Before the Salahis crashed White House, this crasher made Oscar history -- and naked too

The hubbub about Tareq and Michaele Salahi, who crashed the first state dinner hosted by President Obama, got us thinking about other unauthorized appearances at notable events.

Perhaps the most famous party crasher is Scott Weiss, who successfully found his way into the Grammys and — in his most audacious moment — the Oscars. His antics were described in detail earlier this year in a highly readable and entertaining Column One by our colleague Chris Lee.

And speaking of the Oscars, who can forget the time a man crashed the live television broadcast while the inimitable David Niven was preparing to give out an award? Unlike the Salahis, the uninvited man was easy to detect, mostly because he wasn’t wearing clothes.

The video below shows not only the streaker (with naughty bits chastely blurred) but that the suave Niven didn’t need a script to deliver, with perfect timing, the perfect punch line. The Niven snippet comes about two minutes into the video (it's worth the wait). You also get to see some very funny Oscar moments from Whoopie Goldberg, Doris Day and others.

-- Steve Padilla

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Lou Dobbs was against alien amnesty before he was for it

In the surest sign yet that the newly former CNN talker seriously plans to enter politics, Lou Dobbs has already flip-flopped on the question of amnesty for people illegally living in this country.

Having created much of his fame and infamy out of controversial statements on the unacceptable presence of an estimated 12 million undocumented workers in this country and the federal government's ineptitude in addressing the problem, here's what Dobbs now says:

We need the ability to legalize illegal immigrants under certain conditions.

His surprising switcheroo barely two weeks after departing his network of nearly 30 years came during an interview with the Spanish-language network Telemundo, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, Dobbs, a Texas native and graduate of Harvard, lives on a 300-acre farm in northwest New Jersey, where he could run for a U.S. Senate seat. 

Or possibly launch a presidential bid for 2012, trying to tap into the kinds of conservative populist anger that has confounded the Republican party and fueled so-called "tea parties" across the country this year, protesting taxes, spending and deficits.

"Whatever you have thought of me in the past," Dobbs told Telemundo's Maria Celeste the other day, "I can tell you right now that I am one of your greatest friends and I mean for us to work together. I hope that will begin with Maria and me and Telemundo and other media organizations and others in this national debate that we should turn into a solution rather than a continuing debate and factional contest."

The Garden State usually votes firmly Democratic. But earlier this month voters there rejected the reelection  Democrat Gov. Jon Corzine -- who had ample money and the frequent campaign support of President Obama -- and elected a Republican on a "taxes-are-too-high" platform.

The next U.S. Senate election in New Jersey comes in 2012, when incumbent Democrat Robert Menendez is up for reelection for the first time.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Screen shot of Lou Dobbs on CNN. Credit: Tony Pierce / Los Angeles Times

Who Obama invited to his first White House state dinner instead of you

It took nearly 11 months, but tonight finally the not-so-new Obama administration had its first state dinner at the White House.

Well, actually it was outside the White House on the lawn in a tent.

A very exciting time. You can see in the official guest list below that the president invited some Chicago friends, a lot of celebrities, as we reported earlier today, some Congress people (even a couple of Republicans), a bunch of Guptas, a whole lot of people called Honorable and Katie Couric.

In case you might want to steal some of the lines for your own Thanksgiving toasts Thursday, here are the official words spoken by the two countries' leaders and the crowd of official diners, both as provided by the White House.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Toasts by President Obama and Prime Minister Singh

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good evening, everyone. On behalf of Michelle and myself, welcome to the White House. Aapka Swagat Hai. (You are all welcome in Hindi) (Applause.)

Many of you were here when I was honored to become the first president to help celebrate Diwali -- the Festival of Lights.  (Applause.)  Some of you were here for the first White House celebration of the birth of the founder of Sikhism -- Guru Nanak. (Applause.)  Tonight, we gather again, for the first state dinner of my presidency -- with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Mrs. Gursharan Kaur, as we celebrate the great and growing partnership between the United States and India.

As we all know, in India some of life's most treasured moments are often celebrated under the cover of a beautiful tent. It's a little like tonight.  We have incredible food and music and are surrounded by great friends.  For it's been said that "the most beautiful things in the universe are the starry heavens above us and the feeling of duty within us." 

