the today show

In 2010, Rachael Ray and Paula Deen will compete against Curtis Stone for the most ubiquitous face in TV food.

Over the next year, the Australia-born, London-trained chef, cookbook author and media personality is set to invade your boob tube on a boatload of shows, including 'Losing It With Jillian,' which NBC has spun off from 'The Biggest Loser' to showcase uber-trainer Jillian Michaels. Stone will provide better-eating advice for families while Michaels whips them into shape.

The Heene family has been caught up in a media frenzy ever since it was reported that six-year-old Falcon Heene, aka "Balloon Boy," had possibly climbed into a large, homemade helium balloon and been carried away in it. The world watched, fascinated and horrified, as the balloon was brought down without Falcon inside -- but then it turned out the boy was hiding in the attic the whole time.

What sparked rumors of a hoax was Falcon's piping up on 'Larry King Live' that "we did this for a show." Attempting to explain his son's comments this morning on the 'Today' show, Richard Heene got his second shock in two days ... when little Falcon threw up all over him.

Was he stressed out, does he have the flu, or is he still airsick? Looks like there may be still more to come on the Heene family / Balloon Boy story. Watch the clip from Morning Rush after the jump -- but not after you've eaten your lunch.

NBC just sent me a series of photos showing the interviews that will be conducted during the network's "A Woman's Nation" series. As part of the series, NBC, CNBC and MSNBC personalities will interview each other about "the state of women in American life," as the accompanying press release has stated.

In most of the pics, the pairs -- Andrea Mitchell/Rachel Maddow, Kathie Lee Gifford/Jenna Bush Hager, Mika Brzezinski/Hoda Kotb, Natalie Morales/Suze Orman -- sit on the comfy chairs, legs crossed. As you can see from the pic above, Ann Curry, who's paired up with Meredith Vieira, wants to be different: shoes off, feet tucked under her rear end. She's really into this conversation, know what I mean? She's listening. She's comfortable.

It's so Ann Curry, isn't it?

The Beatles Rock Band video game came out yesterday. The only way you couldn't have known that is if you took your head off your neck, preserved all of the necessary blood vessels and spine connections, and then placed said head (heh) in cryogenic storage for the last two days.

That's because my TV was filled with not just advertisements, but personal appearances, morning show demos, and even news stories about the release of the game.

Even Jesus doesn't get this much attention in the media. Oh crap.

Jenna Hager, the daughter of former President George W. Bush, will be joining the Today show as a part-time correspondent on issues such as education. Hopefully this won't interfere with her other job as a schoolteacher in Maryland. Since the job is only slated for about once a month, I don't think her second job will interfere with her day job quite as much as my second job as a freelance writer interferes with mine.

I just wonder if Jenna's lineage has anything to do with this new part-time job of hers. Granted she's authored two books by the age of 27, but I have to ask if anybody with a little more experience could have taken the Today show job.

Of course this could turn into a full-time gig for her which means she would have to quit her teaching job and kiss her tenure goodbye (unless she returned to teaching later on and started all over again). How would she survive if that happened? Oh yeah, she's a Bush.

Here's a move that I'm surprised nobody thought of earlier. Iconic television weatherman Al Roker will be getting his own show on, get this, The Weather Channel. Wake Up With Al will air at 6 a.m. on weekday mornings and will be co-hosted by Stephanie Abrams. Al will be also continuing his duties on The Today Show.

In the standard workday, it's not unusual to find yourself discussing the weather with co-workers. It's a nice, harmless topic that everyone cares about to some degree. However, to dedicate an entire morning show to it seems excessive (mind you, I feel the same about an entire channel dedicated to it). On the other hand, if you're going to have a host of such a show, the natural choice is Al Roker.

Despite this achievement, I have no plans to consider Al as a serious journalist. Perhaps at some point he can get Mother Nature to appear on his show for an interview and discuss her infidelity with Father Time.

If you tuned in to Today this morning expecting to see Matt Lauer, you were disappointed. But Matt wasn't off on another world wind tour of Asia or South America or the Baja Peninsula.

No, the intrepid NBC host had a serious bike accident which sent him flying over the handlebars. According to co-host Meredith Vieira, Matt was biking at his Long Island home over the weekend when he had a run-in with a deer!

Seeing Brian Williams sitting next to Matt Lauer on Today was a bit disconcerting, wasn't it? I knew NBC was having some budget problems, but I didn't realize how thin of a bench they actually had. Williams subbed in for Meredith Vieira, but only stayed on the show for an hour, as I'd imagine he'd rather spend the 8:00 hour putting together tonight's Nightly News lineup than talk about ten ways to keep your car running or what Drew Peterson ate for breakfast.

Anyway, Williams was at times a bit too stuffy for the morning gig, but his famous sense of humor showed through a number of times, including the clips after the jump. The first one is a clip reel of some strangely homoerotic interplay between Williams and Lauer, which Al Roker called "a Whitman's Sampler of man candy." The second one is of Lauer, Williams, and Natalie Morales making their Oscar picks.

