Yesterday, my colleague Douglas Hyde wrote that Tiger Woods had two basic options for dealing with the media firestorm surrounding his late-night car crash and his alleged infidelities: stonewall, or immediately reveal the worst details in order to take the steam out of the coverage.

Today, it appears the golf legend has chosen a third way: a public statement in which he repeatedly apologizes, makes veiled references to "transgressions" and "sins," and asks for privacy.  Call it the "I'm sorry, but I won't say what I'm sorry about" approach.  Here's his statement, posted on his Web site:

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Alicia Keys doesn't mince words when it comes to the legacy she hopes to leave. "I want to be known as an incredible global citizen, and a person who has made their mark in an inspiring, positive way," she told CNN this year.  That desire was fueled by Keys' first trip to Africa, which prompted the Grammy-winning singer/songwriter to co-found Keep A Child Alive.  The charity is dedicated to providing life-changing treatment, care and support to children and families affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India.  So far, the group says, it's helped 250,000 people.  That sounds like a lot – and it is – but when you consider an estimated 22 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have HIV/AIDS, you realize how much more needs to be done.

Keys knows you can't solve such a problem merely by throwing money at it, and she knows first-hand the power of actually seeing the problem, and the victims, up close.  So Tuesday – World AIDS Day – as she launched her new album, "The Element of Freedom," she announced a contest through Keep A Child Alive: five winners will get to travel to Africa with her.  Fans can enter online at the foundation's Web site, or by sending a text.  The $5 text fee will be donated to the charity.

When we cover international relief efforts in this blog, we hear from some readers who think our resources should go to solving domestic problems, not overseas.  Often, there's merit to that argument.  But in this case, the severity of the crisis is unquestionable, and unparalleled in the U.S.: more than 13 million Africans have been orphaned by AIDS.

I congratulate everyone who enters this contest.  Even if you're not one of the five winners, you've volunteered to meet a problem head-on, and "risk" letting it change your life as it changed Keys'.  That kind of spirit, more than donations, is what's needed to solve all manner of problems, foreign and domestic.

Kirk Douglas is 92 years old, and still shows the effects of the debilitating stroke he suffered more than a decade ago.  Still, today he was where he usually is on the day before Thanksgiving: serving up a full turkey dinner with all the trimmings to thousands of homeless and hungry folks at the Los Angeles Mission.

Douglas and his wife, Anne, have hosted the event for the last five years, and other celebs always show up to help: this year's servers included "Star Trek" and "Avatar" star Zoe Saldana, "High School Musical"'s Corbin Bleu, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., along with local politicians and other volunteers.  Last year, the street dinner served more than 3,000 people, and this year's crowd figured to be even bigger.  The recession has delivered a double whammy to food banks and pantries: demand is higher than ever, with some people who used to donate now looking for donations themselves, and businesses battling to stay afloat are cutting their usual contributions down, or out.

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It's been rumored for weeks, but now it's actually happening: Oprah Winfrey is ready to announce tomorrow that she's ending her immensely popular and influential TV talk show.  She'll drop the news on Friday morning's live show from Chicago.

Fans shouldn't panic just yet: WLS, where her show began as "A.M. Chicago" in 1984, says the final "Oprah Winfrey Show" will air in September of 2011, giving her nearly two more years to spur water cooler talk, influence trends, and push authors to the top of the best-seller list.

What then?  The media queen has been trying to get the cable channel OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, off the ground with Discovery Communications for awhile now, and it seems a good bet she'll move her attention and resources there.  After all, why "settle" for a show – even one of the most talked-about and enduring in TV history – when you can have a network?

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It was a tremendously busy work day, even for a Monday, but seeing the news that Ken Ober had died stopped me in my tracks.  I'm just one of millions who remember him as the host of MTV's "Remote Control," but I may be the only person who appeared on two of his game shows.

Some of you may be too young to remember – or believe – this,  but back in 1987, MTV actually played music videos.  Lots of them.  But it was starting to branch out into other kinds of programs, and one of the first was "Remote Control."  The premise was that Ken was such a TV geek that he'd set up his own game show in his mother's basement.  Three college kids were strapped into recliners, handed prop remote controls, and asked goofy questions from such categories as "Dead or Canadian?" and "Sing Along With Colin" [Quinn].  At the end of the game, the top scorer was strapped to a Craftmatic Adjustable Bed and had to identify the artist in as many music videos as possible in 30 seconds.  (I'm not sure what all of the being strapped to furniture was about, but hey, the show ran for five years, so they must have been doing something right.)

