Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check

Top talkables of the day:

Time magazine has unveiled its list of the top 100 "most influential people," a designation it broadly defines as "people who most affect our world."
   There's no "top 10" list of the entire 100. Rather, the names are divided into four categories: Leaders (BARACK OBAMA, NANCY PELOSI and SARAH PALIN all made the top 10), Heroes, Artists and Thinkers.
   LADY GAGA, STEVE JOBS, PAUL VOLCKER and SANDRA BULLOCK all made the list, as did SIMON COWELL, "Glee's LEA MICHELE, Indian eye surgeon PERUMALSAMY NAMPERUMALSAMY (pronounced "pair-room-al-SAH-me NAHM-pair-room-al-SAH-me," who has mastered the surgery of restoring sight to the blind), Tea Party leader JENNY BETH MARTIN, Iranian opposition leader MIR-HOSSEIN MOUSAVI and many, many social activists from all over the world. Oh, and CONAN O'BRIEN's also on there.
   It's all subjective, of course (Time editors explain the process), and sometimes, the online reader comments are funny for their politically partisan predictability. (Like someone's not gonna bag on Nancy Pelosi?)
   For the index, Time enlisted celebrities to write short essays about the top 100, so you've got TED NUGENT writing a blurb about Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin writes about GLENN BECK, and BONO for BILL CLINTON. Some of the blurbs border on fan worship, but others are more straightforward, like ROBERT DE NIRO singing the praises of BEN STILLER while calling him --quote-- "a pain in the ass." (But when De Niro does it, it feels like an endearing compliment.)
   The list is available online, as is Time's "Least Influential" list, which includes comedian CARROT TOP , RNC Chairman MICHAEL STEELE, and professional wrestling referees ("So few rules to enforce, and yet they always fail").
   Editors' notes: Kinda like radio DJs. (Maiman)
   --And say what you will about Ted Nugent, but admit it, you still crank "Cat Scratch Fever" as soon as you hear that first riff!" (Pacelli)

Guilty Pleasures:

No winner in Tuesday night's drawing for the Mega Millions Lottery. That means tonight's drawing is valued at $224 million ($138.1 million cash value). Mega Millions is played in 34 states and Washington DC. Chances of winning the big prize are 1 in 175.7 million.

JOHN EDWARDS' baby mama came clean to OPRAH WINFREY on her daytime talk show. Despite the common opinion that she's a homewrecker, RIELLE HUNTER claims there were problems between the one-time presidential candidate and his wife, ELIZABETH, long before she came along.
   Apparently Cupid shot a bow right through both their hearts, Rielle says the two had an immediate connection when they met back in February of 2006 and confessed the senator "lit up when he saw me." The feeling was mutual --she told him he was "hot," had a certain "energy" and there was something alive and authentic about her very married Prince Charming. (Lee)

Love this story --the actress who played Thelma Lou on "The Andy Griffith Show" was robbed last weekend --in the same town where the show was based.
   83-year-old actress BETTY LOU LYNN told the Mt Airy News that she moved to the country locale in 2007 to get away from crime-infested Los Angeles after living there for decades. The city throws a "Mayberry Days" celebration each year.
   Then, last Sunday, Betty Lou was robbed by a guy who grabbed her wallet with about $130 in it at a shopping center and ran. Not having her TV boyfriend, Barney Fife, around, the police were called and caught 45-year-old SHIRLEY WALTER GUYNN under a nearby bridge after a short chase. Unfortunately, he'd already spent nearly $100 bucks of Betty Lou's money. He's cooling his heels in the Surry County Jail until his court date on May 12.

Wanna know what CONAN O'BRIEN will be talking about on Sunday's "60 Minutes"? CBS has already released an excerpt from the interview in which he says if the roles were reversed with JAY LENO, he wouldn't have done what Jay did.
   "He went and took that show back," Conan says. "...and I think in a similar situation, if roles had been reversed, I know --I know me, I wouldn't have done that. If I had surrendered 'The Tonight Show' and handed it over to somebody publicly and wished them well --and then... six months later. But that's me, you know. Everyone's got their own, you know, way of doing things."

There are now more TV sets in the average American home than there are people:

   A new survey from the Nielsen company shows the average number of TV sets in a U-S household is 2.93, while the average number of people is just 2.5.