Calling all music lovers, the 52nd Grammy Awards are on this Sunday!

Expect a ton of stars to attend and perform: a little Gaga here, some B.E.P. over there, here a Green Day, there an Elton John, everywhere a T-Pain! Not to mention a 3-D tribute (wtf?) to Michael Jackson and a Bon Jovi performance that viewers can determine (how can you consider anything other than “Livin’ On a Prayer”?  Vote at CBS.com)!

Beyonce leads the pack with 10 nominations, but folks are predicting that Miss Taylor Swift will be snatching up an armful of clunky, gold, phonograph-shaped trophies for her album Fearless. This has really been Taylor’s year (even the Kayne West/MTV Video Music Awards fiasco ended up being a “Team Taylor!”-rallying blessing for her).

Full list of Grammy nominees here. Big category nominees below:

Album of the Year
» Beyoncé, I Am … Sasha Fierce
» The Black Eyed Peas, The E.N.D.
» Lady Gaga, The Fame
» Dave Matthews, Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King
» Taylor Swift, Fearless

Record of the Year
» Beyoncé, “Halo”
» The Black Eyed Peas, “I Gotta Feeling”
» Kings of Leon, “Use Somebody”
» Lady Gaga, “Poker Face”
» Taylor Swift, “You Belong With Me”

Song of the Year
» Beyoncé, “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)”
» Taylor Swift, “You Belong With Me”
» Lady Gaga, “Poker Face”
» Maxwell, “Pretty Wings”
» Kings of Leon, “Use Somebody”

Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals
» The Black Eyed Peas, “I Gotta Feeling”
» Bon Jovi, “We Weren’t Born to Follow”
» The Fray, “Never Say Never”
» Hall & Oates, “Sara Smile”
» MGMT, “Kids”

Catch the Grammy Awards this Sunday, January 31st, 8PM ET/PT on CBS. And vote in our poll for who YOU’D like to see take home the Album of the Year award!

Golly.  It’s been a while since we’ve heard any Mad Men news, isn’t it?  Well, I’ve got some goss, and this one’s a doozy.

BAD NEWS ALERT: It seems that actor Bryan Batt, who plays Sterling Cooper’s closeted art director Salvatore Romano on the show, won’t be returning for season number four.  He was supposed to be notified of his status by December 31st, and didn’t hear a peep.

To refresh your mem, Sal was fired by Don Draper towards the end of season three (episode 9, to be exact) for not giving into Lucky Strike client Lee Garner Jr’s sexual advances.

Here’s what the brilliant Matthew Weiner, Mad Men creator, has to say about it:

“We don’t murder people on our show, but for there to be any stakes, there have to be consequences … I know how people felt about Bryan. I obviously love working with him, and he has been an indelible character since the pilot. But I felt it was an expression of the times that he couldn’t work there anymore. It’s the ultimate case of sexual harassment.”

You know what? I love Sal to pieces, and I’m really curious to see what happened to him outside that phone booth,  but I’m 100% okay with Matthew Weiner’s reasoning.  I really admire Weiner’s attention to detail and commitment to period accuracy.  This man is a true artist.  Nope, you won’t change my mind on this one.

But maybe Bryan Batt will!  Here’s what the Romano himself had to say about it:

“Keep those cards and letters coming. Start that Facebook group! There’s a million ways that he can come back, especially if time passes. Don does respect his talent. He is innocent. He did nothing wrong. Of course I would love to come back. It’s a heavenly place to work.”

And guess what?  The man asked for a Facebook group, and a Facebook group he shall receive.  Facebook user Christina Behnke rose to the challenge and came up with this.  Join if you feel strongly enough.  I’m staying outta this one.

[Source: New York Magazine]

Whoa!  Big news for Ugly Betty fans today!  In a nutshell: the show has been canceled.

ABC announced today that the show - which made America Ferrera a household name -  would wrap after the current season mid-April - the show’s fourth.  Ugly Betty has reportedly been suffering from low ratings as of late, after having moved to Fridays from Wednesday last fall.

Here’s your obligatory exec statement, from ABC chief Steve McPherson:

“We’ve mutually come to the difficult decision to make this Ugly Betty‘s final season, and are announcing now as we want to allow the show ample time to write a satisfying conclusion.  We are extremely proud of this groundbreaking series, and felt it was important to give the fans a proper farewell.”

Yawn.  Much better than, “No one watched the show, so we’re canning it,” I suppose.

Who’s gonna miss ole Ugly Betty?  I haven’t seen the show in ages, but I gotta say, I love that little braceface.

[Source: USA Today]

By now, we all know Dustin Diamond wrote a tell-all book about his years on Saved By the Bell called Behind the Bell that simultaneously grossed us out and made us sad.  Not that anyone actually read it.

Except for this 11 Points contributor!  You should really check out the long, long list of highlights (eleven, in fact!) they’ve put together, but in the meantime, let me condense them for you in a mostly SFW fashion so you can see if it’s worth your time:

1) Dustin has had sex with over 2,000 women and is well-endowed.  Dustin is no Screech Powers.
2) Mario Lopez (a.k.a. A.C. Slater) raped a girl, and NBC paid her to keep quiet.
3) Tiffani Thiessen (Kelly Kapowski) was dating Eddie Garcia, the actor who played Johnny Dakota in the anti-drug episode, while having relations with both Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Zack Morris) and Mario Lopez at the same time.
4) The entire cast was smoking weed during the said anti-drug episode (”Theres no hope with dope!”).
5) Elizabeth Berkley (Jessie Spano) also had relations with both Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Mario Lopez.
6) Lark Voorhies (Lisa Turtle) also had relations with both Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Mario Lopez.
7) Martin Lawrence was abusive to Lark Voorhies when they were engaged (Whoa! Never knew they were together).
8 ) Dustin had sex with Linda Mancuso, NBC’s VP of children’s programming.
9) Mark-Paul Gosselaar confessed to the cast that he had used steroids before Saved By the Bell: The College Years.
10) Ed Alonzo (a.k.a. Max, owner of The Max) used to practice magic tricks with a young Neil Patrick Harris and also get sexy with him.
11) Executive Producer Peter Engel (you’ve seen the name!) used to have threesomes with Tiffani Thiessen and Mark-Paul Gosselaar in his office.

