The Improv at Harrah’s Las Vegas, which is affiliated with Los Angeles’ Improv comedy club, has begun a contest to find the “next funniest person” in the US. The contest is being held in conjunction with the release of the movie “Funny People” on DVD and Blu-Ray. To win, you must video yourself for at least one minute performing your best jokes, upload the video to the “Funny People” section of comedy website ijoke, and wait for a panel of pros to pick you — with any luck.  Budd Friedman, who founded The Improv and has helped the careers of Jay Leno, Sarah Silverman, Adam Sandler and others, is one of the people sponsoring the contest, which runs two weeks from Nov. 24 to Dec. 8.

The panel of judges will pick 5 videos that will be posted on ijoke no later than Dec. 14, and people can then vote. From there, three finalists will be chosen and flown to Las Vegas to perform at The Improv at Harrah’s. One winner will be chosen from the group of three and win a grand prize of a six-night gig at the club in 2010 — not too shabby, as Sandler might say.

So, if you are reading this in the States and the turkey has settled in and you’re wondering what’s next. Look in the mirror at that newly rounded stomach of yours and smile. Then, take out your video camera and make the rest of us laugh. For more info, click here.

While Nigel praised Victor’s strong solo and growth, he did not mince words with Nathan Trasoras. For a moment even, it almost seemed like Nigel was leading up to sending Nathan home. He concluded his critique by pointedly telling Nathan if it were up to him, this would be the end of the road for the young dancer. He then turned to Victor and announced he was going home.

The decision came as part of what judges called “the most important results show of the season.” The 10 remaining dancers are guaranteed a spot on the North American tour next year and, more importantly, the judges no longer have a say in their fates. Whether this will be a good or bad thing for Nathan remains to be seen.

From the start, judges marked Nathan as a “brilliant” dancer who would have a strong fan base. This seemed to prove true at first, despite at least one particularly messy routine. But in the last two weeks, the audience love has cooled, with judges speculating about a possible backlash over glimpses of his relative immaturity.

On a dancing level, the judges seem pleased at the prospect of splitting up Nathan and his partner Mollee Gray.

“You’re going to have the opportunity to have new partners to make you grow,” said Adam Shankman. “I think you keep each other on the immature side [with your dancing].”

Did the judges make the right decision? Are you a fan of Nathan Trasoras or is he overrated?

Join us live on Twitter @Reuters_Fanfare for the east coast airing of the show.

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE: Host Cat Deeley says farewell to eliminated contestants Victor Smalley (L) and Karen Hauer (R) on SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE ©2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: Kelsey McNeal/FOX

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE: Top 20 finalist Nathan Trasoras, 18, is a Contemporary dancer from Downey, CA. Currently Resides: Downey, CA. ©2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Joe Viles/FOX

The 67-year-old spoke of what he felt when he performed at a Q and A session in London late on Wednesday. “If I’m doing something like ‘Something’ — the song — obviously I’m thinking of George (Harrison),” he said in comments quoted in the British press. He was promoting his new live CD and DVD “Good Evening New York City”.

“It’s great actually. I really like it. In a way I’m revisiting them … Similarly with John and Linda. In a way you’re kind of in contact with them again you know. And it’s sad, it’s emotional.”

John Lennon was killed in New York in 1980 at the age of 40. Linda McCartney died of breast cancer in 1998 aged 56.

We’re not taking anything away from Donny, but we note that he’s been singing and dancing since he was a kid with the Osmond Brothers. He’s had hit records, hit TV shows, hit Broadway shows and hit Las Vegas shows. How hard could “Dancing” have been?

Well, a lot harder than, we admit, we thought. Turns out Donny was dancing on a broken toe! (Read about that here).

We also feel somewhat sorry for sister Marie. It seems she was always second fiddle to her older brother, even when they shared the stage on their old “Donny and Marie” show in the 1970s. She also competed on “Dancing with the Stars” in a previous season, and she finished third. Last night, after Donny held his trophy over his head, hugged his partner Kym Johnson and brought his wife on the ballroom floor, Donny rushed into the audience and dragged Marie out there, too. Donny was No. 1 again. Did he have to rub Marie’s face in it?

