Selena Gomez is taking an uncomfortable plunge -- but it's all in the name of her new fragrance, titled Selena Gomez.

Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich had some eyebrow-raising appearance requests before he began his 2012 presidential run, including two bathrooms and a $50,000 fee.

The former House Speaker's appearance contract required the coverage of "first class expenses," according to The Smoking Gun. Gingrich insisted on flying first class and having a "non-smoking one-bedroom suite" for overnight stays.

The New York Times reports that Gingrich "has spent less time at traditional campaign events and more time on television than almost any of his rivals."

In other news, Gingrich is receiving more criticism as he surges in the polls ahead of next month's Iowa Caucus. The AP reports:

Opponents are mining his lengthy Washington career -- he was an elected official and then a sought-after consultant -- for ammunition as they try woo an electorate that views experience in Washington as unsavory.

Such criticism comes as a Washington Post/ABC News poll shows Gingrich with 33 percent support in Iowa, with Paul and Romney at 18 percent. It's similar to other polls in Iowa and elsewhere that show Gingrich with a lead.

Given the gulf, rivals are turning to the long paper trail of Gingrich's quotes and votes from his two decades in the House as well as his lucrative consultant business after leaving office in 1999. There also are the circumstances surrounding the ethics investigation he faced, an issue that has not yet been examined anew but certainly will in the coming weeks.

Ali Lohan is spotted looking shockingly thin on her way to a modeling casting in Beverly Hills.

She's a prominent American liberal, playing one history's most prominent British conservatives. It may sound unlikely, but when Meryl Streep is involved, anything is possible.

Streep plays -- or, more accurately, just is -- former Great Britain Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the upcoming film, "The Iron Lady." A wide-ranging biopic of the Isles' most polarizing leader in the last forty years, the film sees Streep summon all of her talents into bringing to life the political and personal turbulence that has made Thatcher, who was PM from 1978-1990, a subject of intense interest even to this day.

From domestic strife to controversial war, and the sacrifices they asked of her home life, it's all included in the film that the two time Oscar-winner hopes will deliver her a third gold Academy trophy.

The holidays are right around the corner, and for many the shopping has just begun.

In order to ease the holiday shopping woes, we've compiled a guide of guides to help you find the right gifts for everyone on your list this holiday season. No matter where you are or who you need to buy for, there's a guide to help you pick the best gifts.

We've even spelled things out a bit, to help you through the maze of gift-giving this time of year creates.

Once you've followed your path through the chart, click on the guide the suits you to get the low-down on all of this year's best holiday gifts.

INTERACT:

Nate Berkus' show has been canceled.

Broadcasting & Cable's Paige Albiniak tweeted the announcement on Friday. The show, which is a joint venture between Sony and Oprah's production company Harpo, is currently in its second season. It was announced that the show will finish out the current season but will not return for a third.

Berkus, who was a regular on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," started his show in 2010. B&C wrote that the show "never got off the ground, ratings-wise," which lead to "constant speculation about its future."

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In a world with nearly 7 billion people, chances are someone famous is celebrating their birthday today.

And indeed: Judi Dench, Kara DioGuardi, and more will all be blowing out candles today. Will it be your favorite TV personality? Maybe an important figure from history?

Help us celebrate the birth of some of the world's coolest people by taking a scroll through some of the most noteworthy birthdays of December 9th-- enjoy!

Click here for yesterday's famous birthdays!

CHICAGO — A labor dispute at a Chicago manufacturing company could mean there are no new Oscar trophies at next year's Academy Awards. But the academy says it has enough trophies for the show to go on.

Workers and management at R.S. Owens & Company are fighting over a proposed wage freeze and benefit cuts. Chicago television station WMAQ reported that union leaders say they want to avoid a work stoppage.

R.S. Owens makes the 13 1/2-inch golden statuettes handed out at the Oscars. It also produces awards for the Emmys and MTV Music Awards.

A spokeswoman for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences told The Associated Press that the academy has a "closet full of Oscars" ready to go.

