Fancast: dish 'n dat

Oddly named beauty Jorja Fox talked to Page Six about her departure from the addicting CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. We kind of saw it coming, what with her character Sara’s freaky emo moping and that crazy stabby look in her eye. And it looks like she may be having an existential crisis of her own in her personal life (um was that The Shins on her iPod? That's like, the soundtrack to an existential crisis). She tells Page Six:

"Theater is one of my loves, so I'm open for that after 11½ years of working in prime-time TV, for 'ER,' 'The West Wing' and 'CSI.' I've never been to college, and I think about that. But I kept putting it off, and I am also thinking about having a child, and that's really important. Also, I want to do a lot of traveling and surfing - two of my hobbies. Maybe the universe will get tired of me. I have a one-woman little play about Dusty Springfield opening Feb. 2 at the Renberg Theater in Hollywood. . . . My private life? Well, I have a boxer named Ali, and I couldn't get on without him - you can't live in Los Angeles without a dog."

Catch her last episode here at Fancast. You'll also learn all about suicides, drag and drops, and Greg’s secret past as a goth boy.

On the heels of 30 Rock and SNL bringing their shows to a live venue, Steven Colbert is the latest comedian to stick it to the man by presenting The Colbert Report at the UCB theatre in NY. I would kill to be in that audience and to partake in Colbert’s deadpan shtick. But I can’t! Do you notice a pattern of this only happening in the east coast? Why aren’t the shows shot in LA sticking it to the man and performing in front of a live audience? How much would you pay to see America Ferrera and the Ugly Betty cast at the Hollywood Bowl? Or if Wisteria Lane relocated to the Ford Amphitheater? Now that would make a statement! Come on, guys, give us something.

A very scabby (and possibly crabby due to being outed as such) Carson Daly comes back on air tonight on Last Call with Carson Daly. The last we heard of him he was virtually crossing the WGA picket line by asking friends and family members to provide material by calling into his “joke hotline” and recording funny little snippets he hoped to then use on the show. Well, the joke ended up being on him, when The Smoking Gun outed his little shenanigans last week. This managed to severely piss off the strikers, who nearly burned him in effigy (let’s just say a tar and feathering would have been in the cards had he ventured near any striking mob).

I’m curious how he’ll address the situation on tonight’s episode. A smart Daly would make light of the situation, but who knows? Perhaps he wants the public to forget his mistake and he won’t even mention it. In any case, we’ll get to find out tonight: ten bucks says he doesn’t use the “2 priests and a rabbi walk into a bar…yada yada yada” bit out of sheer embarrassment.

What do you predict?

Last night: There was a model psycho beach party over at CSI:Miami and the models were dropping dead like flies. The culprit truly surprised me, but seriously, did producers really think these funny looking actors could pass as male models? They were A) too old and B) too short to even demand a second look by a scout. Did they really think giving them scene kid haircuts was all that was needed?

Watch the episode here at Fancast and tell me what you think. Models or no models?

Zachary Quinto: Hero or Clark Kent lookalike? Either way, he cleaned up reeeeeal nice at the NY premiere of Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at the Ziegfeld Theater.

CBS announces what you’ll be watching thanks to the writer's strike. Unsurprisingly, reality shows will rule the land. Surprisingly, no announcement of the development of CSI: WGA Watch [NY Times' TV Decoder]

Fanboys everywhere rejoice as Battlestar Galactica Razor (“the version you couldn’t see on tv”) is released on DVD [Battlestar Galactica site]
Better yet catch some episodes here at Fancast.

Tom Petty will play at the Superbowl halftime show. Please superbowl god, spare us of any wardrobe malfunctions [Yahoo! Music]

Last night signaled the "kind of sort of" season cliffhanger episode of Heroes. Out: Niki/Jessica/Lisa (Ali Larter) and Nathan (Adrian Pasdar). [E! Online]

McDreamy is named the spring/summer face of Versace. must. see. photos. now. [People]

After being called out for unflattering photos of her bum, Ghost Whisperer's Jennifer Love Hewitt talks back to paps and bloggers, then makes them feel inadequate by sporting a killer engagement ring that they couldn’t afford if they tried. Go on with your bad self, Jennifer. [Us Magazine]

Tina Fey temporarily loses her sensitivity chip, as she's been doing so often lately, and talks smack about Paula Abdul’s guest appearance on SNL [Defamer]

Nikki Finke comes through, as always, and gives us this week’s picketing schedule. Tomorrow on the bill—Diversity Day! Followed by the reality and game show arm of the tour. Call me crazy but that sounds like fun. If Rage Against the Machine shows up again I'm dropping everything and running out to the picket lines with my laptop to liveblog. Oh and I'll be looking for an open bar too so if you can provide that, picketers, you're golden.

