Wow! Sesame Street’s parody of Mad Men finally aired.  Check it out:

That title sequence is all sorts of awesome!  Way better than the one on the actual show.

My only complaint?  They so easily could’ve gone with “Glad Men.”  “Happy Men”?  That barely makes sense.  Step it up, Sesame Street.

[Source: Aziz is Bored]

Was anyone expecting Lauren Conrad to fade away in the celeb background after quitting The Hills?  Yeah, me too.

Turns out her bestselling young adult novel, L.A. Candy will be made into a full-length feature film!  The book follows 19-year-old protagonist Jane Roberts as she moves to Los Angeles and finds fame as a reality TV star.  Here’s what producer Marty Bowen had to say about the whole shebang:

“Lauren, who became an icon in that reality show world, came to us with a structure of how to tell the story in an interesting fashion that was separate and apart from the book.  We loved her take. Her book is an honest portrayal of what it must be like to set out to be normal, then sign on to become famous and eventually realize, wow, this isn’t at all what I’d planned for myself.

So interesting that Lauren would be able to create an honest portrayal of what it must be like to be a reality star.  She’s super creative.

Lauren plans to write more books involving the same character.  Should I read these?  Is the first one out in paperback yet?

Wake me when the movie’s out.

[Source: Variety]

Geez Louise, thank goodness for DVRs or I would’ve totally missed last night’s So You Think You Can Dance Atlanta auditions episode. Lil C joined Nigel and Mary on the panel. *sigh* So far, Season 6 hasn’t really knocked my socks off - to be honest, I’m ready for these audition episodes to be over with! Quickie recaps below (vids from MJ):

Billy Bell (Contemporary, Ballet) – He started dancing just 5 years ago and has a cute baby face. Nigel was quick to point out his rough technique (”swayed back” and “banana bunch fingers”), but they still want to send him straight to Vegas. VIDEO

Amber Jackson (Contemporary) – She’s a good dancer, but I wasn’t connecting - apparently I wasn’t alone! The judges really rail on her for not engaging with them, staring at no one as she performed. Nigel says her performance was “sh!t” to try and shake some emotion into her. They give her a second chance with choreography. Amber hits the steps, but is still too empty in the eyes for me. The judges also tell her to really keep working on being more “there” in her performances to captivate the audience, but give her a ticket to Vegas. VIDEO

Victor Smalley (Modern) – He’s got potential *shrug* Makes it to Vegas. VIDEO

Anthony and Antwain Hart (Hip Hop) – These twins auditioned in Season 4 and are back for more. They’re pretty fun to watch, although I find myself watching the gray-vested brother more (Antwain). Unfortunately for me, he bombs at choreography and doesn’t get through to Vegas, while his bro (Anthony) does. Awwwwwkwaaaaard! VIDEO

Jessica Jensen (Contemporary) – Jessica had to amputate her left hand after cancer took it over about a year ago, but she has an upbeat attitude and continues her passion: dancing. She’s gives a strong, emotional audition, but unfortunately chokes during the choreography and is cut.  VIDEO

Thomas Hamilton (Contemporary) – As usual, they end the episode with a meant-to-tear-jerk dancer. Thomas grew up as a crack baby and was raised by his aunt. He’s worked really hard to overcome and get away from his impoverished town, which he sees as a dead-end. Dance is what saved him - thanks in part to Mia Michaels for inspiring him to pursue Contemporary. Thomas does a very nice audition, but it becomes too spiritual/worshiping for Nigel toward the end. Still, the judges know he is a very beautiful dancer with a lot to offer. He passes choreography and gets a ticket to ride. VIDEO

Don’t forget: tonight is another So You Think You Can Dance audition episode: New Orleans, baby! Nigel looks to be missing from the panel, so it will be Lil C, Mary and Adam Shankman callin’ the shots.

Hey evvverybodyyyy, get excited!  Both The Hills and The City premiere tonight on MTV!  It all starts this evening at 10:00 p.m.

