You know, so-called role models living their lives like open wounds to accumulate column inches, so they can then get some ghost-writer to spread those inches over several "autobiographies" to cash in on their infidelity, drug abuse, life of crime and personal tragedy. You can't help but think many should have called a doctor before they called a publicist.

I've always been fascinated by the subject of fame. Probably because I've never really understood it. Or rather, I've never really understood why people would put fame above all else. And it seems to be getting worse. A recent university survey asked a sample of 10-year-olds what they wanted to be when they grew up. They answered "famous." Just famous.

I guess I always wanted to be eminent. That's the old word for fame, by the way. Being known for something. Being known for being good at something. Maybe even the best at something. "Fame" used to be fused with "respect" in some ways. That's what distinguished it from infamy. But not any more.

I never tried to be famous. I was never shy and I never minded being the center of attention, but not at any cost. I didn't want to be the center of attention for being the loud drunk at a party (the Golden Globes doesn't count) or the bloke fighting over the pool table, or the kid who would eat slugs for a dare.

I was willing to be the center of attention in a small group of friends for saying something funny. Even interesting. I wanted to be the funniest person in the room, not the most famous. I never knew I was honing a skill that would eventually transcend sociability to become a lucrative career. In fact, I never really thought about even having a career.

I used to be the laziest, least ambitious person I knew. Well, lazy in terms of work. Career success, if you will. I had artistic ambition, I guess, but being a working-class Brit I believed it was better to never try than to try, and run the risk of failing. Americans are brought up to believe they can be the president of the United States. British kids are told, "Don't be stupid. It won't happen for you."

I suppose I was cursed with some early success. I was smart. The smartest kid in my class. Then the smartest kid in the next class and so on. I actually used to pride myself on the fact that I didn't have to even try to pass exams. This is my greatest regret. It's a disgusting attitude and potentially a waste of a life. Writing and directing The Office was the first thing I ever tried my hardest at. The reward was revelatory.

At 40 I was addicted. Not to success. I was addicted to trying my hardest. That's the reward in itself. It's what life's about. The struggle. It's the only way you can be proud. You can't be proud of luck.

Born clever? So what? What are you going to do with it? Your best, I hope, and no less.

I started late, sure. But it really is never too late. Now I seize the day. And I love that day much, much more. I'm a workaholic. But as Winston Churchill said, "If you find a job you really love, you'll never work again." Well, I feel like I'm working, but that's the bit I like. I'm not proud of earning a million times what a nurse earns. I can only be proud of working as hard. And even then I feel guilty about loving the hard work. My only hope is that nurses love their work too.

Then I'm just paid too much. That's another reason why I try my hardest now. It's the least I can do. Sometimes I think I'm doing too much. (Sometimes critics think I'm doing too much.) But I can't help it. I'm an addict. I'll tell you more about that in my third autobiography.

According to Puppy Bowl referee Dan Schachner, "the rules are a little looser than your regular NFL game."

Puppies weren't alone in the Animal Planet Stadium. This year also featured a kitten half time show, a tweeting bird and a pig pep squad.

The puppies and kittens participating in Puppy Bowl come from shelters listed on the Animal Planet website. The Humane Society estimates that about 4 million dogs and cats without a home are euthanized each year in the U.S. alone. If you want to adopt an animal in need, visit Petfinder.com or the ASPCA website to learn more.

Check out the adorable Animal Planet videos below from 2012's Puppy Bowl VIII:

From Christina Aguilera's bickering with the boys on the judging panel to Cee Lo Green's affinity for tinted eyewear, there are certain elements of "The Voice" we can count on resurfacing in Season 2.

So in the spirit of this beer-guzzling day of football, check out the drinking game HuffPost TV created for the two-hour second season premiere of "The Voice" below!

NOTE: The Huffington Post in no way encourages binge drinking. This is for entertainment purposes only. We do not recommend you actually drink as much as we suggest below because that would be far less pretty than Cee Lo's pearly white teeth.