Wednesday, December 5th -- The WGA Black Writers Committee is hosting Diversity Picketing Day at Paramount Studios.

Friday, December 7th -- A Reality & game Show Rally and Informational picket takes place from 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm at FremantleMedia North America, 4000 W. Alameda Blvd (1 block east of Pass Avenue) in Burbank. According to the WGA, "FremantleMedia is a major international content provider and producer of a slate of highly profitable shows that includes: American Idol, The Price Is Right, Family Feud, Temptation, The Next Great American Band, Farmer Wants A Wife, Million Dollar Password and America's Got Talent. While Fremantle reaps huge profits from these projects, they do so at the expense of their writers, who work without standard industry benefits including health insurance, residuals, pension contributions, and proper credits."

30 Rock’s Alec Baldwin is in the webtubes today, blogging over at Huffington Post. He decries the imbalance of power between producers, writers and the studios and recommends a brilliant preemptive strike against the evil empire

I want the WGA to set up a website and on that website we can all post stories about every no-talent, idiotic, amoral producer and executive we have ever dealt with. Just like they do to us on shows like Extra and sites like TMZ (owned by Warner Brothers.) Set up a website and tell the entire world, via the internet, your own anecdote about some of the witless boobs you have endured in Hollywood and beyond

Hey Alec, I don’t know where you’ve been over the past several years, but you’ve just described Defamer, Deadline Hollywood Daily and maybe 167 blogs on the webs today.

The cast of Gossip Girl suckered into posing for a clothing label that their characters wouldn't be caught dead wearing [People Magazine]

This has nothing to do with anything but...OMG Absinthe is back! [NY Times]

Today’s Biggest Duh Award goes to…Hollywood Reporter for their enlightening thesis that suggests that—gasp!—younger people are watching tv on the web more than older folks [Hollywood Reporter]

Last week’s tornado on Wisteria Lane? Pretty much cleaned house [Hollywood Reporter]

The Guardian suggests Posh Spice doesn’t belong in LA because she places too much emphasis on dressing up during the normal daily routine, which supposedly is a major no-no for us Angelenos. Should she revamp her wardrobe to include sandals and dreadlocks? [The Guardian]

Are the blogs and the magazines on a nose-modifying witch-hunt? It’s good for smelling stuff and getting all runny when you’re sick. Get over it guys. Leave girls and their bodies alone [E! Online & Fox News]

People magazine has a newfound obsession with what pregnant ladies like Law & Order's Elisabeth Rohm and The Office's Angela Kinsey eat. This just in! They get hungry! They eat lots of food! Uh, point taken [People & People]

American Idol's Melinda Doolittle hawking chicken (haha get it) for a restaurant we've never heard of (that also sounds fake!) [Entertainment Weekly]

E! Online gets all deep today, when Kristen from West Bloomfield, Michigan asks E! Online’s Answer Bitch a telling question:

Why is it that physical features usually associated with African-American women are suddenly "so exotic" and "stunning" on white or Latina actresses? Examples: J.Lo's ass or Scarlett Johansson's lips. Janet Jackson's butt has been amazing for years, and she doesn't get all that hoopla!

As a result, The Answer Bitch turns un-bitchy and academic (which is super cool in our book) by suggesting that this inherent phenomenon has been alive and well since Bo Derek’s cornrows in 1979, which the media tagged as shocking and innovative, and can be traced forward to David Beckham’s “suddenly spectacular” braids. This tendency, she adds, marginalizes African Americans because by overlooking their contributions to style or beauty, it is technically ignoring them.

The truth behind your query is sad and embarrassing: In every society, the majority group sets the beauty standards. In America, that would be white people. And—the Oprah and her bazillion-dollar empire notwithstanding—white people still run the media. Their values become America's values. And that includes standards of beauty. By praising Scarlett's "exotic" lips, the media is basically "marginalizing black people," says African-American blogger and publicist Manny Otiko. "The media is saying, We are not going to pay attention to this feature until a white person has it."

Other examples that spring to mind for us include Kim Kardashian's bum, Angelina Jolie’s lips and about half of the Victoria’s Secret Models (sans their booties of course, because as we all know, models have absolutely no booty).

