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YouTube Questioner in the Dark on Immigration

During last night's Republican YouTube debate on CNN, a disembodied head asked the candidates if they would ever support amnesty for illegal immigrants. None of the candidates who answered his question -- Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain -- wanted to anger the head, which makes perfect sense to me. That guy was terrifying. When CNN moderator Anderson Cooper followed up the question by announcing that the head was in the audience, I expected the cameras to pan to a scene of ... (read more)

2007/11/29

Supporting the Writers Guild Strike

I'm in full support of the 10-day-old Writers Guild strike, which you can follow by reading their strike blog United Hollywood and television writer Mark Evanier's News From Me blog. There's a lot of money being made in DVD sales and online viewing of TV shows, and writers get bupkiss, as Lost head writer Damon Lindelof explains: My show, Lost, has been streamed hundreds of millions of times since it was made available on ABC's Web site. The downloads require the viewer to first watch an ... (read more)

2007/11/15

Steve Burns Goes From Blues to Rock

Question: Why did you shave your head? are you making a statement? Answer: Yes. the statement is, "we have male pattern baldness." This QNA comes from the web site of Steve Burns, the original Blue's Clues host and star of one of the greatest episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street. After leaving the green-striped shirt, salt and pepper shakers, and floppy-eared blue dog behind in 2002, Burns became an indie rocker who pals around with the Flaming Lips and does They Might Be Giants tribute ... (read more)

2007/11/02

Ellen DeGeneres Has Gone to the Dogs

Last week, Michael Arrington wrote on TechCrunch about Richard Figueroa, a photographer who was making obnoxious legal threats about a copyright violation of an Ashton Kutcher photograph. Figueroa mistakenly believed the photo, which showed up in a Google image search incorrectly linked to TechCrunch, was published on the site. As Figueroa was calling TechCrunch advertisers and urging they boycott the site, Arrington published Figueroa's emailed legal threat, which included his address and ... (read more)

2007/10/17

'Kid Nation' Contestants Rip Into President Bush

You know things are going bad for the president when he can't escape his problems on reality TV. The CBS series Kid Nation gave each of its 40 contestants, children aged 8 to 14, a chance to answer the question "Who are some of the worst presidents and why?" Here's the response that Sophia, a 14-year-old Florida teen, posted on the CBS web site: I think George W. Bush takes the cake. The planet is disintegrating, we’re fighting an unnecessary war, millions are without health care, the school ... (read more)

2007/09/20

Apple Commercials Make Microsoft Lovable

At the D: All Things Digital conference Wednesday, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates appeared onstage together for the first time in 20 years. One of the topics they discussed was Apple's series of Mac Dude and Windows Dork commercials: Here in the present, while discussing some recent Apple commercials in which an Apple hipster out-talks a nerdy Windows guy, it seemed almost as if Jobs and Gates were acting in starring roles in the same ads. Jobs, in his black turtleneck and jeans and stubbled beard, ... (read more)

2007/05/31

Long Live the King of Queens

The King of Queens sitcom ended last night on CBS after nine years, and cast member Patton Oswalt (Spencer) wrote a sendoff that made the innocuous working-class comedy series sound twisted: I'm also glad I got to play Spencer, who evolved into the depository for all the writer's wild hairs. Making out with old women, gay panic, double-dating Adam West and Lou Ferrigno, wrestling matches over an asthma inhaler, driving all night to stop a wedding, stalking ... if there was something creepy the ... (read more)

2007/05/15

Mystery Solved: House is Like Holmes

It took me two-and-a-half years, but I finally figured out that the Fox medical drama House has patterned the title character, an arrogant doctor who solves sadistic medical mysteries, after Sherlock Holmes. Beyond the similarity of the names Holmes and House, both feature characters who are arrogant and addicted to drugs (Holmes abuses cocaine and morphine; House takes Vicodin for a leg ailment). They're both incredibly difficult to get along with and have only close friend and confidante -- ... (read more)

2007/05/02

Rosie O'Donnell: WTC 7 Demolished on 9/11

Talk show host Rosie O'Donnell suggested that World Trade Center 7 was not destroyed by fire on 9/11 in a post on her personal weblog Thursday evening. Writing in the poetry-like style she's adopted on her blog, O'Donnell took part of her post -- the list of reasons to suspect the building was demolished -- directly from a page on the conspiracy-minded site WhatReallyHappened.Com. at 5 30 pm 9 11 2001 wtc7 collapsed for the third time in history fire brought down a steel building reducing it to ... (read more)

2007/03/19

Dancing Mortgage People Ate My Brain

My weblog entry on protecting yourself from dancing mortgage people attracted the attention of New York Times reporter Brad Stone, who tracked down Jennifer Uhll, the graphic designer who created the ads for LowerMyBills.Com. Whenever I see one of these ads, I'm reminded of the door-to-door meat salesmen who occasionally show up at my house offering steaks from a beer cooler in their trunk. Every time they do, I want to ask, "Who are the people keeping you in business?" I half expect to find ... (read more)

2007/01/18

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