Cloris Leachman's improbable Dancing With the Stars run concluded Tuesday night on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where the irascible 82-year-old hoofer ultimately settled not long after being ousted from the show's final seven competitors. Ever the gracious host, Kimmel joined her on his stage, Indian-style, for an exit interview combining a heady blend of batshittery, pathos and defiance amounting to a defeated cry for help that not even nine Emmys, a Golden Globe and an Oscar waiting for Leachman at home could quell. Or maybe it's just her final, insolent means of saying, "Suck it, Lucci." Either way, Cloris remains first in our hearts and has a standing invitation to rearrange our furniture any time. Godspeed, girl. [ABC]

No, Bobby Trendy didn't swallow a hand grenade and detonate all over the walls of Anna Nicole Smith-legacy-upholder Larry Birkhead's living room. The stay-at-Anna's-home dad is packing up a Liberace museum's worth of gaudy pink mementos from Smith's Coldwater Canyon residence and moving elsewhere. He tells Life & Style why in a Life & Style is Covering Larry's Moving Expenses Exclusive!

Before we begin this tale, a word: our exposure to animated sex is mostly limited to Ralph Bakshi, Japanese anime, and a picture some guy showed us once that had Aladdin and Jasmine doing things that Aladdin and Jasmine should simply never be doing. It was with this thin resume, then, that Defamer ambled into UCB last night for what was supposed to be a Halloween edition of the the theater's "Comedy Death Ray" show but that unexpectedly provided a sneak peek at the first footage ever shown of Rob Zombie's upcoming, decidedly R-rated animated film, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto. Were you ever curious what a nude cartoon version of Rosario Dawson might look like, fighting? Then read on, pervs (and get ready for some NSFW animated action)!

Happy 75th, Variety! Defamer wishes the best of anniversaries to Daily Variety, which today celebrates 75 years in business — albeit a month late, as is customary with so many of its biggest stories, but in a festive, infectious spirit nonetheless. Not to mention surprising as well, according to the blurb featured on its Web site's front page; we knew Peter Bart had been tottering around the deck for a while now, but to think Bart himself may have once run the printer with one hand while memoing Gone With the Wind notes to Louis Mayer with the other... Well, kudos indeed. And don't stay up too late partying! [Variety]

Our breathless coverage of the backstage bitchfights befalling The View in these tense days leading up to the election have elicited what will surely go down as the Golden Age of View-Issued Denials. From Whoopi on Regis and GMA, to a very special "We All Love Each Other!" Hot Topic, to a show rep chuckling off our McCain T-shirt ban story, to Sherri Shepherd telling CNN the tales are as flat-out wrong as the Earth itself is flat, never before have the ladies doth protested so much. And yet, further reports of animus come. The Chicago Sun-Times ran a story yesterday claiming that things had "gotten so ugly, they only speak on air or when a camera is anywhere in their vicinity." Accurate? Yes, says a Defamer source who's managed to penetrate their inner kaffeeklatsch sanctum:

With less than a week to go before the presidential election, all of America is waiting, pondering the same pressing question: will the fate of Sarah Palin be wrapped up in a final, valedictory Tina Fey performance or will Kristen Wiig have to start practicing her "You betchas!" for the next four years? Until that day comes (and until 30 Rock has its TV premiere), Fey is milking her impression for all its worth, and last night, she talked to Conan O'Brien about what happened behind the scenes of her run-in with the actual Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live.It turns out that Palin, who had correctly researched that the child of her tormentor was named "Alice," asked after Fey's daughter, who had been sent home earlier that night. This disappointed the vice-presidential candidate, who claimed that she had readied pregnant Bristol ready to "baby-sit" Alice. The tale sounded fishy to Fey, and it raises our suspicions as well. Sounds like you dodged a bullet, Tina — the fruit of your loins almost got fired, Palin-style.

An angry Focus Features is doing a bit of air-clearing this morning, the day after it premiered its Oscar-chasing biopic Milk to an adoring hometown crowd in San Francisco and offered its first screenings to press in L.A. and New York. But it's a few people who haven't seen the film who are of particular interest to Focus president James Schamus, who all but firebombed Hollywood Reporter headquarters Tuesday in a letter to the editor denouncing its coverage of his film — a screed conveniently CC'd to the rest of the Internet as well.The contretemps started yesterday morning when THR reporter Steven Zeitchik — who mostly sounded ticked off he wasn't invited to the first press screening — wrote about "the Milk marketing conundrum," suggesting that Focus had "eschewed publicity" while pushing director Gus Van Sant and star Sean Penn's biopic about Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in the country, who was assassinated in 1978. The main point of comparison was Focus's Brokeback Mountain, which THR noted was a lightning rod for conservatives months before it was released in 2005. Citing no festival appearances, limited press exposure and, bafflingly, a Las Vegas test screening in which two senior citizens reportedly sought to leave during a love scene between Penn and co-star James Franco, THR's big picture showcased a movie that Focus depoliticized on purpose, lest the early backlash hinder its box-office and awards chances. "With all the politicking going on (not just the election but, here in California, with Proposition 8, a subject that mirrors eerily one of Harvey Milk's battles)," Zeitchik wrote in a blog follow-up, "the company was eager to avoid talk-radio defining the movie for it."

