Timberlake on Saturday Night Live with Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short. (NBC

We knew this weekend's Saturday Night Live would be good--Justin Timberlake being to the variety show what fruit and sprinkles are to plain frozen yogurt ... just something that you know will make the whole supposed treat actually delicious--but did we know it was going to be history-making? Probably not. From Lorne Michaels lifting the Chevy Chase ban to the Jay-Z duet, the return of Stefon, Andy Samberg AND the classic Festrunk brothers, Mr. Timberlake proved once again he's the consummate entertainer: a song-and-dance man who also can also land a punchline.

Which is more than we can say for the majority of guest hosts this year. Below, the five best moments from this weekend's show, along with our favorites.

1. "Five Timers Club"
Can we be real for a second? The moment the concept of the opening monologue was made clear, we knew that Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin would be popping up, since they are constantly competing for the record of "Most SNL appearances ever." Paul Simon, also not surprising. (He always pops in for the opener.) Martin Short and Dan Aykroyd were both unexpected, but not really anything to tweet about. Candice Bergen was totally out of left field, but it was Chevy Chase--who hasn't shown up on SNL since he was banned for verbal abuse in 2007, and hasn't been in the good graces of the program that launched his career ever since he punched Bill Murray in the face during his first alumni appearance 30-plus years ago--who really made this work. Why can't he hang up the phone??

"Wait are you guys friends or not?"
"Exactly."
--Pretty much sums up Chevy Chase's relationship with everyone.

2. "Suit and Tie"
From his forthcoming album, including a special appearance from his best friend/tour partner Jay-Z. Now THAT is how you do a live performance, people.

Also the fact that Timberlake covertly dissed Jay's protégé Kanye West with his zinger, "My hits so sick got rappers acting so dramatic"? BOLD MOVE.

3. "It's a Date"
The Dick in a Box duo AND "two wild and crazy guys" on one game show? The biggest surprise here was how well Bobby Moynihan was able to hold his own as the straight man/losing bachelor.

"Girls can't get pregnant in the summertime/It's a known fact, and that's that/Ladies can't get pregnant in the summertime/So throw away that jimmy hat girl/SCIENCE!"

4. "Weekend Update"
WE HAVE MISSED YOU, STEFON!

"New York's hottest club is Your Mother and I Are Separating ... This place has everything: a shake for breakfast, a shake for lunch, a sensible dinner, those shoes that nurses wear ... and you can dance the night away to the sounds of Donald Duck waking up from a Vietnam nightmare."

5. "Moët & Chandon"
Loved seeing the return of Brookie and her friend, the two wannabe late-night infomercial hosts of classy products, whose biggest claim to fame is that they "aren't porn stars anymore." The original sketch "Swarovski Crystals," was probably the funniest part of that whole Jamie Foxx episode.

"One time I did a weird shoot in Mexico. Two of the girls disappeared, but I'm alive. Thanks champagne!"
"One time I got banged into a sinkhole, but a mole person banged me back up. I'll drink to that!"

Oscar Isaac in Inside Llewyn Davis.

In last month's New York Times story on the Coen brothers' first film since True Grit, Joel Coen said that Inside Llewyn Davis--their movie about a folk singer in the ’60s (Oscar Isaaac, Drive)--shares something with the Broadway-cum-cinematic hit Les Misérables. Sure, there will be singing (No "I Dreamed a Dream," though, fortunately), a love triangle and even a cretinous villain, but what does New York's burgeoning folk-rock scene have in common with the French Student Rebellion?

Perhaps the oddest thing about Inside Llewyn Davis isn't the two Ls in Llewyn, or the fact that Justin Timberlake is playing a banjo in one scene, but that the movie has been picked up for distribution by CBS Films, the company behind both Beastly and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. Though as long as there isn't a Two and a Half Men cameo in the movie, we're good to go.

BOOM BOOM TERRORISM! (Jest.com)

While "that's good and all" that the name Xscape comes from the girls' desire to be unique and original (or something), it would be much better, in the boys' opinion, if they could "make it a little more exciting."

