Hello, everybody. There's so much to get to; let's get on with the show!

First up...on Friday, Tiger Woods faced the press and the world for the first time in months since his infamous car accident/infidelity affairs in a 15-minute news conference. For support, only his mother was right by Tiger's side; no sign of wife Elin and their children.

During the press conference at PGA headquarters in Florida, Woods said, "Every one of you have good reason to be critical of me. I want to say to each of you...I am deeply sorry for my irresponsible and selfish behavior." As for his accounts with those mistresses, he also admitted, "I was unfaithful, I had affairs, I cheated. I am the only person to blame."

He later went on, saying: "I know people want to know how I could have done these things to my wife Elin and to my children...I have let you down, and I have let down my fans. For many of you, my behavior has been a personal disappointment. I have made you question who I am and how I could do the things that I did...For all that I have done, I am so sorry. I have a lot to atone for."

Tiger did claim that his ego went way over his head. "I stopped living by the core values that I was taught to believe in. I lost track of what I was taught...I thought I deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me, I thought I was entitled...I was wrong, I was foolish. I don't get to play by different rules."

What about getting back to action? "I do plan to return to golf one day; I just don't know when that day will be...When I do return, I need to make my behavior be more respectful of the game." In the end, he asked for forgiveness: "I ask you to find room in your heart to one day believe in me again."

After the conference, Tiger returned to rehab in Mississippi, where he spent for the last 45 days.

Of course, this was broadcast around the world, and it's a sure thing Tiger didn't pull a Jimmy Swaggart by keeping his tears to himself. He will get back to the sport he loves alright, but it just won't be the same.

Boy...is the United States kicking ass at the 21st Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver or what? In the first week, we have been on quite a tear thanks to gold-medal performances by Shaun White (snowboarding), Lindsey Vonn (alpine skiing), Apolo Ohno and Shani Davis (men's speed skating; Ohno is now on track for the most Winter Olympics medals ever while Davis became the first African-American to claim back-to-back golds in the 1,000-meter), and Evan Lysacek holding off Russia's Evgeni Plushenko by a hair in men's figure skating! On Saturday, Davis and Vonn added two more medals with silver in the 1,500-meter and bronze in Super-G respectively.

As of Saturday, we are way ahead in the medal rankings with 22 including six golds, followed by Germany with 14 (they led the count very briefly) and Norway with 11. As for the host country Canada? They're slowly but surely catching up with eight.

NBC has also earned gold themselves, as the Olympics have also clobbered "American Idol" in the ratings.

We're now heading to week two of these games, as ladies' figure skating and of course hockey will take center stage. 30 years after the fabled "Miracle on Ice" and that famous call by Al Michaels, could the U.S. men's and women's hockey teams go all the way to pull off a miracle of their own in the land where hockey is born and immortalized? We shall find out.

And last but not least...Film director Kevin Smith of "Clerks" fame is declaring war against Southwest Airlines after his weight ejected him off one of their flights.

Now we have heard their woes before. Remember when Hooters waitress Kyla Ebbert was kicked off a Southwest flight a few years back for being deemed "too sexy to fly" because she dressed "inappropriately" and "too provocative"? Well, it didn't take long for her to fight back by ditching those revealing clothes for "Playboy."

By the way, Smith would board a later Southwest flight which had two seats for him; he was also given a $100 travel voucher as make-up. But whether you are too fat or sexy to fly them, the "ding" won't mean you are free to move about the country; it means you are free to move about the airport looking for another flight from another airline. So long and stay strong.

Hello, everybody.

Well...what can I say? The New Orleans Saints came from behind to wallop the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 in Super Bowl XLIV on Sunday with its quarterback Drew Brees as MVP. What did it for them? A fourth quarter interception by Tracy Porter for a 74-yard touchdown.

And if you were among the 106.5 million Americans who tuned in for all this, congratulations; you have made television history forever! With that record number, it was not only the most-watched Super Bowl ever...but after 27 years, has also dethroned the series finale of "M*A*S*H" to become the most-watched television broadcast of all-time!!! The game easily scored a 56.3 rating in New Orleans with snow-covered Washington, D.C. not far behind with a 56. In Indianapolis, it came in fourth with a 54.4.

On Monday, the team arrived home in New Orleans with the Vince Lombardi Trophy still in their possession, and a victory parade is scheduled for Tuesday. After suffering through five years of hell on earth following Hurricane Katrina, you can say that both New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast are indeed back in force, and the Saints' Super Bowl victory was indeed the final chapter.

