First she did a twirly hug, then made an odd, slurry joke about a kitten, spoke at a rate of about one word per minute and seemed to have her own personal hype man ('Precious' director Lee Daniels). And what did we do while we watched Mariah Carey's acceptance speech for Breakthrough Actress at last weekend's Palm Springs Film Festival?

We winced. We cringed. Then we watched it again.

Carey's, uh, loosened speech was the first genuinely awkward moment this award show season, but there were many actors, filmmakers, and musicians before her who've heard their name called, stepped to the podium, and made things a little weird for everyone.

John Gibson, the mentally unbalanced guy who hosts a daily show on FOX News, went even more overboard on his radio show (syndicated by Fox Radio Network) yesterday.

Gibson opened his radio show with funeral march music and an audio clip from Brokeback Mountain, then said "Well, he found out how to quit you," referring to the line Ledger says in the movie to Jake Gyllenhaal. He then said that Ledger was a "weirdo" and speculated that he killed himself either because he had money in the stock market or because he watched the Obama/Clinton debate. Joe Scarborough played the audio on his MSNBC show this morning and had some comments of his own for Gibson, saying the comments were "as callous and harsh as anything I've ever heard" and "unspeakably rude."

John, maybe you should just stick to worrying about the non-existent "war on Christmas" you talk about every year?

(S05E11) The title of this episode led me to expect something much different than what we ended up seeing. The reference to The Life Aquatic made me think that this episode would find the Griffin's on some sort of adventure. No such luck there, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. I think that idea could have made for a funny episode, but this one worked out ok.

It was something of the opposite of "Peter's Two Dads." Where that one excelled with the structure of the story, this one wasn't as strong. But the collection of cutaways presented with this episode was far superior. Of course, given that I only liked one of them last week, that's a pretty low bar. We'll save those for last though, and get to the meat of the episode. As is often the case, we had a Peter story balanced with a Stewie story.

(S32E10) Even though I'm no expert on his career, I didn't have many worries about Jake Gyllenhaal's comedy abilities. I remember listening to Gyllenhaal on the Donnie Darko DVD audio commentary and finding him surprisingly funny. I definitely didn't expect it... After all, Donnie Darko wasn't a particularly goofy film. Then, I saw Bubble Boy and, although I wouldn't consider it one of the greater films of our time, I thought Gyllenhaal did a pretty good job (with what he was given).

This episode wasn't spectacular -- in fact, it was pretty unremarkable -- but I enjoyed watching it, simply because of Gyllenhaal's enthusiasm.

(S32E09) Justin Timberlake's first hosting gig was absolutely fantastic, so I had high expectations for this episode. Although it wasn't as funny as his first time, I was still very pleased with the result. Actually, Timberlake was better than most "proper actor" hosts. I have a feeling that he'll be returning to host many more times in the future. The man's already established a few recurring characters and I can see him becoming an SNL favorite. Look out, Alec Baldwin, JT's on his way.

I was kind of surprised that there was no sketch, let alone mention, of the crazy overuse of the phrase "I'm bringing sexy back" and every imaginable variation of it. Heck, Timberlake didn't even perform it. Perhaps it was for the best, because I know "SexyBack" would have been stuck in my head for another ten weeks or so.

Joshua Jackson just landed the lead role in a CBS legal drama that, so far, does not have a title. Jackson, also known as Pacey Witter (heart!) from Dawson's Creek, is fresh off the stage in England where he acted with Patrick Stewart in a David Mamet play. He also shot a couple of indie movies last year.

In the new series, Jackson will play a first-year lawyer, badgered by a firm partner, whose career takes an important turn when he is assigned the case of a death row inmate. The series is produced by Carol Mendelsohn, one of the producers of the CSI franchise.

Maybe 2006 is the year of the Dawson's Creek kids? Katie Holmes will allegedly give birth to Tom Cruise's baby later this year and Michelle Williams may or may not win an Oscar for her role in Brokeback Mountain. Now, where on earth is James van der Beek?