Everybody loves a clown

The honors and recognition for Jerry Lewis are pouring in while he's here to enjoy them. With Jerry bringing his telethon back to Las Vegas this Labor Day weekend, the Tabloid Baby team is leading the movement to give the show of our lives a home in a prime spot on the Strip, instead of the joint on the edge of town that's hosting the Glass Craft & Bead Expo this weekend.

Meanwhile, the Page Six team has this item about the recent French Legion of Honor inductee in Thursday's New York Post:

TARGET: JERRY
CAN Jerry Lewis take a joke? We'll find out June 9 when the legendary comic, who's known as a cantankerous curmudgeon, is roasted by the Friars Club at a star-studded luncheon at the Hilton. Lewis will have his self-esteem destroyed and suffer insults from some of the sharpest wits around. Richard Belzer will serve as Roastmaster. Friars Club Dean Freddie Roman said of Lewis, who's adored in France, "We're happy to prove that 50 million Frenchmen can't be wrong." Expect many cracks about "The Day the Clown Cried," Lewis' unreleased 1972 movie about a clown who entertained children in a Nazi concentration camp. Lewis has the distinction of being the most honored Friar, having previously been roasted in 1971 and 1986.

Never mind the "cracks." Download the script for "The Day The Clown Cried" here.

Read about Jerry, the Friars, and more great comedians and their place in tabloid history here.

(And by the way, take another listen to Jerry's son Gary Lewis and his group The Playboys, for some of the best pop songs of the Sixties, which means ever. Poor Gary's still out there, playing the Clay County Fairgrounds in Green Cove Springs Florida April 6 on his way to Branson, and based on classics like "This Diamond Ring," Everybody Loves A Clown," "Count Me In" and "Save Your Heart for Me," is surely a candidate for that rock hall of fame.)