Piers Morgan

By John R. Lott Jr. With horrible tragedies fresh in everyone's mind, including Newtown, people are understandably wondering what can be done to prevent yet another tragedy. Alas, the mainstream media have already concluded that more gun control must be the answer. Passions run high on both sides. As of Thursday morning, more than 80,000 Americans had signed a White House petition asking that CNN anchor Piers Morgan, a vocal proponent of banning guns, be deported. Another petition urging the White House to "Keep Piers Morgan in the USA" had generated 4,500 signatures.

  Britney Spears and brand-spanking-new fiance Jason Trawick celebrated their engagement and Trawick's 40th b-day over the weekend with dinner at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Vegas and dancing at Chateau nightclub. Brit's engagement ring is reportedly a 3-carat rock with diamond pave band designed by Neil Lane . Not quite as big as the     5.5-carat ring Brit got from K-Fed in 2005, but it'll do. Justin Bieber was also in Vegas on Friday to film a private concert at Whitney Elementary School for The Ellen DeGeneres Show . Biebs distributed a literal truck full of toys, including fluffy white stuffed dogs, and has promised the school's 650 low-income students a $100,000 donation.

NCIS (8 p.m., CBS3) - The team discovers that a former NCIS investigative assistant found fatally stabbed had been selling information to a gang of robbers. America's Got Talent (8 p.m., NBC10) - Sharon Osbourne, Piers Morgan and Howie Mandel return as celebrity judges. Great Performances (8 p.m., TV12) - Carnegie Hall 120th Anniversary Concert with violinist Gil Shaham, pianist Emanuel Ax, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and singer-actress Audra McDonald performing with the New York Philharmonic.

Delaware's tea party heroine, Christine O'Donnell , on Friday told Good Day Philadelphia on Fox29 (WTXF-TV) that she walked off Piers Morgan 's CNN show not because he asked about gay marriage, but because he couched the query as part of "this barrage of this intimate, really borderline creepy questioning. " Her stance on the topic? "My position is . . . just like Barack Obama 's," she said. "I support state rights but . . . I do believe that churches should be able to define marriage as their religion dictates.

DURING SATURDAY'S finale of "Britain's Got Talent," the galaxy's favorite singer, Susan Boyle, appeared so tense, it was as if rigor had sent in. It was painful to watch her try to control her nerves. So it wasn't really surprising yesterday when word came from across the pond that Boyle was being treated for exhaustion at London's Priory Clinic, checking in a day after she finished second to the dance troupe Diversity, the London Sun reported. "Nobody has had to put up with the kind of attention Susan has had. Nobody could have predicted it," show judge Piers Morgan told a British breakfast show.

Michael Vick was supposed to appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show on Thursday. Some people thought that was a big deal. The interview never happened. Vick backed out. Some people thought that was a big deal, too. It wasn't. Let's start at the beginning. When Oprah Winfrey initially scored the interview, the self-righteous, antigambling, ne'er-do-wrong crowd - which, in my experience, is often the same as the soporific, no-fun crowd - freaked out because a wager was reportedly involved.

THE BRITISH court can giveth and it can taketh away. It's the latter part that probably has Brit superduper model Naomi Campbell a bit teed today. Girlfriend faces a legal bill of at least $1.1 million after a three-judge appeals court panel ruled in favor of a tabloid, which had published a photo of the jetsetting model leaving a London rehab center. Campbell had been awarded $5,450 - and hundreds of thousands in court costs - in a judgment against the Daily Mirror in March for breaching her privacy by reporting correctly that she had visited a drugs clinic.

WHEN BIANCA RYAN writes that back-to-school essay next month about how she spent her summer vacation, she'll probably need a second page. Then again, maybe she'll just bring in a videotape. The 11-year-old from Mayfair last night became the $1 million winner of NBC's "America's Got Talent" after winning more votes than nine other acts who performed in the show's finals Wednesday night. Looking stunned and tearful, Bianca told host Regis Philbin, "I don't even know" when he asked her how she felt about the win. By that time, like viewers at home, she'd had to wait through a seemingly interminable number of variety acts until, at 9:55 p.m., she finally learned that she was in the Top 5, and a few minutes later, the Top 3. Runners-up: another 11-year-old, Tennessee yodeler Taylor Ware, and a family of traditional Irish dancers and musicians from California known as Celtic Spring.

How does America's Got Talent, which is basically a bad copy of The Gong Show, the most monumentally vapid series that ever aired, make such compelling TV? First of all, Talent has upgraded at several skill positions, bringing in Jerry Springer as MC this season and replacing bland female judge Brandy with the fiery Sharon Osbourne. Then it lets its freak flag fly. In the season opener, Osbourne got so mad at fellow jurist Piers Morgan that she stormed off the set. Morgan had just offered some withering criticism to a 9-year-old dancer so tacky she made the kid in Little Miss Sunshine look like Shirley Temple.

IS THIS THE BEGINNING of Howard Stern's "George Foreman moment"? Yesterday, it was announced the Sirius-XM satellite radio host and human lightning rod had signed with NBC-TV to replace Piers Morgan on "America's Got Talent," where he'll join Howie Mandel and Sharon Osbourne on the judges' panel. So far, no financial details of the contract have been released (although $15 million a year has been kicked around in the media), but the deal does mandate that the show move production from Los Angeles to Stern's New York home base.

