Colbert shares insight into pal Steve Carell’s serious side

Stephen Colbert said he's not surprised Steve Carell — his former "Daily Show" comedic colleague — is being talked about as a potential Oscar contender in Bennett Miller's dramatic "Foxcatcher."

"I have known [Steve] for 26 years, probably longer than anyone else in this room, unless a member of his family is here," Colbert said while making a toast at Sony's Madison Avenue offices after the movie screened for VIPs.

Steve Carell in "Foxcatcher."Photo: Everett Collection

Colbert added he's known Carell since "The Second City [improv group], then at the long and lost 'Dana Carvey Show' and, of course, then at 'The Daily Show,' where we shared an office. I know that everyone is surprised by the performance that Steve is putting in this movie, but I'm not. I always knew that there was so much that Steve hadn't shown people."

Colbert also joked when he got a round of applause, "That's the only reason I came here, thank you."

The screening was hosted by Colbert with Julianne Moore and Lorne Michaels.

Moore's also getting Oscar buzz for her role in Sony Pictures Classics' "Still Alice," which was one of the upcoming films pirated in a recent hack of Sony computers.

Also toasting Carell were Michael Barker and Christine Vachon.

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St. John’s game will be extra special for Niagara’s coach

Chris Casey talks about his six years at St. John's as if they were a smashing success, full of NCAA Tournament trips and groundbreaking victories, not a struggle to break .500 and qualify for postseason play.

But to Casey, the second-year Niagara men's basketball coach, it was an enjoyable learning experience that paved the way to his own breakthrough, from working under Norm Roberts to facing Hall of Fame coaches such as Jim Calhoun, Jim Boeheim and Rick Pitino.

All those memories will come flooding back Tuesday night, when his Purple Eagles meet St. John's at Carnesecca Arena in Queens, a homecoming of sorts for Casey, who spent large chunks of his childhood and young adult life living in Brooklyn and Queens.

"I really developed a lot of good relationships there," the 51-year-old coaching lifer said in a phone interview. "That'll be the biggest part of coming back, just getting to see people you haven't seen in so long."

St. John's was just one of several stops in Casey's journey. After 27 years coaching at the Division I, II and III levels, Casey achieved a dream of becoming a Division I head coach in the spring of 2013. He took the long route, working as an assistant at four different Division I programs, excelling as a Division II head coach at LIU Post following his St. John's stint, before he was hired to replace Joe Mihalich — who left for Hofstra — at Niagara.

"Passion, he's got great passion for the game, he's got great passion for the players, he's got passion for whatever school he's at," Roberts, now an assistant coach at Kansas, said in a phone interview. "He's a guy who wants to do things the right way, and he will work as hard as he possibly can to be successful."

Casey never worried about whether his time would come. Casey was always focused on the job at hand.

He committed to basketball right after college, quitting his desk job at Ethan Allen to become a graduate assistant at Central Connecticut State, and while he may have thought twice about the move from time to time in the nearly three decades he worked toward becoming a Division I head coach, his passion for the sport never waned.

"You never know what's going to happen," he said. "You can't lament things that don't go your way and you can't rest on things that do go your way. You have to keep moving forward. Sometimes your path is to get your shot early or you get your shot late or in the middle. Everybody is different."

It's that same approach now at Niagara. It's about the next game, developing his young and inexperienced roster — no seniors, 13 freshmen and sophomores — into a cohesive unit. Despite a 1-3 record, Niagara is 1-0 in the MAAC, after its surprising 61-59 win Nov. 20 over St. Peter's, a team predicted to challenge for the conference title.

Casey doesn't expect Tuesday night to be an emotional homecoming. He has more important things in mind, like getting a victory. But it won't be just another game, either.

Without St. John's, he may never have gotten his big break.

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Rangers struck by Lightning yet again in defeat

The Rangers have now gone through three phases of Lightning abuse.

First, they got whipped by their old friends now playing for Tampa Bay. Then they hung close and still lost.

Monday night at the Garden, in the teams' third meeting of the season, the Blueshirts got a new version of despair, this one likely the toughest to take. They outplayed the Lightning for most of the night, and still found a way to lose it in the third period, turning a 3-3 tie with 20 minutes left into a disheartening 6-3 loss.