That first season, MTV came to my New England college for tryouts, and I was one of the students selected.  I had no idea what the show was about, as our dorms weren't yet wired for cable, but who wouldn't have jumped at the chance?  On show taping day, I hopped a shuttle flight to New York, headed for the studio, and soon found myself in "the basement."

I made it to the Craftmatic, though not having seen any music videos in a few months hurt me in the final round.  And I had fun, mostly because of Ken, who seemed to be the perfect low-budget game show host: he was friendly, told bad jokes, and kept the game moving.  He appeared to be having a blast, and that attitude carried over to the rest of the show staff and the players.

Jump ahead 14 years: I was out in Los Angeles, and heard about a new game show, "Smush," in which players combined clues to come up with answers.  For instance, "Chinese martial art + Japanese folding bed" would be "kung futon."  The wordplay seemed right up my alley, so I tried out, made the show... and discovered the host was Ken Ober.  When I told him on the set that I'd been on "Remote Control," he was delighted – and relieved that I didn't expect him to remember me from one taping of a show he'd done for five seasons more than a decade ago.

I had better luck on "Smush," winning the grand prize: $8,000.  (Hey, the show aired after midnight on USA network; it wasn't exactly "Millionaire," or even "$25,000 Pyramid.")  It was a lot of fun, and once again, Ober was a great host.  He marveled at the trickier wordplay, made all of the players feel good regardless of the score, and cracked more bad jokes, making the audience laugh with his reaction if the joke itself didn't draw guffaws.

Taping a game show takes very little time: not much more than the half-hour of the program's running time.  But those two half-hours, out of the hundreds of thousands of hours of my life, are extremely fond memories – memories that will now be somewhat bittersweet.  Thanks for the fun, Ken.

Plenty of hard-core gamers called in sick to work or school today, having been in line at midnight to grab a copy of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2."  As expected, the reviews of the latest title in the series are glowing, with one taking special note of the realism of the opening scene at a U.S. Army base, and praising the believability of the setting.

But there's realism, and then there's reality – and no one's likely to make a videogame about the real difficulties many Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines face making the transition back into civilian life.  It can be extremely tough to find jobs, especially in this economy: according to Activision Blizzard, the publisher of the Call of Duty series, more than 500,000 unemployed veterans live in the United States.

So the game isn't the only thing Activision Blizzard launched today.  The Call of Duty Endowment, or CODE, is designed to raise awareness of the issue, and help fund organizations that provide veterans with job training and placement.  Activision says CODE will receive the proceeds from sales of "Modern Warfare 2," which should jump-start its fundraising nicely.  The non-profit's first grant: $125,000 to the Paralyzed Veterans of America, to help build a new vocational services center in Boston.  CODE's directors say they hope to raise millions more for such projects.

We glorify our fighting men and women in games like "Call of Duty."  We honor them when they fall.  And many of us will take at least a moment tomorrow to remember them on Veterans Day.

Let's remember them in between those times, as well.

This just in: to counter the widespread belief that the Motion Picture Academy is dominated by old white guys, the 82nd Academy Awards will be hosted by... two old white guys!  Okay, Alec Baldwin is barely past the half-century mark, and doing what many consider the best work of his career on "30 Rock," but Steve Martin will be eligible for Medicare next year.  (Man, now I feel old.)

Martin has proven his chops writing as well as performing, and it's a good bet they'll make at least a few references to the comedy "It's Complicated," which comes out this Christmas and stars Baldwin and Martin as rivals for Meryl Streep's affections.  And Baldwin will probably take a jab at his co-host by mentioning his 2004 Oscar nomination, as Best Supporting Actor for "The Cooler," a few times: Martin has never received a nod from the Academy, not even for his marvelous screenplay for 1987's "Roxanne."

As for hosting, Baldwin is something of a novice, but Martin hosted the Academy Awards in 2001, earning an Emmy nomination, and again in 2003.  Interestingly, when our Denise Quan interviewed Martin this May about his new bluegrass album, she asked him about a possible return as Oscar host.  His reply: "I don't think so... I did it twice, that was enough... as soon as you say yes to the Oscars, that's the only thing you think about for three months."  Guess we know what he'll be thinking about between now and next March 7.

The "mature" pair probably won't dance about the stage as Hugh Jackman did last year, though there's a good chance Martin will pull out his banjo at least once... and they're definitely both funny.  How do you think they'll do as Oscar hosts?

Over the past week, we've chronicled Don Cheadle and friends playing poker to benefit Darfur, Selena Gomez working for UNICEF, and Anthony Edwards running the New York City Marathon to help build a Kenyan children's hospital.  Each time, we've received at least one comment along these lines: "What about all of the problems here?  Why don't these stars help Americans first?"

