It looks like long-time TV critic Roger Ebert deserves two thumbs up for garnering the top punditry prize in the nation from Forbes magazine. What exactly does that mean? Well! It means that out of all the talking heads you see and read each day, he’s the best of the best. Apparently.

Ebert beat out some really loud people you might have thought to be shoe-ins in such a battle of brawn. Bill Maher was ranked second, followed by FOX News’ king Bill O’Reilly; Senate candidate Al Franken; TV “journalist” Geraldo Rivera; Rosie O’Donnell; film critic Leonard Maltin; legal commentator Greta Van Susteren; CNN news commentator Lou Dobbs; and basketball analyst Bill Walton.

Jesse Jackson, Sean Hannity and Keith Olbermann were among near misses for the top ten.

Interestingly, liberal Web pundits like Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos and Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo scored high “likability ratings” with certain population segments, but their awareness numbers, which are more important than appeal, according to the Forbes polling team, were “barely on the radar screen.”

The same is largely true of elite, but popular, newspaper columnists like Thomas Friedman, Maureen Dowd, and Robert Novak.

So! What to take away from all this? Grab some popcorn, stow your politics and start watchin’ some movies.

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UPDATE: The interview has been bumped to Sunday.

Big Head DC hears that Deborah Jeane Palfrey is scheduled to appear on FOX News’ “Geraldo” this Saturday night. Her civil lawyer, Montgomery Blair Sibley says that she will be speaking first about what she intends to do with her escort service telephone records if Judge Gladys Kessler - or an appellate court - releases her from the temporary restraining orders issued in March, which presently prohibit Palfrey from releasing copies of the escort service telephone records for the years 1993 - 2006.

Palfrey will also be discussing how the government can seize all her assets upon the allegations of unidentified confidential informants and - with the complicity of the federal trial and appellate courts - be denied for over nine months a ruling within 30 days as required by statute on whether that seized property should be returned to her.

As we’ve previously reported, neither the D.C. District Court of Appeals, nor the United States Supreme Court has ruled on Jeane’s pending appeals of these issues.

Earlier: What ABC News Didn’t Tell You: Big Head DC’s Interview With “DC Madam” Deborah Jeane Palfrey

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