Hang on to your A list status, Angelina and Brad, there are a few new kids in town, some of whom may soon morph into your future competition. Forbes has published their 20 Under 25 list: young superstar moneymakers who are making an impact in the world of sports, music and film. Some of the little twerps…I mean some of the notable mentions include:

5. Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen, $17 million each
Born: June 13, 1986

7. Hilary Duff, $12 million
Born: Sept. 28, 1987

11. Carrie Underwood, $7 million
Born: March 10, 1983

12. Scarlett Johansson, $5 million
Born: Nov. 22, 1984

13. Mischa Barton, $4.5 million
Born: Jan. 24, 1986

17. Miley Cyrus, $3.5 million
Born: Nov. 23, 1992

18. Lindsay Lohan, $3.5 million
Born: July 2, 1986

20. Frankie Muniz, $3 million
Born: Dec. 5, 1985

Ricardo Montalban with a fake plastic chest and long blonde locks, the first person to ever utter the word "Trek", the “Shatnerverse” novels and whales talking to aliens. No this isn't a sci-fi channel-induced nightmare, it's a cheat sheet of all things Star Trek over at Wizard Entertainment along with tidbits about the new cast of the JJ Abrams film. Print it out and keep it handy when venturing anywhere a math department, Silicon Valley or a comic book store [via Pop Candy]

Seems the networks are crazy (READ: desperate) about webisodes/minisodes/online shorts now that they’ve been abandoned by the writers. This week saw an online Heroes cartoon and an announcement that The Wire has been cartoonified as well. Problem is, is this content interesting at all? And are the unpaid interns or recently promoted custodial staff that created the episodes getting compensated in anything other than jelly beans and pats on the back? Is this really a smart move by the networks? Because from what we’ve seen with previous webisodes created by shows that shall remain nameless, these seem more like half-arsed attempts at filling the empty space left between seasons and end up being only awkward and dull versions of their former selves. Only time will tell how audiences will react.

Keep yourself busy during the downtime watching Heroes and clips from The Wire here at Fancast.

Jennifer Morrison of House MD at Movies Rock at the Kodak Theater, December 2nd.
How can I get my hands on those wonderful earrings? They're like large red droplets of happiness and all that is good in the world!

Ok, so am I the only one who notices the spooky resemblance between America's Next Top Model's Saleisha and TLC's departed Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes? Maybe it's the bangs. Either way, I'm totally still rooting for Saleisha after tonight's episode. She just seems so much more...put together and so much less whiny than the other girls (one more tear-filled "I want my mommy" sesh and I'm slitting my wrists). Watch the full episode at Fancast.

On last night’s Gossip Girl, we found out that Serena’s gramm gramm, Cece, is a crazy old coot who nearly caused a rift between Serena and Dan before the Cotillion Ball, and that Nate isn’t the wuss we originally thought after he punches out Carter in the middle of a waltz or whatever they were dancing to. First thought I had was, who in their right mind still attends Cotillion Balls? Are we still waiting for our boys to come back home from the Civil War? My second thought was can a guy’s duds get any cooler than Dan’s stripey emo cardigans, skinny jeans and rudeboy suits? Oh and the music was killer (except for New Republic’s excruciating “Apologize” song with the weird guy crying in the chorus), particularly the little dance number, Secret, by The Pierces which made me run out to the web and look them up. And I am so waiting for Jenny’s breakdown. She has those crazy girl eyes and looks like she’s ready to do something drastic or psychotic to desperately fit in with those Upper East Side peeps. Arrrgg! just push somebody from the ledge and get done with it, Jen.

The Pierces on MySpace
Find Dan’s stripey sweaters (click on Week 2) at Gossip Girl Fashion
Gossip Girl on Fancast

The 50th annual Grammy Award nominations are in: Kanye seems to be leading the pack with 8 noms and Amy Winehouse with 4. Grammy Award for Most Predicted Moment of the Night will probably also go to Kanye when he cries like a baby and thanks his mama and the Big G on the podium. Or maybe to Amy when her skeletal figure stares blankly at the camera with half opened eyes and thanks her hubby Blake for being such a wonderful influence on her. Before she promptly passes out.

I will only mention the nominations that interest me. If you have any interest in the fact that Chaka Khan is still making music or that country music noms are still dominated by artists that were dominating like 25 years ago [yawnfest], you can go see for yourself.

That is all.

