Britney Spears has struck a settlement with the former bodyguard who claimed the pop star was a genital-flashing sexual harasser during his time with the singer ... TMZ has learned.

Who's that girl? It's the no-nonsense Zooey Deschanel.

Cutesy adorkability may come off as her thing, but Jake Johnson -- who plays Deschanel's co-star Nick on "New Girl" -- told Cosmopolitan magazine that she can be all work.

"Zooey doesn't f--- around," Johnson said. "She's a great business person. For some reason it's never talked about. They talk about how she's quirky and sweet, and all that is true ... [but] she's the lead in a show she partially owns. I watch and learn a lot from her."

The second season of "New Girl" which premieres on Tues., Sept. 25 at 9 p.m. ET on Fox will see the return of Nick and Jess (Deschanel) as roommates ... and possibly more.

"I think it'd be fun if they got together, see what happens," Johnson revealed at a Fox Event. "But if they don't, that'll be fun too. I'm excited to see what the writers come up with."

Catch "New Girl" on Tues., Sept. 25 at 9 p.m. ET on Fox.

Mandy Patinkin is opening up his abrupt "Criminal Minds" exit.

Patinkin, who currently stars on "Homeland," was on the CBS drama about profilers in the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit for two seasons before calling it quits.

"The biggest public mistake I ever made was that I chose to do 'Criminal Minds' in the first place," he told New York Magazine. "I thought it was something very different. I never thought they were going to kill and rape all these women every night, every day, week after week, year after year. It was very destructive to my soul and my personality. After that, I didn’t think I would get to work in television again."

But he did. Patinkin now stars on the critically-acclaimed Showtime drama opposite Damian Lewis and Claire Danes. On the series, Patinkin plays Saul Berenson, a mentor of sorts to Danes' CIA officer Carrie Mathinson. He recently told The Hollywood Reporter he's privileged to work with the Golden Globe-winning Danes.

"I as a human being, as an artist, I am there for her. I would die for her," he said. "I tell you, she is one of our great gifts as an artist to be cherished and nurtured and cared for. She is a tremendous gift, and I am one of the privileged people to get to be with her and learn from her every day."

"Homeland" Season 2 debuts on Showtime on Sun., Sept. 30 at 10 p.m. ET. "Criminal Minds" Season 8 premieres Wed., Sept. 26 at 9 p.m. ET.

Now that Ryan Murphy's controversial new NBC series "The New Normal" has made its debut, audiences have learned how hilariously horrible Ellen Barkin's character Nana is. In HuffPost TV's exclusive first look at Episode 2, she's spewing even more absurdly offensive comments.

In the sneak peek below, it looks like Goldie (Georgia King) and Shania (Bebe Wood) have found a new home in LA and Nana isn't exactly pleased with the abode or its location. "The entire state should be wrapped in a condom," she says, as little Shania runs around, waving American flags in a "Grey Gardens"-looking ensemble.

Watch the sneak peek below, check out what King, Wood and more of "The New Normal" cast had to say about the series and read the description of the episode, "Sofa Choice" below:

MUST WE GO BACK TO GREY GARDENS? - Shania (Bebe Wood) is working to adapt to her new surroundings and, much to the delight of Bryan (Andrew Rannells), begins impersonating Little Edie from 'Grey Gardens.' Later, David (Justin Bartha) and Bryan reminisce about the first time they met and decide to have a night on the town like they did when they were younger. Elsewhere, Jane (Ellen Barkin) finds something disturbing in the boys' room and enlists Goldie's (Georgia King) ex-husband Clay (Jayson Blair) to try and woo her granddaughter back to Ohio. Elsewhere, Rocky (NeNe Leakes) mistakenly suspects Shania of misbehaving.

Tune in to see if Goldie's pregnant and if Nana will ever come around when "The New Normal" airs in its regular timeslot on Tuesday, September 11 at 9:30 p.m. ET.

"Whatever you have read I have said is almost certainly untrue, except if it is funny in which case I definitely said it," to quote Tallulah Bankhead.

• Speaking of old-time stars who really twinkled reminds me of something I read in the New York Times last Sunday. They reported that a two-floor penthouse in what used to be the Volney Hotel on an Upper East Side street sold for a mere $17,500,000.

