The dramatic finale of celebrity tattoo artist Kat Von D's reality show "L.A. Ink" airs on TLC tonight, but the clip everyone is talking about right now is suddenly surfaced 2008 footage of Kat inking the milky-white lower back of a then-unknown singer-songwriter named Lady Gaga, which "leaked" online today.  

TLC claims no affiliation, but understandably isn't making any effort to have the footage taken down, since it serves as brilliant viral marketing for Kat's show. The video was in fact first uploaded to YouTube three whole years ago, but didn't receive a wide audience until the network sent the link out this morning, encouraging fans to share it. It's unclear why this video was made, or who shot and edited it, or why it was never promoted before today. But according to Radar Online, it was filmed right before the release of the then-22-year-old Gaga's debut album, The Fame, when Gaga was just another aspiring superstar living in Los Angeles.

"I worked with New Kids On The Block

Last year, following a teary goodbye on the "American Idol" Season 9 finale, Simon Cowell abandoned the show he built (or, some would say, the show that built him) to launch his own not-entirely-dissimilar Fox talent competition, "The X Factor." It was one of the biggest career gambles in television history--and not just because it led to a lawsuit against Fox by "Idol's" creator. Simon not only strutted away from a $36 million "Idol" paycheck (and a rumored offer of $100 million!) and the top TV show in America, but he vacated his judging posts on "Britain's Got Talent" and the British version of "The X Factor" to concentrate on his new U.S. series. Simon's "X Factor U.K." castmate Cheryl Cole also quit to join the American "X Factor" cast--only to be unceremoniously fired and shipped back to Britain after a couple of Stateside tapings. Additionally, legendary music executive L.A. Reid left his cushy gig at Island Def Jam to join "The X Factor USA," and Nicole Scherzinger, Cheryl's

"American Idol" has been nominated for an Outstanding Reality-Competition Emmy nine times, ever since the category was first introduced. But, despite being one of the most popular reality shows of all time, it has never won. It's in the running again this year, and the ninth time may be the charm--which means, ironically, that the show just may win for the one season that didn't feature the man who made it such a hit: star judge Simon Cowell, who walked away from "Idol" last year in one of the biggest career gambles in TV history.

But Simon is making it clear: If "American Idol" does win the Emmy this Sunday, he still deserves a statuette for his own mantel.

"I'd find it very amusing that after all these years, that the year I wasn't on it, it would win the Emmy. I think that would make me laugh. So it probably will," Simon chucklingly told reporters during a September 13 press tele-conference to promote his new Fox show, "The X Factor."

"I don't see it as threatening; I think it

The countdown to Simon Cowell's ultra-hyped new reality venture "The X Factor USA" continued this Sunday with a new eight-minute promo, featuring the first two contestant auditions to air in their entirety. Simon has made a big to-do about "The X Factor's" wider age range (unlike his former show "American Idol's" limit of 15 to 28), and the two contestants featured in this extended preview prove his point: When it comes to talent, age ain't nothing but a number.

Of course, the new clip includes the requisite montage of cringeworthy auditions that'll likely give Simon some William Hung flashbacks: an attitudinal instigator named Xander, a reject who leaves judge Nicole Scherzinger feeling "violated" after he drops his trousers onstage, and one guy who's so terrible, judge L.A. Reid coldly demands he be escorted from the premises. But it's 13-year-old Rachel Crow and 42-year-Stacy Francis, representing opposite ends of the "X Factor" age spectrum, that give the judges, and viewers, real