The lucky film students presenting trophies during last night’s Oscars were not the only “regular” folks to make it into the telecast. There was also of course Stephen Battaglio (pictured), the journalist whose byline adorned a series of fake next-day reviews referenced during an opening bit by host Seth MacFarlane and surprise remote guest William Shatner.

Although the logical assumption would be that Battaglio was in on the gag, the New York-based business editor for TV Guide was in fact blindsided. “I was home watching the Oscars with my wife,” he tells FishbowlLA via telephone, “saw the first version of the review come up and said, ‘Oh, that’s my name!’ It took me a few seconds to absorb, and then I just went with the joke.”

“I went on to Twitter and posted a tweet that said, ‘Yes, I wrote that,’” he continues. “Then it came up a second and a third time, at which point every single electronic device in the home was either vibrating, buzzing or ringing. It was kind of a wild moment to be a part of the media event that the whole world was focused on.”

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One of the more entertaining ways to crunch website analytics at the end of a calendar year is to take a look at search queries that were phrased in the form of a question. These types of pathways are extra emphatic, a Web search tool for those who want to confirm something very specific.

In 2012, the winner in the FishbowlLA Q-category was CBS LA weather forecaster Jackie Johnson. Four of the top 20 search-engine questions that led people to our site this year were about her, or more precisely, her significant other:

Jackie Johnson married? (#7)
Who is Jackie Johnson married to? (#12)
Who is Jackie Johnson engaged to? (#15)
Is Jackie Johnson married? (#19)

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On the original Star Trek series, William Shatner as Captain Kirk would typically command crew members to set their phasers on “stun.” With his very first Smartphone App Shatoetry, the enterprising actor is offering purchasers the choice of two different modes.

Solo mode allows one person to slice and dice recorded Shatner words into a stream than can be shared via email and social media. Co-op Mode puts the creative exercise on a timer and enables users (“Shatoetists”) to co-create sampled phrases (“Shatisms”) with their online friends.

“People all over the world have been listening to my voice for so long, but they’ve only ever heard what I wanted to say,” explains master of shameless self-promotion Shatner. “This is one of the first Apps to extend a celebrity brand in such an interactive way. Every time I use it, I enjoy it more and more.”

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It’s a relief to know the network has some limits, even if they’re only in place to appease advertisers. Comedy Central was happy to include convicted rapist Mike Tyson in the roast of Charlie Sheen, but all jokes made about Tyson’s history of sexual assault were edited out for Monday night’s broadcast.

Of course, those in attendance got an earful, and it caused some to shudder. From The Daily Beast:

Already culturally defanged by his appearances in the Hangover films, Tyson’s rehabilitation took another step forward as he joined the crew and sat gamely by, laughing his head off on the couch as comics took playful jabs at his record of sexual assault. William Shatner in particular distinguished himself with an extended bit walking the former champion through the right way to rape a woman and get away with it…. One wonders if Comedy Central called Tyson’s victim and asked whether she had any zingers she wanted to contribute.

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After a three-year, $12.3 million renovation, the operators of that goofy looking LAX centerpiece are partying like it’s 1967. Which is a good thing, because the 50-year-old edifice still looks like something right out of William Shatner‘s venerable Star Trek TV series.

To go along with recent nods from Esquire.com and Food & Wine, Encounter Restaurant was recently recognized by Frommers.com as a top ten U.S. airport restaurant. Per Chris Owen at travel blog Gadling.com:

The restaurant was created and is operated by a joint-venture partnership between Delaware North Companies Travel Hospitality Services, Inc. and Connie Bass, a Los Angeles entrepreneur and operator of the Ultimate Symphony Event Planners, a full-service event planning and gourmet catering service, and Cookies By Connie #1.

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According to the hilarious blog Shatner’s Toupee, we are well into the sixth decade of artificially enhanced William Shatner coiffure. The actor reportedly began wearing an on-screen toupee in 1957 and there are rumors of a more sophisticated 2000 real-life surgical procedure.

The Shatner toupee beat is a tough one to keep fresh, but the author(s) dredge up a hilarious cartoon comparison today for their post “A Wile E. Coyote Moment….” In reviewing a May 2010 appearance by Shatner on Lopez Tonight, focus is placed on the moment when the actor’s complimentary remarks about the talk show host’s hair stop dead in their ACME tracks.

As Bill reaches the hair part [of his comments], he evidently realizes that he is having something of a Wile E. Coyote moment. In the Warner Bros. series, the poor Coyote would sometimes get so enthusiastic in his futile chasing of the Road Runner that he’d suddenly realize he had run right of a cliff.

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Madame Tussaud’s Hollywood is the kind of attraction few LA locals would ever think of visiting, other than when the in-laws or other relatives are in town. But having stopped by over the weekend, FishbowlLA has some important holiday season news: if you’re struggling to come up with a kitschy photo for your 2010 Christmas card, this place is a goldmine!

When William Shatner was inducted into Tussaud’s, he reportedly exclaimed of his drip-doppelganger, “There’s wax in his ears!” Per the image below, that’s your trusty FBLA correspondent, wishing you a very Vulcan Xmas from the bridge of Starship Tussaud’s. (For good measure, it also says “Merry Xmas!!!” on my forehead.)

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It remains one of the strangest sights on Twitter, right up there with the more celebrated fact that TBS talk show host Conan O’Brien continues to follow but a single person, Michigan’s Sarah Slowik. In the shadow of the new Thursday night CBS sitcom $#*! My Dad Says, show creator Justin Halpern at press time similarly returns his 1,784,340 follow favors with just one – actor LeVar Burton.

“I checked out LeVar’s feed and all it said was, ‘Saw District 9. Awesome.’ And that just made me laugh!” Halpern confessed recently to TV Guide. Really, that’s it? (Although to be fair, Halpern was not directly answering a question about why he follows Burton, only offering general Twitter tips.)

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On Conan O’Brien last night, William Shatner read Sarah Palin‘s farewell speech as spoken word. This could possibly make us happy for the entire day if not week. Thank you Shatner. Thank you.

Via Twitter

Have A Food Fight With Tom Hanks: To benefit Shakespeare Festival/LA, you can bid on a speaking role – including an onstage food fight – in a staged reading of Taming of the Shrew with Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson Annette Bening, William Shatner, Christina Applegate, Sean Astin, Zach Braff and others. Bidding on EBay closes Thursday.

Elizabeth Snead Got To Go London And Hang Out with Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, Kim Cattrall and Cynthia Nixon (and Chippendale dancers) for the world premiere of Sex and the City: And we’re kinda jealous.

Make Shows Good: There. We just saved Disney millions of dollars. Of course, if the company still wants to blow wads of cash on the obvious, it should just go ahead and continue to develop its “emerging media and advertising research lab” to find out what makes viewers tune into different shows. But in the end, they’ll find we are right.