"I think it's going to be a good test for us to see where we stand against one of the best teams in the league," forward Rick Nash said before the game. "We've been pretty good lately, but we have to be consistent."

Good for the Rangers (11-9-4) has meant beating down on the lifeless Flyers over the weekend, taking a home-and-home by the combined score of 8-2. Yet before that, the Rangers piled up two losses to the Lightning (17-6-2), who have established themselves as one of the league's best.

So on this night, when the Blueshirts needed their best player, goalie Henrik Lundqvist, he played one of his worst games of the season. Lundqvist gave up two goals apiece to Tyler Johnson and Brett Connolly, and stopped just 15 of the 20 shots he faced.

Four minutes into the third period, with the score tied, Martin St. Louis was called for slashing, and that's when Connolly took a wrist shot from the high slot, across his body, to beat Lundqvist's blocker and make it 4-3. Just 1:24 later, Kevin Klein coughed up the puck behind his own net, and Nikita Kucherov found Johnson for his second of the night to make it 5-3. Ondrej Palat sealed things with an empty-netter in the waning seconds.

"I do know that this team is the highest-scoring team in the league," coach Alain Vigneault said. "You can't do it with a B-game, you can't do it with a B-plus game. You need your A-game."

The second period was all Rangers, as it started 2:42 in when Derick Brassard made a patient play to find Jesper Fast, who directed it in for his second in as many games, tying it 2-2. Seven minutes later, they went up 3-2 when St. Louis buried a rebound on the power play. There had been a pregame ceremony for St. Louis getting his 1,000th career point this weekend, and after the goal, the Garden crowd started chanting his name.

Yet the Blueshirts then took two penalties in sequence, and had to kill 1:20 of a 5-on-3 disadvantage. That they did. But 26 seconds after the power play ended, after a Ryan McDonagh clearing attempt was stopped by his old buddy, Anton Stralman, the ensuing play inside the Rangers' zone ended with Matt Carle netting one from the left circle, taking a 3-3 score into the third period.

"Obviously, they're one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference," Brassard had said, his team up in shots 24-13 after two periods. "We always want to see where we're at as a team. There's nothing better than facing good teams. They get the best out of your team and players."

The Rangers began the game with a mostly flat first period, going down 6:32 in when Palat made a great touch-pass to Johnson, who had the whole net to tap in his first of the night for a 1-0 lead. About six minutes later, Carl Hagelin managed to find Kevin Hayes, who netted one for the Rangers to tie it 1-1. Yet that knot lasted only four minutes until Connolly made a nifty move around Marc Staal to fire a shot from the high slot that beat a screened Lundqvist, giving Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead going into the second.

"There is a reason they're up in the standings," Nash said.

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Kanye, Bruce, Carrie & U2 rock Times Square

He calls himself a god, but last night in Times Square, Kanye West couldn't quite stop the heavens from opening.

During the free concert 'A (RED) Thank You Presented by (Bank of America)' (held at just a few hours notice in celebration of World AIDS Day), the rain that had threatened all night finally came down. But Yeezus responded with his own shower of hits. Prowling the small stage like a caged tiger, he barrelled his way through technical problems to deliver a ten-minute medley featuring "Jesus Walks," "Black Skinhead" and "Touch The Sky" before dropping the mic and stalking off stage.

It should have been a cameo, but Kanye used brute force and a healthy hint of drama to turn it into a show-stealing performance.

The gig had originally been planned as a secret U2 performance but Bono's biking accident in Central Park last month scuppered that idea. Not wanting to disappoint, the three uninjured members of the Irish band invited Coldplay's Chris Martin and Bruce Springsteen to fill in for vocal duty.

Wearing a shirt that read "SUBSTITU2," the Brit sang "Beautiful Day" and "With or Without You" with plenty of earnestness but not quite enough power. Springsteen on the other hand can summon a stadium-filling bellow at will, and he made short work of "Where the Streets Have No Name" before leading the Times Square crowd (and plenty of office workers watching from the windows above) into a sing-a-long of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."

