TV notes: talk

Over the weekend, we caught up on several Ellen episodes on TiVo, watching some and fast-forwarding and deleting others. A few things:

• Jerry O’Connell is such a spaz—like, hyper and funny, I mean. I love him. During his intro music he walked onstage and shook his booty and started taking his shirt off. Me likey.
• Two musical performances that didn’t fare too well: Chaka Khan and Jessica Simpson, separately, of course. The former was unfortunate, the second (an overworked but underwhelming rendition of “Take My Breath Away”) was expected. But I’m still going to check out her and Nick’s variety show, if only for guests Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy singing “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.”
• David Duchovny is in a movie called Connie and Carla, which stars Nia Vardalos and Toni Collette. The clip they played, with David’s character trying to figure out what’s up with drag queens, was pretty funny. The movie opens this Friday. [To go full circle: Jerry O’Connell appears for maybe two seconds, along with other celebrities, in the in-house video for Bree Sharp’s catchy tune from a few years ago, “David Duchovny” (audio, MP3, 3.8M). Though if you really want to get all Kevin Bacon-ish, knock yourself out.]

This week on Oprah:

• On Wednesday we go inside the homes of top designers, and also find out the newest winner of a room makeover, who wins a designer-date with Nate Berkus. Hm, why is he always helping out women, when he obviously must have a gay male following (including me)? Do we with our queer eye just not need his services? For interior design, anyway?
• Friday’s program seems kind of disingenuous: “A Secret Sex World: Living On the ‘Down Low.’” The description reads, “It’s a shocker. It’s called ‘living on the down low.’ Men with wives and girlfriends secretly having sex with other men. One man blows the lid off this sexual underground.” Umm, hello? Kudos for talking about sexuality, but it’s called the closet and it’s been around forever. Nothing new here. I think.