Now of course, the game was indeed entertaining from beginning to end (The Who at halftime didn't entertain me)...and so were the commercials of course! There were so many of them to choose from, but here are...

My top ten favorite commercials from Super Bowl XLIV

10. Megan Fox for Motorola (Lemme see that picture...please?!)

9. The Boost Mobile Shuffle (Too bad they couldn't get Walter Payton because he shuffled on to heaven a decade ago)

8. Focus on the Family with Tim Tebow and his mother (this was the one that drew some controversy prior to the game)

7. Bridgestone "Whale of a Tale" (imagine if it was Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head driving with Richard Simmons in the back seat)

6. TIE: The E*Trade babies/Go Daddy (okay, I'm getting sick and tired of them, especially with Danica Patrick teasing us every year! Replace her with someone more worthy, like Stacy Keibler or whoever!)

5. Budweiser Bridge (perhaps my personal favorite because think of the pain they suffered from making that human bridge!)

4. Budweiser "Clydesdale Fence" (yes, a Bud Clydesdale ad is not #1 on this year's list, but you couldn't help be touched by the latest masterpiece)

3. Bud Light House (I thought the "Magic Fridge" one was better, but this one takes the cake...except that the fridge has no room for cake!)

2. The "Late Show" promo featuring David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey, and Jay Leno together (nobody saw this coming, and this was the one that had everybody talking. More on that later)

And my #1 favorite ad from Super Bowl XLIV which was also tops on "USA Today's" Ad Meter:


Snickers with Betty White and Abe Vigoda
(Proving that even at the ripe old age of 88, Betty can still kick your ass!)

Of course, there were some others I also liked but didn't make the top ten, including Bud Light's "Asteroid" (which turned out to become a pebble upon impact), Monster.com with the fiddling beaver (I prefer the Career Builder ad from last year with the spectacled koala), and Coca-Cola featuring "The Simpsons" (and you thought Mr. Burns doesn't have a heart).

Now back to Leno/Letterman/Oprah: That promo was shot last Tuesday, and things were kept under lock-and-key without no one knowing. Leno (who arrived at the Ed Sullivan Theater in disguise after getting permission from NBC brass) and Oprah were in secret green rooms while Dave taped his show, and the late night titans' greetings according to "Late Show" executive producer Rob Burnett were "very friendly, very professionally, very cordial."

Of course Leno has Monday and Tuesday night left at 10:00 and then it's a two-week break for the Winter Olympics (and based on the temperatures in Vancouver, it'll become more like the Spring Olympics) before he returns to the air on March 1 back at 11:30. So long, stay strong, and Believe Dat!

Who's going to Hollywood's big dance?

Hello, everybody. Earlier this morning, and as you saw on my Twitter, nominations for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards were announced, and leading the way are "Avatar" and "The Hurt Locker"; both with nine nominations including Director (ex-couple James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow) and Best Picture of 2009. Those two films are among the ten up for that prize, including "The Blind Side", "District 9", "An Education", "Inglourious Basterds", "Precious", "A Serious Man", "Up", and "Up In The Air."

Golden Globe and SAG winner Jeff Bridges ("Crazy Heart") has plenty of company on the Best Actor side, with George Clooney ("Up In The Air"), Colin Firth ("A Single Man"), Morgan Freeman ("Invictus"), and Jeremy Renner ("The Hurt Locker"). And if Sandra Bullock wants to add Best Actress to go along with her Globes and SAG trophies she got so far for "The Blind Side", she'll have to get past past winners Helen Mirren ("The Last Station") and Meryl Streep (her 16th nomination, this time for "Julie & Julia"), Carey Mulligan ("An Education"), and Gabby Sidibe ("Precious").

On her Twitter, Supporting Actress nominee Anna Kendrick had this to say about being given the wake-up call of her life: "I'd love to say that 140 characters couldn't cover how I'm feeling; right now but I'm honestly speechless." Meanwhile, Pixar is happy that "Up" has two chances to make Oscar history by winning both Best Picture and Animated Feature on the same night; their "The Princess and the Frog" is also up for the latter.

James Cameron was king of the world when his "Titanic" dominated in 1998; will he be king again in 2010 with "Avatar?" We'll find out on March 7, when the 82nd Annual Academy Awards will be handed out with Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin handling the festivities. So long and stay strong.

