mardi gras

Harry Connick Jr. doesn't actually live in New Orleans, as he told Stephen Colbert on 'The Colbert Report' (Weeknights, 11:30PM ET on Comedy Central). But the Connecticut resident realizes people still associate him with the city he grew up in, so he was more than happy to answer Colbert's Mardi Gras-related questions.

"Let me ask you something," Colbert said. "I'm sure you get asked this a lot, how many [Madri Gras] beads is it going to take to see your t*ts?"

"How do you spell 'zero'?" Connick Jr. responded, making a vampy facial expression and then adding, "Mr. Man."

Connick Jr. did not, however, lift his shirt. So he was probably just kidding, and we think it would, in fact, take many Mardi Gras beads to get him to expose his nipples.

With the Super Bowl just a couple of days away, there's been tons of attention paid to both the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts players. And it's all justifiable. After all, they've made it to the ultimate NFL game. But when it comes to commercials, the king is most likely Peyton Manning. Whether it's "Cut that meat" or Sony TVs or licking the inside of Oreo cookies with his brother Eli, Peyton has the upper hand on the entire NFL in ads.

But wait, there is another quarterback in the Super Bowl, Drew Brees, and he has at least one commercial that ranks right up there with the funniest stuff either Manning has done. It was a 'This is SportsCenter' promotion for ESPN.

This story hits a little too close to home for me since I'm a native New Orleanian and have spent more time at Mardi Gras parades than most of the floats in the parade. So forgive my impertinence if things get a little too personal in this post.

The Krewe of Orpheus should be given the Nobel Peace Prize for pulling their invitation to Carlos Mencia to ride in this year's parade. Then it should be immediately stripped for not having the decency to not invite him in the first place.

Here's how it works. Three of the biggest Mardi Gras parades called "Super Krewes" invite big name celebrities to ride in their parades the weekend before Fat Tuesday. No, Fat Tuesday is not the nickname people have for your mother's birthday. It's the actual Mardi Gras day.

Jon's back on from his Oscars gig. Oh, Jon, how we've missed thee. After putting down his Hollywood sunglasses, cellphone, and Blackberry, Jon talked about the mixed reviews over his performance ("I sucked... and was great!"). He's usually pretty hard on himself (I remember him uttering, "I am a loser" after one of his jokes during the Oscars) so it was good to hear that Jon said that he had a great time. Audience may or may not have enjoyed his performance as host... it all depended on which cutaways you saw (Jamie Foxx laughed it up, Joaquin Phoenix offered nothing but cold stares). Well, for what it's worth, I thought Jon did a fantastic job with what he had. I really loved the "attack ads" that Stephen Colbert voiced. Jon even showed another attack ad that they pulled at the last minute about monkeys in the biz, out of fear of an uprising resulting in a Planet of the Apes world. It's practical thinking.