"The Voice" premieres on Sun. Feb. 5, after the Super Bowl at 10:30 p.m. EST on NBC.

Before I saw the film version of "21 Jump Street" a few weeks ago, I highly doubted the comedic ability of Channing Tatum. After, however, my hopes for his "SNL" hosting appearance were raised significantly. But, for whatever reason, "SNL" decided to really focus on Tatum's beefcake status. Put it this way: I saw Channing Tatum with his shirt off not one, not two, but three times. Channing Tatum portrayed a stripper -- twice. We get it: Channing Tatum is a good-looking guy. (Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that it's quite remarkable Tatum somehow portrayed Peyton Manning and Tom Brady during the same show.) On to a very shirtless scorecard ...

Sketch of the Night

"Downton Abbey" (Andy Samberg) I know very little about "Downton Abbey," except that, out of nowhere, everyone seems to be infatuated with this show. It's like a memo went around, "OK, everyone: It has been decided that 'Downton Abbey' is the new 'it' show this season, so make sure to watch it and tweet about it extensively." I did not get this memo. But, thanks to "SNL," I now know that every conversation on "Downton Abbey" is overheard in the hallway. This reminds me of "Three's Company." This makes me think that I might enjoy "Downton Abbey."

Score: 8.0

The Good

"NBC Football Promo" (Channing Tatum, Jason Sudeikis, Kenan Thompson, Bobby Moynihan, Jay Pharoah, Bill Hader) This was great because I can only assume that this is exactly what it would be like to watch one of these promos being filmed. Because, yes, the fellas do look like they're having the time of their lives, horsin' around with the ol' pigskin -- then the theme song kicks in and it's all business.

Score 8.0

"Cold Open: Newt Gingrich: Moon President" (Bobby Moynihan, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Nasim Pedrad, Jason Sudeikis, Kenan Thompson) First of all, the title of the sketch wound up being funnier than the sketch itself. Regardless, I do appreciate the fact that they tried something different: Instead of a tired debate sketch, or a "candidate talks to the camera" sketch, they went with this somewhat absurd Newt Gingrich on the moon sketch instead. (Good grief, this election season is boring.)

Score 7.0

"Channing Tatum Monologue" (Channing Tatum, Kristen Wiig, Vanessa Bayer, Taran Killam, Fred Armisen) This gets placed in "The Good" even though this is the epicenter of everything that was wrong with last night's show. "Channing Tatum is a good looking guy." The end. Regardless, I can't blame Tatum because he seemed game. Though, I can just picture him during the pitch meeting, "Wow, another stripping sketch? Well, OK, you guys know what you're doing."

Score: 6.0

The Bad

"Tom Brady & Janet" (Bobby Moynihan, Channing Tatum, Jay Pharoah) The phrase "flesh cube" almost got this into "The Good" all by itself. But, alas, the biggest problem with this sketch is that Moynihan is so animated as Janet; it really emphasized how little Tatum was needed in the sketch as Tom Brady. If you swapped him for a cardboard cutout of Brady, this sketch would have been exactly the same.

Score 5.5

"Strip Club" (Jason Sudeikis, Channing Tatum, Bobby Moynihan, Jay Pharoah) I want to like "Strip Club." I wanted to like it the first time it aired last season. I want to love any sketch that has a character named "Dumb Dick." And, for whatever reason, Sudeikis seems to be having the time of his life playing this character. Then again, I do love the constant stream of non sequiturs ... You know what, I'm going to end this paragraph right now before I talk myself into something that I might regret later.

Score: 5.0

"Exercise Commercial" (Channing Tatum, Kristen Wiig) Good concept, I suppose. But, good grief, this went on forever. It was weird: It's almost like it just wanted to go to -- and would have benefited from -- that next level of Kristen Wiig ridiculousness, but never quite does.

