Discovery Channel

Not the sort of finale we had hoped for.

Phil Harris, the salty skipper of the Cornelia Marie on Discovery's Deadliest Catch, has died. He was 53.

The deep-sea fisherman suffered a stroke on Jan. 29 and, although both his immediate and TV families were clinging to small signs of a recovery, he ultimately succumbed to the trauma.

"It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to our dad," Harris' sons, Jake and Josh, said in a statement. "Dad has always been a fighter and continued to be until the end. For us and the crew, he was someone who never backed down. We will remember and celebrate that strength. Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers."

Talking about his life at sea recently, Harris said there are certain superstitions he always abided by.

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Ellen DeGeneres' first episode of American Idol could have been her 100th. She fit right in.

Not only did the show wisely not dwell on her too much, leaving the emphasis on the terrifying "sudden death" round of Hollywood week, but she wasn't too funny, either.

Meaning, we hope, there's plenty left in the tank for future rounds.

But while DeGeneres looked very serious in her reading glasses and crushed dreams like a grizzled veteran, she still brought some much-needed funny to the proceedings—an element Idol has always possessed, only this time it was coherent and intentional!

Not that Paula Abdul wasn't missed...

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And just like that, the great Jay-Leno-at-10 experiment is over.

The beleaguered funnyman on Tuesday presided over the final episode of The Jay Leno Show—which, as it turned out, was just part of a really elaborate punk orchestrated by guest Ashton Kutcher.

"Six years ago, I sat in an office at NBC—unfortunately, we forgot to roll the cameras and so I don't have any of the tape, but I thought I'd come out and do the reveal," the Valentine's Day star explained.

"You did a hell of a job," Leno marveled. "I'm glad it's over."

But while this leg of Leno's journey was seemingly over before it began, he successfully milked his ill-fated adventure in prime-time for all it was worth.

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Stephen Vaughan/Paramount Pictures

Who says you can't go home again?

More than three years after Tom Cruise was unceremoniously ushered off the Paramount Pictures lot, the not-so-controversial-anymore movie star is reteaming with the studio for a fourth Mission: Impossible film, Cruise's rep confirms to E! News.

The 47-year-old family man will be reprising the role of Ethan Hunt, secret agent extraordinaire, in the latest sequel, set to start shooting this summer in time for a release around Memorial Day 2011.

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There's nothing like Brooklyn in the summertime.

Sports Illustrated has decorated the cover of its famed swimsuit issue with Brooklyn Decker, touted as "a perfect 10, sizzling in the Maldives."

Indeed.

An SI veteran at the ripe old age of 22, Decker posed last year wearing nothing but body paint. Thankfully, they tossed her a bikini this time (and it literally looks as if she just caught it). 

Decker tied the knot with tennis ace Andy Roddick last April, about two years after the athlete first noticed his future wife in the '07 swimsuit issue and just had to meet her.

The 2010 edition hits newsstands Tuesday. As was the case last year, the big cover reveal came during tonight's Late Show With David Letterman.

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Andy and Brooke's nuptials are in the past, but here are some of the Celeb Weddings We Can't Wait For.

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Kiefer Sutherland once said that the 24 crew would wait to do a feature film until after the small-screen version had run its course.

Well, amid talk that the in-progress season could be 24's last, Variety is reporting that a big-screen version of the minute-by-minute actionfest is once again rolling around in people's minds over at 20th Century Fox.

State of Play scribe Billy Ray, who has his fair share of film credits involving spies, lies and treachery, has been hired to come up with a screenplay, while Sutherland would be among the executive producers.

But Fox is going to wait until it has more ratings info before it makes a final decision on 24's TV fate, so the film remains in the very preliminary stages as far as planning is concerned.

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Remember when Kiefer Sutherland wore a dress on Letterman?

Kevin Mazur/AEG via Getty Images

Anyone who saw a picture of Michael Jackson from the last 15 years knew there were unnatural things going on with his skin and bone structure.

While it kick-started a new era of appreciation for his music, the pop icon's death has also provided a road map of sorts to more weird things we would have never known (or at least been able to confirm) otherwise.

Here are five things we learned from the very detailed, 51-page coroner's report (based on both Jackson's autopsy and the postmortem search of his home) released Monday:

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While there's a more detailed explanation as to how Jay Leno ended up spending 30 whole minutes with David Letterman last week, Jay is peddling this romanticized version.

"As you know, I watched the game with Oprah and Letterman," Leno told one of his few remaining Jay Leno Show audiences Monday, addressing the blink-and-miss-it Late Show ad that aired during the Super Bowl.

"We all watched together. Letterman and I hadn't seen each other in over 18 years. We lost touch. He found me on Facebook. He made a friend request, I accepted, and we hooked up and watched the game."

"In fact, the commercial went so well," Leno continued, "Dave and I have decided to go to Vancouver and compete in the two-man luge."

Now that we'd bump Conan to see.

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See who else made a point of watching the big game in our Super Bowl Sightings gallery.

Michael Caulfield/Getty Images

Starting with the Grammys, moving on to the Oscar nominations and ending up with Charlie Sheen's car going off a cliff, this was quite the week.

And since there was so much news, we won't waste time with platitudes (must have heard that word on Colbert or something).

Away we go:

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Taylor Lautner's latest project should please fans and detractors alike.

For those who love him, it's more screen time; for those who hate him, it's a chance to see the hunky teen get pulled limb from limb.

The New Moon star has landed yet another muscles-required role, this time that of action hero Stretch Armstrong in an upcoming Universal film based on the Hasbro toy.

Which, by the way, will be shot with that snazzy new 3-D technology.

"In the past two years, Taylor has emerged as a real star at the global box office," says Universal Pictures cochair Donna Langley. "He brings the perfect balance of energy and athleticism to the role of an unlikely superhero with a fantastic super power. We couldn't be more pleased that he has agreed to be our Stretch."

Expect Stretch Armstrong to spring into theaters in 2012.

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See who's doing what in the near future in our Casting Couch gallery.

There's something to be said for the bright side.

Queen Latifah, Pharrell Williams and Sean "Diddy" Combs—and dozens of their famous friends—presided over SOS Saving Ourselves: Help for Haiti, which aired Feb. 5 on BET, MTV and VH1, the latest massive celebrity effort to aid the earthquake-ravaged nation.

With everyone from Spike Lee to Justin Bieber to Mike Tyson answering phones and with Bill Clinton and Busta Rhymes taking the stage, the mood was serious but decidedly upbeat, with individual stories of perserverance and courage providing a much needed ray of light amid the grief and devastation that continue to roll out of Haiti.

Not that George Clooney and Wyclef Jean's Hope for Haiti Now benefit wasn't beyond inspiring.

But the performances tonight, many of which were artists doing their own hits, made you want to smile more than cry. And the people of Haiti could probably use a few more of those.

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Remember when Jim Carrey was just funny?

The French knight and ladylove Jenny McCarthy are speaking out again on behalf of their pet cause, the continuing quest to prove a link between childhood vaccinations and autism, an incredibly controversial issue that has scared many and polarized many more.

The latest thorn in their collective side is what they perceive to be the virulent smear on the character and work of British gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield, who authored a landmark paper in 1998 about the possibility that 12 patients with autism and bowel disease were affected by their MMR vaccines.

According to Carrey and McCarthy, Wakefield is now having an awful time getting his current work published, for no good reason other than corporate treachery.

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