  This makes me think of the days visiting the one and only Dorothy Parker who lived in the Volney. Although Dotty didn't have two floors, she definitely had a nice place wherein to grow old. Her glory days seemed to be over by then.

  But she was still an authoritative star of the literary world, ever complaining about how poor she was, how she'd been forgotten by her public (not true!) and wishing someone like Gloria Vanderbilt would rescue her with money, gowns and shoes to match. If she was invited anywhere, she went on bitterly about how they didn't give her anything to wear, or send a car or loan her jewelry, or do anything else to accommodate her.

  The chief thing Miss Parker complained about was the plethora of books she was sent by publishers who were trying, or hoping, to maybe get a quote out of her. She was always shoving them at visitors by the armload.

  Yet when Dorothy Parker died in 1967, she left drawers full of un-cashed checks from magazines, publishers and syndication. Maybe she could have made a down payment on the valuable real estate where she was living.

• PENNY MARSHALL has cultivated a kind of loveably irascible, slightly depressed persona. It's not totally a "persona." But the other night, at The Monkey Bar, the only aspect of Penny on display was loveable. The actress/director/producer was there to drumbeat her funny, touching, new memoir, My Mother Was Nuts. Penny worked the room non-stop, and when asked, as she frequently was, "How are you?" Her reply was, "Well, if the damn tabloids would stop saying I'm dying, I'd be just great." (Penny had a tremendous bout with cancer a few years ago -- brain tumor and lung cancer. But she recovered and now looks like she has never even suffered a cold in her entire life.)

  All earthlings available to the siren song of PR queen Peggy Siegal -- and a few aliens, too -- descended in full force on The Monkey Bar. I do mean such as David Geffen, in jeans and sneakers... Calvin Klein, beautifully suited up... Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg... Art Garfunkel (Penny's old flame)... Lorne Michaels... Graydon Carter... Fran Lebowitz, who is determined not to smile too much as she moves around the room -- this keeps unwanted admirers at bay... .Roger Friedman, reporter extraordinaire... Carol Kane... Gayle King... Andy Cohen... Mort Zuckerman... Jacob Bernstein... Tom Brokaw... Barbara Walters, regal in a gorgeous red coat. You get it. It was one of those, "if a bomb dropped" evenings.

  Joy and Regis Philbin were there, still talking about the Marvin Hamlisch memorial. "Now, that was a memorial," said Joy. Turning to Regis, she continued, "That's what I'll try to do for you." Regis feigned horror, "What? What? We don't talk about death here." Overhearing this exchange somebody said, "Joy, maybe you'll go first." She laughed, "Yeah, that's exactly what he's waiting for!"

  Kyle MacLachlan was on hand, with a thick head of salt-and-pepper hair, which made him look younger. "I finally gave in to the gray. Who was I fooling?" Kyle is filming a new series for CBS titled Made in Jersey. "We shoot right next to where they do Boardwalk Empire, but I never get to see any of them in the lunchroom." (Sweet, like high school -- checking out the other kids in the lunch room.)

  Anjelica Huston was there. Her necklace was admired. "Oh, look at these rubies," she said, pulling rocks that seemed the size of Easter eggs from under her blouse. "Lauren Hutton gave them to me. She got them in Nepal or one of those exotic places she was always traveling to. I kept admiring them, and finally she just gave them to me. I wore her out."

  Miss Huston -- who's been smash on NBC's Smash series -- is writing her autobiography. "One or two volumes?" she was asked. "Volumes? What, do you think my life was like War and Peace?" But she added a Cheshire cat grin when she said it. (Anjelica is just about my favorite person in show biz.)

  It was also one of those parties where you kept hearing snippets of conversations --"Baby, let's face it. If I wrote my memoirs, nobody could accept the brutal truth".... "Oh, I heard that about her. Look, if there's smoke there's a blazing fire." There was also a lot of chat about William J. Mann's new and supposedly sizzling bio, "Hello Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisand." (From Houghton Mifflin -- and more on that anon!)