Score: 5.0

"Bat Mitzvah" (Nasim Pedrad, Channing Tatum, Fred Armisen, Kristen Wiig, Kenan Thompson, Vanessa Bayer, Abby Elliott) It's Rebecca's Bat Mitzvah. She invites her friend on stage to dance. The dances get graphic. Basically, this was yet another excuse to have Channing Tatum do his stripper dance. Enough, already!

Score: 4.5

Weekend Update (Seth Meyers, Bobby Moynihan, Kristen Wiig) No segment encapsulates the mood on set more than "Update." In a week that saw Paul Brittain leave the show (His manager has yet to respond to request for comment) this had to weigh on the cast, at the very least, subconsciously. Last night's "Update" seemed rushed and Meyers seemed off. Though, it was kind of interesting, in a meta sort of way, to watch Wiig portray Lana Del Ray, responding to her poorly-received "SNL" performance.

Score 4.5

"Secret Word" (Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Channing Tatum, Andy Samberg, Nasim Pedrad) I will never see Lord Wyndemere or Sex Ed Vincent ever again on "SNL," yet "Secret Word" keeps on living. That makes perfect sense.

Score: 3.5

The Ugly

"Getting Freaky with Cee Lo" (Kenan Thompson, Channing Tatum, Bobby Moynihan, Jason Sudeikis, Jay Pharoah, Bill Hader, Vanessa Bayer, Nasim Pedrad) Good lord, these are not very good. And I usually don't like criticizing hosts who are obviously giving effort, but Channing Tatum does a horrible Matthew McConaughey impression. Really, this is like Kenan came up with the idea, "I want to do something just like 'What's Up With That?,' only not funny." (Speaking of which, we still have yet to see "What's Up With That?" this season.)

Score 1.0

Average Score for this Show: 5.27

· Jimmy Fallon 6.17
· Jason Segel 6.05
· Charlie Day 6.00
· Steve Buscemi 5.95
· Emma Stone 5.85
· Alec Baldwin 5.80
· Charles Barkley 5.65
· Melissa McCarthy 5.45
· Daniel Radcliffe 5.39
· Channing Tatum 5.27
· Ben Stiller 5.18
· Katy Perry 5.09
· Anna Faris 4.95

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

We've got a sneak peek at their big Super Bowl spot (the Season 2 premiere airs Feb. 5 on NBC, right after the big game) and they went all out, nabbing directed by Peter Berg to perfect their fight scenes, and a very special guest star: Betty White.

Yes, the "Golden Girls" star's comeback tour continues -- watch her adorable reaction to being caught singing in the shower above.

The actor smartly mined his well-proportioned physique for gags throughout the show, most notably during his opening monologue when he informed the audience that he got his start as a stripper. Of course, you can't say stripper without doing a little stripping, so the monologue culminated in some impressive gyrating and shirt-ripping.

We're not sure if this made us good uncomfortable or bad uncomfortable, but it certainly had an affect on Fred Armisen.

Check out the whole clip above and let us know how you think Tatum did as "SNL" host.

WATCH:

[via Stereogum]

Kristen Wiig as Del Rey stopped by "Weekend Update" to chat with Seth Meyers about the backlash, and credited her detractors with being absolutely right. "Based on the public's response, I must have clubbed a baby seal while singing the Taliban national anthem."

She went on to say that critics were right to take her to task for changing her name and for not being seasoned enough to perform on the show: "The music stage on 'Saturday Night Live' is hallowed ground, and I failed to reach the high bar set by past guests like Bubba Sparxxx, The Baha Men and Shaggy."

Watch the full clip above and let us know if you thought the backlash against Del Rey was unwarranted.

U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups on Friday dismissed Utah's governor and attorney general from the case, but allowed the suit to proceed against Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Buhman, the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune report.

Buhman threatened to prosecute Kody Brown and his four wives – Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn – after the TLC show "Sister Wives" debuted in September 2010, but his office has not filed charges.

