Jay Leno

Jay Leno
Born	(1950-04-28) April 28, 1950 Template:Country data USA-NY New Rochelle, New York, USA
Occupation	Late night talk show host
Spouse(s)	Mavis Nicholson Leno (November 30, 1980 - present)
Website	NBC Official Site

James Douglas Muir "Jay" Leno (born April 28, 1950) is an Emmy-winning American comedian who is best known as the current host of NBC television's long-running variety and talk program The Tonight Show. He also owns Big Dog Productions, a company that co-produces the show.

Early years

Jay Leno was born in New Rochelle, New York. His mother, Catherine Muir, was born in Scotland and came to the United States as an eleven year-old. His father, Angelo Leno, was born in New York to Nicolina Garafola and Pasquale Leno, immigrants from Flumeri, Italy. Leno grew up in Andover, Massachusetts, and received his Bachelor's degree in Speech therapy from Emerson College in 1973. In the late 1970's, he was the warm-up act for Johnny Mathis, Tom Jones and John Denver. He replaced Johnny Carson as host of The Tonight Show in 1992.

Acting, cameos and voice acting

Leno and Shirley]] and Alice.

Since becoming the including jokes at Leno's expense. Leno would respond with segments at the end of his monologue team match. The stipulations of the match were that if Leno Happearance for Fox NFL Sunday in a fictitious interview with prognosticator Frank Caliendo's impression of Terry Bradshaw. In 2006, he provided the voice of an armadillo named "Fast Tony" in Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, and in the Pixar/Disney film Cars he voiced "Jay Limo". He made a cameo appearance in an episode of TV sitcom Just Shoot Me!, in a fictitious interview with David Spade's character, Dennis Finch. He made at least one appearance one has also appeared on

Michael Jackson trial

In the 2005 trial of Michael Jackson over allegations of child abuse, Leno appeared as a defense witness (many celebrity defense witnesses had been expected, but Leno was one of the few who actually testified). As a witness in the case, Leno was initially not allowed to continue telling jokes about Jackson or the case, which had been a fixture of The Tonight Show's opening monologue in particular; however, he and his show's writers exploited a legal loophole by having Leno briefly step aside while stand-in comedians took the stage and told jokes regarding the trial. Stand-ins included Roseanne Barr, Drew Carey, Brad Garrett, and Dennis Miller, among others.

After NBC challenged the gag order, the judge permitted Leno to make jokes, as long as they were not related to his testimony. After the gag order was lifted, the next show featured a monologue entirely of Michael Jackson jokes.

In his testimony, the defense expected him to say he called police to say the accuser was coached by his mother to ask for money. Instead, Leno testified he never called the police, no money was asked for, and there was no coaching but that the calls seemed unusual and scripted.

Vehicle collection

In automobile collecting circles, Jay Leno is known as an avid student, collector and restorer of cars and motorcycles. He has a large antique car collection on which he constantly works in his spare time, and he routinely drives cars from his collection

Criticism

George Lopez attacked Leno during an interview on radio station WOMX-FM in Orlando on January 24, 2007. "He's the biggest two-faced dude in TV," Lopez said of Leno. He also called him a back-stabber and said he cannot interview guests well. Later, Comedian Paul Rodriguez claimed Leno approached him at a comedy club mistakenly believing he was fellow Latino comedian George Lopez (who has publicly criticized Leno). According to Rodriguez, Leno said; "Listen, maybe you and I should sit down and work this out. We shouldn't be airing this stuff in public." Rodriguez was reportedly hurt by Leno's mistake; "I've worked with him for going on 30 years. Our families know each other. I thought I was on the inside of Jay's circle. When Letterman was kicking his buns, I told my Latino viewers to support Jay. I don't know what makes people so forgetful. Maybe it's time for Conan [O'Brien] to come on [as Leno's replacement]."

Howard Stern has criticized Leno for stealing material from him, and for being such a "safe" interviewer. Most notably, Stern says Leno blatantly stole the idea for the 'Jaywalking' segment, where Leno asks people on the street basic intelligence/current event questions, from his show. Stern was also upset with Leno for poaching announcer "Stuttering" John Melendez from his staff.

Talk show host David Letterman has called Leno a "hump" and a "pinhead" on the Late Show.

In April, 2007, Leno was criticized by The Sons of Confederate Veterans organization over a monologue joke he made during the Don Imus scandal. Leno stated; "They say [Imus] is still working on raising funds for his favorite charity, the sons of the Confederacy." Sons of Confederate Veteran's Commander in Chief Christopher Sullivan responded to Leno's statement; "While it is regrettable that Mr. Imus made his racially charged and derogatory comments about the Rutgers ladies basketball team, it is equally offensive that Mr. Leno would attack Southerners the way he did. Mr. Leno ought to apologize for his offensive remarks."

External links

• Official Tonight Show Web Site
• Jay Leno's Car Collection
• New York Times on Leno's affiliation with McPherson College
• Live Performance Videos from the Tonight Show

• Jay Leno at IMDb