Record of the Year
Irreplaceable - Beyoncé
The Pretender - Foo Fighters
Umbrella - Rihanna Featuring Jay-Z
What Goes Around...Comes Around - Justin Timberlake
Rehab - Amy Winehouse

New Artist
Feist (OMG YES!)
Ledisi
Paramore (I once misspelled their names on an article and got called out by 217 of their fans. So I hope they win. For the sake of the safety of the Grammy committee)
Taylor Swift
Amy Winehouse

Electronic/Dance Album
No, this is not your older brother's rave music circa 1995
"We Are The Night" - The Chemical Brothers
"D.A.N.C.E." - Justice (I saw these guys live at an afterparty before they got big. AMAZING)
"Sound Of Silver" - LCD Soundsystem
"We Are Pilots " - Shiny Toy Guns
"Elements Of Life" - Tiësto

Plain White T's Hey There Delilah nominated for Best Song of the Year AND Best Pop Performance, yeah! The show will be broadcast Feb. 10, 2008, on CBS.

We missed yesterday's funday rundown because we were learning cool technical stuff, so we worked a little harder for today's list. But it's hard because my internets is all slow this morning. I think my internets is on strike.

ANTM’s Sarah was a burlesque dancer, or so says recently voted out Heather. Sour grapes much? [TV Guide]

NBC announces the 2008 schedule. The awesome Anjelica Houston guest stars on an episode on Medium! Creepily named "Baby Borrowers" also in the lineup. [Hollywood Reporter]

Top Chef runner-up Dale Levitski and Project Runway's Jack Mackenroth are an item! For realz! It even says so on the Project Runway website! [Project Runway]

NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams beat out the competition with 9.2 million viewers. No word yet on whether the shock of hearing Brian Williams utter “I’ll check you fools on the quad” on SNL contributed to the phenomenon [EW Popwatch]

Sexiest woman on TV: Pamela Anderson? Did the time space continuum suddenly shift to 1994? Oh wait, it’s an AOL list, which explains it. They’d name Geocities most cutting edge internet website of 2008 if they could [Somewhere on a Pamela Anderson geocities fansite]

The Sex and the City trailer has hit the streets. The countdown has begun for single, semi slutty, delusional women all over America, whose clock is ticking ticking ticking [Gawker].

CNN continues its tradition of crazy sensationalism over substance. Oh CNN, when will you learn you can’t compete with the internets by making news up [Page Six]

Donald Trump did not tip a Santa Monica waiter $10,000. Trump negates the story then calls the restaurant “stupid”, which proves my theory that his penchant for elegant language competes with his strikingly great hair and astounding sense of style [Page Six]

The Hill’s LC says some stuff about “life-changing decision” shoes, hair, acting, and like, other stuff. So yeah. [People]

WGA Picketers suffer a setback today when dogwalkers everywhere go on strike against loss of dog-washing privileges. It's take your dog to the picket line day! [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

I watched too much TV last night and I am still a little batty and incoherent so I think I’ll give you an ADHD version of the lineup. Hang on to your remotes:

At The Office a bat got loose in the office and Dwight feared it had turned Jim into a vampire. It didn't help that Jim started complaining about the crucifix on the wall and the brightness of the lights. Next up, a new Scrubs episode, what? I feel like I haven’t watched a new episode since the early 2000’s. Dr. Bob Kelso stuffing cupcakes into his mouth in every scene after winning a cupcake raffle, Janitor hiding his stuffed squirrels to land a normal lady, and the whole gang fighting over top placement on a rate your doctor website that has striking similarities to MySpace. Woa, has MySpace infiltrated every inch of prime time TV? Because on ABC, Barbara Walters was interviewing MySpace’s Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe for her 10 Most Interesting People of 2007. She created a MySpace page! Omg add Babs on MySpace. I think she has 'Mo Money Mo Problems' as her profile song because Babs has many problems and much money. Other notables include Justin Timberlake, Katherine Heigl and the Beckhams.

Phew! That was more like Ritalin on Crack, sippin on a Frappuccino.