That’s all he wrote.  Only Mr. Belding remains unscathed!

Okay, so not to be a total Pollyanna, but I’m assuming just about all this is made up.  For one, these lies aren’t even creative.  They basically amount to: everyone had sex with each other.  And even if it DID happen, who cares?  Dustin Diamond is quite simply continuing to reveal himself as the insecure, bitter has-been that we already knew he was.

So the question remains: should we read this?  Nah.

[Source: 11 Points via ONTD]

I just got caught up on Jersey Shore, and let me tell you, I miss my Italian friends already.

I’ve resorted to consuming online clips of Snooki, The Situation,

Ha!  They’re all great sports.

More Jersey Shore news?  You want more?  Okay, fine.  According to TMZ, sources have revealed that the cast has been rejecting offers for a second season, holding out for more money.  MTV supposedly offered Snooki, The Situation, and Pauly D a $10,000 signing bonus and $5,000 an episode, which was later bumped up to $10,000 an episode when rejected.  The cast still hasn’t reached an agreement with producers.

Meanwhile, MTV has been receiving thousands of tapes from wannabe guidos and guidettes, begging the question, are Snooki and the gang a dime a dozen?  What do you think?

Well, looks like the Conan O’Brien / Jay Leno issue was resolved before our poll could even close.  This past Monday, we asked…

Q: How Do You Hope the Conan/Leno Drama Will End?

A: Leave Conan Alone!

It seems that over half of you were hoping NBC would give up on all this madness and keep the schedule as was: The Jay Leno Show at 10, followed by The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.  Unfortunately, this outcome wasn’t in the stars, as young Conan came to an agreement with NBC and has been released from future shows. Tonight marks his final episode as host of The Tonight Show.

Conan won’t be returning to TV until September. So long to wait!

Wow!  Looks like there’s finally an end to all this late night hoopla…

NBC and Conan O’Brien finalized a settlement this morning that will release Conan from his obligations to The Tonight Show.  Here’s the scoop from The Live Feed:

The settlement is said to be worth between $45-$50 million, in line with the annual production cost of The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. According to The Wall Street Journal, O’Brien is getting $32 million from NBC, with the network also agreeing to pay his staff $12 million in severance.

Jay Leno will be returning as host of The Tonight Show, effective March 1st.  Late Night with Jimmy Fallon will continue to air at 12:35 p.m.

Conan will be able to return to TV on another network come September.  He won’t be able to bring any of the characters he’d previously created - those belong to NBC.

What did CoCo have to say about all this? Here’s what he told his studio audience Wednesday night:

“This whole experience has been so surreal. I never thought I’d be jealous of the long, illustrious run that NBC gave Joey.”

Well put!  I find this whole situation disenchanting, specifically in regards to Jay Leno, who didn’t even attempt to stand-up for his late-night cohorts, as far as I can tell.  Sure, NBC needs to keep advertisers happy, that’s what they do.  But Leno couldn’t have helped Conan and co. come up with a creative solution that would’ve pleased everyone?

Eh, what do I know about the TV business?  Hope Leno has fun with his newly-inherited masturbating bear.

Grody! Guess who’ll be playing Keith van der Woodsen (William in the books), the estranged father of Blake Lively’s Serena van der Woodsen, on Gossip Girl in upcoming episodes?

BILLY BALDWIN!!!!

Gross!  William Baldwin, clearly one of the lesser Baldwins (he’s no Alec) will be taking on the role of Lily van der Woodsen’s former husband.

Eh, I’m not too excited.  Is Stephen Dorff old enough to play this part?

[Source: Perez]

Crazy 90210 casting news this morning: both Rob Estes and Jennie Garth will be leaving the show!

Radar has the exclusive.  It seems with the case of Estes (Harry Wilson, father to Annie and Dixon and school principal), it all comes down to dolla bills.  Rumor has it Estes didn’t think The CW was offering an actor of his experience enough dough - and they couldn’t come to agreement. Thus, Estes is moving on.

Garth, on the other hand (reprising her role as Kelly Taylor) apparently never planned on staying on 90210 as a series regular.  There was no official contract put in place; instead, Garth played it show-by-show and had only agreed to participate originally to give the show’s premiere a kick start.  She’s on to bigger and better things now.

Will they replace the pair?  Cast new actors or insert awkward endings into the storyline?

Either way, both splits are amicable.  SNOOZE!  I’d rather hear that Shannen Doherty drove them to it.  What’s up with ShanDo and a little drama?  I’m so bored over here!

I just came came across a trailer for MacGruber, a feature film based on the Saturday Night Live character of the same name, played by Will Forte.

Now, I’ve expressed my distaste for the making of this movie already, and I’m willing to be wrong.  I took a peek at the trailer, and I’ve gotta say, I was somewhat amused.  Check out the full, slightly NSFW trailer below:

What do you think?  Will this movie be a total stinker?  Or will you be begging for more MacGruber from here on out?