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“There is no such thing as bad press.”

I read something interesting about a certain star who has a movie opening this weekend but has done little to no press for it. Yes, I am talking about Owen Wilson and his movie Drillbit Taylor. L.A. Times ran an article yesterday about stars including Owen, whose lives have gotten in the way of film promotion. I am not referencing the L.A. Times piece directly, but comments made about the article. It seems Fox 2000 has had to make budget cuts on Marley and Me. Also Fox doesn’t put out alot of money for promotion of their movies, so they really rely on the stars shtick them. In other words, Jennifer and Owen need to do press for the film. There has been much talk about Jennifer Aniston’s movie draw, but according to numbers and Forbes she gets butts in the theater seats but with two major stars in the one movie, all press shouldn’t have to fall on Jennifer’s shoulders. We all know Owen could have done press for Drillbit but he didn’t want to because the inevitable would have been brought up.

For stars that do not want to do interviews for whatever reason, what is the next logically step for publicity? TABLOIDS These days it’s all you need to for extra and wanted pr. Ask Britney who had a successful album release of her latest musical adventure without doing one interview or performance. ( No that horrid MTV awards performance doesn’t count.) Maybe that is what happened when Owen Wilson and the girl he tried to kill himself over oddly trolled hand in hand in Miami last weekend making the cover of this week’s People Magazine. I saw the photos and they look odd. ( There is one of him and her at his private residence in Miami he’s renting as he films for the next two months.) How would a picture like be taken in the first place? Owen has notoriously not wanted his picture taken since he has been in Miami and then bam, there are clear, upclose photos of the two of them. Maybe he felt bad about dropping Drillbit to fend for its self and sold his soul to the tabloid media. See he did do promo!

So since Fox needs both Aniston and Wilson to promote their Christmas release, is it possible press has already started for the film? Maybe a love connection, triangle? If you read tabloids, there is a Marley love triangle trying to be brewed between the two stars. Nice way to drum up interest for the movie. I hear Star Magazine actually got a quote from a real person this time around. No denials came from either star’s rep so…

Report: Tonight Show Staffers All Out of Jobs

December 1, 2007

One thing’s certain about the Writers Guild of America strike, it follows no script.

The staff of the Tonight Show learned on Friday they were all out of jobs—but by Saturday, sources close to Jay Leno confirmed to PEOPLE that starting Monday, when workers face their first day off the NBC payroll, the talk show host will begin paying crew and band and other employees out of his own pocket.

This comes on the heels of NBC’s announcement that the network “regretfully informed the people who work on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with Conan O’Brien that their services are not needed at this time due to our inability to continue production of the shows.”

A show insider tells PEOPLE, “NBC kept the Tonight Show staff on the payroll until Friday and Jay has given the staff their usual Christmas bonus early this year. The bonus amount is based on the number of years the employee has worked for the show.”

And despite published reports, “the great majority of the staff was very grateful on Friday to get the holiday bonuses early,” said one show insider. “‘Jay never intended for that bonus to be his only step to help out.”

Earlier, several Tonight Show employees—on condition of anonymity—expressed dissatisfaction with Leno, telling the Hollywood Reporter that the comic had held a conference call early in the strike and, “told us not to panic.…He said: ‘I can’t get into details, but nobody will miss a car payment or lose their house. We’re family. Trust me. I’m going to take care of this.’”

Leno follows in the footsteps of his fellow NBC late night host Conan O’Brien, who announced earlier in the week that he would personally continue to pay his non-writing production workers once they were off NBC’s payroll at the end of November. —Brian Orloff and Pamela Warrick

Photo: Margaret Norton/NBC