It's bananas!!

One of my favorite guilty pleasures is back for another season - The Rachel Zoe Project! Rachel Zoe is a fabulous stylist and I just love watching the insanity that goes on when dressing celebrities!

Rachel and her bitchtastic assistants Taylor and Brad opened the series dressing celebs for the Golden Globes. While much of the drama is totally over the top, u gotta love their dedication!

Join the fabulosity Mondays at 10 on the channel where all guilty pleasures are born - Bravo!

Talk About Blood for Oil

Just as most other Americans out there, I am absolutely outraged by Scotland's release of the Pan-Am bomber, to (what else but) jubilation and reverence in Libya.

Scotland's reason for the handover of a man who killed 270 people and served only 8 years of a life sentence? "Compassion," of course, in light of his terminal prostate cancer diagnosis.

Well, while this reason made no sense to any sane person, diplomats and laymen alike, the truth -- which makes perfect sense -- has finally come out:

On Friday, Lord Trefgarne, chairman of the Libyan British Business Council, said Mr. Megrahi’s release had opened the way for Britain’s leading oil companies to pursue multibillion-dollar oil contracts with Libya, which had demanded Mr. Megrahi’s return in talks with British officials and business executives.

("New Questions in Lockerbie Bomber’s Release," The New York Times, August 21, 2009.)

Aaaah...so after years of liberal Europeans accusing the U.S. of trading blood for oil, we learn that the proper way to do it is to trade already-shed civilian blood. That makes it bloody better, indeed. Chip chip cheerio, carry on!

Give me a friggin break!

Tomorrow I am leaving for a fabulous vacation with my husband to the grand canyon and Vegas. I must say though, after watching the news recently, I am not sure what I should wear. Like any sane person, I was planning on wearing shorts when hiking in the 100+ degree weather down an enormous canyon, but apparently, when Michelle Obama did it recently, people went crazy!!! Some even went so far to say that she was a disgrace to our nation. You want a disgrace? Take a look at her husband's proposed health care plan! Seriously, what the heck was she supposed to wear? A ball gown?! Perhaps long pants?! It's friggin hot people! And they're not even that short!

Obviously it was a slow news day if that was all people could talk about. People need to stop acting like they are celebrities. It sickens me that I read more about the Obamas' wardrobe than their politics. They could wear trash bags for all I care! Lets worry less about what they wear and more about what Obama is doing to our poor country!!

And yes, I'm packing the shorts!

The State ... on DVD!!!

I can't believe I'm so late in informing everyone (in fact, I bet that any true State fans out there are wondering how I can call myself a State fan and not have discussed this sooner), but The State is finally available on DVD!!! Yes -- after a decade of waiting and pleading, the powers-that-be at MTV/Viacom finally decided that they might just make some money on this venture. Gee, MTV -- what gave it away? Was it the online petition from cult fans everywhere begging you to release your best show ever on DVD?

Anyway, if you're not familiar with The State, it's a 1990s sketch comedy show made by the same guys and girl who have since brought you Reno 911! and the like. In fact, these days you'll probably find their faces to be very familiar, as they have made appearances in various movies as well. And if you're at all into comedy, you really have to check out the 26 hilarious episodes of one of the best sketch comedies ever made.


All hail The State!

Why Didn't I Think Of That?

The newest gossip site making a big buzz is http://www.gossipcop.com/. Its claim to fame? Dispeling celebrity rumors and giving us just the facts, ma'am. It even has a real v. rumor --green v. red -- scale next to colorful pictures and headings that pertain to each story of the day. So, you don't even have to read full article to be in the know instantly. Amazing!

Why didn't I think of starting a blog like that? ...Maybe because I don't have the right connections. Oh well...one day. At least I've already spotted two real-life celebrities, and that's a fact, ma'am.

Step Right Up to See the NYC Reality Freak Show

The latest issue of NY Magazine includes an article called "The NYC Reality Freak Show," which meanders in circles analyzing Bravo's recent string of NYC-focused reality TV shows, in a quest to answer: "In NYC Prep, as in The Real Housewives of New York City, Manhattan is a kind of moral hell, corrupted by money and power and baubles and drinks. Is it really this bad?"

Yes, it's that bad, and why wouldn't it be? If the grown women on Real Housewives -- who did not grow up in the money-obsessed era of Paris Hilton and the like -- act like spoiled children with over-sized wallets, then how are NYC private school teenagers going to act?

And please spare us the excuses from these kids for why they have ended up being unfairly misrepresented as spoiled brats on television:

. . . [S]ome of the NYC Prep cast I interviewed suggested that the people they were onscreen were not the people they were in real life. Kelli, for example, says that she doesn’t live alone—on the show, she lives in an apartment while her parents stay in the Hamptons, popping in once in a while—and also claims to have never been interested in Sebastian, on whom she is supposed to have an unrequited crush.

Really, Kelli? So the producers forced you and your parents to pretend that you live alone for six nights of the week, and then they forced you to giggle on camera about how great it is to go out every night when you live with only your brother? Or was it the shock of seeing what you actually look and sound like on television that subsequently made you recant?

Obviously, good reality shows are like fun mirrors (in continuing with the freak show metaphor). Talented producers pick up on potentially sensational personality traits that are already present in each cast member, and they exaggerate them to grab the viewer's attention and mold a television character. (Clockwise from top left: Sexually-confused PC, queen bee Jessie, trying-too-hard Kelli, over-driven Camille, wannabe-playboy Sebastian, and status-seeking Taylor.)

But, while exaggerated, these traits are not made up. Real Housewife Bethenny Frankel says it best in the same article:

Frankel was approached for The Real Housewives by a producer at a polo match in the Hamptons, but initially turned it down. “I thought it would be tragic, just tragic, a bunch of women drinking and acting like idiots, and I would be the idiot who’d been on two reality shows,” she says. But she went to a party where she met the rest of the cast and changed her mind. “I thought, Maybe I should do this, because there is no way I could look like a crazy person with all these crazy people.” She lets out a guffaw. “You can’t believe these shows are real, because you don’t believe that people could be this insane, but everything is 100 percent genuine.” She sighs.

And (to the producers' chagrin, I'm sure) Bethenny has succeeded in coming off as the only remotely non-crazy Housewife.

Of course, it's nice to have a stable Bethenny character once in a while, so that there's someone who says aloud exactly what you're already thinking about the rest of the wacky cast. But, come on, it's the crazies that make for great television -- just as the freaks make for great circus acts.

Sarah Palin Resigns ... For Now

My take on Sarah Palin's resignation? She's totally (and unfortunately) gunning for President. In reading articles that describe the resignation speech, it's hard to picture it leaving any impression other than Sarah Palin wants to hide under a rock, away from the public scrutiny that has engulfed her life and her family. But once you watch the resignation speech for yourself, you cannot come away thinking anything but that this is all tactical maneuvering for a presidential bid. ...Keeping her "eye on the ball," as she calls it.