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Rock’s daughters want presidential playmates

Sasha and Malia Obama are sure to be popular in their new White House home, but among those lining up for a playdate are comedian Chris Rock's young daughters.
/ Source: msnbc.com

First daughters are popular by definition, but Barack Obama's girls Sasha and Malia's friend requests, to borrow from the parlance of Facebook, are becoming more impressive by the day.

Chris Rock told reporters in New York City, "(Obama's) girls are a little older than mine." (Malia is 10, Sasha 7. Rock's girls are 6 and 4). "My girls want a playdate. They look at the youngest and they're like, 'We can play with her, Daddy.' We'll see."

The Rock girls could take a play from the "Naked Brothers Band" playbook and write a song about Obama.

The star of that Nickelodeon series, 13-year-old Nat Wolff, was inspired by Obama to write the song "Yes We Can," which was played on the show's Dec. 13 Christmas special.

Wolff said, "He (Obama) got to hear the song and his daughters called me up and I talked to them and it was so cool.”

All of this of course raises the question of how long the Obama girls can live as normal a life as possible. While we await confirmation as to whether the future first daughters will appear on "Hannah Montana," the roster of celebs who will be turning up in Washington for Obama's inauguration continues to take shape.

Sting and Elvis Costello are slated to perform at the post-inaugural Creative Coalition ball (Anne Hathaway, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Seal, Adrian Grenier, Ashley Judd, Spike Lee and Ron Howard are expected to attend, too). Dionne Warwick will host The American Music Inaugural Ball. Lou Gossett Jr. will host the Purple Ball, and Cyndi Lauper and Melissa Etheridge will be at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation event.

Cruise to spin off ‘Thunder’ role in videoIt came as a surprise that Tom Cruise was nominated for a Golden Globe for his role of Len Grossman in "Tropic Thunder," but it's no surprise that Cruise, who is nothing if not opportunistic, is thinking of reprising the role — in videos.

Celebrity Sightings

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Celebrity Sightings

Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. on the "Let's Be Cops," red carpet, Selena Gomez is immortalized in wax and more.

He told E!,  "I've talked about doing different videos with the character. I've started working with Ben [Stiller] on it, and we've kind of talked about different things to do. We were gonna do some in our free time, but we haven't found the free time … yet."

A sort of brilliant move, if it can be pulled off. The surprise factor that went with seeing Cruise in a chest hair wig and fat suit was part of of what made the role a success, but that loss can be offset by making really good viral video.

They might not make tons of money, but it could help TC with a career boost, which he might need post-"Valkyrie."

‘Love Lock Down’ breaks down on ‘SNL’
The Dec. 13 episode of "Saturday Night Live" was the show's final new episode of 2008 (and Amy Poehler's last stint as she shifts focus to her new sitcom) and Kanye West's appearance as musical guest was appropriately hyped.

But when West performed "Love Lock Down," the sound was flukey at best and the performance sounded like bad karaoke.

What went wrong? One 'SNL' source was stymied, and assures that that it "wasn't the show's fault." 

West's blog offered no explanation, either, but in his defense, at least the performance proved that he's not just lip-syncing to a backing track like other "fierce" singers who came on the show  in 2008. One thing's for sure, the rehearsals sounded pretty good. Kanye, if there's a good explanation, reach out, please.

Weekend box officeAs expected, "The Day the Earth Stood Still" topped the weekend box office. It came in a little below some of its estimates, but the $31 million it did make is still strong. "Four Christmases" did another $13.3 million and in the third spot, "Twilight" earned another $8 million. The weekend's other new release, "Nothing Like the Holidays" came in 7th place and earned a pretty abysmal $3.5 million. Next weekend it will be lucky to earn half that, I predict, as three big releases hit theaters:  "Seven Pounds," "The Tale of Despereaux" and "Yes Man" all open.

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Courtney Hazlett delivers the Scoop Monday through Friday on msnbc.com.