SNL's Update: Gov. Paterson & Spitzer

I haven't seen them do one on Paterson as of late and just when I was speaking about wanting to see another, SNL obliged this week with this one.

The Target Lady has a Friend - This weeks SNL skit

Ok, now this one just had me laughing SO much because the Target that I shop at in Cape Coral, FL has a lady just like this.

MTA set to OK Fare Hike Today

Get ready for the end of the $2 subway fare.

The MTA board is set to vote today on transportation hikes for both straphangers

and drivers, with officials likely to approve the following:

■ Base subway and local bus fares increasing from $2 to $2.25.

■ Unlimited weekly MetroCards increasing from $25 to $27, 14-day passes from $47 to $51.50, monthly cards from $81 to $89 and one-day passes from $7.50 to $8.25.

■ Pay-per-ride cards maintaining the current 15 percent bonus, but with a purchase of $8 instead of $7. Riders would get a bonus fare with purchase of $15.

■ Tolls and express bus service rising from $5 to $5.50.

■ Access-a-Ride fees increasing from $3.50 to $3.75.

Once they are approved, the new fares are slated to begin in mid-June for most services. A state bailout of the MTA enacted last week spared commuters larger fare increases and dozens of service cuts.

Amy Winehouse's 'comeback' gig: HOT MESS!

Sigh. Yes, she's at it again. Just when it seemed like troubled singer Amy Winehouse might be getting it together a bit -- she's been working on a new album, which, despite all of the craziness, we're dying to hear -- she's returned with another wacky episode. Winehouse was set to play her first concert of the year in St. Lucia on Friday, but she cut the show short after a somewhat kooky set. The official reason given for the aborted concert was bad weather, but before she left the stage Winehouse had apparently been forgetting lyrics and performing erratically. At one point, she reportedly fell down. Check out a clip from the St. Lucia show below, then let us know: Are you excited for a new Winehouse album? Or have you had about enough of her sorry spectacle?

'The Celebrity Apprentice' finale: And the Winner is ... Joan Rivers!!!

Joan versus Annie. Cancer versus Hitler. Fashion versus poker. Who prevailed in this final episode of The Celebrity Apprentice? I'll tell you... tomorrow. In the meantime, talk about the events of the past three hours here. Did the right person win? Were you hoping for a Kiefer-style headbutt from Annie or Joan? What were your favorite moments from the finale? Watch one of the best boardroom moments of the season below, then come back in the morning for your regular recap and a special report from the red carpet.  

I have to admit that I pulled and placed my bets on Joan Rivers to win.  I agree with her when she said that "she played with honor."  I find Annie to be a self centered bitch who's "my way or the highway" antics were just too much for me.  My advise to Annie, leave that kind of behavior at the poker table and learn when to hold them and when to fold them.   Congrats Joan!!!

Timberlake Back on SNL and along with Samberg Swap Mothers

Andy Samberg and Justin Timberlake return for a 'D--k in the Box' followup, this time with help from Patricia Clarkson and Susan Sarandon. Make your Mother's Day just perfect with a little 'Motherlover.' No joke ... that chorus is ridiculously catchy.   SNL really should just offer TImberlake a contract already!

'Dollhouse' goes out with a bang and a whimper

The conclusion of last week's reveal of Alpha as Firefly's Alan Tudyk led, this week, to the further revelation that Alpha was Carl William Craft, a violent convict who was one of the Dollhouse's first actives, contracted by Adelle DeWitt from a prison. By accident, he got 48 personalities downloaded into him, and, as Topher phrased it, Alpha "snapped," turning into a deadly carver. (There were numerous times here, I gotta say, when Fran Kranz as Topher delivered his sarcastic lines so caustically, I thought Joss Whedon and company were going to pull a switcheroo and have Topher be the series' ultimate villain; didn't you get that vibe a few times?)

This season conclusion had Alpha convincing an alternate-identitied Echo to run off with him, kidnapping an innocent woman, and pulling a Frankenstein homage by rigging up a home-made, zapping-electricity experimental device that would enable Alpha to do his own personality-implanting. Echo/Caroline had to overcome Alpha's hold on her, and save herself.

The bottom-line theme for the season: Dollhouse was about identity, figuring your own out and dealing with it, because denying your identity or giving it up for someone else to define you, gets you in trouble.

The hour was full of Whedonesque lines (written, in this case, by director Tim Minear) such as, "I have 38 brains and not one of them thinks you can sign a contract to be a slave, especially now that we have a black President." And Topher, speaking of souls: "We put 'em in a jar with our fireflies." Get it? Firefly? Sheesh. Less Whedonesque? References to Nietzsche, even when uttered by a freaky madman, and ex-FBI man Ballard making a passionate mini-speech about the sanctity of the soul. Frankly, I found the conclusion a bit of an anti-climax -- that is, after the climax of a fine butt-kicking scene in which Echo thrashed Alpha in a fine, Buffy-ish fight scene.

But then, in part, I presume, to keep things open for a second season, Alpha had to escape. And Caroline went back to being Echo, more or less, in the Dollhouse, murmuring robotically, "Shall I go now?" My heart sank as the "dolls" once again sank into their little pod-beds. Even if, as they were sealed in tight for the night, Echo uttered the season's final word -- "Caroline," demonstrating she remembers her true identity -- I didn't feel much forward momentum had been built for another season of Dollhouse-ing. I understand that Caroline's contractual five years aren't up, but...

I thought it was a bit of a let-down, overall. There were, of course, a number of good moments here, just as there were excellent moments throughout the season. (Favorite line this night: "The wrongness of this is so large.")

So was this the kind of season-ender you wanted from Dollhouse? Do you want to see that tantalizingly unaired, DVD-promised episode, "Epitaph One," for clues to what different directionsDollhouse might have taken? (Or might yet take?) Are you hoping Fox will renew it for a second season? (I actually am -- I want to see Whedon and the gang go at this material again.) Or should those dolls just drift off to perpetual TV-sleep?