Amy Poehler officially leaves "SNL"

People

A pleasant tomorrow ...

Amy Poehler is officially exiting "Saturday Night Live" this time. Less than two months after giving birth to son Archie, she made a surprise return last week to the late-night comedy show where she has been a regular for eight seasons. "This is my last show," Poehler announced from her "Weekend Update" anchor desk. "I love you," she told the audience, "and I will miss all of you very much." Viewers won't have to miss her too long. Later this season, Poehler is expected back on NBC in her own weekly sitcom.

Mark, his words

It only took 100 years or so, but the world is finally getting a piece of Mark Twain's mind on the subject of free expression and whether it's safer for your words to be expressed after you're dead. "We have charity for what the dead say. We may disapprove of what they say, but we do not insult them, we do not revile them, as knowing they cannot now defend themselves. If they should speak, what revelations there would be!" Twain observed in "The Privilege of the Grave," an essay written in 1905, and long unpublished, that will appear in the issue of The New Yorker that comes out today. "Now there is hardly one of us but would dearly like to reveal these secrets of ours; we know we cannot do it in life, then why not do it from the grave, and have the satisfaction of it?"

Watts welcomes 2nd son

Actress Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber are parents of two boys. Their second son joined Mom, Dad and big brother Alexander Pete Schreiber, 1 ½, Saturday, People.com reported. Watts, 40, and Schreiber, 41, have been a couple since 2005.

Box Office

Klaatu barada big bucks

Audiences sat still for Keanu Reeves' sci-fi remake "The Day the Earth Stood Still," making it the weekend's top movie with a $31 million debut, according to studio estimates Sunday. The Warner Bros. holiday romp "Four Christmases" slipped to second place with $13.3 million, raising its three-week total to $88 million.

Winners

Mega winners in Ohio

Piqua, Ohio, Mayor Thomas Hudson said 12 city employees who pooled their money bought the single winning ticket worth $207 million in the latest drawing of the multistate Mega Millions lottery. The only ticket to match all the winning numbers from Friday night's drawing was sold at a Kroger supermarket in Piqua. He declined to identify the employees.

Passages

Dorothy Sterling, 95, a significant figure in 20th-century children's literature for her well-researched portrayals of historical black Americans written decades before multiculturalism became mainstream, died Dec. 1 at her home in Wellfleet, Mass.

Lauren Chapin, 50, a restaurant critic for The Kansas City Star for eight years and a 2005 finalist for the James Beard Foundation award for best newspaper columns, died Wednesday after suffering a ruptured aneurysm.

Today in History

1791: The Bill of Rights went into effect following ratification by Virginia.

1961: Former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann was sentenced to death by an Israeli court.

1978: Cleveland became the first major U.S. city since the Great Depression to default on its loans.

2003: The late Sen. Strom Thurmond's family acknowledged Essie Mae Washington-Williams' claim that she was his illegitimate mixed-race daughter.

Today's Birthdays

Actor-comedian Tim Conway, 75. Actor Don Johnson, 59. Movie producer-director Reginald Hudlin, 47. Actor Adam Brody, 29. Actor George O. Gore II, 27.

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