The Oscar show is scheduled for Feb. 26.

On Tuesday night, environmental supporters from around the world gathered at San Francisco's LEED certified Bently Reserve for the seventh annual Gorgeous and Green Gala hosted by Global Green.

Rocker Michelle Branch, a champion for environmental causes, lent her musical talents to the evening, performing songs both old and new.

"I'm singing for my supper," she joked. Branch, who has performed at the gala in previous years, told the crowd that raising her young daughter has caused her to take action to protect the environment.

Branch played for a crowd that included Gavin and Jennifer Newsom, CSI Miami's Omar Miller, Global Green co-chairs Zem Joaquin and Nadine Weil and Global Green President Matt Peterson. After Branch's performance, guests sat down for a dinner by local celebrity chefs Michael Mina, Joseph Humphrey and Bill Corbett, before a runway eco-fashion show.

Check out pictures from the Gorgeous and Green Gala, courtesy of Drew Altizer Photography, in our slideshow below:

It's always bikini weather when you’re Courtney Stodden!

Despite (somewhat) chilly temps in LA over the past week, the 17-year-old bride turned reality star was seen sporting a tiny red two-piece as she headed to a video shoot on Friday morning.

By Margaret Bristol for Bookish:

In 2007, Diablo Cody won over adults and teens alike with her Academy Award-winning screenplay for "Juno" -- bringing terms like "food baby" and "honest to blog" into the mainstream lexicon. Her new film "Young Adult" -- starring Charlize Theron as a YA author who can't seem to let go of her past -- opens in some cities this weekend and nationwide on December 16. Cody is no stranger to the world of young adults -- she's just adapted "Sweet Valley High" for the big screen. Bookish talked to her about youth culture, the mall generation and why grown women are flocking to the YA section at their local bookstore.

Bookish: Were you a big fan of young adult books as a kid? Is that where you found inspiration for "Young Adult," which is about a woman who can't seem to mature past adolescence?
DC: The movie itself is not so much about books but there are some parallels to young adult fiction. I grew up readings those books and loving them.

Bookish: I've noticed that there's this huge trend of grown women reading young adult books regularly. Youth culture has permeated into the mainstream. What do you think that says about grown women today and how we feel about our youth?
DC: I think it's something that's happening to men, too. I think it was a trend story with men first because it always is. Eventually, people started paying attention and they realized that women are experiencing some pop culture arrested development as well. And I don't know why that is. I think part of it is access. I think we have access to the stuff that we enjoyed in our youth now in a way that maybe prior generations didn't because we can just go online and find it.

Bookish: One of the interesting theories I've heard is that women are carrying over the insecurities from high school into their adult life.
DC: That's definitely a theme in the movie.

Bookish: Whether you're trying to be cool in high school or trying to be the cool mom on the playground, some things don't change.
DC: I don't think coolness used to be such a commodity among adults. And now it is.
When I was growing up, the moms on the playground had pants pulled up to their boobs and curlers in their hair. And now, when I take my son to the playground, there is this weird clique mentality; you still have to be hot. And you still have to be "with it." I think everybody's in this state of sustained adolescence.

Bookish: Do you think those feelings of insecurity from adolescence ever really go away?
DC: No, it doesn't. I wrote a screenplay for a "Sweet Valley High" adaptation, and it's really amazing to me how many women who are my age have responded to the idea and are excited about the movie.

Bookish: How did you get involved with rebooting "Sweet Valley?"
DC: I had declared in several interviews that "Sweet Valley High" was my dream project. I had never adapted a prior work before. That turned out to be a really positive thing because then when the opportunity arose, when the property became available, I was able to just kind of throw myself in there and be like, "Oh, look, I've got dibs." So when I had the opportunity to meet with Francine and kind of convince her that [I was right for the project], it was an amazing day for me. I met her at the Beverly Hills Hotel and I thought, 'I can't believe I'm sitting at this pink hotel. This is like my childhood fantasy.'

