Judd Apatow is one of the few “behind-the-scenes” Hollywood people recently to cross in front of the camera, as evidenced by his recent appearance on The Tonight Show. Thanks to his successful films, 40-Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, he is in demand as a talk show guest, and he did have a good rapport with Jay Leno. Apatow came dressed in a respectful suit, which he also did on a recent visit to The Daily Show with John Stuart.  A nice touch for the movie business today, where some of stars have given new meaning to the term “dressing down.”  (Yes, Mr. Sandler, we mean you.) And being primarily a writer and not a performer, he wisely didn’t try too hard to be funny.  He was, however, funny… in a natural, intelligent way. He joked about being roommates with the aforementioned Adam Sandler in college and how, even though he was pretty sure he was better looking than Adam (he brought a photo of the two of them to prove it), he had to admit he couldn’t even get Sandler’s overflow of girls at parties.

There to promote his new film, co-written with Sandler, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, which he calls an Israeli James Bond, Apatow offered his theory on the Middle East conflict. “Many Jews and Arabs worked on the film and got along great. So, it’s possible to have peace if you’re paid to work on an Adam Sandler movie.”

Not screamingly funny, but certainly thoughtful and quick.  Being one of Hollywood’s newly minted moguls, Apatow has found his niche primarily behind the camera, but he has the presence to pull off an occasional sit down stint as a star guest as well.

On a recent David Letterman show, Adam Sandler reaffirmed his ability to create memorable characters – not the guy sitting in the chair opposite Dave, but the guy in the clip from his new movie “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan.” The guy in the chair was kinda schlumpy – dressed in faded, loose-fitting jeans and a t-shirt, nervous – shaking his foot a-mile-a-minute, and rehearsed – telling preplanned jokes, several of which were scribbled on his left palm as a reminder “in case I don’t know what I’m doin’ here tonight…gotta get it in there, you know.”

Sandler does have an every guy quality and his self-effacing humor is funny – he talked about his need to be careful because his two-year-old daughter is now repeating anything she hears…” I’m the biggest star in the world,” “The critics just don’t get me.” Funny, but even Sandler knew his “routine” was obvious saying “that was terrible, stupid” after one particularly bad one-liner.

Sandler rarely made eye contact when he was telling a story, although mercifully did look at Dave when he was asking him a question.  It’s an odd brand of nervousness from a star who is at the top of his game, but appears look at public appearances like this one as a chore rather than an opportunity to connect with his audience.  Even Dave commented that he hadn’t been on the show for over a year and by the end of the interview we all knew why.