Dressed eerily similarly to Leno, Jimmy Kimmel had to take a ribbing before he even sat down, “is that the Jay Leno young men’s collection?” referring to his wardrobe.  Not to be tarried with, Kimmel launched into his own diatribe, smartly including the audience.  He said to Leno, “may we speak privately for a moment? (with a knowing glance to the crowd) You guys are cool, right?” He proceeded to express his concern for the rumor that, upon his eviction from NBC, Leno would be coming to ABC, where, in case Leno didn’t know, he has a late night talk show of his own.  Kimmel continued on his sarcastic rant for quite some time telling Jay how bad ABC was to work for and how his car kept getting keyed, as he knew all things automotive are near and dear to Leno’s heart, and finally ending the misery definitively with “so don’t come there!”

While I’m not really sure what he was there to promote, he talked about his parents, who were in the audience (perhaps that’s why he was there, his parents wanted to see the Jay Leno show!) He then jumped back on his soap box commenting about Jay having sent his Mom flowers saying, “It’s not enough to take my show, you have to take my mother from me too?”  Even when they returned from the break, Kimmel lead with his calculation of Leno’s worth ($703 billion dollars, by his most recent count) and saying he doesn’t need another job.  It was funny, but bordering on real… too real… and uncomfortably desperate.  A fine line that Kimmel continued to walk.  They went on to chat about Kimmel’s Emmy, which he said was really won by his ex-girlfriend, Sarah Silverman and his cousin, and then ended the interview showing a clip from his own show.

Again, I really am not sure why he was there, but it was an entertaining appearance.  Certainly two people who know better than most about comic timing, pace and humor; they played well off each other, Jay teasing Jimmy like the Jedi Master joshing the Young Padawan.  It will be interesting to see what the future holds for these intergalactic stars.

David Duchovny is a low-key, guy’s guy, charming from the word go. Dressed in jeans, shirt out and jacket, he even pulled his pants up before sitting down, just like a real guy.  It’s that brand of relate-ability that made him a winning guest during a recent visit with Jimmy Kimmel.  And as we are often say, relate-ability equals like-ability.

He started out his visit by saying he almost went through the wrong door backstage and wondered where he would have ended up.  When Kimmel suggested the Ellen Show, Duchovny quickly replied that he might, then, have been “a little less flirty.”  Duchovny felt right at home with Kimmel and readily offered up that one of his summer activities, in addition to finishing up the second season of his Showtime series Californication, was pimping “The X-Files – I Want to Believe.”

As the “pimping” part of the interview came around, Duchovny said that getting back into the role of Fox Mulder after six years only happened when he started working with Gillian Anderson again.  “[She] keyed me into the whole vibe.”  Kimmel then asked if he stripped everyone down as he seems to do on Californication on the X files set, and Duchovny said no, it was Vancouver, it was too cold for that.

The final bit of banter centered on the difficulty of keeping the X Files script secret for so long. Duchovny explained that basically he WAS irresponsible and that director Chris Carter was right to not trust him with the written script, as he confessed to losing the first draft.

As an anecdote master and with a casual, approachable attitude, Duchovny knows how to be a good talk show guest.  He remained himself, got his numerous plugs in and showed how a pro can use the art of the appearance to stay popular in the public eye.

It is so refreshing when a guest just gets it.  Such is the case with Julie Bowen when she visited with Jimmy Kimmel. Not only was she funny, clever and quick with witty repartee, but she knew Kimmel’s audience all too well, as evidenced by the subject matter of the entire first half of the interview — her pregnancy enlarged boobs!  Bowen and Kimmel kept referring to them as if they were a separate guest. Bowen described their bigger-than-ever-size as a result of breast feeding and assured her host that “they are going away.” “Let me say goodbye to them,” Kimmel replied. Bowen added “This is it for the twins.” She played it beautifully.

When they shifted to talking about her new film, Sex and Death, 101, she said she chose the film because she got to make out with Simon Baker, which then led to a pithy exchange about the Sinatra clause — the designation of one person your mate will give you an “out” to sleep with. The subsequent banter was delightful.

The nice, refreshing thing about Bowen is her sparkle. She never tries too hard to shine. It just comes naturally, which in turn made Kimmel shine, as well — always a good trait for a guest on a talk show.

Tori Spelling’s publicity roadshow for her autobiography “sTori Telling” pulled in to the Jimmy Kimmel Live garage Thursday night to try and drum up some attention for a story that we think we’ve already read for free in the tabloids over the years. Looking very pregnant — and prompting Jimmy to ask if she was “again or still” (pregnant) — as most of us aren’t exactly keeping track of the Spelling birth cycles. Tori did talk about getting the non chocolate type of kiss from the family cook as a teenager and her Mother’s inquiring (and hoping) that there wasn’t any “penetration” involved. And she did rehash the 90210-Shannen Doherty cast mutiny that resulted in Doherty’s firing from the show, although she said they still remained friends. But what came to be truly annoying was the numerous questions that Kimmel asked that Tori claimed not to know the answers to, before she would take a beat and tell us “you’ll have to read the book.”

I understand that Ms. Spelling does want to sell hardcovers, but her borderline arrogance doesn’t serve her well when you are trying to endear an audience. I’m sure if she chose to answer the questions there would still be enough juice for those who were interested to go to Amazon and get the read. Even a good fisherman knows you have to throw some fresh chum in the water if you want to catch the big one.

From time to time it’s a good idea to give a little constructive criticism to a newbie on the talk circuit. Such is the case with Steven Strait, whose fourth film “10,000 b.c.” is, as of the writing of this review, the number one box office release — a fact that will quickly change. Having bought their opening weekend with an effective barrage of print and television ads, week two begins to fall on the shoulders of a little known, but likable Steven Strait, who along with a CGIed sabretooth tiger, has the most memorable image in the film.

Steven is obviously new to the game and could do little more than nod and just respond to Kimmel’s attempts to bring out the personality of the young star. You have to give Jimmy points for trying, as he came up with an amusing bit that revealed a registered, but obviously not received, wedding gift of a $3,000 chess set from Barney’s. The problem was that even in this tightly produced segment, Steven appeared to have no stories of his own to tell and just sitting back, looking good, and letting Kimmel be funny, just isn’t going to cut it. We learned the bare minimum about the guy and his family and in the end it was all just so forgettable, except of course as still another excuse to show the same clip with his toothy co-star that we have now seen a hundred times in the commercial. Steven may be a star of tomorrow, but today he needs to kick it up a notch.