The family sued Buhman, Gov. Gary Herbert and Attorney General Mark Shurtleff in July 2011, claiming Utah's bigamy statute violates its constitutional rights to due process, equal protection, free exercise of religion, free speech and freedom of association.

Waddoups, in his 21-page ruling, wrote that he dismissed Herbert and Shurtleff from the case because Shurtleff assured the Browns that they wouldn't be prosecuted. Shurtleff has a policy of not prosecuting consenting adult polygamists as long as they're not committing other crimes.

But the judge wrote that Buhman conducted interviews with the news media that made it clear he intended to investigate and prosecute the Browns. The fact that no charges have been filed does not matter, he added.

"The entirety of actions by the Utah County prosecutors tend to show either an ill-conceived public-relations campaign to showboat their own authority and/or harass the Browns and the polygamist community at large, or to assure the public that they intended to carry out their public obligations and prosecute violations of the law," Waddoups wrote.

There's reason for the Browns to believe they could face prosecution in Utah County, the judge continued, and that could have a "chilling effect" on their ability to practice their First Amendment rights in the state.

But the Browns must show that there's a real and viable threat to their constitutional rights for the lawsuit to hold up in court, Waddoups wrote.

Brown moved his wives and 16 children from Lehi to the Las Vegas area in January 2001.

Buhman said he had not yet reviewed the ruling and was not prepared to comment.

With Bobby Moynihan returning as Gingrich and Kristen Wiig as Calista, we were treated to a GOP vision of the future, in which second-term socialist president Obama has run America into the ground, and Gingrich has installed himself as moon president. Along for the ride are his trusted robot advisor, the Reagatron 3000 (Bill Hader), and Herman Cain (Kenan Thompson).

But trouble looms as Iran and North Korea launch nuclear weapons, and it's up to Newt and Calista to figure out a way to repopulate the human race.

Yes, it's another chance to see Castle and Beckett hooking up onscreen, without them actually hooking up (oh, those smart "Castle" writers!), but if Castle's private eye guy is really the cream in Beckett's femme fatale character's coffee as she says, why is he kissing another woman?

Check out our fun first look at this stylishly cinematic episode.

"American Idol," that reliable ratings juggernaut, had a drop in viewership of more than 15 percent for its first two episodes back, underscoring how rough it is to attract and keep a devoted following when there are so many entertainment options.

Not so for the NFL.

Last month, its conference championship games were the most watched in 30 years, and it soars into Sunday's Super Bowl defying the ratings drag that plague much of TV.

"Every once in a while on TV, these events galvanize the nation, like `Who shot J.R.?'" said Kelly Kahl, the senior executive vice president for CBS Primetime. "These things come along once every five, 10 years. The Super Bowl is every year."

In 2006, NFL games on CBS, Fox and NBC averaged 16.3 million viewers. By 2011, that number had climbed to 19.8 million (down slightly from 20 million a year ago). Looking at the prime-time lineups on the Big 4 broadcast networks – the traditional home of mainstream entertainment – puts into perspective how unusual that surge is.

In 2006, their prime-time shows averaged 9.8 million viewers during the NFL regular season. Five years later, that had decreased to 8.1 million. The NFL's advantage had multiplied from 66 percent to 144 percent.

"It's gotten great momentum, and nothing has gotten in the way to stop that momentum," Kahl said.

A close score Sunday between the New England Patriots and New York Giants likely will break the record set by last year's Super Bowl for the largest audience in U.S. television history of 111 million people. That's not to be confused with the highest-rated show ever, measured by the percentage of all American homes with TVs tuned into a program. The "MASH" series finale, watched by more than 60 percent, still holds that distinction.

Population growth partly explains last year's big number, but massive interest in the game also does. At 46 percent, the 2011 game compared favorably to the Super Bowl record of 49.1 set in 1982 during the golden age of TV watching.

Network executives can rattle off all the reasons for the NFL's appeal: Scarcity of games, winner-take-all nature of the playoffs, fantasy football and gambling, the unpredictability of sports, the stunning visual of the NFL in HD.