· Keanu Reeves took the stand today in his paparazzi-running-over trial, insisting that photographer Alison Silva "walked backwards, lost balance and tripped over his own feet" in front of the actor's oncoming car in March 2007. Reeves's compelling defense, according to courtroom observers: "Whoa." · NBC and reps for Britney Spears both deny rumors that the singer will appear on Saturday Night Live this fall to promote her new album Circus; naturally, expect one or both parties to announce a date some time in late November. · This sucks: Deep Throat director Gerard Damiano died over the weekend in Coral Gables, Fla., of complications following a stroke. He was 80. · Guess the critic: "“It’s really important to tell people to go out and see W. so they can talk about it and have an opinion about it and this freedom of speech of course that allows us to go and talk about a film about a current sitting president.” Hint: He has a thing for stars. · After a tepid denial last week, Terrence Howard's archenemy pimps at Marvel Studios confirmed that Don Cheadle will indeed inherit the role of Jim Rhodes in Iron Man 2.

Inspired perhaps by this Call to the Bullpen of a particularly bloodless-looking Diablo Cody, and an accidentally stumbled upon image of the astonishingly well-stacked Mad Men star Christina Hendricks looking like she's about to crack open Peggy's skull and help herself to a handful of copywriter brains, we thought we'd collect some other photos of comely, zombie-like actresses for your Halloween-season titillation. There's more undead goodness after the jump!

Excuse us, did you just hear a loud thunk? Did it sound something like a gauntlet being thrown down? Because it just got all tense up in here, and we think that's thanks to the only thing that could derail Al Franken's unlikely-yet-succeeding candidacy for the U.S. Senate: a stern, bobble-headed rebuke ad from his old Saturday Night Live coworker, Victoria Jackson! You may remember Jackson — less so for her SNL tenure than for her recent proclamations that Barack Obama is an "Anti-Christ whitey-hater." Now, she and other well-respected Hollywood Republicans like Stephen Baldwin and John Ratzenberger (what, was D.B. Sweeney's quote too high?) have taken to the airwaves in an attempt to boost Franken's competitor, Sen. Norm Coleman. For what it's worth, we think Jackson's screech of "Go VIKEEEEEENGS!" is indubitably her best work since Handi-Off. Enjoy the clip, after the jump:

Click to viewBoomp3.com At the 12th annual Hollywood Film Festival awards, popular culture impresario Diablo Cody decided to celebrate Halloween a few days earlier, doing her best zombie walk down the red carpet. Cody described herself as a fresh zombie, just a couple of hours old, but also felt she could go another way with her outfit. Cody said, “It’s a tad Stepfordy too. Like if Pris from Blade Runner was somebody’s wife.” [Photo Credit: Getty Images] *A Call To The Bullpen is a work of fiction. Although the pictures we use are most certainly real, Defamer does not purport that any of the incidents or quotations you see in this piece actually happened. Lighten up, people ... it's a joke.

The Future of Weiner. A rumor that Lionsgate is approaching various agencies in search of a Mad Men showrunner to replace a too-rich-for-their-blood Matthew Weiner was shot down by an insider, who told Defamer the negotiations had just begun, and that while he asked high, they were absolutely "not looking to replace him. He IS the show." Fret not, Mad Men fans still in mourning over the end of Season 2 and sweating the fate of Season 3: the studio is confident the deal will close before Christmas. (And without the celebrity dancing competition Jon Hamm promised in his SNL monologue.)

Civil war is stirring near Audrina Patridge's plush new Hollywood Dell redoubt, where the MTV crews following her every supple, dignified move has drawn outrage from neighbors insisting that the city regulate nearby shooting shooting on The Hills. And after hearing the residents' appeal, the Los Angeles film office has in fact interceded to bring you less Audrina from the comfort of her own home — marking a small victory for a tormented community under siege, and possibly marking the West Coast front in America's burgeoning Hills defensive.According to E!, the new permit lasts 30 days and allows for local filming only once per week, and never on weekends. An unnamed Patridge foe cites narrow streets and fire hazards worsened by MTV vehicles, but a member of the underground army known as the Hollywood Dell Civic Association issued a more pointed opposition today:

Time for another one of those costume ideas/seasonal mini-mysteries you love so much! Hmmm...What do we have here? A shortsleeved collarless shirt, some black slacks, a screenwriting manual, and an odd suggestion to embed some popcorn in one's hair. Whatever could those daffy scientists at Defamer's Halloween Sciences labs be up to now? Wonder no longer: the finished product is after the jump!