Sometimes I lie awake at night, numb with the realization that I could potentially make a complete fool of myself whilst interviewing a favorite celebrity. That, or with the fear of being terrorized by the InStyle girls at the red carpet in front of Anne Hathaway, which really did happen to me during the Devil Wears Prada DVD release party (those ruthless fashion barbarians!). Well, MTV is making me relive these post traumatic stress-inducing thoughts by featuring clips of their most awkward celebrity interview moments of 2007. Sometimes it’s the interviewer that gets his arse handed to him (case in point: Joaquin Phoenix during the Reservation Road press junket), while other times it’s the celebrity who chooses to make a fool of himself. [MTV]

Don’t tell any of my friends, but I’m a sucker for Martha Stewart. Now that I can watch daytime TV (hey, it’s my job) I haven’t been able to get enough of this fierce and cool lady at Martha. Today featured Caroline Kennedy plugging her Christmas book and showcasing Martha Washington’s special cake recipe. I was ready to give the recipe a try when I realized that it calls for 10 large eggs! And a pound of sugar! (and did she say something about 40 egg whites?? No wonder colonials only lived to see 40). Martha also mentioned the creepy fact that Neil Diamond wrote the song Caroline about her…and said it was cute. Is she forgetting that Caroline was like ten years old at the time?

Ingredients are below, check out the instructions

Serves 12 to 16
• Nonstick cooking spray with flour
• 10 large eggs, separated
• Pinch of salt
• 1 pound unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 pound sugar
• 1 1/4 pounds all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons ground mace
• 2 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground nutmeg
• 3 1/2 ounces raisins
• 2 ounces sliced almonds
• 2 large apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
• 1 large pear, peeled, cored, and chopped
• 2 ounces white wine, preferably chardonnay or pinot gris
• 2 ounces cognac

Daniel Vosovic's collection for NYLO will soon hit the markets and you can catch a sneak peak over at Blogging Project Runway. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some of Daniel’s designs, and this is something I would totally rock (it’s simple and chic), but don’t they kind of reek of prep school confidential? Or like something that you might see on Gossip Girl?

What do you think? Prep school chic or straight to detention bleh?

Check out some of Daniel's other designs over at Project Runway episodes offered by Fancast.

"IF you're not nice to the waiter, you're out. And you're not just out. I might kick your a--. The idea of dating makes me want to vomit."

"I ordered walkie-talkie watches from the Sharper Image catalog because sometimes I want to talk to someone who’s in a different room in my house. And I make my roommate wear one, and sometimes I’ll just be like, “Hey, bring the orange juice upstairs!” or whatever. That may not be what you’d think a typical 27-year-old woman would be into. [Laughs.] I have fierce running charade parties - full-contact running charades. You can move furniture, you can use the dogs as booby traps. There is clotheslining. Pretty much anything goes. I have no furniture in my front living room because I like to have dance parties or headstand contests."

"I very recently stepped into my body as a woman. Before, it was, “Hey, you can wear a bathing suit in a photo shoot and that would be cute and everyone will like it.” And I was like, “Me? I should be in overalls or something cool like that.” Um, thank God for airbrushing. [Eats cookie.]"

Kristen Bell to Complex Magazine

Today, Page Six is reporting on the disturbing news that Kris Kringle aka Father Christmas aka Santa Claus, might be experiencing some not so jolly times this season, due to immigration reform, the Patriot Act, noise pollution ordinances, and animal rights concerns by the ASPCA. Will this year's Christmas be as bright as last year's? Ring a bell and hope for the best for dear old Nick. Hey, as long as the elves don't join the picketers outside of Burbank studios, we'll all be okay. [Page Six]

Catch Kris in various tv and film cameos at Fancast:

Santa Claus: The Movie
Sunday, December 9 8:00PM
Monday, December 10 1:30PM
MORE TIMES
Santa (David Huddleston) and an elf (Dudley Moore) foil a New York toy manufacturer's (John Lithgow) scheme to get rich off Christmas.

A Christmas Carol
Movie CH 073 TCM
Sunday, December 9 8:00PM
Dickens' London miser Ebenezer Scrooge (Reginald Owen) meets the ghosts of Christmases past, present and yet to come.

Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Movie CH 038 FAM
Friday, December 14 8:00PM
MORE TIMES
A curmudgeon (Jim Carrey) living atop Mount Crumpit sets out to quash the yuletide preparations of the Christmas-loving Whos of Whoville. Anthony Hopkins narrates.

Deck The Halls
Movie CH 018 LIFE
Sunday, December 16 3:00PM
A boy tries to set up his mother with a man he believes is Santa Claus.

Fred Claus (2007) trailer

FIND more Santa Claus movies at Fancast.

