Winfrey to interview Palin next month

Sarah Palin will sit with Oprah Winfrey next month for the first interview from the former Alaska governor since she stepped down from office.

Palin will appear in part to promote her book, “Going Rogue: An American Life,” which will be released that week.

It is so far the only interview announced this fall for the former vice presidential candidate, and it will be her first time on “Oprah.”

Although Winfrey has been known to nail down some big interviews on her popular daytime show, the most newsmaking sessions have usually been along the lines of entertainment figures such as Tom Cruise or Whitney Houston.

There are no plans for Palin to appear on “Late Show With David Letterman” where a recurring comedy bit has been “Things More Fun Than Reading the Sarah Palin Memoir” (No. 61, getting run over by a lawn mower; No. 14, driving into a tree; No. 45, walking into traffic).

Another ‘Dancing with the Stars’ celebrity sinks

Los Angeles — Natalie Coughlin won’t be going for the gold on “Dancing with the Stars.”

The Olympic swimmer and her professional partner, Alec Mazo, were eliminated Tuesday from ABC’s popular dancing competition. The pair received a total score of 22 out of 30 from the show’s judges for their paso doble Monday. After viewer votes were combined with the judges’ scores, the 27-year-old Olympic gold medalist was eliminated from the show.

“I guess I didn’t show it, how much I loved it,” said Coughlin, “but I really did, and I’m sorry.”

The nine remaining celebrity contestants competing for the “Dancing with the Stars” mirrorball trophy are entertainer Donny Osmond, actress Melissa Joan Hart, model Joanna Krupa, professional snowboarder Louie Vito, former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Michael Irvin, singers Mya and Aaron Carter and TV personalities Mark Dacascos and Kelly Osbourne.

Nature calls, standup title eludes Chappelle

Los Angeles — Dave Chappelle could be holding Hollywood’s comedy endurance record if he’d only been able to hold something else.

The comic, who famously walked away from a $50 million deal four years ago to continue his Comedy Central TV show, was on stage at the Laugh Factory on Sunday, seemingly on his way to setting the club’s endurance record for continuous standup comedy.

But then, five hours into his routine, he walked away to go to the bathroom and was disqualified, said club owner Jamie Masada.

The audience wasn’t happy, Masada said, but he insisted that rules are rules where endurance comedy is concerned.

“There are only two rules,” Masada said Tuesday. “You have to continuously tell jokes that are funny and you can’t leave the stage, even to go to the bathroom.”

The result: the seven-hour, 34-minute marathon performance that Dane Cook turned in last year stands as the club’s record.

The late Richard Pryor set the original record, two hours and 41 minutes, in 1980. Cook broke it 27 years later with a three-hour, 50-minute set.

Chappelle raised the bar to six hours, seven minutes before Cook took the record back last year.