The Hills will feature our new villainess, Laguna Beach’s Kristin Cavallari, filling in for the newly-absent Lauren Conrad.  Meanwhile, on The City, Whitney Port will have some new friends in tow - party girls Samantha and Roxy - and Olivia Palermo will be starting a new job at Elle Magazine (say hello to Nina Garcia for us!).

Should be a good night of television!  To get you pumped up about the night ahead, here’s a list of each character and how much they will be making for each episode of The Hills:

Kristin Cavallari, $90,000

Audrina Patridge, $100,000

Lauren “Lo” Bosworth, $100,000

Heidi Montag, $100,000

Spencer Pratt, $65,000

Brody Jenner, $45,000

From The Daily Beast.  How do these salaries make you feel?

Lauren Conrad was up to $125,000 before she left.  How much do you think Stacie the bartender takes home?

Oh noes!  I suppose we all called it, but it seems Jon & Kate Plus 8 has been dropped!  The series will be relaunched as the devastatingly sad Kate Plus 8 starting November 2nd on TLC.  Aw.  Jon Gossselin’s been fired.

Just Jared has the scoop:

The program now include a deeper focus on Kate’s journey as a single mother. TLC will continue its exclusive relationship with Jon and he will continue to appear on the show, but on a less regular basis.

“Given the recent changes in the family dynamics, it only makes sense for us to refresh and recalibrate the program to keep pace with the family. The family has evolved and we are attempting to evolve with it; we feel that Kate’s journey really resonates with our viewers. Additionally the network is in development on a Kate project for 2010” says Eileen O’Neill, President and GM, TLC.

Oh man.  Do you think that’s crazy?  Well get a lot of this li’l gem from InTouch, via The Blemish:

“He woke up one morning, looked in the mirror and didn’t like the reflection,” Jon’s attorney, Mark Jay Heller, tells In Touch. “He realized he’d made some bad choices.” Jon and Kate were due to be officially divorced by the end of November — but now he claims he’s had a serious change of heart. “I regret my conduct since Kate and I separated [on June 22],” Jon tells In Touch exclusively. “I used poor judgment in publicly socializing with other women so soon.”

Daaaang. Jon Gosselin must’ve screwed his Ed Hardy t-shirt on too tight this morning cuz he’s out of his damn mind!

Sucks to have your allowance cut off, I guess.

Zoinks! Is it just me, or has Gossip Girl ceased to make sense?  I’m not even sure I can summarize the thing for you without getting things horribly wrong.  Let’s try…

Oh snap!  Dan Humphrey and Georgina Sparks are hookin’ it!  Dan does something smart for a change and lets her know that he wants to have a “no strings” relationship. Georgina pretends to agree, but it’s clear she’s into this guy, for whatever reason.  She’s got the guy’s mug on her desktop wallpaper!

Meanwhile, Blair Waldorf’s got her panties in a bunch because bf Chuck Bass is too busy trying to be a business man to spend any quality time.  Luckily, she receives an invitation to join La Table Élitaire, a secret society that will prove her worth at NYU.  FINALLY!

Serena van der Woodsen’s still dating Carter Basin, at the objection of her friends (he’s been a jerk in the past, after all).  She believes he’s changed for the better, but an event or two starts giving her doubts.  For one, some babe approaches him and claims to have slept with him just a month ago - he denies it.  Second, his credit card gets denied at the hotel and he refuses to pay room service - he claims he doesn’t owe a thing.  Tsk tsk!  Is he truly bf material?

On the other side of town (not really, just needed a segue), Scott / Lovechild’s still being a creep.  Vanessa Abrams starts getting suspicious and decides to look into it.  Turns out he’s been lying all along: he isn’t enrolled at NYU after all (the horror!).  Vanessa confronts him about it, and he confesses he’s been trying to sneak into the lives of the Humphrey / van der Woodsens on account of Rufus and Lily being his biological parents and all.  Sers, dude’s been straight up creepy, taking guitar lessons from Rufus and whatnot.  Vanessa encourages him to spill the beans to Rufus at the Sotheby auction everyone’s going to. Scott / Lovechild agrees to, but begs her to keep her mouth shut in the meantime.