"Yeah, like throw in that whole terrorist thing, and maybe add some machine guns!" Mr. Ryan exclaimed.
Adds Timberlake: "Yeah, and explosions! Fiery explosions are really cool! BOOM! BOOM!"

Woo-buddy. We don't know who wants this clip buried more: Disney, Timberlake, Gosling, or the women of Xscape, who are probably just trying to live out normal lives at this point.

Debbie Harry, alien hater (Getty)

- Debbie Harry made a pretty cryptic comment on the elections, saying "I am thinking we have been invaded by aliens who have reduced the intelligence level of the entire fucking country to cement." Did she mean little green men or illegal immigrants from Mexico? And aren't aliens usually portrayed as being light years smarter than the average Joe the Plumber? They figured out space travel, how stupid can they be?

-Steve Honig finally quit the world's worst gig of being Lindsay Lohan's publicist. No, it wasn't the drugs that broke the camel's back, or the car accidents that broke the paparazzi's feet, or the career that's just irrecoverably broken. It was Michael Lohan who Mr. Honig couldn't tolerate. Which leads us to wonder...what does he think about Dina?

-Even if Tom Cruise is potentially leaving Scientology to win back Katie Holmes, he hasn't lost his litigious nature. He's filed lawsuits against In Touch and Life & Style for headlines implying that he abandoned his daughter Suri after Ms. Holmes left him.
- Justin Timberlake is really sorry that his friend made a wedding video featuring homeless people as a present.

- Jessica Simpson's dad is not gay, according to Jessica's Simpson's dad.

Justin Timberlake has some jerk friends! (YouTube)

– How's this for a wedding present: Justin Timberlake's buddy, real estate agent Justin Huchel, filmed a bunch of homeless people wishing the best for the actor/singer and his new bride, Jessica Biel. See, it's funny because what could the homeless possibly offer Hollywood royalty except wishes? Not everyone thinks this joke is in good taste, but then they probably haven't seen Biel's wedding dress. (Video after the jump.)

http://youtu.be/DMHcGFmhB_s
– Taylor Swift and Conor Kennedy broke up. It's probably for the best, though we hope it doesn't end up with her writing a song called "Camelot."

– If we were sending out good vibes to a celebrity right now, it would be Diddy, who was in a serious car crash yesterday in L.A. No one was hospitalized, but seriously ... this is why we all take the subway.

– Last night was GQ’s Gentleman's Ball. Starring Adam Levine, Ted Danson and Willie Geist, the three biggest gentlemen in the biz.

Ruh-oh! (ABC)

-Though Mr. Timberlake might be going to the courthouse for something other than a marriage certificate: Britney Spears trial lawyers have brought up her former Mouseketeer co-star and boyfriend as a precipitating cause for her meltdown.

- Tom Hanks dropped a big 'ole F-bomb on Good Morning America, shattering the illusion that he is the celebrity equivalent of Ned Flanders. Even so, how adorable is it that he only curses when doing an impression of a foreign person who uses profanity?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C2h6JSnM-E

Justin Timberlake (Getty Images)

Onetime pop star Justin Timberlake--whose most recent album, FutureSex/LoveSounds, is nearing its sixth anniversary--is to make music once more after an extended period during which he focused on movie acting. The music he is making, though, is a score for the just-announced film The Devil in the Deep Blue Sea, which is to star his fiancée Jessica Biel. We highly doubt, given our experiences with film scores, that this film's score will be pop vocals about sex, so we are less than optimistic about this newly announced Timberlake music.

Last night, at what is widely hyped as the best night in New York fashion, the attendees of the annual gala benefit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute did not disappoint. Patterns, we saw a few: a lot of black, a lot of neon, a lot of feathers, and a lot of sheer. And Beyonce's dress? We still don't know what to think. See our picks for best and most bewildering are in this slideshow, and read our rundown from the red carpet here.

Handlebar and all, Axl Rose preaches the rock gospel. (Paul Bruinooge/ PatrickMcMullan)

In celebration of the long desired end of Fashion Week, DeLeon Tequila and Nur Khan hosted what would be the last of their fabled Electric Sessions last night at the Hiro Ballroom (which, for the record, is still open) with Guns n’ Roses.

