The End of the Affair

There's no telling what will happen to love once you run it through the cultural wringer, but we at Movieline HQ gave it a shot this week anyway. The results were mixed: Sure, we witnessed an unprecedented criminal drama and ignited an international incident, but the tenderness of a few key names and faces shone through as always. Revisit them after the jump, and have a great weekend!

· David Letterman got a little careless with his canned ham, sparking an alleged extortion plot, an apology, our re-introduction to Stephanie Birkett, a ratings spike and a feminist protest. He still had a better week than Jay Leno, who simply got Southland canceled.

· Then we gulped hard and sussed out which other series are likeliest to be canceled this fall.

· Oprah Winfrey and Mo'Nique might be slipping on the Precious front, but Tyler Perry and Lee Daniels picked up their slack. To which Pete Hammond naturally responded, "What's Precious?"

· All it took was Harry Connick Jr. and five guys in blackface to destroy more than 100 years of American/Australian relations.

· Roman Polanski stayed in lockup, as did the ballad citing him as "the personification of love." Chris Rock wasn't complaining.

· It was another doozy of a week for Movieline's interview archives, now featuring Peter Sarsgaard, Juliette Lewis, Abigail Breslin, Julianne Nicholson, Jason Ritter and Jess Weixler, Gabrielle Union, Modern Family's Ty Burrell and Steven Levitan, an encore from Christina Hendricks, and Verge selectee Landon Pigg. John Woo, meanwhile, made a tiny cameo ahead of leading role here next week.

· You what's a little more depressing than the end of the world? Try the girl-oriented films on this list that opened better than Whip It.

· Curb Your Enthusiasm's Seinfeld arc earned a variation on the indispensable Mad Men Power Rankings.

· Rookie director Peter Billingsley might have acceded to re-cut and soften Couples Retreat. But at least we'll always have his Arcade, this week's Bad Movie We Love.

· Twitter lost a Miley and gained a Tracy.

· David Caruso earned special consideration in our survey the network TV's most scandalous sex scenes. Jim and Pam's Office boremance, alas, did not.