, haven't you read anything about this? There's a provision in the law that says they don't have to wait for a warrant if there's insufficient time for that. They can wiretap and then apply for the warrant up to 72 hours later." Maher is usually sharp about this kind of thing but he doesn't point that out. He's not the only person muddying the issue, which is not about whether wiretaps might be a useful tool in protecting America. The point of actual contention is whether the president can or should be able to order wiretaps without any supervision by the F.I.S.A. court, either before or after the fact. How about if someone tries debating that?

The New York Times has an article up about Alan Moore and his various battles with DC Comics and with the folks who have made (or tried to make) motion pictures out of his graphic novels.

We were talking here recently about product placement in TV shows and movies. This got me to thinking about the first time I was ever conscious of this in a program I watched. Kids' shows of the fifties and sixties were filled with commercials that merged almost seamlessly with content but there were the more blatant crossings of that imaginary dividing line. One occurred a couple times on Quick Draw McGraw. Quick Draw occasionally employed the services of a bloodhound named Snuffles who had a "thing" for dog biscuits. Give him one and he'd hug himself in delight, then literally float up in the air and down to earth, breathing a sigh of ecstatic fulfillment.

And what kind of dog biscuits evoked this reaction from Quick Draw's pooch? Why, Gro-Pup T-Bone Dog Biscuits, of course. Above, you see Snuffles holding a box of them in a Quick Draw McGraw cartoon — and this is not a commercial. This is a frame-grab from a cartoon. Anyone here think it was probably just a coincidence that Gro-Pups were manufactured by the Kellogg's cereal people, and Kellogg's was the sponsor of Quick Draw McGraw? Didn't think so. In fact, in at least one cartoon, the box wasn't a hand-drawn abstract like the above but an actual, pasted-in photo of the real Gro-Pup box. This was shortly before Augie Doggie, another character on the Quick Draw show, began turning up on the Gro-Pup boxes in stores.

I actually noticed this shameless bit of payola when I saw the show at age eight. It did not make me want to run out and buy that brand of dog biscuits, possibly because we didn't have a dog. But I did think it was cheating and I still do.

As you may have heard, CBS is suing Howard Stern, who is retaliating with some pretty scathing comments about CBS head honcho Les Moonves. A lot of folks were wondering what Howard, who was scheduled to be a guest with David Letterman on Monday night, would say there…and how Dave, who is said to be a close friend of Moonves, would respond.

If they're ever to find out, it won't be on Monday. The name of Howard Stern has suddenly disappeared from Letterman's guest list and that of Vin Diesel has mysteriously appeared in its stead.

We will hear more about this. Whether we want to or not.

Sometimes, I don't link to something because everyone else on the 'net seems to be doing so, and I figure that by the time you get to this site, you've seen it. But then, dozens and dozens of people send me the link as if I'm unaware of it. That's happening with this video that re-creates the opening of The Simpsons in live-action…though with a lot of CGI in there. So I'm posting it just to save you all the time of writing me to tell me about it. In case you're wondering who made it and why, here's that explanation. And here's the video link…

There's a quote making the rounds from Graydon Carter of Vanity Fair. It seeks to answer the question of why George W. Bush always sounds like he's talking to an audience of very small children…

He speaks to the audience as if they're idiots. I think the reason he does that is because that's the way these issues were explained to him.

There may be some truth to that but I'd like to throw out another thought. I think powerful, successful people cling to certain management styles and techniques that have worked for them in the past. When Michael Dukakis was defeated in his presidential bid, someone asked him why, when it was obvious the last week or so that he was not going to win, he didn't try something different. His answer, and I think this is more typical than not, is that when you're in a crunch is not the time to abandon all the things that got you as far as they did. Especially in crisis situations, most folks' tendency is to retreat to the methods of past successes, even though what worked then and there might not apply here and now.

I saw some old footage on C-Span a week or two ago of Bush in his Texas governor days. I can see why this guy got elected. He had a skill for simplifying issues down to the point where they sounded like his position was the only moral or intelligent option. It may not have been an intellectually honest approach, painting the opposing path as something it was not, but there was always an edge of humility to it. He laid out his case as if the choice was more important than he was, and it didn't sound condescending, didn't make him sound like a Kindergarten teacher. Maybe it's just that as he's gotten more powerful (and in his mind, I'm sure, more successful), the humble part of that has gotten harder and harder to retain.

There are still some people out there who admire the man's tenacity and cocksuredness. Having occasionally suffered at the hands of people who were absolutely sure of their direction, long after open minds would have realized they were going the wrong way, I don't find that as admirable as some do. A lot of people say Bush doesn't care about the polls and that he's sure history will vindicate him as having done the right thing in Iraq. I don't think there's ever been a politician who didn't care about the polls, if only because bad polling numbers make it more difficult to accomplish one's objectives. I'm more inclined to view Bush as a gambler who got lucky for a time with a system…and now that he's losing, all he knows how to do is bet more on that system.

In our never-ending quest to spend all your money, we're going to recommend two new DVDs of less famous Buster Keaton material. Both have been assembled with uncommon care and consideration, and both give you a chance to see Buster when he wasn't at the top of his form (or budgets) but still with flashes of the grand Keaton style.

Buster Keaton – 65th Anniversary Collection gives you the ten short comedies he made from Columbia between 1939 and 1941. Buster's career had fallen to the point where the man who'd once made The General now had the same job (and directors) as the Three Stooges. Compared to Keaton at his peak, the shorts are disappointing. Then again, compared to Keaton at his peak, almost every comedy film is disappointing. In these shorts, you can see Buster often rise above his material and production values, and the DVD is a first-rate package with good transfers and plenty of historical extras.

Industrial Strength Keaton is a collection of Buster's oddments and leftovers — a few of his shorts, some promotional films, a number of his appearances on early television and a load of the commercials he made in the late fifties and early sixties. Some devoted Keaton fans dug all this stuff up and wrapped it in informative commentaries, and while it's no substitute for Buster's best work (this stuff), it's a nice add-on for the devotee of the man's talents.

The above titles link to Amazon pages where you can buy the two DVDs for (at the moment) $19.86 and $18.99 respectively. Note that each page currently has one of those great Amazon package deals. This one lets you buy them both at the same time for $38.85, a savings of…well, let me call up my little on-screen calculator and do the complicated math on this for you. Aha! Yes, as I expected, it's a terrific savings of absolutely nothing. Well, I guess it saves you a couple of mouse clicks. In any case, Buster is worth it.

The L.A. Times has a nice article on pin-up queen Bettie Page…though for some reason, the name of the artist most responsible for her "rediscovery" — Dave Stevens — is unmentioned.

Mitchell Anthony produces and hosts Creating Success, a widely heard podcast that interviews successful creative people about how they do what they do. The guest on his latest installment belies the premise…which is a coy way of saying it's me. If you're an iTunes person, you can hear this show (it runs about ten minutes) at this link. If you're not, here's a link to a plain ol' MP3 download. We mainly discuss what it's like these days to try to break into writing or drawing comic books…

Woody Allen's years as a stand-up comedian are covered in a BBC radio special you can listen to by clicking here. It's about 23 minutes and includes comments from Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Dom DeLuise and others. BBC radio shows often do not remain on the website for long so if you want to listen, don't dawdle. And if you enjoy it, don't thank me. Thank Shelly Goldstein, who sent me the link.