Also filling out the show was country star Carrie Underwood, whose voice was impeccable during stripped down versions of "Change" and "Something in the Water." For at least an hour, you would have been hard-pushed to find anyone moaning about how Times Square has become a flagrant tourist trap.

Before the music had even begun, Bill Clinton addressed the crowd and explained the progress that had been made in the fight against AIDS. "This year, for the first time, more people were put on life saving medicine than were diagnosed (with the disease)," explained the former President. "We are going to win this battle."

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Odell Beckham Jr. makes another impressive one-handed catch

He's's done it again. Sort of.

It's going to be hard for Odell Beckham Jr. to ever top his catch against the Cowboys from two weeks ago, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't marvel at his freakish abilities when he does something slightly less spectacular.

Granted, this didn't take place during a game and there wasn't a defender on him. However, before Sunday's game against the Jaguars, the Giants rookie wide receiver pulled off another impressive grab.

While practicing his one-handed catches in pregame warm ups, Beckham did this:

Beckham isn't just wowing people with catches, either.

He also recently pulled off a trick in which he spun a football and then kicked a field goal.

This article originally appeared on Fox Sports.

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Terrorists plotting to blow up 5 planes in Christmas ‘spectacular': report

Terrorists are plotting to blow up five passenger planes from European cities as part of a Christmas "spectacular," according to a new report.

"Everyone is expecting something catastrophic very soon," a well-placed source told Britain's Sunday Express.

"We've been told that five planes are being targeted in a high-profile hit before Christmas. They've been waiting for the big one."

A source told The Post that London authorities were the first to uncover the threat, which would involve mid-air bombings.

"There is a credible threat that they're concerned about. They've known about it for awhile,'' a source said.

Airport-security sources told the Express that Islamists planned to smuggle bombs onto the planes in hand luggage.

"That's a common theme that's out there,'' The Post source noted.

Due to the threat, UK airports have been considering banning handheld devices in hand luggage.

Devices like smartphones and iPads would be required to be checked instead because of the security threat.

Mobile phones can be used as bombs or as triggers for a bomb. Non-metallic devices can be hidden inside of them, computers and printer cartridges.

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Scarlett Johansson weds in secret ceremony

Scarlett Johansson married French journalist Romain Dauriac in a secret ceremony just after the birth of their daughter, Rose, sources have confirmed to Page Six.

While the actress, who was recently seen wearing a gold ring on her wedding finger, has remained tight-lipped about if they had married, we're told the ceremony happened shortly after Johansson and Dauriac welcomed their first child in September.

A source tells Page Six, "Scarlett and Romain were married in a very intimate ceremony after the birth of their daughter. They kept the wedding a big secret because they both wanted privacy."

While it had been speculated the couple would marry in Dauriac's native Paris, the source said the wedding took place at a secret location in the US, away from the spotlight of Hollywood or Johansson's home town of New York. It is believed they may have married in a remote and natural location, such as Colorado.

Johansson and Dauriac stroll New York City in August.Photo: INFphoto

The "Lucy" star, who turned 30 last month, gave birth to daughter Rose in early September, and at the time a representative for the couple said they were seeking privacy as they do not want their baby girl to grow up in the spotlight.

The couple, who started dating in 2012, were engaged in August 2013, but she had reportedly said at the time she didn't want to "rush" tying the knot as "being engaged is an exciting time to enjoy and to really savor."

But in July, Page Six reported that a then-pregnant Johansson was overheard at a Hamptons dinner party saying the couple would be married "very soon." In early October, Duriac was seen with a gold band visible on the ring finger of his left hand. And in November, rumors that they had married in secret re-emerged after the actress was seen sporting what looks like a slender wedding band on her left hand, underneath her sparkling engagement ring.

A spokesman for Johansson, who will be seen in "Avengers: Age of Ultron" next year, didn't respond to requests for comment Sunday night.

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Joan River’s doctors delayed CPR as she lay dying: sources

Joan Rivers might still be alive if the two throat specialists who performed her ill-fated August procedure had simply started CPR and called 911 when the 81-year-old comedienne first went into shock, according to medical sources with knowledge of the case.

