Larry King

An intervention couldn't save Michael Jackson, but maybe it's not too late for Larry King. The King of Talk can't stop blathering about the King of Pop. It's been building for three weeks now, getting more and more absurd. Night after night, the CNN host tosses out sentence-fragment questions ("Brain not returned to the family . . . right, Carlos?") that seem like they should have been written for Jimmy Kimmel.

You think Pennsylvania is close? The gap between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton in the race for Hollywood dollars makes the contest for the Keystone State look like a walk in the park. According to nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics, less than $300 separates the two Democratic candidates in the entertainment industry. Obama leads with $2,956,858 in contributions, compared with Clinton’s $2,956,567

W\o7HILE\f7 most people know him as the man who's interviewed everyone from Bill Clinton to Anna Nicole Smith, in my neck of the woods Larry King is famous for liking movies. In fact, if you're a habitual reader of movie ads, you might say that CNN's indefatigable talkmeister is famous for liking movies too much. Even though he's quick to disassociate himself from the reviewing rabble -- one of the first things he told me at lunch was "I'm not a critic!"

THE FIRST TIME the Rev. Jerry Falwell put his hands on me, I was stunned. Not only had we been archenemies for 15 years, his beliefs and mine traveling in different solar systems, and not only had he sued me for $50 million (a case I lost repeatedly yet eventually won in the Supreme Court), but now he was hugging me in front of millions on the Larry King show. It was 1997. My autobiography, "An Unseemly Man," had just been published, describing my life as a publisher of pornography.

After being spurned by the three broadcast networks, Paris Hilton is turning to CNN's Larry King to spill the details of her 23-day incarceration in Los Angeles County jails. The celebutante has agreed to do a one-hour live interview with King after she is released from a Lynwood facility this week, CNN said Saturday. The sit-down is set for Wednesday at 6 p.m. PDT. Both CNN and Michael Sitrick, a spokesman for Hilton, said she was not being compensated in any way for the interview.

Paris Hilton's post-jail chat with Larry King drew 3.2 million viewers Wednesday night, three times the CNN host's average audience this year, according to Nielsen Media Research. King landed the interview after the broadcast news divisions pulled themselves out of running, declaring they had no interest in interviewing the hotel heiress after her family's efforts to secure a financial payment for the exclusive were made public.

Before the producers of "Bonds on Bonds" sold the reality series to ESPN, they pitched it to HBO. A source at HBO said, "We turned it down in a heartbeat." Good call. Actually, producer Mike Tollin and his partner, Brian Robbins, pitched it to several networks. "But ESPN was the only network we had serious discussions with," Tollin said. Now ESPN is stuck with the embarrassment and controversy generated by "Bonds on Bonds." The third episode was televised Tuesday, getting only a 0.

How's this for a starting point? She was the Michael Jordan of her sport ... with a social conscience. Not only did Billie Jean King win a record 20 Wimbledon titles, which included six singles championships, but the baggage she carried along the way in helping create a women's tennis tour and fighting for gender equity was also just as considerable. There were struggles in her marriage, which ultimately collapsed.

8. The talk show host brought the fam (including wife Shawn Southwick-King and sons Cannon, left, and Chance) Nov. 21 to An Evening with Larry King and Friends, a fundraiser for his Cardiac Foundation, which provides heart procedures for the needy. 9. Before going onstate, Eva Longoria rushed to the ladies room to scribble last-minute adds to her speech. Cycling champ Lance Armstrong introduced her and apologized to L.A.

With Vanity Fair's Oscar Party canceled earlier this week and January's Golden Globes derailed by the writers strike, Clive Davis' annual pre-Grammy party has become a beacon to celebrities and celeb-watchers alike. A yearly pageant of music mogul Davis' J Records acts, musical discoveries and assorted A-list friends that's scheduled to kick off Saturday night, the party will feature performances by Alicia Keys and a collaboration by Daughtry's Chris Daughtry, Nickelback's Chad Kroeger and Slash of Velvet Revolver, as well as other performances Davis has yet to announce.