Mr. Prime Minister, today we worked to fulfill our duty -- bring our countries ...

Sarah Palin apologizes for leaving 100 books unsigned in Indiana

Based on the above video (found here), the scene in Noblesville, Ind., at the end of Sarah Palin's appearance looked more like a protest than a book signing.

Outside the Borders bookstore in Noblesville (wouldn't it be great if it was a Barnes & Noble in Noblesville?), dejected Sarah Palin fans shouted, "Sign our books! Sign our books!" as her personalized bus sputtered and prepared to drive away.

Some booed as they held fresh copies of "Going Rogue" without a wet signature from Palin. However, they were plenty wet from the rain they had been waiting in.

The estimated 100 or so disappointed fans were reportedly given signed pieces of paper, while some demanded refunds. But click here and take a look at the photo of how many fans there were during the signing.

Palin quickly addressed the disgruntled crowd in a Facebook post titled "Not enough hours in the day."

"We are working on a solution for those who were left behind," she wrote. A revisit?

-- Mark Milian

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Oprah quits and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley is displeased (only he'd put it a little differently)

According to Chicago Mayor Richard "Have a Nice Day" Daley, you can just blame (credit) that dad-gummed media again for chasing that Windy City institution Oprah off of television after compiling a personal federal reserve of only about $2.3 billion.

Oprah has announced she'll close down her daily syndicated chatfest in 2011 (see her tearful announcement video below). But she likely won't be gone long. O, gee, whatever will she call her own channel?

The diva of daytime TV, who's seen the ratings slip some since her prominent presidential campaign involvement, says she's retiring because it's time to leave and it's cold in Chicago and it's warm at her palace in Montecito, California. Also, she's got her man in the White House now.

Chicago's Democrat mayor hasn't been in a real good mood since his president failed to acquire the 2016 Summer Olympics for his adopted hometown.

According to Da Mayor, the real issue over the global star's departure is the stink the media churned up over the city closing down North Michigan Avenue for two days in September to accommodate Oprah's season-opening show taping.

The Chicago Sun-Times quotes the longtime mayor son of a longtime mayor as putting it this way:

She loves this city, and I will be talking to her, but again, that became a big rhubarb of the Chicago press: Beat up Oprah. And so, you keep kicking people, and people will leave. Simple as that.

Speaking in his usual straight face, and strangely in the past tense, Daley....

... also said: "I think she was the most successful woman that we will ever know in the history of this country." That should warm up the temperature for her -- and the rest of the planet.

According to sympathetic city officials always eager for the municipal publicity, the 48-hour closure of that main drag cost only $54,832, which Oprah's company repaid. So what's the big deal? asks the head of the Democrat machine that allowed Barack Obama to emerge on the South Side as long as he didn't make too many waves.

That price to the city, however, doesn't count the cost of increased blood pressures in thousands of notoriously genial Chicago drivers forced to divert to crowded State or Wabash Streets. No reimbursements there.

The mayor's theory may be right, although that would not account for why he and his late father stuck around town for so very many years despite their share of media bashings, scandals, trials and the like. If you have an opinion to share with the mayor, his door is always rarely open. But Daley's office phone is: 312-744-4045.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: George Burns / Harpo via Associated Press; Chicago Tribune (Mayor Daley on a good day).

Obama now pleading for money to fight Sarah Palin

Never shy about $eeking money, Democratic President Obama's Organizing for America is now using the threat of Republican Sarah Palin as an opportunity to acquire more.

It has just sent an e-mail out to its millions of supporters today pleading for urgent donations to fight the mother of five, now on her heavily-publicized, cross-country book promotion bus tour. She holds no political office currently; in fact, she's among America's unemployed, though doing quite well financially.

Perhaps you've heard a little something about Palin in recent days.

The former governor of Alaska has written a book called "Going Rogue" that details her experiences in last year's presidential campaign, her values and thoughts on various issues.

Some San Francisco bookstores are declining to sell the book. And no one really cares about her or the book, obviously (see photo above), because she only sold 300,000 copies the first day.

Some people (bipartisan) think (fear) she may become a candidate for the 2012 presidential election.

