Lots Going On: New TVWW TV-to-Movie Contest, New Late-Night "Feud" with Fallon and Ferguson, and Lively New Comic Showcase on Showtime

There's so much going on, I'm going to try and catch up in one big burst. Today's column will cover a) the latest TV WORTH WATCHING TV-to-Movie contest, asking for opening-week box-office guesses for The A-Team; b) the latest late-night "war," this time between Jimmy Fallon and Craig Ferguson; and c) a delightful new talk show, The Green Room with Paul Provenza, premiering Thursday night at 10:30 ET on Showtime...

TV WORTH WATCHING A-TEAM CONTEST

If you didn't win anything in our last contest, or even if you did, it's time to try, try again. What do you think will be the opening-weekend box-office gross for The A-Team, the new remake of the awful 1983 NBC action series?

The rules are the same as for previous TV-to-movie contests. Guesses must be posted by noon ET Friday (in this case, June 11), and the prize will go to the person who guesses closest without going over. (Warning: Last time, that meant the prize went to a cynical but savvy contestant who guessed $2 and $1, respectively, for Sex and the City 2 and MacGyver.)

The prizes this time? Let's look around on my floor and see. Okay, the winner can choose from among:

1) A cool Fox Fringe cube, complete with snazzy Fox packaging.

2) A cool Caprica disc and flash drive, from Syfy, in an uber-cool futuristic acrylic case.

3) A jump rope from Lifetime's Diet Tribe.

4) A set of giant playing cards from Alice, also from Syfy.

Enter once. Visit often.

NEW LATE-NIGHT FEUD? A MICKEY MOUSE VERSION, PERHAPS...

Wednesday night in the late-night TV landscape, two networks conspired to do something requiring tricky timing and an unusual degree of cooperation. Because NBC's coverage of the Stanley Cup finals went into overtime, the plan was foiled on the East Coast - but West Coast viewers, especially channel-hoppers, were treated to something that may have been unprecedented.

On Tuesday's The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on CBS, the host -- who, since winning a Peabody, has taken to wearing a giant Mickey Mouse glove on occasion and waving to the camera -- followed an unscripted impulse and waved to rival NBC late-night host Jimmy Fallon, asking him to wave back.

The next day, producers for both shows collaborated on an impish followup, and timed the spots in their respective shows accordingly. Viewers on the West Coast, if they happened to be fervent flippers with their TV remotes, got the full effect.

First Fallon, on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, noted what Ferguson had done the night before, and sported his own Mickey Mouse glove while pretending to cry, threaten, and, eventually, wave back. Then, as soon as Fallon's bit was over, Ferguson, over at CBS, interrupted his opening monologue to note, with glee, that Fallon had just waved back at him.

Maybe it's only in a Disneyland world -- but hey, maybe we CAN all just get along...

MAKE SURE TO VISIT SHOWTIME'S "THE GREEN ROOM"

Paul Provenza, the comedian who directed The Aristocrats, clearly knows how to make fellow comics comfortable, and to get them to talk naturally about some very funny stuff. So it shouldn't be surprising that his new Showtime series, The Green Room with Paul Provenza, is as hilarious as it is.

But hey, this is one funny series -- one that Showtime should get behind, big time, for a very long stretch.

It's the most entertaining, and illuminating, look into the comedy mind since Sit Down Comedy with David Steinberg on TV Land -- but that series was one on one. In Green Room, Provenza plays host to four fellow comics, and the five of them, surrounded by audience members seated so close they share the same camera shots, just riff. Brilliantly.

The opener, televised Thursday night at 10:30 ET, features Eddie Izzard, Drew Carey, Larry Miller and Reginald Hunter. And if you're less familiar with Hunter than the others, that's the point of Provenza's booking strategy: Throw one talented relative unknown in with the comic celebrities, and watch them all swim in the deep end.

Each gets his turn to shine, and make you laugh out loud. Each takes turns being an appreciative audience, a riotous storyteller and a deady heckler. In episode two, Sandra Bernhard actually heckles herself, following her own personal story about abortion with a tossaway one-liner so brutal in its honesty, the others - including Roseanne Barr and Bob Saget -- sit there in appreciative, stunned silence. In episode three, Andy Dick makes the first joke about his court-mandated alcohol-monitoring ankle bracelet, but by no means the last.

These unscripted conversations are funnier than most sitcoms, and tossed in among the show-biz stories are valuable insights about comedy -- all peppered with enough genuine punch lines to have you worn out at the end of each half hour. So far, Showtime and Provenza have made six.

Order a dozen more, for starters. The Green Room with Paul Provenza has the confident feel and smell of a franchise show.