Sotheby’s?  Why are we all going to this auction again?  Seriously, if you have any clue, let me know.

Well,  Chuck and Blair, at least, have a clear reason for going.  Turns out the businessman Chuck’s trying to impress - Patrick McMullan - and Blair’s secret table society would both be stoked to get a certain photograph up for auction at the event.  They agree not to bid, but then, no, they’re both too stubborn to back down.  Time for a Chuck and Blair showdown!

Nate Archibald and Bree Buckley?  Yeah, they’re still dating.  Or something. SNOOZE CRUISE! 

Vanessa’s having a hard time keeping the Scott / Lovechild secret from Dan, and lets him know that she found out the dude doesn’t attend NYU.  Dan’s weirded out, and is encouraged by Georgina to do some looking into Scott / Lovechild’s past.  They figure out via the Internets (where else!) that dude’s been lying about his last name.  Dan puts two and two together and realizes Scott / Lovechild is the same guy who wrote him a fan letter last year.  He fears he’s a crazy stalker that needs to be stopped (you wish, Humphrey!).

Now we’re at the Sotheby’s auction!  Serena figures out that Chuck and Blair are behind the Carter problems, setting him up to look like a tool in front of her.  Their usual manipulation pisses her off and she does the unthinkable: outbids them in their bidding war for the photo!

Serena ends up giving the photo to Blair, who hands it over to Chuck, because she loves and believes in him (omgah qties!).  Howevs, it turns out this is all for naught: Georgina’s behind the whole thing!  Turns out she made up the invitation to Blair’s society and is buddies with the assistant who gave Chuck the tip about the photo.  Oh, Georgina!

Side note: Serena was the one to figure out Georgina’s involvement in all this and, in an uber-bad Serena moment, wages war on Georgina.  Watch out, bitch.  Love it!

Ooh! And in the meantime! Scott / Lovechild’s all prepped to tell Rufus he’s his daddy, when his adopted mother shows up to let him know she fully supports her decision. Scott / Lovechild is so moved by her love for him, that he ends up telling Rufus that he’s dead Lovechild’s brother Alexander rather than Lovechild himself, and just wanted to meet his bro’s fam - this explains away all the stalking.

Vanessa is taken aback and ultimately, realizes she has a BIG secret to keep.  Unfortch, our gal Georgina overhears her conversation with Scott / Lovechild and gets busy plotting.  The episode ends with her booking a trip to Boston, where Scott / Lovechild will be returning.  Is this a plot to get close to Dan?  Get back at Serena?

Serena ends up apologizing to Carter, which he accepts.  BUT!  It turns out Carter IS hiding something.  We find out that he somehow knows Bree Buckley, who he encounters in a limo, on her way to finally face her familly. “Considering what you did to us,” she says to him, “Being able to find you is going to go a long way in getting me back in.”  What the eff does that mean?!  Is she using our Nathaniel to get hunt down Carter?  I wish any of this made sense.

Luckily, the episode ends on a high note: Chuck, all giddy from having Blair believe in him, decides that, instead of finding a partner for his proposed club, will sell all of his Bass Industries shares and buy an entire hotel on his own.  The scene with Chuck and Blair in front of the hotel is truly lovely; it almost makes me think this relationship’s gonna work out fine.

Good episode?  Bad episode?  I’m not sure, but hey, at least we’ve got some wheels in motion, finally.  I was a bit overwhelmed by new stories starting up and old stories being revisited, but I’ve got faith they can figure things out.

But seriously, I’ve got one final bone to pick: where the eff is Gossip Girl?  Did she not follow us to college as I had hoped?  Babe got like 2 seconds of airtime this episode.  Boooooo!

Tyra Banks and Hilary Duff next week!  xoxo, y’all!

I’m sure you’ve all seen this in one place or another today!