Since the Republican Party that chose her as its first female presidential ticket member last year has such a glaring national leadership vacuum these days, she's getting tons of publicity in her symbiotic hate-hate relationship with the media, which doesn't mind attracting crowds with her name either (see headline above).

Although the Democratic National Committee dismisses Palin as an ignorant non-factor, it's invested way more time and effort this week attacking Palin than selling Obama, who was on another overseas publicity trip of his own.

Attempting to use Palin as a lucrative opportunity, too, today's e-mail plaintively asks: "Please chip in $5 to help."

The committee says its goal is a half-mill in one week, chump change for the one-time senator's $750-million presidential campaign.

Today's electronic missive calls Palin "dangerous," blames (credits) her for the term "death panels," and says it needs the money to combat her lies (claims), which will be magnified in coming weeks by well-known complicit conservatives in the media.

The donation plea also warns ominously that "the rest of our opponents will likely parrot those attacks."

It says the money will be used for event organizing, advertising and funding calls to Congress in support of Obama's beleaguered healthcare legislation to counter "right-wing attack groups."

Naturally, Palin is also playing off of Palin's publicity. If you give $100 to her SARAHPac here by midday next Wednesday, she'll give you a free signed copy of "Going Rogue."

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Indianapolis Star via Associated Press (Long lines of Palin book-buyers stretch around the entire mall parking lot in Noblesville, Ind.); Getty Images.

Sarah Palin was not on Oprah's Tuesday show after all

So there we were in our slippers, sweatshirt and jeans, wide awake all perky-like, notebook at the ready, prepared to take down most every revealing word that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was going to tell Oprah on her TV show Tuesday.

There had been so very much hype about the Republican pitbull from Alaska finally confronting the most famous backer of Democrat Barack Obama on national television for a thoughtful, woman-to-woman discussion of her new book, what it meant for the future of American politics and what it was really like as a female wearing lipstick inside the doomed McCain presidential campaign run by a bunch of chain-smoking white guys.

First of all, we noticed Oprah's guest had ditched those famous modish eyeglasses. Her hair was blonde this year. But these things can change often with women and professional wrestlers.

Oprah's guest clearly rejected the idea of wearing a confining pantsuit in public. Her short skirt went right up there around Nebraska. The hair hung down to the Dakotas. And Oprah's questioning seemed a little off-target too for a political interview.

The two women got along well, though. Then, they hit on some puzzlingly explicit topics that you don't normally hear much of in interviews of unindicted politicians.

The guest had written a book a while back called "How to Make Love Like a Porn Star," which wasn't exactly the title we had expected based on the advance publicity for the former Republican VP candidate.

The guest said women are actually her biggest fans and come up to her all the time, saying things like, "Thank you so much. You taught me how to give my husband _______.  And he really loves it."

Well, as you may have guessed by now, it turns out that Oprah's guest Tuesday wasn't Sarah Palin after all. Sarah Palin was on Monday, as the week's warmup guest for some actress named Jenna Jameson, whom, quite frankly, Hon, we had never heard of, being as totally focused on politics as we are all day every day.

Apparently Jameson has made more than 100 movies of one kind or another, mostly another. And most of them with her ex-husband which, she said, was somehow safer and allowed the love to show through.

So it sounds like she made those romantic chick flicks.

But, between us, Jameson can't have been too successful financially because the actress could only afford to buy a dress with one shoulder for the show.

The two women had a long conversation and went on about the sex industry for some reason. Oprah posted more details on the show on her website here.

Of course, we had to watch the whole thing just in case Palin popped out from behind the curtain or something. You never know, you know. And politics bloggers can't ever miss any interesting human detail. Alas, Palin never appeared on Tuesday.

So we had to just sit there, wasting an entire hour, watching this tall, blonde Jameson person cross and recross her long legs and flip that mass of hair. (If it's so annoying, why not put a rubber band or something on it?)

Anyway, the whole thing got kinda old and boring, as any wife must imagine, and we forgot to take notes.

Maybe Oprah will have Palin back on some other day. We'll keep you posted.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Related items:

Sarah Palin reveals a secret about husband Todd

What to watch for as Sarah Palin returns to the trail

The Sarah Palin election day speech(es) we never heard

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Photo: Harpo Productions

Oprah's Sarah Palin interview incites 'perky' reactions

Sarah Palin's rogue book tour made a pre-taped stop in Chicago today for the former Alaska governor's much-hyped appearance on "Oprah."