By John R. Lott Jr. With horrible tragedies fresh in everyone's mind, including Newtown, people are understandably wondering what can be done to prevent yet another tragedy. Alas, the mainstream media have already concluded that more gun control must be the answer. Passions run high on both sides. As of Thursday morning, more than 80,000 Americans had signed a White House petition asking that CNN anchor Piers Morgan, a vocal proponent of banning guns, be deported. Another petition urging the White House to "Keep Piers Morgan in the USA" had generated 4,500 signatures.

A petition calling on the government to deport Piers Morgan for voicing antigun views had amassed more than 47,000 signatures Monday, three days after it was posted on the White House's petition website by Infowars.com. Morgan has called for stricter gun-control laws in the wake of the massacre in Newtown, Conn., and called a gun advocate who appeared on his CNN show an "unbelievably stupid man. " The petition demands that Morgan, a foreign national, "be deported immediately for his effort to undermine the Bill of Rights" and for using his TV show "to stage attacks against the rights of American citizens.

"I'VE LOVED 'The Lion King' since I was little. Well, littler," jokes Jackie Evancho as the introduction to "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" in her new concert extravaganza. Evancho will debut the official U.S. live stage concert "Songs from the Silver Screen" at the Mann Center on Saturday. On Sept. 16, a previously taped "Music from the Movies" will air (in truncated form with pledge breaks) on WHYY-TV 12 at 5 p.m. Evancho's concert is quite the lush and lyrical production, starring one of contemporary music's most curious and intriguing success stories.

FOX "GOOD DAY NEW YORK" anchor Greg Kelly was off the air yesterday morning. He's been accused of sexually assaulting a woman. This is not only a journalistic problem for New York's local Fox station; it's a police problem also. Greg's father is longtime NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly . The alleged victim said she had drinks with Greg on Oct. 8, then went back to her office, where he assaulted her, a source told the Associated Press. It's not clear why she waited until Tuesday to go to police, who quickly turned the case over to the Manhattan D.A.'s office because of the potential conflict of interest.

REBECCA BLACK'S icky "Friday" video has topped all other YouTube vids of 2011 with 180 million views. This is the level of non-news culture you will inherit when newspapers are no more - one of fake Jon Bon Jovi -is-dead stories that traverse the Internet like the Silver Surfer, babbling babies, genius cats and insipid songs like "Friday. " The second-most-popular video, announced yesterday by the Google-owned YouTube, was "Ultimate Dog Tease," in which an owner taunts a dog with food and voices its reactions.

  Britney Spears and brand-spanking-new fiance Jason Trawick celebrated their engagement and Trawick's 40th b-day over the weekend with dinner at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Vegas and dancing at Chateau nightclub. Brit's engagement ring is reportedly a 3-carat rock with diamond pave band designed by Neil Lane . Not quite as big as the     5.5-carat ring Brit got from K-Fed in 2005, but it'll do. Justin Bieber was also in Vegas on Friday to film a private concert at Whitney Elementary School for The Ellen DeGeneres Show . Biebs distributed a literal truck full of toys, including fluffy white stuffed dogs, and has promised the school's 650 low-income students a $100,000 donation.

IS THIS THE BEGINNING of Howard Stern's "George Foreman moment"? Yesterday, it was announced the Sirius-XM satellite radio host and human lightning rod had signed with NBC-TV to replace Piers Morgan on "America's Got Talent," where he'll join Howie Mandel and Sharon Osbourne on the judges' panel. So far, no financial details of the contract have been released (although $15 million a year has been kicked around in the media), but the deal does mandate that the show move production from Los Angeles to Stern's New York home base.

Maybe where they would live is just one of the conversations Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries needed to have. Seems that Miami Dolphin Reggie Bush , an old flame, may be a part of the field that needed clearing out. Someone at N.Y.C.'s Bar Masa has confirmed widespread reports that Kardashian met up with Bush two days before she filed for divorce from Humphries. The source told Hollywood Life: "Kim and Reggie ate here, but that's all we can say. We've been told not to speak about it. " Well, we won't tell anybody either.

Delaware's tea party heroine, Christine O'Donnell , on Friday told Good Day Philadelphia on Fox29 (WTXF-TV) that she walked off Piers Morgan 's CNN show not because he asked about gay marriage, but because he couched the query as part of "this barrage of this intimate, really borderline creepy questioning. " Her stance on the topic? "My position is . . . just like Barack Obama 's," she said. "I support state rights but . . . I do believe that churches should be able to define marriage as their religion dictates.

Dylan Andre hasn't spent his whole life yearning for stardom. He started singing and playing guitar at 18 - spring of last year. And forget about reading music or any formal training. "Even to this day, some of the chords I'm playing I have no idea," said the 19-year-old Perkiomen Valley High grad, who lives in Zieglersville. Yet he's one of the 48 finalists on TV's top-rated summer show, America's Got Talent , which begins its Hollywood showdowns - and cut-downs - at 9 Tuesday night on NBC10.