It's not an unreasonable question – though maybe those folks missed our coverage of Georgia flood relief, David Spade helping firefighters, Moby donating concert proceeds to domestic violence shelters, and our first Find The Good story, Ludacris helping donate cars to people in need.

It's true that many of the highest-profile celebrity charity efforts seem to be aimed overseas.  Is that because those projects seem more exotic, or is the need there truly greater?  Plenty of stars are working to solve domestic problems, from David Arquette's constant work with food banks to Adam Lambert helping schoolkids to Soleil Moon Frye's advocacy of Alzheimer's awareness.  And let's not forget the king of celebrity philanthropy: the late Paul Newman, whose Newman's Own foundation has donated more than $280 million to thousands of different charities, in the U.S. and around the world.

But back to our question: should American celebs focus on American causes, or is all charitable work laudable, regardless of location?  And for those who favor domestic efforts, what should take priority?  (Are you doing anything toward that cause?)  And do you know of any stars whose work we should be profiling here?

DirecTV is taking a lot of heat for its latest "breaking the fourth wall" commercial, in which actors seem to step right out of well-known movie roles and talk to viewers about the glories of the satellite TV service.  When the campaign began, I loved it, marveling at the way they recreated scenes like Sigourney Weaver in the Power Loader suit from "Aliens."  It was fun to look for signs of aging in Charlie Sheen and Naomi Watts in their scenes from "Major League" and "King Kong," respectively.

But for some viewers, it's not quite as much fun when the ads are less recreation and more resurrection.  Last year, Craig T. Nelson delivered the pitch as he was melded into a "Poltergeist" clip featuring the late Heather O'Rourke, the "they're heeeere" girl.  Now, DirecTV is risking the ick factor with a spot featuring Chris Farley, who died of a drug overdose a dozen years ago – yet there he is, struggling into a too-small jacket in a scene from "Tommy Boy" while David Spade snarks and shills across the room.

DirecTV says "Chris' family and friends" were "on board from the very beginning and throughout the entire process and felt the spot was a great tribute to Chris."  Spade, through a publicist, said DirecTV approached him and the Farley family with the concept, and figured "it would be a cool way to remind people just how funny Chris was.  It is a clever homage to my friend and a movie that we loved doing."

Clever, or macabre?  I was kind of creeped out, but your mileage may vary... and, as always, almost any publicity is good publicity.  We're talking about the ad campaign, so it must be a success – right?

Did you hear the one about the actor and the poker champ?  Actually, it's no joke: Don Cheadle and Annie Duke have raised some $2.5 million for Darfur over the last few years with celebrity poker tournaments.  Their charity, Ante Up For Africa, brings together stars from the worlds of showbiz, sports, and poker to have a lot of fun – and raise a lot of money and awareness.  Their latest event is this Thursday in California.

"People really underestimate the generosity of the poker community," says Duke, who's also raised millions for Children's Hospital Boston and other causes.  "It's filled with people who are really committed to giving back and using whatever resources they have in order to improve the world."

Cheadle, who received an Oscar nomination for "Hotel Rwanda" and saw the devastation in Darfur first-hand when he traveled there with a Congressional delegation, is serious about helping the war-torn region – and about poker.  He protested only mildly as Duke described to me how Cheadle took down superstar Phil Ivey at the 2007 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship.  And he's not the only celeb intent on the game: Casey Affleck, one of the big winners at last year's Ante Up For Africa event, is back this year, and his big brother Ben has qualified for some high-profile tournaments.

Winners at the Ante Up For Africa events generally donate most or all of their winnings to the cause, but Cheadle says the tournaments are also about building awareness: "Money is obviously extremely important; it's an effective tool to get things accomplished.  But in the end, awareness is what really matters, because we all know that the lasting solutions to these problems are actually political solutions, and you don't get political solutions without the people that are electing those governments caring about the issues."

I asked whether it wasn't an odd pairing: well-off celebs having fun around a poker table in the name of desperate people forced to flee their villages half a world away. Duke pointed out that the events encourage people to stay involved, increasing the money and awareness raised.  "Everybody wants to give, but they also want value in return for their time," she told me.  "I'm not sure anything is more effective than a poker tournament, because people come and they can genuinely hang out with celebrities and some of the famous poker players, and just have a really fanstastic time while they're giving."

Say what you like about celebs' motivations for how they use the spotlight – and I'm sure many of you will, in the comments – but it's hard to argue with results.  And Cheadle is accustomed to taking flack for using his celebrity for good causes.

"Some people look at that and are cynical about it, and think that it's just frivolous celebrities trying to give themselves some sort of gravitas sometimes," he told me.  "But I still say, even if it is that, there is still something going on over there, and we want you to look over there.  So you try and take the opportunity whenever you can."