The Observer plays the waiting game.

• Doors at 9 p.m., we pop in around 10:30 hoping to dodge most of the wait for what was rumored to be an 11 p.m. start time. Seems like a decent idea, right?
• 11:15 hits and we bump into a few friends who had just left the temporary palatial penthouse home of Axl Rose at The SoHo Grand Hotel: “Yeah man, we were just over there and literally 10 minutes ago they ordered a ton of room service.” This did not bode well for a packed house hungry for high school rock.
• We spot a glowing Sienna Miller holding court with boyfriend and baby daddy Tom Sturridge, and can’t help but think that dude should lock it down.
• Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis host an impeccably attractive table in the slightly grungy Hiro.
• Even Jared Leto seemed a bit confused as to where the rock band was hiding.
• Checking in with Tyler Winklevoss. We both immediately realize how bratty we feel when we grumble about waiting around for a free GnR show.
• Wanting to get the real school, we shoot Nur a text, who is quick to inform The Observer that Axl is in fact slated to go on at 12:15, and relief washes over us like an awesome wave.

Damon and a homeless dude people were freaking out about. (Paul Bruinooge/ PatrickMcMullan)

A bit more mulling about, and we see Nur take the stage.

• “Yo, shit, that’s Nur dude! They’re totally about to come on!” remarks a hyper observant party-goer.
• In the corner of our eye we spot Justin Timberlake and Matt Damon stopping to strike a pose in front of the camera. Both card-carrying members of the way-more-famous-than-you club.
• Ok, wait. Something’s happening – the lights are dimming, cigarettes ritualistically lighting up, the slow rolling “unnnghhhhhhhhhh” of a bass guitar being flicked on.
• There he is. Axl Rose himself. Handlebar moustache in full effect: “How are you tonight, fucktards!?!” he asks politely before launching into his first song, ‘You’re Crazy.’
• We notice a tweet from a colleague a few hordes of people away: “Holy shit, Axl Rose still has it.” And he did, in fact, still have it.
• Warm up out of the way, Axl takes the microphone to his lips, stares deep into each and everyone’s soul, and posits the question: “Do you know where you are?” We were in the jungle, baby.

Courtesy Getty Images

Over the summer, Steve Stoute, the CEO of the brand-marketing firm Translation, went to Wimbledon with his friend and business partner, the rapper Jay-Z, to cheer on Rafael Nadal during the Spaniard’s fourth-round battle with Juan Martín Del Potro. With the match tied in the third set, BBC cameras spotted them. “The man is still here,” said BBC tennis analyst Boris Becker in his heavy German accent. “The Jigga Man, that’s what they call him—Shawn Carter.”

Where most viewers saw a star-sighting. Mr. Stoute saw a “tanning moment.”

Mr. Stoute, in his recent book The Tanning of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture That Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy (2011, Gotham Books), defined “tanning” as “the catalytic force majeure that went beyond musical boundaries and into the psyche of young America.” That’s a pretty thick slice of marketing-speak, but the gist of it is simple: hip-hop has radically changed culture and corporate America.

And Mr. Stoute has had a central role in the transformation.

“That wouldn’t have happened 10 years ago,” Mr. Stoute said of Becker’s acknowledgment of Jay-Z. “Prince William was there that day, and for Jay-Z to get recognized at that setting, yeah, it’s a tanning moment.”

Around the turn of the millennium, Mr. Stoute, then a successful record company executive, made a gutsy career change. He left his lofty position as president of urban music at Interscope/Geffen/A&M Records and dove into advertising and marketing. He is now the go-to guy for Fortune 500 companies chasing the youth and urban markets. Mr. Stoute paired Allen Iverson with the gritty rapper Jadakiss for a beloved Reebok commercial; he got Justin Timberlake to record a McDonald’s jingle; and he tapped Jay-Z for a Hewlett-Packard campaign. (Before Mr. Stoute’s involvement, HP had been circling Robert Redford and Drew Barrymore.)

Translation’s specialty is “collaborative strategic consulting,” but Mr. Stoute sees his role in somewhat simpler terms.

“I just try to tell the consumer truth,” he told The Observer.

