jerry lewis

Sixty-one million dollars. That's the amount of money raised during this year's Jerry Lewis Telethon to fight Muscular Dystrophy. The influx of money to the annual telethon, which is held during the Labor Day holiday, was bolstered by a huge donation from a group of firefighters and the lack of a major hurricane so far this season.

This broke the previous record of $60.5 million, which was set back in 2003. The telethon was able to surpass this amount with a $23.5 million dollar contribution from the International Association of Firefighters. Last year only $55 million was raised due to the devastation hurricane Katrina wrought on the Gulf Coast shortly before Labor Day. Bob Mackle, Muscular Dystrophy Association spokesman, expressed great relief that there weren't any storms this season.

The position of "abbot" the leadership role of the (in)famous Friars Club has remained vacant for two years following the death of former abbot Alan King. That changed recently when Jerry Lewis was named the new abbot of the Friars Club at a recent "roast," the 80 year old comedian's third time in the hot seat after being roasted in 1971 and 1986. Comedian and Law and Order actor Richard Belzer served as roast master for the ceremony. I did a quick search but didn't see anything about this particular roast appearing on Comedy Central, though I think it would be fun to see. I always prefer the older, venerable comedians over the young ones.

• Entourage's Jeremy Piven and Stephen Dorff got into a little fight the other night.
• The screenwriters of The Break-Up sign a big deal with Universal.
• Teri Hatcher is going to make a sports movie with Samuel L. Jackson.
• Jerry Lewis is going to direct a stage version of The Nutty Professor.
• Alien vs. Predator 2 has a director.
• They're remaking Terry O'Quinn's The Stepfather?! Why?
• Oh, and have you heard there's some Superman movie coming out this summer?