Palin dropped some doggone fascinating tidbits during the interview. She said she has no plans to run for president in 2012. Well, actually she said it's "not on my radar," which is Politician for "It might be over the horizon."

That might ease the worries of conspiracy theorists convinced that the adorable political celebrity could ring in the 2012 apocalypse. On second thought, no, it won't convince the "anti-" crowd of anything.

Oprah Winfrey, who supported her hometown senator, Barack Obama, in the election, questioned Palin about her unintentionally hilarious interviews with Katie Couric. Palin refused to refer to Couric by name, instead calling her "the perky one." Gosh!

Don't worry, plenty more to come after the book's official release tomorrow. There's a five-part Barbara Walters chat on ABC and a long radio conversation with Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern.

As entertaining as the Oprah chat was, we also like to watch the comments from fans and haters. Did Oprah go too easy on Palin? Some said, You betcha. But others admitted that Palin is starting to grow on them.

We grabbed some of the best we found on Twitter. Here they are (unedited):

Video clips of Sarah Palin with Oprah

As you may have heard mentioned somewhere, Sarah Palin has a book coming out next week, called "Going Rogue: An American Life."

HarperCollins says it has printed 1.5 million copies, which is a lot of books to sell, even at Amazon.com's deeply discounted $9 price. So the successful Alaska governor and unsuccessful Republican vice presidential candidate starts her promotional tour with a coolly polite interrogation by one of the president's biggest boosters, another big O -- Oprah. 

Here, courtesy of CBS, are two video clips from the interview, which was taped Wednesday in Chicago and will be aired nationally Monday. First, Palin's thoughts on the PR disaster of her campaign interviews with a CBS News anchor.

Also below is a list of our recent items on this subject.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

And then, of course, the obligatory question about the father of her grandchild who's selling his nude pictures to a magazine since the electrician apprentice thing didn't work out.

Talk about going rogue!

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Related items:

Oprah talks about what Sarah Palin talks about

What's actually in Sarah Palin's book

Palin's roguish book tour schedule details

The secret Sarah Palin speeches we never heard

Sarah Palin breaks with GOP to endorse Conservative

-- Andrew Malcolm

Be your own independent roguish person. Click here to get Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or follow us @latimestot. And we're also over here on Facebook.

Oprah talks about what Sarah Palin talks about

As we pointed out here last week when the manager of Barack Obama's never-ending presidential campaign agreed to go on the dreaded Fox News Channel to sell his book, book tours have a way of making superficial friends out of past opponents.

Thus, we will be treated Nov. 16 to the sight of Oprah Winfrey, arguably Obama's biggest celebrity booster, chatting up Sarah Palin, arguably America's most argued- over celebrity politician in recent years.

The subject, of course, is Palin's new book -- "Going Rogue: An American Life" -- which goes on sale the next day, with 1.5 million copies in print so far.

Palin took Piper and Willow with her to Chicago for the interview, which was taped at Oprah's studio Wednesday.

As The Ticket reported Wednesday night, Palin wrote on her Facebook page that the unlikely pair had such a great conversation that they ran overtime.

Which, goldarnit, means that Oprah will have extra exclusive minutes of video she'll simply have to post on Oprah.com for folks to click on. One thing exiting audience members said was that when asked if she wanted her own TV show, Palin did not say no.

And then, of course, Barbara Walters gets second crack at Palin, which will be broken into five parts on various ABC platforms midweek. What's-her-name and what's-his-name over at CBS don't seem to be on the Palin schedule just yet.

Right after Palin left the studio, Oprah (who looks shorter without makeup) made a short video here to....

...describe the O-P encounter and what all they talked about: inside the campaign, The Pregnancy, both babies and, well, pretty much everything.

Related items:

What's actually in Sarah Palin's book

Palin's roguish book tour schedule details

The secret Sarah Palin speeches we never heard

Sarah Palin breaks with GOP to endorse Conservative Party candidate

-- Andrew Malcolm

Be your own independent roguish person. Click here to get Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or follow us @latimestot. And we're also over here on Facebook.

Photo: Joe Burbank / campaign pool.