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Real Time with Bill Maher recap: Hitchens, Shearer and Tharoor - Video

By M&C Smallscreen Mar 2, 2008, 21:30 GMT

02/25/2007 - Arianna Huffington and Bill Maher - 2007 Vanity Fair Oscar Party - Morton\'s - West Hollywood, California. USA © Albert L. Ortega / PR Photos

Real Time with Bill Maher rocked last night as Bill welcomed actor Harry Shearer, diplomat Shashi Tharoor, journalist Christopher Hitchens and Real Time correspondent Dan Savage.  Also via satellite, a jovial Gov. Ed Rendell (D-PA) who is also a superdelegate for Hillary Clinton.

The fly in the night's ointment was the leaden Bob Odenkirk, the unfunny half of the "Mr. Show" show.  Note to Bill: There's a reason he's not on HBO anymore.

Also painful was the groaner Harry Shearer laid about Barack being slight and "take-able" by a white man - not very funny. However Shearer redeemed himself later with some great comments in "Overtime" which you can see below.

Hitchens seemed to vex Maher in the beginning of the show with his comments regarding Hillary Clinton and her "fat" Rodham brothers, her helping to pardon Mark Rich and other events that occupied a busy Mrs. Clnton as first-lady.

Maher also took a paternity pot-shot at Prince Harry, which had guest Shashi Tharoor jump in repeatedly admonishing Maher that Harry didn't deserve the sarcastic comments. 

Maher agreed with Tharoor that his heroic service to his country was admirable, but stood fast by his claim that he felt Prince Charles was not Harry's dad.

The group dissected the politics of the day, all of them seemed to castigate Hillary and praise "rock star" Obama, with correspondent Dan Savage presenting a filmed segment on the popular candidate.

During new rules, Maher made his point that the right wing is demonizing Barack over meaningless things like his middle name, or his Kenya trip in 2006 when he donned a native outfit (Maher quickly posts a montage of GOP leaders in foreign get-ups too).

Hopefully Maher's bookers will continue to book intelligent and entertaining guests like Hitchens and Tharoor again very soon.  Some smart women would be nice, too.

New Rules from last night's show:

Overtime where Maher praises (sort of) conservative William Buckley Jr.: