Ryan Phillippe’s appearance on Jay Leno left something to be desired…and not on Phillippe’s part.

He did his best to roll with Leno’s endless jokes about the fact that Phillippe’s first job was as the first openly gay teenager on a daytime soap opera, (One Life to Live). After Jay asked him to look into the camera and give us his “gayest look,” (for which Leno has since apologized after mounting pressure from the gay and lesbian communities) Phillippe not only declined, but jokingly threatened to walk off the show, even going to far as to stand up, take a few steps and say goodbye to the crowd. When the unrelenting Leno implied he had plenty more fodder with which to embarrass Phillippe, including a naked Armani jeans commercial he’d done many years ago, Phillippe threatened, more seriously this time, to walk. Then, when Jay informed him he had the commercial ready to show, Phillippe literally put his head in his hands, saying “I’m outta here.”

While Phillippe was entertaining in an uncomfortable way, his nervous habits of rarely making eye contact with the host and constantly rubbing his hands on his jeans were distracting and made for a less-than-ideal interview, even when Jay kept baiting him.

Luckily, he was able to talk quite a lot about his new film “Stop-Loss” and how it is really told from the soldier’s point of view. He admitted that during the Gulf war period, he and a buddy went to enlist. The buddy did, and he just took the free T-shirt and went to New York to pursue acting.

He did discuss his kids, his distaste for Googling because anonymous people can say hateful things, and his love of all things Frank Sinatra (whom Jay opened for years ago). Toward the end of the interview, Leno, one more time, brought up the gay teenage thing and Phillippe basically ignored him saying “Anyway…” They laughed, but like a dentist appointment, we’re guessing Phillippe was glad this interview was over.

Sometimes talk show appearances are bad on-camera lab experiments.  All the elements are in place, but the chemistry fails.  The charming and unaffected Kate Bosworth popped in on Letterman to plug her new flick 21, but somehow the vast bulk of her segment centered around another movie altogether.  (A publicist’s worst nightmare.)  She and Dave swapped gags about skydiving, followed by a clip of her first parachute venture, while in New Zealand, where she just shot The Laundry Warrior by a Korean director.  She then wandered through a story about wandering through NZ with her boyfriend.  The movie she was on the show to promote barely got a mention before she vanished into the commercial break.

How much of this lay on Kate’s shoulder is hard to tell.  She showed up lovely and lively, looking trimly gorgeous (fortunately still above her alarming waif weight of 2006.)  She made all the right moves, having fun with both Dave and Paul Shaffer and relating to both like old pals.  Yet the whole act felt stage managed, undercutting her natural appeal.  Even Dave seemed working from a shoehorned script, as though Kate’s handlers and the show’s producers had concluded the Las Vegas-based movie 21 couldn’t carry the segment.  She wove a brief story about being stranded in Vegas for six weeks, while co-star Kevin Spacey had fun across the state.  Surely after working with Spacey in three movies, there were more stories connected to the movie she was there to support.  But perhaps none she could tell.

It was far from terrible, yet less than anticipated.  We had terrific professionals out front, which is why The Guest Whisperer suspects the fumbles came from backstage.