I just finished watching Today's Amy Robach interview creepy Chicago cop Drew Peterson and his half-his-age fiancee, Christina Raines. This is the umpteenth interview the show has had with Peterson, as accusations have abounded that he had something to do with the death of his third wife and the disappearance of his fourth, who's still missing. This engagement itself has been extremely odd, as Raines has already broken it once, saying that the whole thing was a publicity stunt. Now, apparently, she's back with him, calling him "funny" and "caring," while he snickers. I can't even describe the douche chills I felt while watching this thing.

Why does Today seem to be especially fascinated with this story? You know Peterson is calling the producers any chance he gets, trying to come up with any angle that will get him back in front of their cameras. Now the angle is that some other woman has fallen for his "charms", despite what happened to his last two wives and despite the fact that Peterson hasn't divorced his missing fourth wife yet.

Willard Scott doesn't do much around the Today show these days; except for an occasional week where he subs for Al Roker, all the semi-retired weatherclown (hey, he was a clown once) really does is his periodic shout outs to the nation's centenarians.

But at this point, I'm starting to wonder if those centenarians are more with it than the man who's giving them the tributes.

Almost every time I've seen Scott lately, he seems to mumble his way through the birthdays. While he's always been known for wacky asides and nonsensical ad-libs, they seem to be getting wackier as time goes on. But worst of all, he often falls behind the rotating Smucker's jar graphic that serves up each centenarian's name, location and photo. I mean, if you're a guy who's survived 100 years, don't you at least deserve to not have your face smiling on national TV while the audience is being told that you love wearing frilly dresses to church?

Planet Green and Access Hollywood are rolling out the red, er, green carpet for Hollywood Green. The show, hosted by Access Hollywood and Today Show correspondent Maria Menounos will kick off tomorrow in a special timeslot at 6 p.m. The show will follow Menounos as she talks with her celebrity friends who are champions of environmentally-friendly living. The host will highlight green fashion trends, cover gala events, and put "fans and viewers in the know as to what she and the rest of Hollywood are doing to support the green movement."

Menounos is also a reporter for NBC Nightly News and can be seen in the summer comedy Tropic Thunder.

Planet Green is a property of Discovery Communications. It is a 24-hour eco-lifestyle network that focuses on conversation and meeting the challenge of protecting our earth.

Hollywood Green with Maria Menounos will air tomorrow at 6 p.m. on Planet Green then move to its regular time at 9 p.m. next week.

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• John McWethy: He was a veteran journalist who was the chief national security and Pentagon reporter for ABC News from 1979 to 2004. He reported on everything from foreign affairs, the military, and the Oklahoma bombing to 9/11. He died while skiing in Keystone, CO. He was 60. ABC News President David Westin released this statement.

From the Things I Don't Understand file: NBC is selling video of Matt Lauer's interview with Prince William and Prince Harry on iTunes, even though the entire interview is available on MSNBC.com for free.

Now, before you say "nobody would buy that," please note that the $1.99 video is the number two TV video on iTunes right now, right behind video of the recent Miss Universe Pageant. Just kidding. Actually, number one right now is the latest episode of Starter Wife. The rest of the top 10: recent eps of The Office, Lil' Bush, The Starter Wife, Kyle XY, The Starter Wife, Hannah Montana, Stargate: SG-1, and Studio 60.

I guess if you buy it from iTunes you can keep it forever and watch it over and over and over.

The more America watches Dancing With The Stars the more confirmation there is that athletes encompass infinite amounts of grace. At first glance, Laila Ali has a body meant to beat boxing competitors into a bloody pulp. Last night she also proved that she could knock people out with a mean mambo on last night's episode of Dancing With The Stars.

She floated effortlessly on the dance floor and made a mambo booty shake that caused an earthquake on the dance floor and took home the high score on last night's Dancing With the Stars. If you missed it, you can watch her shake it in this clip of TV's Top 5! moment.

However, some women are not so graceful...

There is a Chinese proverb that says, "If you sit by an inkwell, you'll get dirty." It certainly seems that even if you are slightly involved with the juggernaut that is Idol, you will achieve great fame overnight.

Ashley is the latest person to receive this kind of peripheral American Idol fame. The last person I can think of that enjoyed a similar amount of success is William Hung.

Yesterday, little Ashley made her national pop culture icon debut on The Today Show with Meredith Vieira and elaborates why being such a "Fanjaya" brings her to tears.

The best part of the interview is when Meredith attributes Sanjaya's survival on the show to her devotion to the contestant. The girl turns out to be way smarter than her deluded mother, and says she doesn't think so but is instantly refuted by her Mom.

I smell a stage mom. Sheesh. Get your own passion for your own Idol.