Hey, y’all, I know Val usually does the honors on previewing guests, but I hope you all will forgive me for handling this one early because I’m just tickled pink over it. See, a couple of days ago, I noticed a tweet from Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, announcing that she would be a guest on The Colbert Report on March 16th.

Being the hopeless bookworm that I am, I immediately let out a thoughtless “whoo hoo!” in my office, because I’d been reading this book during my morning commute over the last week. I just finished it yesterday, and it’s outstanding. The New York Times ran several reviews of the book last month, and DB and I had actually emailed each other at the time to express our hopes that Ms. Skloot would show up on The Colbert Report.

For those of you who might be interested, I strongly recommend you read the various reviews and articles from The New York Times (try this one or this one). Ms. Skloot’s book asks hard but incredibly timely questions about race, class, privacy, consent and medical ethics. Henrietta was a black woman from an uneducated family whose cells were obtained in an era when “informed consent” was not required. The development of HeLa was invaluable in fighting diseases like polio, but the historical context (although a different type of research, it took place at the same time as the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study) underscores questions about how scientific discoveries were and are made. Who currently benefits — and who should — from medical research (particularly with respect to the increasingly-common pharmaceutical practice of patenting genes)? How do you balance the need to keep access to research open while respecting the rights of individuals to control their own cells? There’s so much food for thought in this book.

I have no idea how the interview will turn out and what they’ll have time for on the show, but I’m over the moon about seeing this author on the guest list.

• A little Stephen Colbert and Elvis Costello duet
• Guest alert: Speedskater Joey Cheek on ‘The Colbert Report’ tomorrow!
• It’s Monday
• You’re so vain … I’ll bet you think this post is about you

Yay! Another great musical guest appearance seems to be in the works for The Colbert Report:

Carly Simon Planning First Ever Shows in Europe
By Dean Goodman
October 8, 2009

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – “Anticipation,” indeed.

. . .

To coincide with the album’s October 27 release in the United States, she plans to leave her home on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, off the coast of Boston, to perform in New York on both ABC’s “Good Morning America” and NBC’s “Today.”

Appearances on CBS “Late Show With David Letterman” — “when he gets himself together” — and Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” are also on the cards.

. . .

Full post available here

Okay, I work pretty hard nowadays at not predicting what’s going to be on the shows (or whether to expect Stephen to sing with his guests), and I’m going to try to keep that pattern going. That said, I’ve had “You’re so Vain” in my head all day, and … well, it’s not a bad song to hear, and we know “Stephen” appreciates it. I’m just sayin’.

• Guest alert: Rebecca Skloot to discuss ‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks’
• A little Stephen Colbert and Elvis Costello duet
• Guest alert: Speedskater Joey Cheek on ‘The Colbert Report’ tomorrow!
• It’s Monday