my MBP gets very very hot as well. i have a Targus twin fan cooling pad whose energy source comes from the MPB. after i bought my MBP i was walking thru best buy and noticed they had the new 17" MBP. so i walked up to it, and felt the bottom (dont ask me why, for some reason i did) ANYWAY, i noticed it was cool, almost as if it wasnt even on...but i was, it was running like 5 programs at the time. but it had this targus pad, so there was no question about picking one up that day. i bought a few extras for my friends with aluminum housed mac's.
****, why doesnt apple make a Mac cooling pad, they would sell like hotcakes.