New Saturday Night Live cast member Jenny Slate dropped an F-bomb on this weekend’s season premiere (hosted by Megan Fox, with musical guest U2).  Here’s the clip, somewhat NSFW:

Oopsies!  I’m on live television!  I love her puffed-out I-made-a-mistake cheeks.

But don’t worry, everybody, big man in charge at SNL Lorne Michaels ain’t mad at her.  Here’s what he had to say:

“It was literally her first time on the show. There was nothing dirty, just a slip of the tongue. It was ‘frickin’, frickin’, frickin’ ‘ and then boom! The pain that Jenny is going through is, I’m sure, considerably worse than that experienced by anybody who saw it.”

Heh.  Kinda being a drama queen there, Lorne, but I’ll take it.

I’m seeing this as more of a fun viral video moment of the week than an actual big deal.  Hopefully Slate sees it the same way.  Poor girl!

[Source: TV Squad]

Ha!  From Buzzfeed, a photo of Stewie and Brian from Family Guy, IRL:

Adorable!

Regs Family Guy and it’s spin-off, The Cleveland Show, premiered last night to big ratings: 10.2 million viewers for Family Guy, and a very respectable 9.4 million for Cleveland.

I happened to catch both last night and thought them both to be pretty decent. Cleveland was actually a pleasant surprise, as my expectations were set low low low.  The series follows Cleveland and Cleveland Jr’s move to Virginia, where Cleveland is reunited with his high school one-that-got-away, Donna and her family.  Though off to a slow start, there were a few good zingers, decent characters (aside from that terrible baby!), and fewer of those half-funny non-sequitors that make Family Guy so unbearable at times.  Sounds good to me.

Did you watch?

Whoa!  Sometimes watching Mad Men makes me feel like I’m losing my mind.  In the best way possible.  Last night’s episode was no exception!

The episode begins with flash-forward teaser scenes.  It seems we have three different mysteries to solve: Don Draper waking up all bloody-faced in a motel, Betty Draper looking lovelorn (and quite frankly, aroused) on a chaise lounge, and Peggy Olson in bed with a mystery man.  How did we come to these conclusions?  Let’s find out!

It all starts with Betty redecorating the house and meeting with the local chapter of the Junior League.  The ladies in the group want to do something about a proposed water tank in the neighborhood.  Betty volunteers to get in touch with Henry Francis, the Governor’s office employee who felt her belly up at Roger Sterling’s Kentucky Derby party.

They end up meeting for coffee and it turns out Henry grew up in the neighborhood as well.  Unfortunately, it seems the project is already underway, and he likely only met with her because of his attraction to her - which she’s into, being drawn in by the powerful feeling of attracting a powerful man.

On their way out, Henry encourages Betty to purchase this ugly-as-hell Victorian “fainting couch.”  Apparently ladies in the Victorian age were so physically overwhelmed by their corsets that they often had to lie down on such couches.  Betty goes ahead with the purchase, at the dismay of her home decorator.  It’s clear that Betty is attracted to the idea of an escape from the unease of female constraints, both physical and social.  This babe basically inspired The Feminine Mystique, if you ask me.  Sheesh.

Back at Sterling Cooper, everyone is flipping out because Conrad Hilton is in the office to meet with Don.  Don enters his office and is greeted by Connie sitting at his desk.   Connie wants Don to work for him, with one catch: he only wants to work with someone under contract.  Roger Sterling and Burt Cooper follow up by drafting a proposal that includes a big raise and three-year commitment in order to lock down both Don and the account.  Don is clearly uneasy with the concept of committing to anything for three years and doesn’t sign right away.

Later on, Don attends an eclipse-viewing session with Sally’s class, and is engaged in conversation with teacher Miss Farrell.  Miss Farrell basically accuses him of hitting on her out of the blue, telling him he’s like all the other bored, pervy men in the neighborhood.  To me, it seemed more like one of those I’m-hitting-on-you-by-accusing-you-of-hitting-on-me situations (you know the kind!), and Don is definitely weirded out.  “I’m not bored,” he tells her curtly.