Hello, everybody. It was ladies' night Sunday at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, as Beyonce earned a record-setting six awards -- the most for any female -- including Song of the Year for "Single Ladies" and Best female Pop Vocal Performance for "Halo" while Taylor Swift picked up four including Album of the Year honors for "Fearless". Meanwhile, Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody" received Record of the Year while the Zac Brown Brand was named Best New Artist.

The night's other winners include Green Day (Rock Album, "21st Century Breakdown"), Jay-Z and Rihanna ("Run This Town"), and Stephen Colbert (Comedy Album, "A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!"), who brought out the latest gadget which I'll get to in a bit.

There were great performances left and right, but one poignant moment belonged to Michael Jackson's children Prince and Paris as they paid tribute to their departed father; that followed the 3-D musical tribute of "Earth Song" by Smokey Robinson, Carrie Underwood (also a winner herself), Jennifer Hudson, Usher, and Celine Dion.

Of course, the fashions were all in 2-D; the best-dressed went to Rihanna (Elie Saab), Swift (Kaufman Franco), Fergie (looking busty and leggy in Emilio Pucci), Pink (Tony Ward), and Katy Perry (Zac Posen). Of course Lady Gaga was guaranteed worst-dressed, but I thought Ciara also looked great...in 1-D!

Now that Grammy fever is over for another year, first thing tomorrow morning it'll be Oscar fever as the nominations for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards will be out. I'll have the main categories on my Twitter page with the complete rundown on this blog.

As I hinted earlier, Stephen Colbert opened the show reading the nominees for the first award on the newest product Apple introduced last week but won't be out till the spring: the iPad. In other words, it's a supersized version of the iPod Touch though it will have the same capabilities except taking calls.

The wi-fi version will come out first in late March with the 3G version to follow in April, and the starting price: $500. I think this will sell very well unlike their last tablet computer, the Newton MessagePad, in the '90s; there were scenes of it in action in "Under Siege 2."

The question now is: How will Apple promote the iPad? There are rumors about a commercial to air during Super Bowl XLIV, but Apple isn't saying anything. Just like their groundbreaking Macintosh ad in 1984, they prefer to keep things hush-hush until kickoff when the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints clash for the Vince Lombardi Trophy with Carrie Underwood belting the national anthem and halftime belonging to The Who. And of course, growing up in a certain part of the country, you know who I'm rooting for (Saints).

And last but not least...Miss Virginia, Caressa Cameron, was crowned Miss America 2010 on Saturday. But...did anyone watch? Or for that matter, did anyone really care?

Miss America has always been the Super Bowl of beauty pageants for over eight decades, but let's face it, folks: Ratings for televised pageants are not what they used to be 10, 20, 30, or even 40 years ago.

Once upon a time, the Miss America, Miss USA, Miss Teen USA, and Miss Universe pageants were definitely the original must-see TV for men, because there was so much eye candy on one stage in one night. And the viewership was definitely eye-popping: upwards to 20 million viewers.

But then came cable in the 1970's, offering us soft-core fare in the late night hours; home video would later follow in the '80s.

The pageants still scored modest numbers well into the '90s...until the Internet came along, providing us unlimited access to much more eye candy with just a click of the mouse! That's when the suffering really began, followed by "Maxim" and other men's magazines to help contribute to the ratings slide.

Over the last decade or so, Miss America went from its longtime home on NBC back to ABC for a few more years until moving to two places not known for airing beauty pageants: CMT and now TLC. And to rub salt in the wound even further, Atlantic City would be traded for Las Vegas as the pageant's new home base.

(UPDATE: It was announced in May that after six years of being on cable, the Miss America pageant is returning to ABC in 2011; there's also a possibility that they may move it back home to Atlantic City where it belongs!)

In the mid-'90s, Donald Trump acquired the Miss Universe franchise; in 2003, they all moved from CBS to NBC after 40-plus years. I remember living in the Mississippi coast around the time they had the 1990 Miss Teen USA pageant; with 51 of the most beautiful teenage girls descending on our area, it was like as if we played host to the world's largest beach party! By the way, that year's crown went to Bridgette Wilson, who would later marry tennis superstar Pete Sampras.

To sum things up: Are televised beauty pageants dead after over 50 years? Not really, but they are on life support. It's just that the world is full of very sexy people...only that there is no one distinguishable as Bert Parks to serenade them after being crowned. So long and stay strong.