  But the entrance of the night had to go to Mariah Carey. She arrived, practically to the sound of trumpets. She wore black, there was cleavage, some ruffles, too, heels (of course!) that tawny mane, tossed girlishly. She was adorable. She is adorable. One of the sweetest superstars ever! As she came in, she spotted a fellow wearing a T-shirt with a blonde lady's face on it, under his dressy blazer. Mariah said, "Ooohhhh, Marilyn!" (her idol) and opened the guys coat. Alas, it was... Madonna. Mariah grinned. "Oh, well, that's OK. But Marilyn's the one." And then she added, "I bought her white piano, you know."

• PENNY'S BOOK? One of the most amusing, straightforward and poignant (without self-pity) memoirs I've read yet. I learned lots of stuff about Penny, as a woman and a superb professional in a male dominated industry. She is super-candid on all matters, and fair. (Yes, of course, she tells the saga of Cindy Williams and Laverne & Shirley and she's fair on that, too.) She didn't have trouble with Whitney Houston on The Preacher's Wife (no signs of drug use)... her only problem with Madonna in A League of Their Own was her arms -- she told M to stop already with the upper body workouts... and Bobby DeNiro and Robin Williams did not come to blows during Awakenings.

  There is so much wry humanity, so many great stories, and one of my favorites opens the book. Penny is being robbed in her L.A. home by two men dressed as ninjas. One of them demands the jewelry she's wearing. Penny says, "I can't. I'm doing a movie. I wore them on camera. I have to match the shots." She adds: "They exchanged looks, and, I suppose, this being Hollywood, they understood."

  Loved this book. Love Penny Marshall.

Sure, a sentimental card or a fancy piece of bling would have been nice, but Kanye West had an even better special gift in mind for girlfriend Kim Kardashian to mark her Miami filming schedule.

Justin Timberlake may be adventurous, but apparently he can't handle the cold.

The actor revealed he almost died on the set of his new movie "Trouble with the Curve" when he and co-star Amy Adams shot a scene in freezing-cold waters.

At the premiere of the film in Los Angeles on Sept. 19, Timberlake told "Entertainment Tonight" the harrowing story, which took place in northern Atlanta. "We shot that scene in the Blue Ridge Mountains and the water was just below fifty degrees. It was freezing," Timberlake explained. "Amy actually saved my life. Unbeknownst to me, I was turning blue and couldn't process a thought, so she actually saved my life. I owe Amy Adams my life."

And although it was a very serious moment, Adams had to joke with reporters when questioned about giving Jessica Biel's fiancé mouth-to-mouth. "I saved his life; I did," she told "ET." "Some people call it mouth-to-mouth, some people call it kissing -- any way, it's nice work if you can get it."

Eventually, the pair reshot the dreaded scene in a water tank "that was more bearable," according to Timberlake.

Biel better be thanking her lucky stars Adams was there to rescue her man!

"The Wire" had a significant impact on "Homeland" leading lady Claire Danes. In an interview with New York Times' T Magazine, Danes revealed that the HBO drama from David Simon helped guide her towards the kind of projects she wanted to work on.

After playing Temple Grandin in HBO's "Temple Grandin," Danes said she didn't work for two years partly because the role changed her outlook on acting. “I didn’t want to go back to ingénues," Danes said. "Because I ingénued the hell out of it for a while.” Enter "Homeland."

Danes is reportedly signed on to "Homeland" for seven years and fans of the show can thank "The Wire" for that. Danes said the writing on the Showtime series "guarantees real quality."

"I’d been changed by watching ‘The Wire’ and I wanted to do something that had that scope," she said.

Despite her appreciation of the writing, Danes said she wasn't sure the show would make it to Season 2. "To be honest I never expected [the show] to get picked up so I wasn’t sure what it was going to be like, but it’s fun. It's like, 'Oh, there she is again!' I like [Carrie] a lot," she told GQ UK via The Daily Mail.

Danes, who got her start with "My So-Called Life," which earned her a Golden Globe, also took home a Globe for "Homeland." She's up for an Emmy in the Best Actress in a Drama Series at the 2012 awards. See if she wins the award on Sun., Sept. 23 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

For more on Danes, click over to T Magazine.

We enjoy perusing the Victoria's Secret website, both to shop and to have a giggle over the many inventive instances of Photoshop scattered across the site. The company has become famous (around these parts, at least) for its liberal use of airbrushing, utilizing the tool to slim down, bulk up and carve out its already gorgeous models.

