'Dangerous' Dave Draws Deep Crowd

Invitees were warned: "It could get dangerous." Still, many showed up for Comedy Central's kickoff party for Dave Chappelle's Chappelle's Show, the second season, last Tuesday at a nightclub called Deep in New York's Chelsea section.

(Season two, show-one numbers from last Wednesday: close to 3 million viewers, the best rating for a Comedy show's second-season premiere since South Park in 1998.)

There were some semi-tense moments, Comedy folks told us, when Ja Rule and his posse — reportedly 17 strong, including "a guy that collected the business cards of the reporters that wanted to talk to him" — appeared. Why? Because the rumor was some peeps associated with rival rapper 50 Cent also were expected to show up.

Happily, they didn't. The only fireworks that ensued were from camera flashes. "It was a great party," Comedy publicist Aileen Budow said.

Among the attendees: rappers Redman and Method Man, who apparently get thought of in tandem; Inspector Deck from Wu-Tang Clan; beauteous MTV VJ Vanessa Minnillo (of TRL) and even a Fuse VJ, Denis.

"They were filming inside too," Budow said of the Denis clan, joking that apparently a Comedy party was OK for Fuse folks to attend because Comedy is so new to the Viacom family. (Fuse has been poking fun at MTV in ads, don't cha know.)

Rosie Perez came, too, as did one pro football player each from the New York Jets, Denver Broncos and San Diego Chargers, although Budow said don't bother asking her for their names because she wouldn't have a clue. She was good with the rapper names, though.

DJ Cipha Sounds taught "scratch" lessons and CDs were cut of the amateur scratches, and Chappelle had Polaroids taken with many guests.

Dangerous? Dave? No way.

Net Exec to Exec Prod.

Here's one for the "where are they now?" file. A familiar name cropped up in a press release this week announcing yet another version of A Christmas Carol
for CBS next year.

A new musical version is being produced by The Hatchery, a new production and marketing venture headed by Margaret Loesch, former CEO of the Hallmark Channel and Fox Kids Network. Her producing partner is another deposed exec, Bruce Stein, former worldwide president and COO of Mattel Inc. and former president of Sony Interactive, where he helped launch PlayStation.

The Dickens musical, Scrooge, is the first television production for the partnership. The Hatchery has retained the services of Academy Award-winning composer Leslie Bricusse to work on the new version of the musical he penned in 1970. Casting hasn't been announced.

Chopper at Topspeed

When you're trying to grab attention, the cheap way is to go to the guys you know are already popular.

Seems America Online — in rebranding ads set to air next weekend during the Super Bowl — will go to a pair of Discovery Channel stars for its dose of popular culture.

According to Superbowl-ads.com, which tracks the comings and goings of the multimillion-dollar ads that have become a highlight of the contest, AOL has tapped the father-and-son team from American Chopper, Paul Teutul Sr. and Jr., to star in one of its ads, produced by Wieden & Kennedy.

They try to install TopSpeed, an "accelerator" in AOL 9.0, into a car, a radio-controlled airplane and motorcycle.

Sales Heaven

This wasn't how we'd spend the Martin Luther King day holiday, but in Port St. Lucie, Fla., about 100 hopefuls showed up to be the next queen (or king) of cubic zirconia for QVC.

The shopping channel is holding host searches throughout the country until the end of March to let some of its viewers vie at a chance to sell for a change. The contenders had to show up with an item to sell and prove they could wax prosaic over the virtues of, for instance, a stapler long enough to fill the on-air slot for such an item. (Sorry, we can't help but flash on a scene from Airplane where an air traffic controller is given a sheet of paper and asked, "What do you think of this?" "Well, it could be a brooch, or a hat… .")

Even those who flopped on their auditions got a chance to visit with frequent seller Joan Rivers. The comedienne also worked the floor in the QVC call center, signing autographs for employees and posing for pictures, QVC officials said.

The host search will also visit San Antonio, Texas; Chesapeake, Va.; Culver City, Ca., Providence, R.I., and Chicago.

Contributor: Kent Gibbons.