Mary Lynn Rajskub's nerdy Chloe has long been my favorite part of Fox's "24," and the pleasure is only doubled this season, as the show's added another comic, Janeane Garofalo, to the mix as a sort of Bizarro World Chloe, but within the FBI.

So far, we've only seen the pair not exactly together on one of "24's" split screens, but Rajskub, who's here -- looking beautiful and yet still Chloe-like -- promises we'll see them in the same place at some point.

Rajskub, who's known Garofalo for years, said, "We tried not to laugh when we were in scenes together. You may notice that our eye lines are off," because they were afraid to make eye contact.

The actress, whose pregnancy was written into the show at the end of the previous season -- she delivered a 9 pound, 5 ounce baby boy in July -- joked, deadpan, that she'd become pregnant as quickly as she could to match the script.

"That's how committed I am," she said.

A few minutes later, some reporter comments on how "slim" Kiefer Sutherland remains and asks the actor for his fitness secrets.

Most of us hate even hearing questions like this -- if I wanted the stars' workout tips, I'd read entirely different magazines -- but Sutherland, who plays "24's" Jack Bauer, probably scores a few points when he suggests his secret is "fear and panic."

One of the milder amusements of the network portion of the TV critics' confab is getting network suits to take potshots at one another.

Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly -- who held the same job at NBC before being shoved aside for the guys who drove that network even further into the ground -- is a remarkably polite guy, everything considered.

That didn't keep him from offering up the quote of the morning, though, when asked about recent events at his old network, including the decision to hand five hours of prime time over to Jay Leno.

"NBC is like the crazy ex-wife I can't get away from," said Reilly, who'll cop to having used the line before.

People go on "reality" TV shows for all sorts of reasons, but hardly ever to quiet the haters.

Brooke Crittenden, who used to date Kanye West -- or as she puts it, "a very famous rapper" -- decided to join the cast of  BET's new unscripted drama "Harlem Heights," to let people know that she's not the woman you may (or may not) have read about on the blogs.

Crittenden, who works at MTV, said she hopes the public will see her as she really is, not merely the false image presented often presented in the media during her relationship with West.

If you see her and don't like her, well, "then you're just to determined to hate me, regardless."

You can decide for yourself starting March 2, when the show premieres. Filmed in high definition, it's set to follow Crittenden and seven other twentysomethings who are, according to the network, part of "New York's young, black and fabulous crowd."

The room was packed for A&E's "The Beast" in anticipation of Patrick Swayze's appearance here this morning, but the session begins with the announcement that the show's star, who's being treated for pancreatic cancer, has been hospitalized with pneumonia.

"We learned only this morning that Patrick has checked himself into the hospital," said Abbe Raven, president of A&E Television Networks.

Hard to say how many in the room are actually surprised, though Swayze's appearance had been one of the most-anticipated events of the cable portion of the Television Critics Association's winter meetings.

"Patrick did want me to tell you that he is very sorry," said Bob Bitetto, A&E's president and general manager, "and that he plans to get back to promoting 'The Beast'" when he's feeling better.

"The Beast," which premieres next Thursday, was filmed during Swayze's ongoing treatment. (The pilot was shot before he knew he was ill, something he discovered a few hours after the show was picked up by the cable network.) His interview earlier this week with Barbara Walters on ABC's "20/20" was taped last month.

A&E execs and the show's producers continue to insist that the show could continue for a second season, refusing to address the question of whether it could do so without Swayze, whose character is central to the show. He plays an undercover FBI agent who's mentoring a younger agent, played by former model Travis Fimmel.

Fimmel, asked if Swayze had appeared to be ill at times during the filming, said no.

"The sickest thing about him is probably his jokes," he said.

Actress Isabella Rosselini, product of a once-notorious relationship between her director father, Roberto Rosselini, and her actress mother, Ingrid Bergman (who, OK, had married by the time she and her twin were born), might be expected to know from scandal.

But it's not Brangelina that interests her.

No, it's animals.

Rossellini, who's been doing a quirky little show called "Green Porno" for the Sundance Channel, where Season 2 debuts in May, said she started out knowing she wanted to do small films about animals, and figured sex would sell it.

Animals, she's discovered, "are quite scandalous. They make love in funny ways."

What kind of ways?

"You can think of something really scandalous in your mind. Well, the animal is going to do more."

Pressed for something "dirty" in the way of details, the actress seemed stumped, offering up examples -- including sex-changing shrimp and earthworms that "mate in the 69 position" -- that wouldn't be likely to shock the average Internet user.

Or maybe it's just TV critics who are jaded.

There's still a little bit of "Wicked"-ness in Idina Menzel.

Bless her heart.

The chatty singer, who Wednesday night sang for TV critics and reporters as  part of PBS' promotion of an  upcoming "Great Performances" presentation "'Chess' in Concert," dished a little between songs -- which, yes, included her "Wicked" showstopper "Defying Gravity" -- about her recent appearance at the Kennedy Center Honors.

Menzel was there to perform "Don't Rain on My Parade" as part of the segment honoring Barbra Streisand, and who couldn't sympathize with her on that one?

But then she discovered that she and husband Taye Diggs were to be seated at Streisand's table afterward.

Worried that Streisand would feel the need to say something nice to her about her performance, she waited nervously. And then waited some more.

Finally, Streisand turned to Menzel and asked if she were the one who'd sung.

She hadn't, she explained, been wearing her glasses.

Things didn't go much more smoothly with another of her idols, Aretha Franklin, after Diggs approached her to gush about his wife's performance.

Unaware that Menzel had changed outfits after her performance, Franklin at first refused to believe that she'd even sung. Finally convinced that the person she'd heard was indeed Menzel, she turned to Diggs and said, "You never told me your wife was a singer."

CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" may have Laurence Fishburne, but PBS' "Masterpiece: Mystery!" has Kenneth Branagh, who'll be starring this year in an atmospheric new detective series called "Wallander," based on the novels of Sweden's Henning Mankell.

Which, I confess, I've never read. Or until recently even heard of.

So after talking with Branagh a bit after the press conference about his own favorite "Mystery!" detectives, I asked for some recommendations for pre-"Wallander" reading, since one of the trickiest things about the genre is figuring out where to start when you start with a new author.

His recommendation, "Faceless Killers," isn't, alas, yet available for my Kindle -- hey, I'm all about the instant gratification -- but it's an intriguing title, no?

So funnywoman Amy Sedaris is here at the Universal City Hilton, talking to reporters about narrating PBS' "Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America," which premieres next Wednesday, and about the online component -- where she appears onscreen -- which can already be found here.

(Yes, you can tell we're with PBS today because I'm putting the sponsorship up front.)

Anyway, there's only so much you can talk about a six-part history of an art form that the commercial networks have largely given up for dead before you have to branch out. So Sedaris, who cops to being less than Web-savvy, is asked about the site AmySedarisRocks.com.

The work of a Sedaris admirer rather than Sedaris herself, the Web site has the somewhat detached approval of its inspiration, who says she's met "Katie," who runs it, and even been to her house.

But does she read it?

No, she insists. "I don't want to read things about myself."

And if she did, "I'd go in and read it on the bathroom stall."

Quote of the day comes from John Madden, who's heard Warren Sapp's going to be on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" and thinks he'll do well.

In fact, he sees the just-retired defensive tackle going all the way.

"I'm going with the Giants [on the field] and with Warren Sapp on 'Dancing with the Stars,'" said Madden, throwing a bone to those of us who don't know a thing about "Sunday Night Football."