Last night we got to experience that rare joy once again-- the surprise sighting of a brand spankin' new Apple commercial on broadcast TV. There we were, tuned in to Buffy as per the usual sacred Tuesday night ritual, when Jeff Goldblum's inimitable presence commandeered our set and proceeded to tout the Internet as the ideal holiday gift, and the iMac as the ideal way to give it. If you weren't watching the WB (may the powers that be have mercy upon your soul) and missed this new addition to Apple's stable of ads, for once the company's right on the ball; there's a QuickTime version of "Internet Gift" already available, the very day after the commercial first hit the airwaves.

Be warned, though, because the page in question features a rather large and unsettling still of Mr. Goldblum scratching his chin-- a pose that we presume is meant to be "pensive," but which strikes us as "confused" instead, or possibly "befuddled." Indeed, we don't know how intelligent the man is in real life, but we've noticed that whenever Jeff stars in an Apple commercial, he apparently goes to great pains to come across as the wide-eyed techno-newbie-- which, of course, makes perfect sense, since that's the iMac's target audience. And while our first thought was that the Average Shmoe might take offense at being characterized as such, we soon recalled the stupendous popularity of the "* For Dummies" books and realized that as far as technology is concerned, the public loves to be talked down to. So we figure Apple's taking exactly the right approach (though that picture on the "Internet Gift" page still creeps us out a little).

Now, while the rest of us were all rejoicing at Apple's decision to advertise the iMac as a holiday gift-- hey, just because it's blindingly obvious doesn't mean that Apple would actually do it-- eagle-eyed faithful viewer Ross Karchner was busy scoping out the URL for Jeff Goldblum's iTools home page. Yes, just like Steve's page (which the iCEO revealed during the first iTools demo back in January), Jeff's page is a real thing, available for public consumption at http://homepage.mac.com/jeffgoldblum/. Don't expect to find too much there, though... other than a photo album with the puzzling title of "Dog Face" and an iMovie page with a broken file reference. Hmmm... maybe that "clueless newbie" act isn't so much of an act after all...