Many fans believe that Heroes has jumped the shark ... or at least gotten off to a slow start in Season Two. Is the photo below somehow symbolic?

Not at all. But it did provide us with a terribly lame segue. We apologize. You can't deny that it's a cute Hayden Panettiere photo, however (as are most)!

We know that to Hayden Panettiere, saving the dolphins and bringing attention to their plight is a very important cause. But she's also a fan of sharks... at least large stuffed ones and new movies revolving around them!

Here, Hayden hangs out with a fierce looking fellow at the Los Angeles premiere of the award-winning documentary, Sharkwater, Thursday. We heart her!

The playful and pretty star of The Hills, Lauren Conrad, had herself some fun with a sock puppet at the P.S. Arts 10th Annual Express Yourself Gala at Santa Monica Airport's Barker hanger on Sunday. She was all smiles, that's for sure!

What was this LC sock puppet thinking, though? That's another story ...

That's right ... Lauren Conrad doesn't even have to open her mouth. Everyone - even puppets - knows that Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt are Hollywood's most hated. Just the same, what would we do without Heidi and Spencer to pick on?

Well, we would probably just go on and on about how we love Lauren Conrad and Whitney Port. But that was meant more as a rhetorical question really.

Put your video cameras away, guys.

Kim Kardashian is out of the sex tape game.

"My step-dad [Olympic medalist and Keeping Up with the Kardashians costar Bruce Jenner] wouldn't talk to me for three weeks," Kardashian told Playboy about the video she made with Ray J.

"The stress that I know it put on my mom and my step-dad, just the whole family. If my dad were here to witness all of that, I don't even know what I'd do. It's just not worth it, basically."

Hear that Jennifer Toof? Amy Fisher? Did you ever think of your family while you were getting railed on screen?

Saturday Night Live relentlessly chides Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), but this weekend, the show allowed Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), her principal competition for the Democratic presidential nomination, to join in the mockery.

The NBC comedy institution portrayed Mrs. Clinton as a bride at a Halloween party with Bill Clinton and the other Democratic candidates. All the candidates were lampooned except Barack Obama, much to the dismay of his rivals' campaigns.

It was reported earlier in the week that the show was scrambling to find someone to play Barack Obama - only to settle for a cameo by Barack Obama himself.

The Obama campaign said it was allowed to tweak the script, but the extent to which that happened was not clear. A spokesman for the show said Obama "had as much input as any guest or host would have, but it was written by us, not them."

The spokesman said that Barack Obama also declined to do a prepared sketch about the fact that he and Vice President Dick Cheney are cousins.

The show's host was Brian Williams, anchor of the NBC Nightly News, and there was discussion prior to the show about whether that would compromise his integrity.

But the post-show coverage has centered on Barack Obama, whose SNL appearance was a total surprise and drew enormous applause from the studio audience.

In the opening skit, Bill and Hillary Clinton, played by Darrell Hammond and Amy Poehler, were holding a Halloween party (and bickering constantly).

As Mr. Clinton, Hammond was dressed up as Mystery, from the VH1 reality TV show "The Pickup Artist." As Mrs. Clinton, Amy Poehler wore a white bridal gown, but other characters called it a witch's outfit.

"Nice to see you, Barack," Sen. Clinton said. "So, you dressed as yourself?"

"You know, Hillary, I have nothing to hide," Obama replied. "I enjoy being myself. I'm not going to change who I am just because it's Halloween."

She replied through clenched teeth, "That's, that's great."

With a smile, Obama told her, "And may I say, you make a lovely bride."

Whereupon Hammond, as Bill Clinton, quipped, "She's a witch."

Barack Obama then introduced the show, with the trademark "Live, from New York, it's Saturday Night!" He did not appear again.

If this story is true, Stella McCartney is our new hero.

According to Perez Hilton, Sir Paul's daughter has exacted revenge on her evil stepmother by reportedly designing a one-leg necklace.

Sorry. We're gonna need a few minutes to stop laughing.

The silver, single-limbed pendant dedicated to Heather Mills was unveiled to a select group of fashion industry players in Paris last month; it's set to launch in the spring or summer 2008.

"A lot of people thought it was really edgy, while others secretly thought it was out of order," a source told the Daily Mirror. "It's such an obvious dig. It will cause a stir when it goes on sale."

An hilarious stir!

The Hills is scripted and fake. This has been hinted at for months, and recently confirmed by MTV. But why should that stop Audrina Patridge from saying it's not!?

"Everything is real," Patridge told People at Les Deux last week. "[Lauren Conrad] and me are real friends. We live in our apartment. That's real, like, where we work, everything. The situations are real."

Except for, you know, the fact that The Hills stars seem to party at Les Deux every other night, which Audrina admits is thanks in part to the producers.

"I mean, the producers might be like, 'Okay, we want you to go to Les Deux tonight,' so we go. But then whatever happens, happens," Patridge said. "And they might do things to tweak it a little bit, but not our reactions... it's totally real. It's reality."

What's more, Patridge wouldn't have reunited with her current loser beau Justin "Bobby" Brescia if it wasn't for The Hills, sources close to the star say.

"When The Hills producers encouraged [Audrina Patridge] to start dating again for the show, she called Justin," said a pal in In Touch Weekly's October 29 issue. "But it's not about the show anymore." Also, Justin-Bobby sucks. Just saying.