Peggy, meanwhile, is still being courted by Duck Phillips, with an Hermès scarf arriving to tempt her over to Grey.  Pete Campbell talks to her about it and basically shames her into returning the scarf, likely out of jealousy that she’s being pursued harder than he is.  He also mentions the potential arrival of the new Hilton account, which more than piques her interest.

Peggy obviously goes straight to Don to inquire about the account and is met with a bit of animosity on his end.  He’s clearly feeling the pressure of the proposed contract and, I think, the prospect of “selling out” indefinitely, and he really has her have it.  “Every time I turn around you’ve got your hand in my pocket,” he tells her.  “There’s not one thing that you’ve done here that I couldn’t live without. You’re good, get better, stop asking for things.”

OH SNAP!  Peggy got told!  She does, after all, represent everything Don despises: an opportunistic, entitled, corporate ladder-climber.  Locking himself down to three years at Sterling Cooper (”the man”) might make him no different.  Eek!

Back at home, Betty picks up a phone call from Roger Sterling, who tries to convince her to put the pressure on Don about signing the contract - which she still hasn’t heard a thing about.  She basically gives Roger the over-the-phone middle finger, and angrily inquires about the contract when Don gets home.  They get in a huge fight (we get it, you don’t want to be tied down, Don) and he runs out the door with his whiskey in hand.

Don starts driving and picks up a pair of young hitchikers, on their way to Niagara Falls to get married in order for the boy to avoid the draft.  Don clearly loves their purity, free-spiritedness, and damn-the-man ‘tudes (especially now that he himself is being asked to sign away his freedom), and pops two of their Phenobarbital pills when offerred.

They all stop at a motel room where where they start partying down. Don dances with the girl but soon starts fading from his pill/booze combo and sits down.  He has one of his trademark Dick Whitman visions, in which he pictures his father sitting in the chair in front of him.  Daddy tells Don he’s worthless, that he can’t settle down, that he grows bullshit for a living.  At this point, the two free-spirited kids notice Don still hasn’t passed out and whack him over the head and rob him.  Oy.  Party over.

Meanwhile, that night, Peggy decides to meet with Duck to return the Hermès scarf and talk.  What happens is more than surprising: Duck hits on her and they end up sleeping together in a hotel room.  One can’t help but make the connection between Peggy’s disastrous meeting with Don and her now sleeping with Duck, the anti-Don.  Seems our Peggy is slowly realizing that sex means power, self-worth.

Don wakes up face down in his own filth the next morning, and returns to the office with a bandaged-up face.  He’s met in his office by Burt Cooper, who wants to discuss the yet-unsigned contract. “Would you say I know something about you, Don?” Burt asks him.  “When it comes down to it, who’s really signing this contract anyway?”

Oh maaaan, do you get it?  Burt’s basically blackmailing the guy by implying he knows a thing or two about Don’s past.  Don gets the message and reluctantly signs the contract, dating it 7/23/1963.

What is the significance of seven twenty three, our episode title?  It’s the day Don signed his soul away, duh.  His life, both professional and personal, is now bound to Burt Cooper & co.  Oh noes!

Fantastic episode.  You know there’s nothing I love more than subtle artistry, and S03E07 was chock-full of it.  On top of that, many plot points we’d almost forgotten (finally, some more Dick Whitman!) were pushed forward, while new ones craftfully put into place.  Bravo!

Womg?  Could this video of my man Matt Damon freaking out on Entourage star Adrian Grenier be real?

(Good Jeremy Piven cameo, bee tee dubs)

As you can see, Matt Damon goes kinda nuts on Adrian Grenier during this supposed PSA filming for Damon’s charity OneXOne.org.

The folks at Defamer think it’s fake - that it’s a big Matt Damon Entourage cameo / charity publicity stunt - and I tend to agree.

Matt Damon would never be so rude.  xoxo, MD!

UPDATE: Here’s an extended version!  Thoughts?