Temp-to-hire? Will Ferrell may stay at 'The Office'

Kravitz/FilmMagic; Rothenberg for News

Will Ferrell might just have a spot in 'The Office' when Steve Carell vacates it later next month.

Could Will Ferrell's stint on "The Office" be a temp-to-hire situation?

As Steve Carell's Michael Scott prepares to leave the show, Ferrell will do a four-episode story arc starting April 14 in which he'll play an incompetent Dunder Mifflin branch manager.

When we caught up with Ferrell before Comedy Central's First Annual Comedy Awards at the Hammerstein Ballroom on Saturday night, we were curious about speculation that his guest spot could lead to something more long-term. Would Ferrell be a permanent addition to the cast?

"That's a very distinct possibility," the curly-haired comedian told us. "It's looking good!"

That's an exciting tease. But fans might not want to get their hopes too high ? when we spoke to "The Office" co-star Craig Robinson, he told us it would be "a long breath hold" waiting to see if Ferrell stuck around.

Ferrell's wingman on the carpet was writing partner and Funny or Die.com co-founder Adam McKay, who's also got big plans.

"Will is doing cameos on other shows and so am I," he deadpanned. "I just appeared on the show 'Hoarders' on A&E. A lot of people know I like to keep dirty old Tupperware dishes and stacks of newspapers in my apartment." "Word got out," he explained. "So I'm on two episodes. And I was on 'Ice Road Truckers' last month."
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The pair told us about the thwarted dream of bringing their movie "Anchorman" to Broadway. "We couldn't quite get it together money wise," McKay said. "We had so many actors, and the budget for a musical had to be at a certain level," and "they wouldn't give it to us."
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Also on the Comedy Awards carpet, our nation's finest minds came together to answer a pressing question: What exactly IS "Tiger Blood," Charlie Sheen's substance of choice? "God, I hope it's Thorazine!" said Stephen Colbert.

"I've always assumed that he's being honest," said Jon Stewart. "That it's tiger blood. I can't imagine that he would be disingenuous!"

McKay agreed that we should take Sheen at his word. It's literal tiger blood, he said, "or Tiger Wood's blood."

Ferrell waxed nostalgic. "There is an energy drink I saw when I was driving through Texas last summer called Tiger Blood," he recalled. "So maybe it's just that." He reported that the drink fueled a cross-state drive of a mere four hours, which sounds about right.

So Sheen has everyone dreading what's next, and Ferrell has everyone hoping. But some of the night's stars were ruling out possibilities rather than raising them.

"There will be no 'Pluto Nash' sequel," Eddie Murphy told us, unprompted.

Contact Gatecrasher:
Frank DiGiacomo: fdigiacomo@nydailynews.com
Carson Griffith: cgriffith@nydailynews.com
Molly Fischer: mfischer@nydailynews.com

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