Cooking with Joel McHale

What does Joel McHale, host of the funny E! celeb roundup "The Soup," hope for in the new year? For Lindsay Lohan to keep on keepin' on. For Britney Spears to not depress us. And for the Seattle Seahawks to reach down deep and become just a little more like the Pats. We chatted with the Seattle-bred comedian - who's been out and about in Boston this week (including enjoying dinner at Radius). He'll play the Comedy Connection at the Wilbur Theatre tonight and tomorrow.

Q. So, Brady-Bundchen. Engaged? What's your call?

A. That's what I call three good knees. I wish he would date Benny Hinn, you know, a faith healer. But at least you guys have something to be sad about. I'm a Seahawks fan, and I was sad in the second week. I'm jealous of all the sports teams here, compared to Seattle's, which all [stink].

Q. What celeb stories are you looking forward to covering in '09?

A. Well, there's always Lindsay Lohan and her mother and family. She's the gift that keeps on giving. The poor girl, if she were totally cleaned up, it wouldn't matter. She'd come out of a restaurant and the paparazzi would be like, "Lindsay stumbled!" If 12 people are following you around all the time, asking you questions, you're going to do something bad. And I'm sure Tyra Banks will continue her reign of terror. We love her. We should pay her, we use her show so much.

Q. What about Britney? Can she keep it together?

A. I think that's part of her allure, the mystery. For her health's sake, I hope she does. For 'The Soup' 's sake, we'll enjoy it for about a week, then we'll have to lay off. It's fun for a little while, but then it's like, she has kids. This is kind of sad.

Q. We saw you paid a visit to Martha Stewart recently. Is she nice, or scary?

A. She was really nice to me. She was freakin' focused on that recipe - gingerbread shortbread. She realized very quickly I was going to screw it up, so she stepped in. I can see why she's a billionaire. It was so much more fun than I expected.

Q. So, you're no Julia Child?

A. I actually do cook, but when I have a chance to screw it up, I will. I said, 'Oh, this is a dream come true. A chance to screw up Martha Stewart's dish!'

Coleen Marren is the latest big name to depart Channel 5. The award-winning news director, who led WCVB's coverage for the past eight years, completed her last day Monday, spokeswoman Erin Duggan confirmed yesterday. After months of discussions with GM Bill Fine, Marren decided not to renew her contract and to "explore other ventures," she said. Marren couldn't be reached for comment, but she explained her decision in a letter to colleagues. "I am moving along in life but you must know this has not been an easy decision for me," she wrote. "The Channel 5 team is the best team of newsmen and women that I have ever had the honor to work with." During Marren's tenure, the station won a number of high-profile awards and launched its investigative news unit. Despite its successes, Channel 5 is suffering, along with other media outlets, from cutbacks in advertising. Fine told the Globe this month that the channel is reducing its payroll, mostly through attrition. Longtime anchor Jim Boyd is retiring, and other employees have been offered buyouts and early retirement.

Tracy Harding knows how to throw a party for a worthy cause. Last spring, writing a paper on Darfur inspired the 26-year-old student mom to throw a comedy fund-raiser for Doctors Without Borders. Now she's putting her energy into Comics for a Cure, a performance headlined by local comedians Nick DiPaolo, Gary Gulman, Kevin Knox, Kelly MacFarland, and host Joe List. Proceeds from the Jan. 9 concert at the Cutler Majestic Theatre will benefit the Children's Neuroblastoma Cancer Foundation. This time Harding said her inspiration is her 1-year-old niece, who lives in Texas and suffers from cancer. "She was so small and she had to go through chemotherapy for months and months." But, she added, after watching her sister-in-law and brother cope, "I really felt bad for the parents." So she sought out local parents in the same situation and a fund-raiser was born. "They're always trying to raise money," for research, she said. She quickly reached out to List, who e-mailed his friends, and the volunteer lineup came together practically overnight, she said. She's hoping the performance raises money and awareness but also gives families dealing with cancer a fun night out. "It's purposefully just comedy," she said.

We hear conservative yakker Todd Feinburg will make his guest host spot permanent, officially joining former House speaker Tom Finneran on WRKO every weekday morning, beginning Monday. Feinburg has hosted previously for the station, and also does the nationally syndicated "Todd Feinburg Show." The station also recently announced it has picked up the third-year option on Finneran's contract. "What a fabulous way to start the New Year," Finneran said in a release yesterday. "Todd is a great addition to the show. I will bring my rosary beads to pray for him during the first four years of the eight-year Obama administration."

It's probably tough enough to be a single mom, but now Bridget Moynahan has to tolerate questions about ex-boyfriend Tom Brady's and Gisele Bundchen's rumored wedding? And on video? The actress jetted into LA Monday and in her very brief power walk from the airport to a waiting SUV - clutching baby Jack, of course - she was accosted by one of those oh-so-intrepid TMZ reporters. Her response to "What do you think about Tom and Gisele getting engaged?" Not even accidental eye contact. But now another source is naysaying TMZ's recent Brady-Bundchen engagement report. "Bridget hasn't heard a word from Tom about it," an "insider" close to Moynahan told gossip mag Life & Style. "He always tells Bridget everything that's happening in his life at least before it hits the news." We should hope. And speaking of the happy couple, we're told Brady and Bundchen took in the Holiday Pops concert with her parents at Symphony Hall the day after Christmas. The group went backstage to meet conductor Keith Lockhart, who gave them a copy of "The Polar Express," a piece in the Pops repertoire.

Calling Pete Nash a collector of sports memorabilia is a bit like calling Tom Brady a quarterback: It's accurate but not sufficient. Nash is a baseball obsessive whose Boylston Street bar, McGreevy's 3rd Base Saloon, is like a little museum, a faithful re-creation of the baseball-themed bar owned way back when by Michael "Nuf Ced" McGreevy. When McGreevy closed his place during Prohibition, he handed over his impressive collection of black-and-white baseball prints to the Boston Public Library. Nash's bar, which opened last summer, features many of those images - that is, the ones that weren't swiped from the library 20 years ago. Well, last week, Nash was tooling around the Internet and discovered an antiques dealer selling a historic shot that once belonged to the BPL. It's a picture of former Sox player/manager Jimmy Collins sitting in a dugout with heavyweight champ John L. Sullivan (above). "I called the library and said, 'Hey, I'm going to buy this and give it to you guys,' " Nash told us yesterday. "We'll put a [reproduction] up in the bar." (In case you're wondering, Nash paid $1,000.) The BPL, of course, is thrilled. "Every time we get one of these back, it's like a homecoming," said Aaron Schmidt, who works in the library's print department. "Of all the ones that we're missing, this is No. 1 in terms of importance."

Names can be reached at names@globe.com or at 617-929-8253.