Can I come back?...

Prime-time newcomer Jay Leno says he would have rather stayed put at “The Tonight Show”—and if NBC offered him that job again, he’d take it.

In an interview with Broadcasting & Cable magazine published online Monday, Leno hastily added that such a decision isn’t his to make.

Conan O’Brien, his successor as “Tonight” host after 17 years, is “doing fine,” Leno said.

“Conan is in the same position I was in when I took over. It takes awhile. Some will like it; some will leave forever and not come back.” Leno said he doesn’t think the recent controversy surrounding his former late-night rival David Letterman “will have a big effect at all.”

Referring to Letterman’s acknowledged sexual affairs with female members of his staff, Leno said, “If it were me, it would kill me. I’m the guy who’s been married 29 years. But Dave has never pretended to be Mr. Moral America, he’s never set himself up that way. He’s not a hypocrite.”

“The Jay Leno Show” began on NBC in September, airing Monday through Friday at 10 p. m. Eastern, where it has displaced several prime-time scripted dramas. For that, and for his less-than-stellar ratings thus far, Leno has taken heat within the TV industry as well as from critics.

It’s just part of the battle, said Leno, who insisted he enjoys it.

“I get a certain amount of satisfaction from pounding my head against the wall,” he said. “I’m not having a bad time at 10 o’clock now. I look at this as a job, and now I’m faced with a challenge, and it’s a challenge I find difficult but interesting.”

Sorry Roman, no deal ...

An attorney for Roman Polanski has offered Swiss justice officials what he called a “very, very significant” amount of cash as a higher deposit in a proposed bail deal for the director, but the government has rejected the offer, news reports said.

It marks the third time the Swiss have rejected Polanski’s attempts at bail.

Polanski was arrested in Zurich and faces extradition to the United States for sentencing in a sexual-assault case involving a 13-year-old girl. Polanski fled to Europe just before sentencing in that case more than 30 years ago.

Herve Temime, a lawyer for Polanski, told reporters that he felt the new cash offer—he would not reveal the exact sum—should be adequate to convince Swiss officials that the 76-year-old film director would not flee. But Bloomberg News quoted Swiss justice official Folco Galli as rejecting the latest offer, saying the “risk of flight remains high.”

Gibson’s got another girl ...

MelGibson, 53, and his girlfriend are welcoming the birth of the couple’s first child—making the Oscarwinner a father for the eighth time.

Gibson’s publicist Alan Nierob said Monday that Oksana Grigorieva gave birth to a baby girl named Lucia on Friday in Los Angeles.

Gibson has seven children with his wife, Robyn. She cited irreconcilable differences in her April divorce petition to end their marriage of 28 years.

Gibson, met Grigorieva, a 39-year-old Russian musician, while filming “Edge of Reason.”