Love Is the Answer

It's been a good week for Barbra Streisand. Her new CD, Love Is the Answer, debuted at number one on the Billboard Top 200 chart, beating out Mariah Carey, Madonna and Paramore. Not bad for a lady who had her first chart-topper in 1964 with People. Well, tonight on BBC America, you'll have a chance to hear Streisand talk about the CD and sing two songs from it as well. Friday Night With Streisand & Ross airs on tonight at 9 p.m. on BBC America, a special edition of the UK talk show starring Jonathan Ross.

Does it seem like somebody lit a fire under Oprah Winfrey? It seems like it to me. Her new season commenced this week with the Whitney Houston two-parter, she's off to Central Park for tomorrow show which will relaunch Oprah's Book Club, and on Monday Oprah's doing a flashback to the 1960's with Mad Men's Jon Hamm and January Jones as guests.

How do you pump up the viewership for a music award show on a network that used to be all about music but lately has been all about reality TV and nasty scandals? Well, apparently MTV has decided to go retro and keep it funny. To promote the upcoming 2009 Video Awards, MTV has created a West Side Story parody, not too different from the brilliant solo turn by Neil Patrick Harris at last June's Tony Awards.

The commercial is a mixed bag. Taylor Swift proves that she has the real goods as a singer, doing the toughest part of the "Tonight" quintet. Ne-Yo's dance turn is more of a salute to Michael Jackson than an homage to composers Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim. And Katy Perry's rooftop bit reinforces the fact that she's funny and playful.