The formula is not a secret, but replicating it is mystifying.

"The answer is elusive," said ESPN executive vice president John Wildhack. "If people knew, then others would emulate it."

It shouldn't come as a surprise that the TV property outside of sports most similar to the NFL is probably "Idol."

What those competition reality shows can't match is the singing contest equivalent of the "Madden" video games, said Brad Adgate, an analyst at Horizon Media.

"There might be some fantasy league for `American Idol' or `Dancing With the Stars,' but there's not anything as remotely near popular as for sports," he said.

College football is surging in popularity, too, and the two sports build off each other. The fame of college stars boosts interest in the draft, keeping the NFL in fans' consciousness during the offseason. Those players arrive in the pros already with a following.

Unlike other sports' championships, the Super Bowl has proved remarkably consistent at drawing big audiences even when small-market, tradition-poor franchises make it. Still, the NFL has been on a fortuitous run in recent years of close games and intriguing story lines.

The last four Super Bowls have featured a New York team (the Giants in 2008), an undefeated club (the Patriots that year), two appearances by the vaunted Steelers franchise, one by the vaunted Packers franchise (against Pittsburgh last year), and the feel-good tale of the Saints representing hurricane-ravaged New Orleans.

And after a brief stretch when it appeared a team didn't need a superstar quarterback to win (Brad Johnson, Trent Dilfer), the glamour has fully returned to the position. With Tom Brady and Eli Manning, this year's Super Bowl features a supermodel wife and the first family of QBs.

It's been a good year for TV sports ratings in general with the World Series and Stanley Cup finals going to a Game 7 and the NBA needing six games. But those sports always risk a sweep and the lower ratings that generally follow.

NBC's Bob Costas, who will host the network's Super Bowl coverage, is unabashedly a bigger fan of baseball than any other sport. He can rave about the appeal of the NFL's one-and-done model – but he would never want MLB to cut down to a three-game series.

"What's best for baseball television-wise works against it as far as the integrity of the competition," he said.

And so the NFL will remain a singular entertainment property bigger than just a sport or TV show.

Of this Sunday, Wildhack said, "It's an unofficial national holiday."

___

To ensure that you don't miss another performance by one of your favorite comedians -- or a chance to learn about someone new -- we'll be gathering all the clips of the week right here for HuffPost Comedy's "Late Night Stand-Up Rewind."

This week we feature Jake Johanssen celebrating 30 years of comedy, Jon Fisch in his network debut, Canadian comedian Mark Forward on Ferguson and a very dapper Tim & Eric on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Crain's Chicago Business reports that new Chicagoan and comedienne Rosie O'Donnell has, as of Jan. 16, shifted her taping into a new, more intimate and colorful set before an audience of about 70, compared to the several hundred capacity of the former studio of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" at Harpo Studios, where the show was previously taped.

Further, the show has eliminated its game show segment and begun taping more one-on-one conversations between O'Donnell and her guests, according to Crain's.

The layoffs, according to a show spokesperson, were due to the fact that the smaller studio requires fewer staff to support the operation.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, "The Rosie Show" also announced late last month that a new producer -- Shane Farley ("Rachael Ray," "Rosie O'Donnell Show") -- had come aboard as the show's new executive producer, replacing Page Hurwitz.

O'Donnell told the Hollywood Reporter she wanted a more "homey feel" to her set, because she was inspired by Bravo host Andy Cohen's "Watch What Happens Live" set when she was a guest there.

"I wanted to re-create that laid-back feeling, less about performing for a huge audience and more about having a one-on-one conversation," O'Donnell explained.

Time Out Chicago said the new set, described as "a colorful craft room with Rosie's abstract paintings hanging in the background," was "a step in the right direction."

Ratings for "The Rosie Show" dipped considerably from their premiere high of 321,000 viewers last October. According to Variety, the show as of last month averaged 204,000 viewers, which still marked an improvement for the perpetually ratings-challenged OWN.