Most recently, Victoria's Secret appears to have used its airbrushing powers to give a model a lift -- literally. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the Add 2 Cups Multi-Way Bra, part of the Bombshell collection, model Candice Swanepoel leans towards the camera and shows off her enhanced cleavage. But one side of her chest looks remarkably bigger than the other, as if the "Add 2 Cups" applied to one breast only.

If that's the case, Victoria's Secret should definitely specify that in the product description.

We can't know for sure how much Photoshop is afoot here... but last time we checked, Candice simply wasn't that lopsided.

Check it out below -- does something look a little off to you?

Want more? Be sure to check out HuffPost Style on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Pinterest.

Robbie Williams and his wife Ayda Field welcomed a daughter, Theodora Rose, on Tuesday (September 18) and now they're sharing the first photo of their little girl.

NEW YORK -- LMFAO's Redfoo is still party rocking, but these days, he's doing it without his partner-in-fun, Sky Blu.

Redfoo says he and Sky Blu – who is also his nephew – are taking a break as they focus on their own interests, personally and professionally.

"I feel like we've been doing this for so long, five or six years. And we're kind of like saying, well, let's just do what's natural and just kind of explore that, instead of like forcing it all the time," Redfoo, 37, explained in a phone interview earlier this week.

For the wild-haired Redfoo, his explorations have not only taken him to record new music solo, they have also opened up a world in sports.

Earlier this month, he was in the stands at the U.S. Open rooting on new BFF Victoria Azarenka, who lost to Serena Williams for the women's championship. He's also been performing on some dates with the Fierce Five of women's gymnastics as the gold-winning Olympic team tours the nation, and he's been spending time on the tennis courts in Las Vegas as a coach for a junior player.

Redfoo said he recently began coaching Ayaka Okuno, practicing several hours a day with her in Las Vegas.

"I kind of use the Phil Jackson approach which I teach her some vague things – I teach her how to think for herself on the court," he said. "She's really good at self-analyzing."

He's also planning his own line of tennis clothing and sponsoring the United States Tennis Association's Party Rock Open in Las Vegas starting Sunday.

Tennis isn't his only love, though. He's performed on the USA Gymnastics tour, and he is also trying to make a tune for the New England Patriots.

"I'm actually working on a song for them, because they asked me to write a song for their season," he said of the Krafts, who own the team.

But it will likely be some time before he writes anything for LMFAO. Although he's been recording, he didn't know when he and Sky Blu might unite musically, adding that they are going in "different directions."

"I think that we naturally just started hanging with two different sets of people, two different crowds, but we're always family," he said. "He'll always be my nephew, I'll always be his uncle."

As for his solo material, Redfoo says he won't be straying far from hits like "Sexy and I Know It" and "Party Rock Anthem."

"All the music that I'm going to make is always going to be LMFAO-ish ... I love all the topics that we talk about," he said. "I was really passionate about bringing party music to the world, so I will always be making some kind of party music."

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Diplo's production catalog is so varied that fans can love some of his work, while judging -- or even hating -- other projects. Someone who dislikes Major Lazer's big-room, electro-dance-meets-Kingston tracks might love, say, Chris Brown. Fans disappointed with Usher's newer songs may still blast M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes." Maybe they judge anyone who listens to Justin Bieber, but love Robyn. Perhaps folks have that dubstep song from the Internet Explorer commercials stuck in their head, but would rather be rocking to some Yelawolf, or Wale.

But here's the fun part: Diplo produced for all of them. From niche artists on his label, Mad Decent, to the likes of Snoop Dogg Lion and No Doubt, Diplo (real name: Thomas Wesley Pentz) has kept busy infiltrating nearly every sub-genre of pop music.

Unlike most producers, however, Diplo is a household name in many of the genres he touches. While master pop producers Dr. Luke or Max Martin are well-known to those keeping a tab on the industry, Diplo has over 600,000 Twitter followers, many of whom send him racy photos of themselves in compromising positions. (The "#expressyourself" meme caught fire when the producer released the album art for his single by the same name. "I've tried to retire it over and over again," Diplo said to HuffPost. "It just won't go away.")

