Live From Beijing: Two weeks ago, when soliciting your help in casting Olympian Michael Phelps (thereby sparing him a terrible Hollywood future), we predicted of the athlete, "There's bound to be an awkward SNL-hosting stint yet to come." Today, TV Guide announced, "The Summer Olympics' outstandingly golden boy, swimmer Michael Phelps, will dive into not-ready-for-primetime television as the guest host of Saturday Night Live's 33rd season premiere." Were we simply prescient, or is Lorne Michaels now culling ideas from the digital pages of Defamer? If Phelps appears in a Saved By The Bell skit, perhaps we'll have our answer. [TV Guide]

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Legendary talent manager and producer Bernie Brillstein died Thursday after months of battling complications from heart disease; he was 77. Credited with influential (and lucrative) deals for clients including Jim Henson and the geniuses who brought you Hee Haw, Brillstein was perhaps best known for nurturing John Belushi's rising star before his own devastating death in 1982.

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As we've noted in the past, Stinky master of predicting the future of love sounds Justin Timberlake isn't quite on the level of Richard Pryor or Lenny Bruce when it comes to comedy routines. After failing to elicit laughs at the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year, and trying out the rarely-cute attempt to evade relationship questions on Leno, Timberlake is evidently still fixated on proving he's just bursting with comedic prowess. His latest stunt? Impersonating Jessica Simpson at the Timberlake-hosted ESPYs, airing this Sunday, by wearing a cheap blonde wig, standing in front of a cut-out of her daisy dukes, and making frightening facial expressions supposedly meant to resemble the time-traveling Tony Romo groupie. The good news? Despite these photos doing little to inspire even a smirk from us, we feel the need to point out Timberlake's impressively hilarious impersonations of the past on Saturday Night Live, both as a tweaked out awesomer-than-thou Ashton Kutcher, and a far better Jessica Simpson impression years before:

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We've had a thing for Bill Murray since the first time we saw clips of his pity-me-but-look-at-me skits on SNL right up until his sad lonely guy role in Lost In Translation, when his grey hair and inability to smile deflated our crush ever so slightly. But unlike actress Greta Scacchi, who blabbed to a London paper about the night he innocently asked for her number and was harshly rejected by her and the too-cool group of Eurotrashy friends she rolls with, we'd never resort to the level of cattiness the Italian quasi-star did today:

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It's difficult to properly convey to you the excitement level that hits you the second you walk through the revolving doors at 30 Rockefeller Centre before a live taping of Saturday Night Live. After all, it's one of the hardest tickets to get in show business. So, unlike a concert or athletic event where you can see the eyes of some attendees glazing over from boredom, everyone who is in attendance is someone who desperately wants to be there. As anyone who is in the building will attest, the energy in these moments is both palpable and kinetic. And that's just in the lobby of the ground floor of the building!

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If you're wondering why you're not seeing as much of popular SNL featured players like Jason Sudeikis, Bill Hader and Andy Samberg these days, there's one simple reason why: Kristen Wiig. Since she made her debut on the show back in late 2005, Wiig has quickly established herself as one of the most gifted and versatile performers to ever grace the stage at Studio 8H, not to mention one of the funniest. In this short time, she's quickly become Lorne Michaels' MVP of the show, often appearing in 4-5 sketches per episode. While it's debatable as to whether or not she'll ever reach breakout superstar status of SNL alums like Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy or Mike Myers, she is, for our money, the single most talented sketch comedian the show has seen since fellow Groundlings alum Will Ferrell retired. After the jump, we feature two sketches that she knocked out of the park this weekend. The first features a spot-on impression of Jamie Lee Curtis filming a commercial for Activia yogurt; the latter, a virtuoso turn as a haggard and worn down travel writer named Judy Grimes who, for the life of her, can't stop kidding around.

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As much as we'd like to believe that Chris Farley's time on earth was a shouting, dancing laugh fest until its too-soon end, his brother Tom's new book, The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts, shatters our (admittedly quite flimsy) illusions about his life. Excerpts from the book will run in May's Playboy — finally, you can say "I bought it for the articles!" and truly mean it — but Page Six has two distressing quotes this morning from his fellow Not Ready For Prime Time Players. Particularly sad — Farley BFF David Spade recalls a time when his pal's heckling went well beyond "fat guy in a little coat:"

"I got a lot of s - - - at the end about 'Why weren't you there for him?' But being that close, I dealt with it all the time. And in that situation, before the guy's dead, he's just kind of an a - -hole. Truth is, you get a junkie who's wasted all the time and moody and angry and trying to knock you around, you say, 'OK, you go do that, and I'll be over here.' "

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We have some troubling news to report: contrary to popular belief, Justin Timberlake is (spoiler alert) not funny. According to Radar Online, that masterful introductory speech JT recited at the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame on Monday night was more than just a fun series of anecdotes about Madonna's B12 shots and Britney putdowns. For those on the scene, it was a painful series of awkward silences and lame attempts at humor, made even more painful by Justin's Norton-like tries at improvising some jokes of his own:

"Timberlake's attempts at humor flopped, and breaking into a falsetto sing-songy funnyvoice after botching a scripted line didn't help...When he finished, the NSYNCsman was asked by one of the producers if he 'felt good about the speech.' 'Yeah. I mean, how is everyone else's [speech]?' Timberlake replied nervously."

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This weekend's episode of Saturday Night Live will not only be its first since the WGA Strike shut down production of the show back in November, but it also marks the debut of the show's newest cast member, Casey Wilson. If that name sounds familiar, that means you're probably a regular at LA's outpost of the Upright Citizen's Brigade. Wilson has been a regular on the comedy scene for some time now, writing and directing several UCB shows, including Rode Hard and Put Away Wet and Worst Laid Plans, as well as her work with Harold teams "Sentimental Lady" and "Hey, Uncle Gary!".

Despite the notoriously hectic SNL schedule, Wilson was gracious enough to steal five minutes from her show prep yesterday for a quick phone interview with Defamer's own Molly McAleer. The two briefly chatted about how Wilson came to join the The Not Ready For Primetime Players, as well as what we can expect from tomorrow night's Tina Fey hosted episode:

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