Bookish: Those books were such a portrait of the times and the mall generation. So much has changed.
DC: What's considered cool has really changed, too. Like I don't know if somebody like Jessica would be really popular or beloved these days because to borrow a phrase from the '80s, I think it's more "hip to be square." I think Enid would be the most popular girl in school now. Everybody wants to be quirky.

Bookish: In getting ready for "Sweet Valley" and researching YA writers for "Young Adult," did you read a bunch of modern teen fiction?
DC: I read the Hunger Games [series]. Those are fantastic. I also, just for the sake of cultural literacy, have read the Twilight series.

Bookish: You've written a memoir ["Candy Girl"]. What is more satisfying: Finishing your book or finishing a screenplay?
DC: I do think writing a book is more difficult. It's so much more difficult. I always say when you write a book, you're a "one-man band." Whereas, when you finish a screenplay, it's just a sketch. A director comes in and creates a story out of that. I've come to find more satisfaction and enjoyment in writing screenplays over the years because that's what I do primarily now. But I definitely felt a bone-deep sense of satisfaction when I finished "Candy Girl," despite the fact that it is a frilly book: It's not "The Corrections." But there's just something about writing a book; it's so dense, it's so personal and it's so difficult.

Read more at Bookish, a place for book discovery, coming soon--and join @BookishHQ on Twitter for #YAWednesday, a weekly hashtag holiday celebrating teen books and the people of all ages who love them.

Yeah Yeah Yeah's front woman Karen O (born Karen Orzolek) has officially married director Barnaby Clay, according to Us Weekly.

The "Maps" singer told Us Wednesday, "I'm a married woman!"

Clay directed the Yeah Yeah Yeah's 2009 video, "Zero."

Karen O previously dated filmmaker Spike Jonze; the pair produced the soundtrack for the film adaption of "Where The Wild Things Are" together after they split.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have released three albums, "Fever to Tell" in 2003, "Show Your Bones" in 2006, and "It's Blitz!" in 2009.

Kirstie Alley loses 100 pounds on 'Dancing With the Stars,' but is she gaining it all back?

This week marked the release of singer-songwriter Robin Thicke's fifth studio album, titled "Love After War." In promotion of the project, Thicke stopped by New York City radio station Power 105.1's morning show, "The Breakfast Club," where he spoke candidly about the key to longevity for any marriage: "lots of great sex, high heels and lingerie."

"That's just how you make up," he admitted. "Cause everyone is going to fight and argue and break dishes and TVs. But somebody's got to put on some lingerie once in a while."

In terms on how he manages to remain monogamous while having admirers on hand, the R&B crooner revealed that there's still a lot of aggressive women out there, "but most of them just want to have threesomes."

Though Thicke did not confirm or deny if he and his wife, Paula Patton, have ever participated in any such sexual activities, he did add how much chemistry he still has with the actress.

"I'm not the same person that I was five years ago, and neither is she. She's a beast," he explained. "So you got to be able to change with each other. Luckily we've been able to adapt." Check out Robin Thicke's interview in its entirety below.

WATCH:

In a battle of "hot or not," a young Mitt Romney would beat out his Republican rivals, according to The Atlantic Wire.

After collecting photos of all the Republican presidential hopefuls in their younger days, writers for The Atlantic Wire turned to HotOrNot.com to see who would win in a battle of looks. Young photos of each candidate were registered using unique email addresses, posted with comments like "this is my fav yearbook pic lol" and non-Washington hometowns.

Romney came in first place with 313 votes and a "hotness" score of 8.7. Rick Perry came in second with 8.4, and Jon Huntsman rounded out the top three with a 7.8. (The rest of the results can be found here.)

Presidential candidates' looks play a big role in elections and are often scrutinized.

Barack Obama was even criticized for his well-worn, baggy "mom jeans." That comment led Obama to call himself "frumpy."

Romney has received criticism from one GOP rival in recent days for looking not hot, but desperate. The AP reports:

Newt Gingrich's campaign hit back at GOP rival Mitt Romney, saying attacks by the former Massachusetts governor's campaign seem desperate.

