The big TV profile of the Vogue Paris EIC will premiere at the DVR-required time of 4.30a EST on March 18. This teaser kinda sucks—thanks for the insight, Marc—but I have high hopes.
This is not shameless, only because I do feel embarassed (but, obviously enough, not so bashful that I'm not typing this shiz right now).
Every now and again, I write things, and I'd like to think that someone other than my father—no, I mean it: my dad's my lone reader as my mom "can't find the time to sit down!" and "isn't good at checking her email!"—consumes these "published works."
Now that I've made the stories look fancy, I will tell you they are always, always, always about 1) celebrities/actor-types and 2) food. As you can see, I'm a super serious reporter who will probably be up for a Pulitzer in '09. WATCH OUT.
Two of all, I did a profile of this up-and-coming actress Kate French for FOAM. It's a fashion-surfing magazine and is pretty rad. Kate is both adorable and hot (cause we all know those are totally different things). She is on The L-Word and, starting Mon. (a.k.a. my birfday) is doing a stint on Gossip Girl as, duh, a Chuck Bass love interest. All together now: DIE. For the pretty, picture-filled version, click here and navigate to pg. 94. For the user-friendlier option, direct your attentions here.
Most importantly, the teaser for next week's GG that promises to bring us K.F.—and a Blair Waldorf expulsion?!?! Yah, prolly no.
Yesterday may as well have been national Blagojevich day, as far as I'm concerned, because I could focus on nothing else (not even new pictures of Suri wearing a coat!). Today, John Cass of the (flailing) Chicago Tribune writes an op-ed on the matter and basically talks about how, while this debacle and the the associated Clay Davis-style corruption doesn't come as a surprise to Chicagoans/Illinoisans who are used to these sort of local polischticks, the national media and the general public must be stunned—and a little bummed—that Chicago isn't actuuaaaallly the fairy tale-ized place they saw on the teevee on Nov. 4. He says:
"So though Illinois isn't surprised—this is after all the home of the Chicago Way—the national media must be shocked.
They've been clinging to the ridiculous notion that Chicago is Camelot for months now, cleaving to the idea with the willfulness of stubborn children. It must help them see Obama as some pristine creature, perhaps a gentle faun of a magic forest, unstained by our grubby politics, a bedtime story for grown-ups who insist upon fairy tales. But now the national media may finally be forced to confront reality."
But the issue with this idea that exposing Camelot's dark alleys negatively affects Obama is that—from everything we know right now—Mr. President Elect's hands are clean. Sure, Chi-town is looking a hell of a lot less shiny right now, but that almost plays into the fairy tale notion of Obama's perfection: He managed to be the anti-politician in a place that is full of the worst, dirtiest crooks out there. Rather than come out smelling like shit, he's looking like the flower who used the dung as fertilizer.
Clay Davis (of The Wire...I'm sorry) and his infamous "sheeeeeeiiiiiiiit"
YOU GUYS. I cannot even explain. Go to the website Betamaxmas right this minute. Basically, the geniuses over there have curated a collection of YouTube clips of eighties Christmas shows/specials/commercials. Not impressed? Um, there are three channels and a *guide* that will quite possibly keep you from accomplishing anything for the next three weeks.
Do you want the good or the bad first? (Unfortunately, there is not enough pressing info for the good-bad-good-bad-bad-good format.) Let's end on a good note anyway!
The bad: Do you recall the 12-year-old restaurant critic SLASH kid who just likes food and eating out? Well, Paramount is turning his story into a movie, and SNL's Lorne Michael will produce. I was under the impression that said story was just that he went for a fancy meal with the $25 bucks mommy gave him, but perhaps I'm wrong.
The good: Get ready for "DIE. D-I-E. DIE." season 2! WHEE! Oh, Rachel Zoe, why do I love you? But mid-2009 really is a long time to wait.
OMFG, someone—namely Adam Sternbergh—over at NY Mag is my soul mate. He has a story in this week's issue about how he just can't watch Mad Men even though every one of the two million people who do tune in try to get him to join their corps, like, every 2.5 seconds. He basically argues that since The Sopranos (a show that I, ahem, have never seen a minute of), we've been bombarded by the quality show—the thing you just HAVE to watch:
"Of course, The Sopranos changed all that. It normalized, then popularized, the idea that a TV show could measure up against the best of any art form. It heralded an age of creative latitude for TV creators, attracting vital talent to the medium. And it coincided with the rise of the Internet, which gave ardent TV fans a new place to gather and whip themselves into a froth—as if the office cooler had been transported into a giant echo chamber. All of which created the perfect conditions for a show to be declared the Best Ever—not just an amusing entertainment but a can’t-miss cultural event."
I'm always suspicious of the shows that win this Best Ever title—stuff like Battlestar Galactica, Lost, and Friday Night Lights—and have only become a card-carrying fan club member of one such program: The Wire (don't get me started). I too refuse to watch Mad Men even though K lent me her Season 1 DVDs. It just feels like I'm selling out or caving to the pressure of the masses, like joining Facebook in 2008 or wearing UGGs (ever). The author of this article goes on to address they why of watching THE show in our world of DVDs, Tivo, and (gasp) teevee on the internets:
"Maybe the furor around shows like Mad Men is not the product of some rampant mass hysteria. Maybe it’s the expression of a yearning for the last remnant of the traditional viewing experience we once shared. Long gone are the days when we would all sit down on Thursday at 10 to watch L.A. Law. So instead, to retain some sense of communal experience, we cling culturally to a single show. We don’t want to admit we’re splitting off in a million directions; we want to believe that all our eyes still occasionally turn in the same direction. (For the past year, the election campaign served this purpose—the one great show we all tuned into.) So it doesn’t even matter that not many people, relatively, are actually watching Mad Men. What matters is that everyone’s talking about it."