Maybe we’re being a little too hard on the teen heartthrob and “Puppy Love” singer. After all, we do like the fact that he transcended childhood stardom and became a real professional as an adult. Danny Bonaduce, (The Partridge Family) he is definitely not. And Michael Jackson?

Still, he entered the show with a leg up on all the competition, which only makes us wonder, did he deserve it over the others?

(Photo Credit: Adam Larkey; American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.)

For the dancers who remain after Wednesday night’s elimination, next week will bring new styles and a new partner. So who will the shake-up help and who will it hurt?

Topping the list of those who may feel the squeeze is Ashleigh Di Lello. Last week, we speculated that without her partner Jakob Carr, Ashleigh may find herself in trouble. Jakob’s strength was certainly evident in their first number, with judge Adam Shankman saying the only flaw was his pants. But Ashleigh got high praises after their second number, a cha-cha, with judge Nigel Lythgoe again saying that those who questioned her abilities in Vegas were eating their words.

“That may have been a cha-cha, but you are waltzing through to the top 10,” said Nigel of the performance.

Mollee Gray may also find herself in a bad place when her partnership with Nathan Trasoras breaks up. The couple seem to have been buoyed by Nathan’s popularity and Mollee may not fare so well with voters on her own. But a more mature partner could prove to give her the push to make it through to the top 4.

Meanwhile, if Karen Hauer makes it through the elimination, she will need to connect with one of the stronger men if she hopes to survive another week. A fresh partner may also prove the right move for Noelle Marsh, who has done well with Russell Ferguson, but may shine with someone else.

As for who will be headed home this week, expect to see Karen and partner Victor Smalley among the bottom three couples. As for the rest - it really is anyone’s game right now.

Who do you think will benefit from the partner switch up? Which dancers do you want to see in the Top 10?

Join us live on Twitter @Reuters_Fanfare for the east coast airing of the show.

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE: Jakob Karr (L) and Ashleigh Di Lello (R) perform a Lyrical Jazz routine choreographed by Sonya Tayeh on SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE on FOX. ©2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Kelsey McNeal/FOX

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE: Nathan Trasoras (L) and Mollee Gray (R) perform a Can-Can choreographed by Tyce Diorio on SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE on FOX. ©2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Kelsey McNeal/FOX

So when he took the stage on Sunday night at the American Music Awards and simulated oral sex with a back-up dancer, kissed a male keybordist on the mouth and gestured to the audience with his middle finger, he was bound to lose some of that broad “Idol” audience. Lambert all but said as much when he told Rolling Stone magazine that if his performance “offends (people), then maybe I’m not for them.”

But was it right for Lambert to put on such a sexually charged performance at the AMAs on network television, shortly before 11 p.m. on the East and West Coast and before 10 p.m. Central Time, when some teens and younger viewers might still have been watching the show? Does Lambert bear a special responsibility to reign in his sexual provocation, since he presumably has many young fans from his “Idol” days?

ABC on Tuesday canceled Lambert’s scheduled appearance on its “Good Morning America” as a result of his performance at the AMAs, after it received more than 1,500 complaints about his stage antics, but the singer has other TV appearances lined up.

Of course, the fact that Lambert is openly gay plays a significant role in the controversy. Last week, Aaron Hicklin, the editor-in-chief of gay magazine “Out” posted an open letter to Lambert after the singer posed for a cover shot. In the letter, Hicklin said that Lambert’s record label and management insisted that the magazine “must avoid making (Lambert) look ‘too gay’” and that they insisted he only appear on the cover in a group shot, not by himself.

Hicklin also criticized Lambert’s appearance in the magazine Details, in which he was photographed cupping the breast of a statuesque, nude female model. Hicklin suggested it would have been more radical to pose with a guy.

Lambert responded to Hicklin’s criticism by telling Entertainment Weekly magazine that Hicklin “has his agenda and has his opinions, which I respect, but they’re not necessarily my opinions” and that the editor “really crossed a line” with his criticism.

Was Lambert’s AMA performance a bid to reclaim some street cred by putting his sexuality front and center?  Lambert defended it by telling Rolling Stone “there’s a double standard” in the entertainment world. “Female performers have been doing this for years — pushing the envelope about sexuality — and the minute a man does it, everyone freaks out,” he told the magazine.

