@Horror: open the console in your browser and copy this:
document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=jZNC3DCddAk; path=/; domain=.youtube.com";
Press enter and refresh. The console is ctrl + shift + k for Firefox, ctrl + shift + j for Chrome, ctrl + shift + i for Opera, and f12 for IE (so I've heard).
@Martix: You should be able to click the little arrow on the video box on the top right and 'hide this activity'... I don't really like how the recommended mixes with the subscriptions, but I hardly look down there myself. I usually just watch the first couple of videos.
I think you can get rid of the layout by deleting the cookie. Dunno how to do that, though. Chrome is relatively easy, I think.
I personally like it because it's more uniform with the rest of Google's websites. The layout was actually a little bigger than my screen, so I had to zoom out a little, but I usually go for a bigger screen when watching videos anyways, else I don't care about losing that 10% of video size.