The election point is a good one, and this sense of communal experience is exactly why I watch every Monday what maaaaybe might not be one of the best shows ever, Gossip Girl. I know I can rehash the episode with ten people the next day (including my 38-year-old dude office neighbor), read the recaps on Videogum, and feel like I'm part of some big inside joke for a mere 40 min. of DVR time a week. Not to imply that Chuck Bass' fashion choices aren't reason enough to watch.
I loooove watching TV on DVD, but I hate the fact that you have to commit to, like, a gazillion episodes if the show was on network telly or a 95 hour-long, fast forward-free ones if the program was on HBO. Right now, I'm stoked on checking out The West Wing—of which I've never seen a single moment—but seven seasons? I do have a JOB (for now), you know. Thankfully, today Y advised me that, really, only the first three are worth watching. Approximately 80 hours of my life are thus saved. (Is using those hours to troll online shopping websites for really good sales better?? Prolly not so much.)
Can someone—anyone? Bueller?—make a website that compiles this information for me? Because the weight of my Netflix queue is too much to withstand, and I feel like I'm already such a terrible cultural consumer considering I didn't watch any teevee live from season 2 of Dawson's Creek to season 5 of SATC.
Anyway, I will offer my suggestions (in hopes that you'll gimme yours in return, duh). Sharing is caring, you guys.
The Wire: Seasons 1-4. You've heard it a milllllion times. The show is DA BOMB. So just watch, otay? BUT, the fourth should have been the last. I don't like when Michael Lee becomes a bad boy. It keeps me up at night.
Weeds: Season 1-2. When Nancy becomes an f-ing full-on drug lord? Count me out
Wonderfalls: All 13 episodes. Yup, it's a brilliant-but-canceled.
I'm Alan Partrige: Season 1. That's enough of Steve Coogan to give you quotes for daaaaays.
Arrested Development: Seasons 2-3. Yes, I know, funniest show, like, EVA, but it doesn't really get going until the 2nd year. The first few episodes can be a tough sell to someone who hasn't seen.
And now! A break for a gratuitous photo of Tristan Wilds (who played Michael Lee and is now on, barf, 90210). He has the best smile in the galaxy. But I can't find a pic where he shows it. HBO! Help!
Next up are The West Wing, Veronica Mars, My So-Called Life (because, let's be honest, I hardly remember), and Battlestar Galactica. And clearly I need advice.
Um, kiiiiiinda obsessed with the album art of Britney's Circus, out on her birfday, 12/2. She looks glam, and that's not something we've been able to say since the turn of the century (see exhibit Halloween pics). She's wearing Rodarte (per Fashionista), which is about as un-Trashy McTrasherson as you can get.
And you know what else I'm excited for? MTV is doing a 90-minute doc For the Record about Brit that will air 11/30. 90. F-ing. Minutes. Sharpie it into the calendar. Oh, who are we kidding: It's MTV. They'll show it back-to-back-to-back for weeks. EEH!
I know there is a lot of Gossip Girl chatter already on the internets because, um, basically all 3 million people that watch the show blog about it. But last night's episode made my soul hurt. First off, I hate the Humphreys in general. They're like the Walshes on 90210, and they ruin everything. But little J is the worst, and her new fashion line? Just depressing. I'm pretty sure the clothes Miss Piggy modeled in The Great Muppet Caper were more cutting-edge. At best, the J. Humphrey line (ewww) is Vivienne Westwood or Betsey Johnson. For Target.
To preview the collection at the 'guerilla fashion show' (double eww), start about 2 min. into this clip:
Can we get some more Norm MacDonald clips up on YouTube, American public? Because watching this weekend's SNL, I realized how much I loved him/miss him. And this just isn't cutting it.
And, PS: I also realized that there is a whole generation of kids who doesn't know the origin of "note to self." Think about it.
YOU GUYS. NYMag.com has an amazing slideshow of doggies dressed up for Halloween. The best (of many):
This reminds me of the time C, D, and I saw the pup dressed as a duck at a soccer game. I will take that memory with me to my grave. It also reminds me of when The Colbert Report showed photos of Henry Pawson and Ben Bunnake and I died. The clip:
Letterman times of the week! Last night, with Lauren Conrad. Amazingness. He talks about how the fact that the artist formerly known as L.C. gets in fights with everyone maaaaaaaybe means that, hi, she's a huge pain in the ass. He then goes on to ask about Heidi, Spencer, Brody...
It took me until 2008 to realize that writing things on the internet doesn't (necessarily) make you the most annoying person in the universe. Then my friend had a dream that I had a blog where I posted a photo of myself in an orange sequined dress. Hot.
Um, kiiiiiinda obsessed with the album art of Britney's Circus, out on her birfday, 12/2. She looks glam, and that's not something we've been able to say since the turn of the century (see exhibit Halloween pics). She's wearing Rodarte (per Fashionista), which is about as un-Trashy McTrasherson as you can get.