Two days until 30 Rock returns, one week until the election, and a matter of hours before we know Cloris Leachman's fate. We'll be watching, but we didn't want to jinx anything. WATCH It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown [8 PM, ABC] - Charlie Brown, Linus, Franklin and the rest of the crew celebrate All Hallow's Eve in the #1 entry in our Halloween Specials Countdown. Recapture your lost innocence while drinking Newcastle, passing a bowl, and thinking about cashing in your 401k.The Rock [9 PM, Starz] - This is the perfect sorbet between Charles M. Schulz's animated classic and Coolio's new joint. The Rock is one of Michael Bay's best and almost all of the best character moments are in the first hour (Anthony Clark as the flamboyant stylist who gives Connery an opportunity to create a massive chase on the streets of San Francisco, Todd Louiso as Nic Cage's scientist buddy). After that, it's just people explaining the plot and screaming/shooting at each other for 90 minutes.

Though Joaquin Phoenix was once famously saved from a car wreck by wacko auteur Werner Herzog, apparently there's one aspect to the actor still in dangerous need of resuscitation: his love of acting. While attending a Paul Newman charity benefit last night, Phoenix told Extra that he's done, finished, finito with doing films, and he's got one shaky reason why:

Hollywood PrivacyWatch 2 for 1! 10/25 — A friend and I were at eating at Ammo on Highland around 1 p.m. In the private room in the back was none other than JOANNA KERNS, a/k/a Mrs. Seaver — the original MILF. She still looks hot! She was with a motley crew of people. Everyone was pleasant. And outside on the patio was KIRSTEN DUNST. Also looking good, though not as hot as Mrs. Seaver. [Hollywood PrivacyWatch is written by and for Defamer readers; send your sightings to tips@defamer.com.]

With Gus Van Sant's Milk set to world premiere tonight at San Francisco's famous Castro Theater—an event that has the locals so excited, the biopic is practically bubbling up and dribbling down their nostrils—we thought we'd take a moment to introduce you to its breakout star. No, not him—you know him already. And not him, or him, or him, or even him. We speak, of course, of screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, whose name you might have noticed standing approximately 30-feet tall at the last moments of the Milk trailer.Variety announced today that the extremely photogenic and openly gay recovering Mormon would be writing Van Sant's next feature—an adaptation of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Pack it up, Diablo. There's a new It Scribe in town. We now run down for you Everything You Always Wanted to Know About DLB but Weren't Yet Aware of His Existence Enough To Ask: I. HE LOOKS GREAT WITH HIS SHIRT OFF

This year's Oscars Best Picture race is still fluid enough to account for the presence of two films that would normally seem like longshots: the Pixar masterpiece Wall-E and the box office blockbuster The Dark Knight. One is the tale of a lonely hero who talks in a funny voice, and the other is Wall-E, but both films have one thing in common: they're huge, mainstream blockbusters, which Oscar voters don't typically reward. However, the New York Times reports that the studio behind each film is readying a big Academy Awards push, and they've got their eyes set on Best Picture. Which has the better shot, and should we expect either film to wrangle a nomination for Oscar's biggest prize?First, let's take Wall-E. The indomitable Pixar robot has collected some of the most glowing reviews of the year and many of those critics then called it the best American film of 2008 — in fact, Wall Street Journal scribe Joe Morgenstern was already talking Wall-E up for Best Picture in July. Still, the film has several things working against it: it opened early enough in the year to have been forgotten, it made a ton of money but not as much as much as, say, Cars (thereby falling into an Oscar trap where the movie is too successful, but not so successful that it can't be ignored), and it's animated. "Younger-skewing" films like Beauty and the Beast and Babe have been nominated before, but almost offhandedly, and not in a while. Then, there's the Bat. The Dark Knight has one big thing going for it: Heath Ledger's performance is a mortal lock for a Supporting Actor slot, which may help grease the wheels for the film to grab a Best Pic nom. Also, its box office total, second only to Oscar favorite Titanic, is so massive that The Dark Knight has remained the biggest story in the industry all year. Yes, it's still just a comic book movie (and one that had a minor Bat-lash), but what isn't in Hollywood these days? Thus, in the race for Best Picture, we're going to give the edge to The Dark Knight. With previous contenders like Frost/Nixon and Changeling losing steam among the chattering class, The Dark Knight's chances are certainly improved, and it has the best precedent: The Fugitive, a well-reviewed action blockbuster that rode a buzzworthy supporting performance to Oscar glory. We're going to hold out hope in our hearts for Wall-E, but we fear it'll take something stronger than a laser blast from EVE to bust this robot out of the Best Animated Film ghetto.

The murders of Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew last weekend may be almost incomprehensibly tragic to you, us and most anyone with a functioning conscience, but we can't all sit around and just grieve over a trio of senseless deaths. There are products to sell and memories to exploit, as with this uniquely evil (and authentic) press release currently making the rounds — perhaps the single worst piece of PR ever to slither over the transom at Defamer HQ: COULD A BEDSIDE SHOTGUN RACK HAVE SAVED JENNIFER HUDSON’S FAMILY FROM TRAGIC DEATH?