Bones is one of my favorite shows, partly because come on, where can you find topics cooler than bones, surgically removed kneecaps and gory crash scenes? (okay, my idea of fun may be a little different than yours). I recently got a chance to chat with Ken Jordan, one half of the duo that makes up Crystal Method, one of the most prolific and pioneering electronic music bands in the industry, and the ones responsible for the very cool theme music at the beginning of each Bones episode. He let me in on the reasons they decided to collaborate with Bones producers, on Vegas (his new 10th Anniversary release) and on his favorite episodes that he's been catching on Fancast:

We did two other tv series in the past—one was Third Watch that ran for a long time and one was a show called Hawaii. So when both those were off the air, we wanted something else going, so the producers of the show contacted us—we had a conference call, got a really good feel for the show and worked on it for a while and came up with the Bones theme. We made this specifically for Bones; which is something that we haven’t really done for any other show. My favorites are:

1. The Santa in the Slush; This is probably my favorite episode because I just really like Christmas. It’s a happy and giving time. Bones has to kiss Special Agent Booth under the mistletoe and you can tell they're into each other. [Watch it on Fancast]

2. The Intern in the Incinerator: Watch it

3. The Boy in the Time Capsule: Watch it

Catch the Crystal Method's current release, the two-disc Vegas (Deluxe Edition), which signals the tenth anniversary of their debut album, and listen to Ken and Scott live every Friday night over at Indie 103.1.

The Crystal Method's website and MySpace page

Hilary Swank, at the Los Angeles premiere of P.S. I Love You, December 9th, is pretty and is not the Pink Power Ranger, much to the chagrin of my friend Liz after I insisted over lunch that Hilary Swank's first acting gig was as a Power Ranger. Unfortunately for me (and fortunately for Hilary), google exists solely to prove me wrong.

On other news, Gerard Butler is super nice to fans. And smoking hot.

MTV freelancers are following in the footsteps of their WGA brethren and have staged a walk-out over crappy health benefits. No word yet as to when former MTV Veejays Kennedy and Kurt Loder will walk the line in solidarity, sporting "I NO LONGER WANT my MTV" t-shirts. [Gawker]

Entertainment weekly calls out American Idol's Blake Lewis' new music video. I know the music industry is struggling, but this is ridiculous. My little sister can do a better job shooting a music video with $7, our dad's panasonic and Barbie. And maybe some sparklies. [EW]

Ellen is creating animal sanctuaries, doing her best to reverse the harm that was done by Iggie-gate. [Page Six]

Brad Pitt is selling his signature newsie cap to raise funds for the Make It Right foundation, in support of rebuilding New Orleans. Swoon. [Make It Right website]

The Regis Philbin Redux Diet: Regis announces he'll be hosting 'Live' three times per week starting in 2008. Oh Regis we hardly knew ye. [Mollygood]

Kevin Bacon and Tim Robbins sign up to support Democrat John Edwards in his presidential bid. It remains unclear if, should he win the election, they would be pardoned for the farce that was Mystic River. [People]

Jane Pratt, creator of Jane magazine and all that is good in the world, is in talks to develop a new reality show: A cross between Ugly Betty and American Idol. American Betty? Ugly Idol? [Jezebel]

CNN's Anderson Cooper doing his best Norman Bates impression. Kind of creepy. [Page Six]

WGA strike: All's not yet quiet on the homefront. [EW]

OMG alert. Isaac Mizrahi to be a guest on Martha Stewart's show December 28th. Enough diva behavior to make one's head explode. [Fashion Week Daily]

Scott Baio weds his reality show costar--I mean--his longtime girlfriend, Renee Sloan. The entire event was filmed for VH1's Scott Baio is 45... and Single. Tacky. [People Magazine]

Nobel winner Doris Lessing's acceptance speech was all about kids not reading books and the decline of western civilization as we know it. The culprit? Gossip Girl, blogs, lolcats, and social networking sites such as My Space:

We are in a fragmenting culture, where our certainties of even a few decades ago are questioned and where it is common for young men and women who have had years of education, to know nothing about the world, to have read nothing, knowing only some specialty or other, for instance, computers.

What has happened to us is an amazing invention, computers and the internet and TV, a revolution. This is not the first revolution we, the human race, has dealt with. The printing revolution, which did not take place in a matter of a few decades, but took much longer, changed our minds and ways of thinking. A foolhardy lot, we accepted it all, as we always do, never asked "What is going to happen to us now, with this invention of print?" And just as we never once stopped to ask, How are we, our minds, going to change with the new internet, which has seduced a whole generation into its inanities so that even quite reasonable people will confess that once they are hooked, it is hard to cut free, and they may find a whole day has passed in blogging and blugging etc.

While I respect the quaint and dainty sensibilities of previous generations, I can't say I agree. The internet has opened up the world to a whole new generation of young people; we are now connected in a way we have nev