His fame and dance-music superstardom (he graced the cover of Rolling Stone with A-Trak and Skrillex) stem mostly from his career as a DJ, where he plays to crowds that number in the tens of thousands. It's safe to assume a good number of those dancing along to his DJ sets don't know that Diplo (or Major Lazer, if he's performing under that name) is the guy who turned Snoop Dogg into a reggae star and brought No Doubt back to the radio. He's hiding in plain sight.

HuffPost Entertainment and Diplo traded emails, in which the producer tells us about what it's like to flow from one genre to the next, how he goes about throwing Mad Decent's notorious, thousand-people strong Block Parties and why he's always felt such a strong connection with Jamaican culture.

You're obviously running the gamut of projects -- from Snoop's reggae project to No Doubt to Bieber to Major Lazer to Chris Brown. Does all of this production come from one place and get fine-tuned into different genres, or do you pretty much sit down and devote yourself to one specific sound at a time?

I wish I was just like a music vending machine. But no, I take every one session really seriously. Sometimes one track might carry from one place to the next and I'll change it to fit that artist. But it's usually a simple formula -- what do I love about this person, what am I good at and how can I help them make the best possible song?

Do you find that most producers tend to limit themselves to one genre ?

I think there are a lot of guys who don't. Like Rick Rubin, but that's a different generation. All these guys in my scene are definitely not able to maneuver between genres very easy. Some carved out their own genres like Pharrell or Timbaland -- they are who inspire me.

Is there a project you're particularly excited about? Obviously No Doubt's comeback and Snoop's new direction are big events in the music industry.

The Snoop album will surprise a lot of people. I'm really proud of that -- I never thought in a hundred years I'd be one of the most popping R&B and reggae producers around, but my whole career has been about coming out of nowhere so I guess I'll keep doing this weird stuff.

Can you briefly describe why Jamaica became so dear to you and so central to your musical output?

I guess as a kid I always liked reggae, dancehall and freestyle. In Broward County, where I lived -- the Fort Lauterdale Area -- that's kind of what was happening on the radio and at the parks. I was fascinated by reggae (dancehall), because it absorbed every other genre. It does country, house, pop, oldies, hip-hop, R&B, world music -- it's such a cannibal. And it's very gritty and very human. I think that's also why Joe Strummer flirted with it so much toward the end of The Clash's output. Jamaica is still such a weird and fascinating place, I can't even begin to describe the stuff I've been part of there.

Aside from exposure for the brand and your artists, what was the motivation behind the Block Party tour?

It's wild. There's no one type of person there. Young, old, cities, suburbs, parents, students. I don't know -- it's the most diverse party around.

Is that vibe -- a wild block party -- the epitome of a good time to you?

There's nothing more pure than the neighborhood getting together and feeling something. It's started in Philly with just 10 dollars and my home speakers turned outside. Then it grew to 1,000 kids, then 4,000, then 8,000 then more cities. And yes, it feels like it still belongs to the neighborhood -- it's free and the music is exciting and new. Not the same old same old.

As you've added more and more things (production, DJ'ing, book writing, label-running, Adult Swim), what have you learned from managing all of those careers? What's most satisfying?

Just creating, for me. Anyone that works in music knows it's not just about sitting home writing songs. It's about multimedia. I don't mean to say that I'm like a marketing executive at Facebook, but it's always about putting [yourself] out there as a phenomenon -- as a culture itself. There is no same road to take as an artist, that a label will set out for you. It's like a wilderness now to find people. You have to do everything. And I see the brands that we create -- as Mad Decent, Major Lazer and Diplo, everything -- to be endless. I love doing the label and helping kids get out there I really am loving branching out into the visual world. But it all comes down to making the music, producing. At least for now.

There is a relentless surge of corporate interest in dance music, how do you go about making sure that business interests only further, as opposed to overtaking, the party?

Well, there's not such corporate control of what we do at Mad Decent. A lot of festivals don't even understand us -- we are eclectic and we do a bit of everything, from rap to dance music to indie to whatever. For the corporate suits, they just see "DANCE MUSIC, DRINKS, FESTIVALS, LOTS OF KIDS TO BUY STUFF," so these festivals sell right away. They even perpetuate the "sameness" of the lineups and the music that is being played. It keeps it very tidy for the investors that don't understand.