"It looks like a panic attack," Iowa state Rep. Linda Upmeyer, a Gingrich campaign surrogate, said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press.

Gingrich's campaign was holding a conference call later Friday to respond to attacks from Romney's campaign and his allies. On Thursday, Romney surrogates assailed the former House speaker as irrational and unfit to lead, and Romney allies started airing a TV attack ad against Gingrich in Iowa. It's part of a $3.1 million campaign by Romney supporters.

"That's as much as the Superbowl," Upmeyer told the AP. She said Gingrich offers positive solutions and a positive message and that the negative ads won't resonate with caucus goers in early-voting Iowa.

In the biggest red trial since Joseph McCarthy scared the nation, "The Muppets" director James Bobin insists that the titular iconic puppet gang are not communists.

"It's a very strange turn of events to hear a question like that," Bobin told The Hollywood Reporter, responding to charges from Fox Business Network host Eric Bolling that the new Muppets film sent an anti-capitalist message. "Cable news is 24 hours long so you have to fill it up with something. No, the Muppets are not communist. And the character of Tex Richman is not an allegory for capitalism in any way. The character is called Tex Richman."

Richman, the Chris Cooper-portrayed villain in the film, is an oil baron who is intent on buying the Muppet Theater and then destroying it.

"It's a joke. Clearly he is a classic, old school bad guy. He's bad not because he works for an oil company but because he's evil," Bobin said. "No, it's not a communist movie in any way."

Earlier this week, Bolling challenged the Muppets to a debate on economic issues.

For more, click over to The Hollywood Reporter.

Michelle Duggar, the mother of America's biggest family -- or at least its most well-known one, thanks to reality television -- was six months into her 21st pregnancy (after suffering the loss of one baby previously) when she announced earlier this week that she had miscarried. Duggar also announced that she plans to both name the baby and hold a funeral service.

As stars of the TLC series "19 Kids and Counting," Duggar and her husband, Jim Bob, have faced plenty of criticism for their approach to family planning -- or lack thereof. The announcement of this latest pregnancy was met with indignation by some, especially in light of the fact that the world had just welcomed baby number seven billion. A blogger for Babble even wrote a letter of resignation -- from the perspective of Duggar's uterus.

The pregnancy's end no doubt raises some uncomfortable but important questions: is there a correlation between the number of pregnancies a woman has and her likelihood of miscarrying? And what is the appropriate process for grieving a child who hasn't been born?

"The number of children is not the issue," said Dr. George Macones, an OB-GYN at Washington University in St. Louis, who explained that a woman's risk of miscarrying is increased by preexisting medical conditions, such as diabetes, and factors such as a weak cervix. After giving birth to 19 babies, Macones said, the latter is probably not why Duggar miscarried because the issue would have surfaced much earlier.

"There aren't lots of people who've had 20 babies out there, so we don't have lot of good data on it," he said. "But the risk is really related to how healthy somebody is. As [women] get older, there are more medical problems." In addition to the role the mother's health plays, the likelihood for chromosomal problems with the baby increases as the she gets older.

The risk of miscarrying in the first trimester is 15 percent, according to Macones, but in the second, it drops to just one or two percent. Conceptually, at least, it would seem that the farther along you are in a pregnancy physically, the more difficult it would be to cope with the loss emotionally. But studies don't support that assertion.

"Women themselves will say, 'How can a loss at 20-plus weeks be the same as a loss at six weeks?'" said Emma Robertson Blackmore, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center who has studied moods during pregnancy, post-partum depression and the effects of miscarrying. "But research says the level of symptoms and impairment is the same.”

Though Duggar was six months along, the move on her part to name the child and hold a funeral service is both common and even beneficial, according to Robertson Blackmore.

"Some women just can't bear the thought of doing either. The shock is so much that they're almost in denial, whereas others feel it's very important to recognize the baby. A name literally names it. They can really let the grief process take its normal course," she said.

People frequently don't know what to say to a mother after she has miscarried, and well-meaning words of condolence are often hurtful. They include telling a mom that she'll have healthy babies in the future, or if she already has children, to remind her how lucky she is to have them.