But a shocking new play-by-play — pieced together from interviews, confidential EMT records and a federal report — shows that Yorkville Endoscopy's now-former medical director, Dr. Lawrence Cohen, and Rivers' own Ear, Nose and Throat specialist, celebrity ENT Dr. Gwen Korovin, continued to perform scoping procedures on her larynx and trachea for 14 minutes even as her pulse and blood pressure plummeted.

Even when Rivers went into cardiac arrest, Cohen and Korovin squandered an additional 10 minutes on their own unsuccessful resuscitation attempts before calling 911, according to EMT records obtained by The Post and a federal report released this month.

By then, it was too late.

"She had no heartbeat, no pulse, she wasn't breathing," one insider said of Rivers' condition when medics finally reached the Upper East Side clinic at 9:47 a.m Aug. 28.

"She had cyanosis around the lips and the mouth — that's when your lips turn blue from lack of oxygen," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "That takes several minutes without oxygen."

Two specialists at Yorkville Endoscopy continued operating on Joan Rivers even as her pulse fell, records show.Photo: Reuters

The two medics and two emergency medical technicians who worked on Rivers managed to restart her heart and get precious oxygen into her lungs using the tracheal tube and bag-valve-mask ventilator that Yorkville's medical staff had been plying unsuccessfully, according to records and insider accounts.

But by then, Rivers' brain had been deprived of oxygen for significantly longer than the 5-minute cut-off for brain damage.

"They should have stopped the procedure and started resuscitation right away and done an emergency tracheotomy if there was any obstruction," the insider said. "Maybe she would still be alive."

Rivers made her appointment at Yorkville in hopes that camera scopings of her sinus, larynx and trachea would uncover the cause of her raspy voice. Doctors believed that her chronic acid reflux might be to blame, but something new — a polyp near her larynx, for example — also could have been responsible.

Rivers arrived at the East 93rd Street clinic with the gowned Korovin, who has treated such Broadway and recording luminaries as Hugh Jackman, Julie Andrews and Celine Dion.

Korovin was not authorized to practice at the clinic, and Rivers never signed a consent form for the two laryngoscopies that Korovin would conduct, according to a federal Department of Health and Human Services report.

Rivers and Korovin were joined in the procedure room by an unnamed female anesthesiologist and an unnamed female endoscopy technician.

Joan Rivers with her daughter Melissa in May.Photo: Getty

When she was put under at 9 a.m., Rivers' blood pressure, pulse and other vital signs were normal, the report says.

That would change dramatically in just 15 minutes, when Rivers went into shock, possibly from a reaction to anesthesia or her vocal cords seizing up in what's known as a laryngospasm.

According to medical reports and expert and insider accounts, it was at that point that the three physicians in the room — Korovin, Cohen and the anaesthesiologist — made several critical missteps.

They failed to immediately stop their scoping and begin resuscitation at 9:16 a.m., when Rivers' blood pressure first dropped to 92/54 and her pulse to 56 — indications of shock.

"At this point, something has gone wrong, the procedure must come to an end, and she needs to be resuscitated," said one veteran paramedic who was not involved in the Rivers case but reviewed her records.

But Korovin and Cohen still hadn't stopped their scoping and begun resuscitation 5 minutes later, at 9:21 a.m., when Rivers' blood pressure dropped still further to 89/44, and her pulse fell to 54.

"She is now in decompensated shock," said the paramedic. "If they interceded then"– stopping the procedure, starting CPR and calling 911 — "she would probably still be on TV today making fun of what people are wearing."

Instead, at 9:21 a.m., the anesthesiologist administered 120 milligrams of Propofol, the same strong sedative that Michael Jackson OD'd on.

"That doesn't make any sense," said the paramedic. "You're sedating someone who's going into shock."

By 9:26 a.m., Rivers' blood pressure plunged to 84/40, and her pulse was 47.

"This is what you call 'coding,' "the paramedic said. "That's where, in the hospital, all the doctors come running."

But the examination continued.

By 9:28 a.m. Cohen withdrew from Rivers' trachea a flexible scoping device called an EGD, for "Esophagogastroduodenoscope."

Korovin then took her second turn at examining Rivers, inserting a nasolaryngoscope.

There was still no CPR, no treatment for Rivers' shock and no 911 call, according to HHS and EMT records.