At Mad Decent, we see what has always driven this culture and this movement has been the side stages, the underground, the kids taking chances and doing something different. Electronic music was a rebellion against the same old rock songs and messages and fashion. But that's already what I see with the Top 10 DJ's doing the same shit over and over, and festivals perpetuating it. It's not for me, it never has been. I've always tried to nurture new sounds and help shed lights on what's exciting and what's moving music forward.

What can we expect over the next year? More block parties, more production -- what else?

Both! Mad Decent will present even more parties next year! We are aiming for 15. And production … Yes, lots of stuff already in the works but the Snoop Lion album and the Major Lazer album are priorities!

We haven't heard much from Elin Nordegren since the Tiger Woods scandal broke in 2009. After all, the tight-lipped mom of two gave only one interview post-divorce, to People magazine in August 2010. But that doesn't mean she hasn't been keeping herself busy -- very busy.

Click through the slides below to see what Elin has been up to post-Tiger.

"Sons Of Anarchy" took a brief break from its usual brand of high-intensity violence and got a little romantic in this week's episode when Tara (Maggie Siff) and Jax (Charlie Hunnam) got married in a brothel. The union was a significant milestone for the biker drama, and for Siff's character Tara Knowles in particular, who spent much of last season dreaming of a new life for herself outside the motorcycle club's criminal orbit.

But after a gruesome hand injury dashed her hopes of becoming a pediatric surgeon, Tara seems to have come to terms with the life she's chosen this season, taking a more active role in the club's affairs and relishing Jax's newfound power. In an interview HuffPost TV, Maggie Siff discussed Tara's evolution into Gemma 2.0, explained why it's a relief to no longer have to play such a conflicted character and told us whether Jax Teller or Don Draper is more unknowable man.

Congratulations on your TV wedding. You guys really kept it classy.
I myself am about to get married in October, so I'm using it as a model. A few plastic orchids scattered here and there I think will go far.

During the scene where Jax proposed, he told Tara that "nothing says endless love like capital murder," and you seemed to play it like that line turned her on. Is Tara learning to thrive on the danger of the "Sons" world?
You know, one of the very first thoughts I had about the character was the fact that she's this surgeon, and she kind of deals with life and death and blood and guts all the time. And I think there has to be some place, on some level, on which it does excite her. That's never a conscious thing, but it's something I poured into my little feeding ground for the unconscious motivations fo the character. How could she possibly stick around otherwise? He's actually making reference to the very first time they came together, which was over a dead body. So there's something in that. The thing that I think the show gets at is this adrenalized, hyper-violent world that they all live in. I think on some level, that kind of danger and excitement must fuel all of them.

There was another moment in that scene where Jax told Tara that he plans to make an honest woman out of her and she rolled her eyes and said, "Good luck." Where was she coming from there?
Honestly, we did it so many different ways, and I tried a lot of different things with it ... But what I was thinking about was, she's so far down this road, and I feel like the character has been the moral center of the show for many years, and especially in the last year, she's really slid away from that position. And I think it's her own awareness that she's in really deep, and it's really because of her love of this man that she's gone down that road. And having a little bit of awareness and sense of humor in that moment, which is such a mix of joy and really solidifying her connection to this life.

Later, after being initially sort of excluded from the wedding, Gemma (Katey Sagal) gave Tara her rings. Have those characters reached an uneasy understanding this season?
Yeah, I think this season they really go in-and-out, and in-and-out of having an uneasy understanding. The deep level truth about them is having a mother-daughter relationship, and as painful as it is, Gemma really is her only mother figure. So to take the rings from her and in a moment to sort of accept that she wants her and needs her ... there is some way in which she wants her there.

Is Tara becoming Gemma 2.0?
It's true, she's taking a lot of lessons from her. And one of them is, "How do I play this?" -- being in the moment but also having this conversation with herself, seeing all the manipulation and dealing with the opportunistic question of what's going to work best for me in this situation.

Tara has started to smoke pot this season, yet she still sort of lashed out at Gemma for being drunk and stoned around the kids. Is she in some sort of denial?
Yes, she has. And this is true, though I would say she's doing it in her own time when she's not around the kids. But it is the beginning of something. She's trying to find ways to take the edge off and numb out a little bit. The season opens up on Gemma in a much more fucked up place with regards to substances. But I also think that's a part of how these people have to live their lives. They can't be alive to their pain at all times, or else they'd just be little balls of pain in the corner.