David Kessler, co-author of On Grief & Giving has an entire list on his website of what not to say when someone goes through a loss. He suspects that, in light of how many children Duggar already has, sympathy for her situation may come in misguided forms.

"The reality is we do judge each other's grief," says Kessler. "And it's unfortunate, but she probably will get some judgment."

With their newest inductee in Lindsay Lohan, Playboy has secured some of Hollywood's hottest to grace their glossy covers. From Jessica Alba and Heidi Montag to Jenny McCarthy and Lisa Rinna, these celebs sure are confident in their nearly nude poses.

But seldom does a celebrity take it all off for a completely nude spread like Lindsay Lohan. No doubt an appearance on the racy pages is sure to boost a celebrity's exposure, but does it ever cross the line to become a desperate plea for headlines? The majority of these famous ladies chose to sport a teeny bikini, but not Lohan.

Check out the Playboy covers from these titillating Tinseltown hotties who've decided to take it all (or almost all) off for the iconic magazine and let us know how you think Lindsay's cover compares.

What is Salma Hayek doing talking about being flat-chested? The voluptuous Mexican actress never seemed to have a problem flaunting her born-to-be-a-bombshell curves before, but that wasn't always the case for the 45-year-old, who appeared on the "Graham Norton Show" together with "Puss In Boots" costar and friend Antonio Banderas. The money quote from the interview, via the Daily Mail, is copied and pasted below.

"I was getting tested a lot because everybody was older and I was the skinny tomboy… I went to a church that had a saint that was supposed to do a lot of miracles. I put my hands in holy waited and went: 'Please Jesus give me some boobs."

Next month, a new sitcom called "Work It," about two out-of-work salesmen who dress up as women to get jobs, will make its debut on ABC. There's nothing new about the premise -- Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari covered the same ground on the early-80s sitcom "Bosom Buddies" -- and the tone isn't exactly novel either. The stars of the show, Ben Koldyke and Amaury Nolasco, are operating in the prevailing frat-boy mode perfected by Bradley Cooper and Seann William Scott.

In May, an 84-second trailer of "Work It" hit the Internet, instantly attracting more blogger rage than most shows accumulate over the course of several seasons. Gobsmacked by the very fact that "This got made! And is going to series!", The Futon Critic lambasted the show's "limp attempts at misogyny," "groan worthy madcappery" and "Mrs. Doubtfire hijinx."

The Best Week Ever blog took special umbrage at the network's attempt to position the series as "high concept": "Holy moly, ABC. If you're going to put a terrible show on the air, the least you could do is not try to make two bumbling fools dressed up like women for cheap laughs a 'high concept' in which the guys become moral compasses. It's not the iconic Louie poker scene, for heavens sake." The Dallas Trangender Activists Alliance launched a petition to keep "Work It" off the air, and a blogger for the Gay Voices section of The Huffington Post predicted that the series would face summary cancelation, "not because the content is offensive to queers, but because the show itself is just bad." (ABC did not respond to requests for comment.)

The setup is stale, the jokes are groan-inducing, there's not a major star anywhere near it, and yet one of America's major broadcast networks has spent millions to bring "Work It" to the air. How did this happen? The answer may lie not in what's on the screen, but in what's off it -- the writers who created "Work It," Andrew Reich and Ted Cohen, also happen to be veterans of a little show called "Friends," long the staple of NBC's once-dominant Thursday-night block of comedies. The last episode of "Friends" aired on May 6, 2004, and since then the members of its famous writers room have brought one new show after another to the market. And one after another, those new shows have fizzled, failing to recapture even a trace of the original comedy's hip, youthful, era-defining essence.

But still the members of the "Friends" Mafia return. "That show gave them a get-out-of-development-hell-free card," says one TV writer, who, like most of the people HuffPost spoke to for this article, declined to be identified for fear of retribution.

