Side show

What you missed while you were rushing home to watch the grammys:

Proof the Grammys are getting hipper every year: Dave Adelson from HITS magazine, who co-hosted E!'s preshow with Joan and Melissa Rivers, kept asking rappers: When is this uproar over rap going to die down? Rap is really getting mainstream, isn't it?

Maya in a white and black-lace Versace minidress, which would have looked great on her if she hadn't suffered from Gwyneth Paltrow syndrome: not enough chest for the top.

How Nelly became Nelly: His father's name is Cornell. His name is Cornell. His father was Big Nell. He was Little Nell. He was Nelly Nell when he started rapping. That got shortened to Nelly.

John Ondrasik, a.k.a Five for Fighting, saying his mother won't forgive him for giving up opera.

Megaproducer Jermaine Dupree with his date, Nicole, Playboy's Miss January. They're "just friends."

Ryan Adams in holey jeans; a Raggedy Ann and Andy T-shirt underneath an untucked pinstriped shirt; pink and black striped tie (with his collar unbuttoned); black jack; black canvas sneakers. "I was really hungover, and (girlfriend Leona) said, "Put this on,' " he said of his strategy.

Classical violinist Joshua Bell saying he keeps his Stradivarius, made in 1713, in his bedroom but not in his bed. "You have to draw the line somewhere" the unidentified female with him added.

Patty LaBelle swapping menopause memories with Joan during a discussion of how much they are alike. (Followed up later by a prime-time commercial with LaBelle pitching hormone replacement therapy while she sings in the background New Attitude from Beverly Hills Cop: "Runnin' hot, runnin' cold . . .")

Tony Bennett and Billy Joel looking roughly the same age when they stand side by side. Bennett is 75. Joel is 52.

Mary J. Blige . . . do you know what I'm sayin' to Joan? . . . 'cause all the positive things get pushed to the back, all the superficial things get pushed to the front . . . you have to wait until you're 50 to be rewarded . . . the world will never reward me . . . it's me rewarding me . . . do you know what i'm saying? . . . No. Nobody did.

When cornered, the Backstreet Boys' Kevin Richardson admitting that singing Quit Playing Games With My Heart "sometimes gets a little old for me."

Dixie Chick Natalie Maines addressing a theoretical question about what she would have worn if she had woken up Wednesday morning 10 pounds lighter: "If I had woke up and lost 10 pounds, I'd be here naked."

Celine Dion talking lovingly about her infant son: "Every time I sing to him, he cries." Several million people know how he feels.

THE BEST DRESSED WINNER: No one could top Bootsy Collins, who also won a Grammy for best short-form video for Fat Boy Slim's Weapon of Choice.

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