It should be noted, however, that consumer truth isn’t always the same as gospel truth. That Justin Timberlake jingle, for instance, was originally released as a song. Only after the world was humming “I’m Lovin’ It” did McDonald’s introduce its new tagline, with JT as its spokesman.

It’s been an effective strategy. In November 2008, Mr. Stoute was inducted into the American Advertising Federation’s Hall of Achievement. And according to Ad Age, Translation, which operates under its parent company Interpublic, pulled in $9 million in revenue in 2010.

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Stoute was sitting on a couch in his Times Square corner office. Although he known as a bit of a dandy, on this occasion he was clad in gym clothes—a black V-neck T layered over a white V-neck, gray athletic shorts, black ankle socks and no shoes. The wall was plastered with photographs of Mr. Stoute with his many famous friends, and framed photos of icons such as Sidney Poitier and Muhammad Ali.

Mr. Stoute began the conversation with one of his favorite “tanning moments”: The story of how Jimmy Iovine landed a Rolling Stone cover for Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg in 1993. “That was Jimmy Iovine walking in and saying, ‘Jann, these guys are rock stars. They are Mick and Keith,’” Mr. Stoute said. “It takes a guy like Jimmy Iovine—he had so much rock ’n’ roll credibility from U2 and producing Patti Smith. Who else is gonna do that? Russell Simmons? They weren’t going to listen to him.”

Mr. Stoute would like to see more magazines adapt the way Rolling Stone did. “All those magazines are fucked up like that. Vogue is the same way. It’s all those people that come from the old school and believe that [hip-hop] wasn’t sustainable, so therefore they don’t want to buy into it and they push back on it. Vogue did the exact same thing. Anna Wintour now hangs out at Kanye’s shows and hangs out with Pharrell and hangs out with Puffy. She does all that shit now. Meanwhile, there is a lack of African-Americans who have graced that cover. Now, all of a sudden, it’s Beyoncé, it’s Rihanna. Now, she’s sitting with Nicki Minaj [at the Carolina Herrera Spring 2012 show].

“She’s tanning because she has to,” he continued. “She has to. She’s gonna put Blake Lively on the cover again?”

Mr. Stoute, 41, was born in Queens Village, the son of Trinidadian immigrants. His father was a marine engineer; mom was a nurse. He spent his formative years grinding away at after-school jobs—he shoveled snow, erected tents at flea markets, delivered the New York Daily News and Newsday, sung Christmas carols and hawked fire extinguishers—but dreamed of being a professional football player. He was a starting running back at Holy Cross High School in Brooklyn, but began hunting for a backup plan after separating his shoulder. His father suggested becoming an auto mechanic. Mr. Stoute remembers his father’s reasoning: “It’s a craft that they can’t take away from you,” he said.

Instead, he bounced around five colleges and began working in real estate, signing homeowners up for mortgages—this was back in the early 1990s, well before the boom and eventual bust. He then left the mortgage market after realizing he could earn more in the music industry. It wasn’t about his love for the music, he said, unabashedly. “No, it was opportunity,” he said. “[Hip-hop] was blowing up. In ’91, ’92, the arrow was pointing in one direction.”

Through mutual acquaintances, Mr. Stoute hooked up with comedy rappers Kid N’ Play and quickly became the duo’s road manager. But his big break occurred in the mid-1990s, when he started managing the rapper Nas. Under Mr. Stoute’s guidance, the Queensbridge emcee adapted a more commercial, radio-friendly sound. The strategy worked. His 1996 album It Was Written was certified double-platinum, but finding the right balance between art and commerce proved challenging. “Managing Nas taught me a lot about respecting artists,” Mr. Stoute said. “You got a crash course in that because you were dealing with a guy who, money didn’t matter to him. Nor did success. He could have been in The Cider House Rules—he didn’t want to do it.” Mr. Stoute shook his head. “Brands were calling—he didn’t show up for some shoots. Nas wrote songs on the Men in Black soundtrack. He could have wrote the whole album for Will Smith but he didn’t want to show up to the studio to write records for Will Smith.”