Has Tara's hand injury, which forced her to give up on her dream of being a surgeon and leaving the club life, ignited a new chapter of how you approach the character?
Umm, yeah. When Kurt [Sutter, the show's created and executive producer] first told me about the hand last year, I had a real dual reaction. One was just sort of this horror. My emotional investment in Tara as a human being was sort of shattered by it, "I just felt so bad for her," and I felt that incredibly strongly. But then my actor brain was really excited. I was like, "Oh no, that's interesting." Because the feeling that a door has closed really does something to our psyche that's like a scar. And figuring out what that is and how that evolves with her ...

It's not entirely black and white either, because her hand is healing. There's somewhat of an open question about whether she'll get it back or not and to what extent. But I'll say that there was this big, terrible rupture that happened when that happened. It's been really interesting. It's been fun, actually.

It seems to have given her the freedom to embrace the life in a way that hasn't before.
Well, I think like anything that happens, in life it's true, when one door slams shut ... Literally. [Laughs.] There's a kind of relief or relaxation that also happens. Now she can embrace the club and this man, and all these things that she's held herself at bay from. She can relax around it, on one level, and surrender to it a little bit more. So she's not so constantly tortured. That's one of the things as an actor that I was happy to let go of.

Was that taxing to play?
A little taxing. The show is based on "Hamlet," so the question of conscience is sort of at the heart of the story, and particularly in the Jax character. But I also think it plays out in the Tara character, and yeah, it's exhausting. But I think it is exhausting for any human being, that feeling of being stuck between a rock and a hard place in life. And I'm very indecisive in my life, so it was also just a very big magnification of something that I'm very familiar with and hate in myself.

What did you think of the premiere? That was a pretty dark episode.
It's so funny because we're still in the middle of shooting the season, and it's "Sons Of Anarchy," so terrible shit happens all the time, and I started watching that episode was like, "Oh no, this is the one where the daughter gets burned alive." It kind of is one of the most gruesome things television has ever seen.

I've recently been re-watching "Mad Men" Season 1, and your character Rachel Menken character plays a big role. Do you think Jax Teller or Don Draper is the more unknowable man?
Don Draper probably has a bigger hole in his soul than Jax Teller. All Jax knows is this criminal life and this world and these people, and the world is pretty small. I think Don has more holes in his history, and little less control over what he can't feel. He goes through the series, and he's so blind and numb to these things in himself. But, I don't know, Don's making progress, who knows where he'll end up.

What TV shows are you watching these days? "Sons" aside.
I just started watching "Homeland," that's my new television addiction currently. It's so, so interesting. I'm just getting started too -- we've only watched the first four episodes. I'm really excited about it. I really do love television right now. We're all caught up on "Breaking Bad," and "Game Of Thrones," and "Mad Men." I've just been like, "What is the next great series?" So we started "Homeland." Now that I'm all caught up, I have to do it episode by episode, which is maddening. It was so ahead of me, but over the last couple of years, I did those marathons and sort of caught up with it all.

"Sons Of Anarchy" airs Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. ET on FX.

Bill Clinton looked back on his energizing speech from the 2012 Democratic National Convention on The Daily Show Thursday night.

“I was just determined to get the facts right and to simplify the argument without being simplistic,” Clinton told host Jon Stewart. “I didn’t want to talk down to people. I wanted to explain what I thought was going on.”

Clinton's speech was widely praised, even prompting President Barack Obama to joke about recruiting the former president to help with "explaining stuff."

“After he spoke, somebody sent out a tweet that said “you should appoint him 'secretary of explaining stuff.' I like that!" Obama said to supporters in Florida.

Of his DNC speech, Clinton said “explanation is way more important than eloquence, and rhetoric falls on deaf ears.” He went on to criticize Romney for failing to be specific.

“If I come to you and I say we have this terrible national debt, and here’s my opening gambit -- the first thing I’m going to do is raise it by another $5 trillion over a decade by doing another round of tax cuts that mostly benefit the people who benefitted over the past decade even though it didn’t produce jobs," Clinton said. "Now we’re in a really deep hole, now let me tell you how I’m gonna get out of it. Well what about the details? See me after the election."

Watch The Daily Show interview above.