"Work It" follows two other Mafia-led failures from this season: CBS's "How To Be a Gentleman," from executive producer Adam Chase, and NBC's "Free Agents," from Alexa Junge. (Another, Fox's "I Hate My Teenage Daughter," headed by Sherry Bilsing, remains on the air.) And the list of disappointments from previous seasons is even more impressive. A partial sampling, ranked in descending order of episodes aired in the U.S.: "Melissa and Joey" (41), "Gary Unmarried" (37), "Joey" (36), "Jonas" (34), "Love Inc." (22), "Life on a Stick" (21), "The Class" (19), "The Weber Show" (17), "Kath and Kim" (17), "Worst Week" (16), "Hot Properties" (13), "Perfect Couples" (13), "Courting Alex" (12), "Romantically Challenged" (6), "Clone" (6), "The Men's Room" (4), "Come to Papa" (4), and "Three" (just a pilot). (The group has also scored some middling successes, including "Episodes," "My Boys," "Eight Simple Rules for Dating my Daughter," "What I Like About You" and "The United States of Tara.")

Tradition holds that Hollywood runs on the "What have you done for me lately?" principle, suggesting that members of the "Friends" Mafia would have lost their golden halos long ago. But some hits are so gigantic that their aura lasts for years -- seven and counting, in the case of "Friends." In its time, the "Friends" phenomenon rained gold on all who came near it. Over 10 seasons and 236 episodes, "Friends" held steady at or near the top of the ratings pile. No sitcom has occupied the year's No. 1 ratings slot since "Friends" last did so in 2001.

During the final season of "Friends," the show's six stars were each paid an astounding $1 million per episode, and by the end, NBC was paying Warner Bros. Studios, which produced "Friends," a record-holding $10 million per episode. Even in its afterlife, "Friends" continues to print money, earning Warner Bros. approximately $944 million to date in syndication rights, according to Variety magazine.

"When you have a big hit show, the writers on that show tend to be the big writers for the next 10 years, and you can ride that for a pretty long time," says Ken Levine, a veteran TV writer and producer of shows such as "M*A*S*H" and "Cheers," who now blogs about the TV industry.

In fairness to the members of the "Friends" Mafia, it should be noted that blame for the failure of any given show is notoriously difficult to assign. What with all of the meddling network executives, high-maintenance stars and competing creative visions, it's a wonder anyone ever manages to get the chemistry right. And the vast majority of writers working in the sitcom world have experienced far more failures than successes in the past decades, as network comedies have gone down like cannon fodder. It's also true that Schadenfreude, the official religion of the entertainment industry, accounts for at least some measure of the sniping that writers direct against the "Friends" diaspora. (Hollywood being a place where none dare risk offending, not one of the detractors wished to be quoted for attribution here.)

Still, after nearly a decade of misfires, there is some evidence that the "Friends" veterans offer living proof of the Peter Principle, which holds that "in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to the level of his incompetence." Certainly, given Hollywood's reflexive impulse to reward the writers from successful shows with franchises of their own, it's worth asking whether the training that these young apprentices received as writers prepared them for careers as showrunners.

In its day, the "Friends" room was known for being young and unusually democratic. Eager to establish authenticity for their youthful characters, the creators of "Friends" -- Marta Kaufmann, David Crane and Kevin Bright -- brought in a crew of younger writers to staff the show. Most stayed with the series until the very end, in defiance of the revolving-door logic that dominates much of the business. And while many shows of the period were dominated by high-profile showrunners (Larry David of "Seinfeld," Phil Rosenthal of "Everybody Loves Raymond," Michael Patrick King of "Sex and the City"), Kauffmann, Crane and Bright were content to let their younger charges take the spotlight.

"Friends was about 20-somethings, so the 20-somethings who wrote for it got the credit," says one of their peers. As a result, an insular group of writers, hired at the very beginning of their careers, left the show a decade later armed with reputations as titans of comedy.

Lost in the chorus of hosannas for the victorious staff was the distinction between the showrunners and the rank-and-file writers who worked for them. First among writers, the showrunner is also the person responsible for every aspect of a television program -- overseeing the staff, supervising the final edits, ensuring that the jokes are funny and the characters and story lines are coherent. The individual writers are cogs in the showrunner's machine.

