Comedy Central Gig For David Spade

David Spade once did the "Hollywood Minute" on the TV comedy show "Saturday Night Live." Now he figures there's enough material for a half-hour of fun each week.

"The Showbiz Show" aims to do for entertainment news shows what Jon Stewart does for the nightly news. Comedy Central said Monday the show probably will debut in September.

Think about the past few weeks alone: Tom Cruise and his whirlwind romance, Russell Crowe and the hotel phone. The joke possibilities are endless, Spade said.

What once seemed like Hollywood-insider information is now everywhere, he said.

"Even my mom is like, `Cinderella Man' took a bit of a dip the second week,"' he said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Huh? How did you hear that? `Does Angelina Jolie really drink blood? Call me back."'

Spade's program will feature a mix similar to "The Daily Show," with "correspondents," on-location pieces, parodies using film clips and celebrity guests. He created the show with writing partner Hugh Fink.

"There's so much that's funny in all these magazines and shows that there needs to be a different point of view," he said. "I'm not saying it has to be mean, mean jokes aren't always the funniest. I think it's just making fun and taking a new angle, and kind of doing what people are thinking for real."

Spade, who's primarily worked in sitcoms ("Just Shoot Me!" and "8 Simple Rules ... ") for several years, said he was eager for the opportunity to do more topical comedy.

After Crowe's arrest for throwing a fit and a phone at a hotel concierge in New York, comedy show writers are certainly happy to know there are a few jerks out there, he said.

"The things I do in my trailer when I'm mad I don't want people to know about," he said.

And Cruise seems to be the gift that keeps on giving for the entertainment shows and people who make fun of them from his enthusiastic "Oprah" appearance to his engagement to Katie Holmes.

"I think people out here are saying `We're OK with happiness. We're uncomfortable with possible fake happiness, like if we'd been punked,"' he said.

He did, however, feel sympathy for Cruise when a prankster, interviewing the "War of the Worlds" star in London, squirted the actor with a water pistol disguised as a microphone.

"If I was Tom I would have cracked the kid across the head," he said. "I wish he had a phone with him not a cell phone but a Russell Crowe hotel phone."

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