Instead, according to the HHS report, the anaesthesiologist merely increased Rivers' oxygen flow.

At some point during Korovin's examination of Rivers, Cohen took his cell phone and snapped a humorous photograph of the doctor and her patient, according to the HHS report.

"She's going down the tubes, and they're taking a selfie," said the paramedic.

Korovin would continue scoping Rivers for another 2 minutes, until 9:30 a.m. according to the HHS report.

At that point, her blood pressure was at 85/49, and there was "no pulse recorded," the report said.

She's going down the tubes, and they're taking a selfie. - Paramedic

Only then, at 9:30 a.m., do the doctors stop their scoping, start CPR and administer epinephrine and atropine — though 911 would not be called for another 10 minutes, at 9:40 a.m.

According to EMT records obtained by The Post, the doctors stopped giving CPR as they waited for the ambulances to arrive.

"AIDED FEM 80 YRS—- CPR IS NOT BEING GIVEN," reads one record logged at 9:42 a.m.

"That's just terrible," the veteran paramedic said of the Yorkville doctors' apparent lack of continuous CPR.

"The physicians in charge of the care of the patient failed to identify deteriorating vital signs and provide timely intervention," the HHS report states.

"Based on their own notes [as recorded in the HHS report], this is very ugly," the paramedic said of the Yorkville staff's actions.

Korovin and Cohen did not respond to requests for comment.

Howard Bragman, a spokesman for Rivers' daughter, Melissa, declined comment.

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Despite aching back, Carmelo plays through the pain

Desperate times called for a desperate move.

Amar'e Stoudemire sounded the alarm with his caustic comments Friday night in Oklahoma City, questioning the club's desire, and Carmelo Anthony apparently heard the message.

Despite his back not yet 100 percent, Anthony decided to try to play Sunday night against the Heat at the Garden after successfully going through a shootaround in the morning.

Stoudemire's rant about the club needing to show more "desperation'' hit home, and even mild-mannered coach Derek Fisher acknowledged some of Stoudemire's harsh assessments were "correct.''

Anthony had missed the previous two games with back spasms, and on Friday indicated he probably would wait until Tuesday's game against the Nets to return, because he said 80 percent of the spasms had disappeared and the club didn't have a practice Saturday.

But the Knicks were in desperate straits, coming off a 0-3 Southwestern trip as they carried a 4-13 record into Sunday night. To boot, Dwyane Wade made his return from a hamstring injury that cause him to miss seven games. Fisher's sour luck just continues as the Knicks were victims of Russell Westbrook's return Friday.

Anthony declined to speak before the game, but had said he wouldn't play if his back was still spasming.

He decided he felt well enough to play, though he's not 100 percent, according to Fisher.

"I don't have expectations at all,'' Fisher said before the game. "It's hard to simulate game action. He looked pretty good [Sunday] morning.''

Less than one week ago, Anthony could barely walk after suffering the back injury in Houston. He told The Post he wouldn't return until all the spasms were gone.

"I don't think he'd put himself in danger if he was still in spasm,'' Fisher said. "I don't think he's fully comfortable either. I'm sure he's still in discomfort.''

The Knicks were blitzed by 27 points Friday in Oklahoma City, falling behind 40-13 after 15 minutes. The result likely expedited Anthony's return. On Friday, Anthony revealed tests had shown there was no structural damage and the spasms were related to muscles.

Anthony was listed as doubtful against Miami before the Knicks upgraded his status to questionable in the afternoon.

Fisher, rarely critical of the club publicly, seemed pleased at Stoudemire's remarks in which he said repeatedly, "Teams want it more than we do.'' Stoudemire also called the club's 4-13 start "unacceptable'' and felt they looked "afraid'' of the Thunder in the first quarter.

"I think it shows some leadership from Amar'e,'' Fisher said. "He's expressing how he feels about his team and teammates and where we are as a group. I think it's correct as far as his assessment. But it's their locker room. It's more about how they feel about it than how I feel about it.''

Asked specifically if there's an effort issue, Fisher said, "At times. I don't think it's effort for a guy choosing not to try hard. That's a different conversation. Sometimes effort and energy is lacking. More so in areas of frustration, stress, tension, lack of confidence or faith. When you have some doubts, energy is a little low. Our guys are fighting hard to dispel some of the questions they have about whether it's going to turn around.''

