WEIRD & WILD: Martha and Rachael, together!

[UPDATED BELOW WITH PAIR PHOTO]

The name of the site is TV Worth Watching, so I guess I have to explain why I think Friday's episode of The Martha Stewart Show is worth watching, and you're about to see me (read me?) work real hard at that.

Martha's Friday guest is Rachael Ray. (Check local syndication airtimes.) And though I don't particularly like either one of these cooky/crafty homemade-rs, I feel strangely compelled to Be There.

It's sort of like learning Paul McCartney will duet with Michael Jackson on "The Girl Is Mine." These two people do the same thing for a living, but so differently that they don't belong together, and in fact seem diametrically opposed in about a dozen different ways. But who doesn't wanna check out the improbable hook-up?

Martha is all New England proper, and Rachael is all California out-there. Martha wants everything to be just-so, and Rachael just wants it done already. Yet they're the two people most responsible for the nice-up-your-nest steamroller.

They're also two of the most powerful self-made women in America, with their first-name "brands" strewn over everything from magazines to cookery to wastebaskets to Kohl's and Kmart. And daily TV shows, of course.

I'm more fascinated by that in the abstract than I am in the actual personalities who seem to attract millions of viewers to hours of airtime that I can't imagine sitting through.

But seeing them together? As Michael Jackson sang (sans McCartney): Got to be there.

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[UPDATED FRIDAY]

And there they were!

Who knew Rachael had never baked a pie? (Youthful trauma, don't ask.)

Martha helped her through the task of making apple-blackberry pie, perfect for the holidays.

And now Earth resumes spinning on its axis . . .