Gervais Looks Golden Again; Bieber Also Denies Owning Dog

It looks like Gervais will return for another year of uncomfortable jokes as Golden Globes host, Marilyn Manson's 'wild' weekend in Las Vegas included singing lots of Justin Timberlake, and more layoffs hit the Los Angeles Times.

Welcome to the Smart Set. Every morning we bring you the gossip coverage, filtered. Today: It looks like Gervais will return for another year of uncomfortable jokes as Golden Globes host, Marilyn Manson's 'wild' weekend in Las Vegas included singing lots of Justin Timberlake, and more layoffs hit The Los Angeles Times.

• Despite assurances that he would never again host the Golden Globe, Ricky Gervais was reportedly spotted having dinner in Paris with Aida Takla--O’Reilly, the president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and NBC head of specials Doug Vaughan. While there's no official confirmation yet that he's back, a witness at the restaurant said, "The Champagne was flowing and glasses were clinking." [Page Six]
• Actor Stanley Tucci is engaged to Emily Blunt's sister Felicity. Emily's getting the credit for fixing them up: she worked with Tucci, whose wife died of cancer in 2009, on The Devil Wears Prada. This means Stanley Tucci and John Krasinski will be brothers-in-law, which sounds the basis for a great sleeper summer comedy. [Us Weekly] 
• The last 24 hours have not been kind to Justin Bieber, but he's emphatically denying a story about him that's been popping up in the gossip pages. Namely, that he and girlfriend Selena Gomez adopted a puppy from the Winnipeg pound and named it Baylor. I didn't adopt a dog, no," he told Ryan Seacrest on his radio show. "A friend of mine did. I don't take credit for the dog. I don't have anything to do with that dog." [People]
• Marilyn Manson reportedly had quite a time in Las Vegas over Halloween weekend. After playing a concert at The Bank nightclub in the Bellagio, a witness says Manson changed his clothes, consumed "numerous shots of absinthe" and insisted on going to a karaoke bar off the Strip at 4 a.m. with his entourage. When they got there, Manson's song selections were all over the map, ranging from The Doors' "Texas Radio" to Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me a River," which a source says he sang six times. Then the bar's sound system started crackling and Manson was "not happy." He was even less happy when he discovered there was no limo waiting for him outside. He tried to get into one that belonged to someone else, but the driver "grabbed him and literally dragged him out of the car." While waiting for his own limo, Manson also "whipped out what appeared to be a knife and playfully waved it at his pals." He was heard to proclaim, "I am sorry I went nuts but I'm a rock star." [Page Six]
• The belt-tightening at the Los Angeles Times continued yesterday, as editor Russ Stanton held meetings to inform affected people that the design, news operations and web operations staffs would be combined into one department, along with at least some of the copy editors." The changes will result in 10-20 layoffs. According to a source in the paper's newsroom, there's also "new talk of combining sections to save money."[LA Observed]
• Cyndi Stivers is the new editor-in-chief of the Columbia Journalism Review. Before getting the job, Stivers was the managing editor of EW.com for three years, but she is best known as the founding editor-in-chief of Time Out New York. [Fishbowl NY]