Jodie and the snake, err, Jay

So, what the hell is up with Jay Leno lately? While I’ve barely tolerated him as the Tonight Show host all these years, it seems recently The Chin has been particularly insufferable. Last night Jodie Foster was his guest and he made her, I am not kidding, touch his snake. Fine, he meant that literally and not as a euphemism. I think. Seems he “researched” her before her appearance and found out she has ophidiophobia or -- put simply -- is scared shitless by snakes. So what does he do? He bring a bag out from under his desk, unties it and pulls out -- yes -- a snake. WTF? What is this, face-your-fears day on Maury Povich? Even if he told her about it beforehand (which I doubt he did given her genuinely freaked reaction), that is not cool. Jodie, of course, handled it with aplomb not to mention great humor: “It’s like a cowboy boot.” Snicker.

Now I bring up Jay and his “research” because the last time he “researched” a guest it was Ryan Phillippe last month. He discovered the actor played the first gay teenager on daytime TV (on the soap “One Life to Live”). This tidbit was endlessly amusing to Jay who went on to demand that Ryan pretend the camera was his gay lover and give it his “gayest look.” Ryan refused, bless his heart. Anyway, the fine folks at Shakesville helped start the site My Gayest Look, a collection of one-fingered (sometimes two, for emphasis) salutes to show Leno exactly what a “gayest look” looks like. Yeah, it’s pretty awesome. When you get a chance behold the bird-flipping wonder of it all.

Anyway, back to Jodie. She looked Tony-the-Tigeresque grrrreat! While promoting “Nim’s Island,” she talked about beating her sons at Guitar Hero. Her rock star face was particularly priceless.

See her full Tonight Show interview here: Part I and Part II. God, I love that woman’s voice.

UPDATE: Lord, I had a lot of typos in this one. Geez, you’d think I was drunk when I wrote it (to which I totally pleading the Fifth). But what I really wanted to update was that Jay has issued a brief apology for being such an utter asshat about the “gayest look.” Read it here. Whatever, dude is still a tool.