"Modern Family" star Jesse Tyler Ferguson recently took to the web to announce his engagement to Justin Mikita and the launch of a new charity, Tie The Knot, which will benefit LGBT organizations.

I'm so excited to announce my charity @tietheknotorg. Bow Ties for #MarriageEquality created with @thetiebar will be a… say.ly/vef4cCe

— Jesse Tyler Ferguson (@jessetyler) September 19, 2012

In a video publicizing the announcement, Ferguson shamelessly uses a puppy, his stylish bow ties and a catchy ditty ("These are the states with marriage equality") to promote marriage equality.

"I popped the big Q!” exclaims the "Modern Family" star, who recently received his third consecutive Emmy nomination, ABC News reports. “And I said yes,” Mikita says, as he joins Ferguson on a brown couch.

Ferguson, 36, and Mikita, 27, who have been dating for nearly two years, according to People, said they hope their union will eventually be considered official nationwide.

"We want our interpersonal relationship to be acknowledged in a union formalized via a wedding ceremony. But we're just like millions of America who are denied basic civil rights to marry the person that they love," Ferguson said in the video.

Tie The Knot will partner with The Tie Bar to produce the 20 limited edition bow ties, all designed with fabrics inspired by objects in the couple's home, according to Style.

"Suit up and tie the knot, so one day we can too," Ferguson says before picking up a puppy appropriately attired in -- what else -- a bow tie.

Engaged couple Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth are living life in the fast lane ... by riding around L.A. on Thursday in a $200K McLaren sports car.

Nobody said the road to notoriety was a smooth one. For many celebrities, their starts in Hollywood were met by pressure from managers and agents, suggesting they alter the things that once defined them, in hopes of finding work.

With orders to either slim down, blend in or go under the knife, a number of standout stars simply refused to change, despite being told it could negatively impact their careers.

Just like Lady Gaga sings, these stars were “Born This Way” and are sticking to what their mamas gave ‘em.

With fall upon us and the colder months fast approaching, the leaves aren't the only things hitting the pavement.

Celebrities are just like us and sometimes, they fall down -- but they always get back up. Whether they're tripping over air, tumbling off of stillettos or doing their own stunts and taking a dive for the sake of a shot, these stars have gone down hard.

Check out these celebs who've eaten dirt:

Despite personal trauma and turmoil, Tom Cruise remains ever busy. This December, Cruise stars in "Jack Reacher" for Paramount, an action thriller based on the Lee Child novel series. (How Cruise will handle his press obligations for the film in the wake of the Vanity Fair cover story about his alleged girlfriend auditioning process remains to be seen.)

In April of 2013, Cruise will be seen in "Oblivion," a science-fiction film that sounds a bit like a live-action version of "WALL*E": "A court martial sends a veteran soldier to a distant planet, where he has to destroy the remains of an alien race. The arrival of an unexpected traveler causes him to question what he knows about the planet, his mission, and himself," reads IMDb.

Now, Warner Bros. has announced that Cruise's other new science-fiction action film has a release date: "All You Need Is Kill," which stars Cruise and Emily Blunt, will arrive in theaters on March 14, 2014. (Tom Cruise, no longer a summer movie staple.)

If "Oblivion" is a big budget "WALL*E," consider "All You Need Is Kill" a more expensive "Source Code." Per THR:

The story is set in the near future, in which a hive-like alien race, called Mimics, have hit Earth, shredding cities to rubble and leaving millions of human casualties. The world’s armies have joined forces for a last offensive. Lt. Col. Bill Cage (Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously demoted and then dropped into combat. Cage is killed within minutes, managing to take an alpha alien down with him. But he awakens back at the beginning of the same day and is forced to fight and die again ... and again -- as physical contact with the alien has thrown him into a time loop.

For Blunt, "All You Need Is Kill" is another step toward action films, following "Looper."

"This really felt like the right time to do it, and you can’t ask for a better team than Tom and [director] Doug [Liman] –- Doug is such a visionary and Tom is the most accomplished action guy you can find," Blunt told Movieline. "We sat down a few times, we had a table read and character development talks, and he’s really fantastic in the room with that stuff; he’s very collaborative and very, very professional. And he’s fun.”

For more on "All You Need Is Kill," head over to THR.

[via THR]