Men in Black was a huge hit. The movie grossed $587 million worldwide and the soundtrack, which Mr. Stoute executive produced, was certified triple platinum. He was more impressed, however, by the success of a product placement—sales of Ray-Ban sunglasses shot up 500 percent after being promoted in the film.

By the late 1990s, with the advent of file-sharing and mp3s about to turn the music industry on its head, Mr. Stoute decided to change careers. In 1999, he partnered with renowned adman Peter Arnell—best known for the iconic DKNY campaign—to form the marketing company PASS. (The company couldn’t obtain certification as a minority-owned business and in 2002 was sold to a Hispanic agency, Cultura; Mr. Stoute remained chairman until 2003.)

Mr. Stoute was a quickly adapted to this new world. “Steve Stoute has the best instincts creatively and strategically on pop culture, marketing and youth of anybody I’ve ever met,” Mr. Arnell told Adage.com. (Mr. Arnell’s own instincts were more questionable; he was the force behind the disastrous 2009 Tropicana redesign.)

“Steve is an open person,” former Reebok CEO Paul Fireman told The Observer. “He sees himself on a long journey on which he keeps meeting people and building strategic pieces along the way.”

“He’s curious about everything,” added Vanity Fair editor in chief Graydon Carter, a friend who wrote the foreword to Mr. Stoute’s book. “He’d ask about your clothes. He’d ask about what you’re doing. He set about making himself into something and, God knows, he did it.”

Steve Stoute has strong opinions on branding. He was offended, for example, by what he considered the ham-handedness of Kodak’s recent campaign featuring Rihanna and a slew of other musicians.

“Marketing? You call that marketing?” Mr. Stoute asked. “You’re trying to skip the entire process and just hire some celebrities to save your ass. That’s the epitome of ridiculous. Marketing? Kodak?” He was nearly shouting. The commercials, he said, didn’t convey the function of the product. “Can you imagine how stupid that is? What am I gonna do with a Kodak? It’s not a smart phone. If I don’t tell you why you need it, why would you buy it? Because Rihanna and Pitbull said so? Yeah, congratulations.”

The Kodak campaign was “of limited duration,” according to a company spokesperson and was only for the So Kodak line. “Our data showed that it was effective in raising brand and product awareness among the target audience.” It also won an Addy Award, "so obviously some difference of opinion out there," the spokesperson added.

He can be just as brutal with potential clients. Back when he first partnered with Reebok, he told Paul Fireman flatly that the company couldn’t compete with Nike by marketing their shoes as superior for athletes.

“I think most people, especially when they are interviewing, tend to not be as forthright as I would like,” Mr. Fireman said. “Most of them think that by telling you what you’re doing wrong they’re going to insult you. Steve pointed out our disconnect from the consumer. He is very blunt but not rude. You’re either going to accept it or you’re not. I thought it was refreshing.”

Mr. Stoute is most proud of having pioneered the practice of surreptitiously embedding marketing messages into the pop cultural products. He followed up the successful McDonald’s-Timberlake switcheroo with a similar deal involving Wrigley’s and Chris Brown. After Mr. Brown’s song “Forever” became a hit, it was revealed that the familiar lyric “Double your pleasure” was no coincidence—the song was a gum jingle. Before radio stations, deejays or average listeners knew they were all offering free advertising time—and mindspace—to a major corporation, the song was embedded in the culture.

Mr. Stoute was a bit perplexed by the anger the stunt engendered. “If you got upset because it was really a brand message intertwined with the song you loved, if that bothered you, shame on you for getting that emotional about something you loved anyway,” he said. “I didn’t understand that. Gawker and all those guys were writing stuff about me. Say anything you want, but its brilliant, it’s absolutely brilliant. It’s stunning. It’s so smart. You actually made a song and in the song, it said, ‘Double your pleasure/double your fun.’ And that worked. And then we came back with a commercial behind it and when it was revealed, it was a home run.”

Mr. Stoute then looked at his phone. It was almost 6 p.m. “I gotta get ready to get out of here,” he said. He had tickets that night for The Mountaintop with Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett.

“If you thought the song was sponsored by a brand,” he added, “you would not have been open-minded about how the song made you feel. All I did was remove that filter.”