Television

From her gossipy late-night perch on E! Entertainment Television, Chelsea Handler routinely mouths off about Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie and almost everyone else in and around the gates of the Hollywood industrial complex. And typically the host of Chelsea Lately does so without incurring threats of bodily harm.

Then she took on the Jonas Brothers, the heartthrob boy band from New Jersey. In a recent sketch, which can be found on YouTube, Handler mocks the band’s masculinity, their mismatched hair and their "purity rings" (symbolizing the pop stars’ pledge not to have premarital sex).

Later in the bit, Handler sexually manhandles one of the brothers’ imitators — shoving her chest in his face and offering him carnal delights.

Legions of outraged Jonas Brothers devotees unleased their wrath. "Chelsea Handler can go die in a whole! (sic)," read one missive directed at her. Some merely called her names, and others were more specific — suggesting Handler die sooner rather than later. The group’s publicist weighed in, albeit more respectfully, threatening to withdraw the cable network’s access to the brothers, Miley Cyrus and other Disney Channel mega-stars, Handler said.

" 'Go die in a whole' — I mean, really, it doesn’t get better than that," Handler said. "We were all laughing so hard in the office. It’s a lesson on why we have this show in the first place."

Brandishing wicked humor with a wide smile, Handler, 33, delights in mocking the shallowness of Hollywood while embracing its tackiness. Since its premiere a little more than a year ago, Chelsea Lately has evolved into a Tinseltown version of The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and is one of the cable network’s top daily series that frolics in the culture of tabloid celebrity, averaging more than a half-million viewers each weeknight.

Her show, which airs opposite The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and Late Show With David Letterman, enters a crowded realm of Hollywood gossip shows but jumps enthusiastically into a daily pile of tabloid headlines, often from network companion E! News. The dirt is dished with a revolving panel of comedians and her sidekick, a 4-foot-3-inch gentleman named Chuy, whom she lovingly refers to as "my little hot tamale."

Throughout the show’s banter, and interviews with guests — who usually hail from cable or reality series — one of Handler’s biggest targets is herself. The show has propelled Handler ever higher in the entertainment pecking order and paved the way for additional projects, including a best-selling memoir and TV deals. Handler’s Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times’ nonfiction best-seller list.

The book is a series of hilarious, disconnected memories that cleverly straddles the absurd. Producer-director Barry Sonnenfeld is in final negotiations to turn the book about growing up, family and dating into a TV series.

Meanwhile, on weekends, Handler is drawing standing-room-only crowds at her comedy concerts. A recent Vanity Fair cover story singling out the funniest women on the comedy scene placed Handler alongside Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Wanda Sykes and Sarah Silverman.

Of course, not everyone finds Handler amusing, including Variety television critic Brian Lowry, who reviewed her first few shows.

"In theory, a snarky nightly half-hour devoted to entertainment culture makes considerable sense for E!," Lowry wrote last year. "But in Chelsea Lately, the network has gotten the idea right and the talent wrong. A poor-woman’s Kathy Griffin with a grating voice that could curve the spine, comic Chelsea Handler has bulldozed her way through the first three episodes, unpleasantly lurching from one snide comment to the next."

But, Handler says, she’s not mean-spirited. "I make fun of myself, so that allows me to make fun of others," she said. "It’s better if celebrities have a sense of humor about themselves."

The daily production of Chelsea Lately is loose, controlled chaos. The writers and producers plan each day’s show in the morning, writing material for the panel discussion and shooting comedy bits, either on location or in the hallways and cramped office spaces in West Los Angeles. The show tapes around 3:30 p.m. in front of a live audience and wraps in about an hour.