Where's Mike Ovitz when you need him?

Two things to note on the whole Jay Leno/Conan O'Brien brouhaha:

First off, the joke Jay Leno told in his monologue last night ("What does NBC stand for? Never Believe your Contract.") isn't a new one. In the HBO movie The Late Shift about the Leno/Letterman conflict in the early Nineties, The guy playing Leno makes the same joke at a news conference. Whether that joke was actually made by Leno in real life or the scriptwriters made it up, it's ironic for Jay to use it now.

Second, you just know somewhere David Letterman is laughing his ass off. Not at the misfortune of Jay, mind you, but at the incredible incompetence of the NBC management. One of the nice moments in The Late Shift is the one scene where the two stars actually meet. They are friendly to each other, if not actually friends. The message is that these are just two comedians doing their job who have professional respect for one another.

And now Dave is safe at CBS away from this whole NBC debacle. Granted, he has his own worries what with his recent sex scandal, but at least in that case was the one doing the screwing and not the one being screwed.