Audrina Patride, Whitney Port & Lauren Conrad: Fake show, real hotties!

The romantic relationship between "engaged" The Hills couple Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, while nauseating, is apparently real, however.

Also legit? Spencer Pratt's feud with former best buddy Brody Jenner, who began to hang out once again with Lauren Conrad - Heidi's worst enemy.

"It's not a publicity stunt, it's very legit," Brody Jenner himself told In Touch about his falling out with Spencer. "But I wish him nothing but the best."

How nice. Lastly, reports say that there may be a major Heidi Montag and Lauren Conrad cat fight in the works... one boiling over on the season finale.

That doesn't sound fake at all.

Lauren Conrad admitted producers may "hype up" The Hills drama, however she echoed Patridge's comments that the cast members aren't "characters."

"At the end of the day, they can edit all they want, but you said and did everything that's on the show," Conrad told In Touch. "If you're a nice person, you're going to look like a nice person. If you're a mean person, you're gonna look mean."

Charlie Sheen recently told Extra he can't wait to have kids with fiancee Brooke Mueller. There's just some other, well, stuff, that has to be worked out first.

"We're just dealing with what's in front of us right now and getting through all this crap, getting back to our regularly scheduled life," Sheen said. "Then dealing with getting married and having our own family, which is exciting."

The crap Sheen is referring to, of course, centers around ex-wife Denise Richards.

To say divorce proceedings between these two aren't going well is akin to saying Jessica Biel naked pictures are only slightly attractive.

But Sheen is keeping a sense of humor about the ordeal.

"You know they say this type of stuff builds character and all that and what doesn't kill us makes us bitter, I mean stronger."

Dr. McDreamy and his cohorts may be checking out of Seattle Grace early this year, thanks to a Hollywood writers' strike that started early this morning.

The Writers Guild of America is expected to picket 14 studios in four-hour shifts from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day until a new contract is reached.

Writers are asking for bigger DVD profits and revenue from distribution of films and TV shows over the Internet, and the work stoppage may threaten production of Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Heroes and other smash hit shows.

"Grey's Anatomy is not prepared for the Writers' Guild of America strike," Patrick Dempsey told Entertainment Tonight in an interview Monday.

"We are not that far ahead. We have enough show to take us through Christmas, but then we'll have to see if that's the end of the season."

Patrick Dempsey said that while he isn't worried personally, the strike could adversely affect dozens of other cast and crew members.

"My concern is not so much for myself, because I'll be alright, but people who are living more paycheck to paycheck are going to be damaged much more profoundly," the man behind Dr. Derek Shepherd said. "And I think that's a real tragedy."

You know what else would be a real tragedy? If you failed to peruse The Hollywood Gossip gallery of Patrick Dempsey photos. The man is not unhandsome.

The beautiful Lauren Conrad recently gave us some insight as to her dating secrets as the cover girl of the newest Us Weekly. She also revealed some of the absolute lamest pickup lines of all time - ones actually used on her! Come on, guys.

In the same interview, the star of MTV's The Hills also dished about a few of her celebrity crushes - namely Mark Wahlberg and (please don't shoot the messenger, Zanessa fans) High School Musical hunk Zac Efron).

"I know he is younger than me, and it's just because I am the hugest dork, but I absolutely love Zac Efron," Lauren Conrad admitted. "His hair is always so pretty!"

Should Vanessa Hudgens be worried? We don't think so. Despite rumors to the contrary, Zanessa has been going strong ever since her nude photo scandal.

As for Lauren, she's still a single gal - and that's alright with her. She told Us Weekly that she and American Idol star Chris Richardson have always been just friends, as have she and Brody Jenner, despite their obvious romantic chemistry.

Conrad said she isn't jealous of Jason Wahler's fiancee, Katja Decker-Sadowski, but was worried that her ex may have gotten engaged too soon out of rehab.

Sabrina Bryan was rumored to be starring in High School Musical 3.

Now that Vanessa Hudgens has been signed to reprise her role in the movie instead - combined with the fact that Bryan was shockingly eliminated from Dancing with the Stars last week - you may be wondering why this Cheetah Girl is all smiles.

It's all due to Mark Ballas.

Sabrina Bryan and Mark Ballas are dating.

"He's so close to me," said Bryan. "I mean, I'm in a group now with the Cheetah Girls. And one of my biggest fears was stepping away from them and not having someone around me that I felt was my true family. The Cheetah Girls feels like family.

And the fact that Mark and I were able to get so close so quickly was so awesome. It made everything so comfortable. It made me able to trust him in ways that would've stopped or held back my performances had I not trusted him."

As you can see Sabrina could go on and on about Ballas.

But let's get to the juicy part: Are these two following in the footsteps of Mario Lopez and Karina Smirnoff, who began as Dancing with the Stars partners and are still going strong as a couple?

"We've been so focused on the competition," Bryan said. "But now that that has died down, we'll see where it goes. We haven't had a chance to do any of that [dating] or even talk about it. We didn't even realize that people would think that about us until they started asking us. Because you get so close to someone, you get so comfortable, that you don't even see it...

"I absolutely love and adore him."

And there you have it. We haven't been this excited about a couple since Olivia Mojica and the guy she made a sex tape with.