"There's a lot of talent by association," Peter Mehlman, a long-time TV writer and producer who served on the "Seinfeld" team, says of Hollywood's flawed method for assigning credit. "If you're on 'Friends,' even though you're spending 98 percent of your time in a room with eight other people shouting out jokes at each other at 4 a.m., somehow they assume you can run your own show."

Ultimately, Mehlman says, the writing work on a show like "Friends" is so collaborative that it is very hard to know who did what. "If you were credited as writing an episode of 'Friends,' it doesn't guarantee you wrote any of the plot lines."

The trajectory of Adam Chase offers a cautionary example of what can happen when success in the writing room is assumed to predict success in the showrunner's chair. After leaving "Friends" with an executive producer title in 2000, Chase received the same role on a new series, "The Weber Show," a vehicle for "Wings" star Steven Weber. Since then, he has created one flop -- "Clone" (6 episodes) -- and served as showrunner or heavy-hitter consulting producer for six more: "Life on a Stick" (12 episodes), "Love, Inc." (22 episodes), "Sons of Tucson" (12 episodes), "Better With You" (21 episodes), and the recently canceled "How to Be a Gentleman" (5 episodes).

Chase did not respond to a request for comment and CBS declined to comment.

Among writers who have been less lavishly rewarded -- and who, perhaps not coincidentally, have enjoyed fewer opportunities to fail -- there is a sense that some hidden hand must be at work, sending low-average batters like Chase to the plate again and again despite his past performance. For them, the explanation is simple: "Executives take comfort in what was successful, so if [a new project fails] they can just point and say, 'Well, they were on 'Friends.'"

Meanwhile, as the networks continue their search for the new "Friends," the shows that come closest to capturing the same youthful energy seem to be originating not among TV veterans, but among refugees from the world of feature films. Fox's "New Girl," one of this fall's biggest hits, for instance, was created by "No Strings Attached" screenwriter Liz Meriwether. And "Happy Endings," which comes closer than any series in years to replicating the "Friends" formula of young, urban, middle-of-the-road comedy, is the brainchild of David Caspe, a new-in-town former art student/feature writer whose only previous credit was the script for a soon-to-be-released Adam Sandler/Andy Samberg project titled "I Hate You, Dad."

Like many Americans in this age of digital upheaval, the "Friends" writers vaulted themselves onto a time-honored path to success and riches, only to find that the rules had been hopelessly scrambled. The long leash networks once gave to character-driven programs has been reduced to a choke chain. If you don't connect with an audience in a matter of weeks, you're through. Of the 27 shows to debut this past September, eight have already been canceled, and at least that many more hang in limbo. In the new media universe, where only the Superbowl and the Academy Awards command the kind of ratings "Friends" regularly drew, there just isn't enough money to finance a series while it searches for its rhythm.

Under the old model, "If you were on 'Friends' and you were well-liked there, you certainly would keep getting jobs," Mehlman says. "In those days, they used to hand out development deals like M&M's."

"The world has changed," adds veteran TV writer Ken Levine, speaking generally about trends in the industry. "There are fewer development deals these days, and studios are getting smart to the fact that just because a writer works on these shows -- and it's not just 'Friends' but any long-lasting hit, like 'Frasier' or 'Raymond' -- doesn't mean he's a good writer.

"Studios have been burned by making really bad deals and not doing their due diligence and finding out there are some writers on a staff who were really great and contribute a lot and others who were tagging along and didn't do that much."

In a world of loose budgets and easy deals, there would be no time and no cause to complain about the "Friends" Mafia. Their contemporaries would have scripts of their own to churn out, and deals of their own to negotiate. But the networks' struggle to shrink down for the 21st century seems to have only just begun, and there's every reason to believe that Schadenfreude will continue to haunt these once-promising writers until one of them -- any of them -- produces a hit worthy of the industry's investment in their careers.