It is a big week for Anthony as the Nets and Cavaliers visit and his "Made for New York'' documentary — which it depicts how close he was to joining the Bulls — debuts Tuesday.

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Grinding, aching Carmelo can’t will Knicks past Heat

The Knicks were just good enough to lose. Again.

Carmelo Anthony provided leadership Sunday night by suiting up unexpectedly with a bad back and Amar'e Stoudemire tried to light a fire by questioning the team's desire after the Oklahoma City debacle Friday.

Anthony and Stoudemire each came up with big performances, but ultimately not winning ones.

Anthony scored 31 points in his less-than 100 percent state, playing 42 minutes, and Stoudemire added 19.

Didn't matter. It was also the night Miami's Dwyane Wade made his return from a hamstring injury — bad luck again for Knicks coach Derek Fisher. Wade made more plays down the stretch than Anthony to carry the Heat to an 86-79 Garden victory and send the Knicks to a 4-14 record.

As impressive as Anthony played, he missed a key 3-pointer in the final minute and then threw a careless pass to Tim Hardaway Jr. that went off his hands and out of bounds with 20 seconds left to seal the loss.

Despite looking slow on defense and not as explosive on offense early on, Anthony got better as the game wore on, finishing 11-of-26 from the field and 8-of-10 from the line in 42 minutes.

Wade scored 27 points on 11-of-18 shooting with five assists.

Anthony's minutes rose as J.R. Smith was limited to six minutes in the second half by an illness that coach Derek Fisher said required intravenous fluids.

Earlier Smith was reoved from the game early in the second quarter after allowing a back-door cut pass to James Ennis for an easy dunk, and Smith — who was 0-for-4 in five minutes in the half, — hung his head on the edge of the bench. Miami got up as much as 16 points midway through the second period.

Anthony managed to rack up 15 points in the first half, as he shot just 4-of-11 but got some calls and made 7-of-8 free throws.

Still, he was laboring at times early before loosening up. After converting a late-second-quarter alley-oop dunk, he slapped his back. The Knicks needed anything he could provide, and he only grimaced a couple of times.

The surprising return to action also cost Anthony money as he earned a technical. In an odd scene, Anthony was handed the ball to inbound by referee Ken Mauer. Anthony then dropped the ball as it appeared Mauer had blown the whistle in his ear. Mauer didn't take kindly to the restart and the two began jawing.

After the inbound, Anthony kept at it with Mauer and picked up the technical.

The Knicks buckled down in the third quarter, committed only one turnover and Anthony loosened up. They closed to 63-59 after three quarters.

But Wade provided his own spark. In the final minutes, he grabbed an offensive rebound, snatching it away from Iman Shumpert and laying it in to put the Heat up 77-69 with 3:50 left. On the next possession, Wade nailed a tough fallaway from the left baseline over Jose Calderon to all but seal it at 79-69 with 3:33 left. The Knicks rallied within four but Anthony couldn't close it, missing his last two shots, along with the silly pass to Hardaway.

In the third quarter, Fisher finally looked disgusted on the sideline, his face twisted after Shumpert went for the steal on Wade, who spun by him for an easy layup.

In the opening minute, Anthony got the ball near midcourt with the shot clock winding down. Instead of hoisting a desperation jumper, he handed it to the referee after a shot-clock violation.

The Knicks continued to play lazy defense at the 3-point line and Josh McRoberts bagged two consecutive 3s as the Miami lead swelled. Chris Bosh only had six points in the half but on one bucket, he faked Samuel Dalembert so badly, he glided all alone for the easy dunk.

Less than one week ago, Anthony could barely walk after suffering the back injury Monday night in Houston. He told The Post he won't return until all the spasms were gone.

"I don't think he'd put himself in danger if he was still in spasm,'' Fisher said. "I don't think he's fully comfortable either. I'm sure he's still in discomfort.''

Anthony declined to speak before the game but had said he wouldn't play if he had any spasms remaining. On Friday, Anthony said "80 percent'' of the spasms had disappeared.

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