Either way, the “Idol” singer has put the lie to one early criticism of his performance style. When Lambert lost to Kris Allen in the “Idol” finale in May, New York Times critic Jon Caramanica wrote that Lambert, a former musical theater performer, showed himself to be just “an old-fashioned song-and-dance man” and that “if he was hiding something, it wasn’t his sexual preference, it was his conservatism.”

No one is saying that about Lambert now. But did he go too far?

“Did I trip a little bit? I don’t even remember,” the “Jenny from the Block” singer said on Monday morning to Ryan Seacrest on his Los Angeles radio show.

Lopez was laughing when she said that, and she followed it up with a joke — at least we at Fan Fare are taking it as a joke.

“Yeah I meant to do that,” she told Seacrest. “What are you talking about? You should know me better than that, that was part of the choreography.”

During the performance of her song “Louboutins,” Lopez walked on the backs of five male dancers as if she was climbing a staircase, and then jumped off the fifth man’s back and landed on her famously curvy backside. But in slightly less time than it takes for Auto-Tune to iron out bad vocals, Lopez was back on her feet, dancing and shaking.  Like nothing happened, right?

Well, not exactly. While it was probably overshadowed by “American Idol” runner-up Adam Lambert’s racy, controversial performance of his single “For Your Entertainment,” J.Lo’s fall also got plenty of attention.

Of course, J.Lo could always use this to her advantage. Before reality star Kim Kardashian came along, J.Lo had the most famous backside in Hollywood. Now that she has stamped a stage with it, J.Lo’s posterior is back in the news again.

It would appear that her recent acrimonious divorce from singer Peter Andre, whom, ironically, she met on an earlier series of the reality TV show, has done little for her standing in the eyes of the British public. Some commentators think the 31-year-old should have seen this coming.

Her departure leaves the show without its most high-profile and headline-generating contestant. That makes it two after Irish twins John and Edward Grimes were voted off the X Factor singing contest last night. ITV will be watching closely to see if the exits translate to lower viewing figures for two of its biggest shows.

So, the “terrible twins” from Ireland, John and Edward Grimes, have been booted off the X Factor, ending their skin-of-the-teeth, tip-of-the-fingernail existence on the show.

Once again in the bottom two of a public vote, Jedward were up against Olly Murs, the singer from Essex who was many tipsters’ favourite to win the show … at least until last night.

Rather than a high-octane, madcap dash around the stage surrounded by dancers and pyrotechnics, and a performance closer to shouting than singing, the spiky-haired duo surprisingly chose to sing a ballad, Boyzone’s “No Matter What”.

The plan backfired, with a rendition that exposed Jedward’s limited singing ability. The fact that the British media has dubbed Jedward the “tuneless twins” says it all really.

Murs was his usual accomplished self with a performance of Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight”, though clearly surprised to see himself scrapping it out with the also-rans.

Dannii Minogue had the last vote on the judging panel, and, for a change, declined to refer the decision to the public vote. She did, though, ask whether the X Factor was a singing competition before making up her mind – perhaps she ought to know the basic rules by now.

Louis Walsh, Jedward’s mentor, was sad to see his protégés go, and warned that the X Factor would be a duller place without them. Like Jedward or loathe them, perhaps he has a point?

Since when did girls start liking guys that stay up all hours at night — drinking? Blood, no less. Since when? Since always. And if a vamp knows how to bite more than her neck, all the better.

Vampire flicks have come a long way since Bella Lugosi, and while we’re a little young to have seen Lugosi in theaters, we do remember Jim Carrey and Lauren Hutton in “Once Bitten” (Today, that would be titled “Cougar Vampire”). We remember “An American Werewolf in London” and “Teen Wolf” — we’re allowed to mention werewolves given “New Moon” and its pack. And we can say, the beasts are doing far better today romancing the gals.

On the the subject of vamps, we note Johnny Depp was named People magazine’s sexiest man of the year (you can read about that here) last week. Johnny Depp? Everybody knows Robert Pattinson is the sexiest man — or is it Taylor Lautner? C’mon you “Twi-hards” (that’s a few of you pictured at the premiere at left), which is it: vampire Edward Cullen or werewolf Jacob Black? Pattinson or Lautner?

The movie smashed weekend box office records with a domestic haul of nearly $141 million (read that here), and we were out there again. We asked women: would they let Robert Pattinson drink their blood? The answer is below.