Before they were famous...

Another tip from my sister - check it out!


They may look like younger versions of Christina Aguilera, JC Chasez, and Nick Carter but nope, it's our favorite professional ballroom dancers!

If you don't know the story, Mark Ballas (Sabrina's partner and now BF) has parents who I guess are legendary ballroom dancers and they lived in London. Julianne (Helio's partner and winner) and Derek (Kelly Taylor's - oops, I mean Jennie's - partner) Hough were shipped off to London at a young age to train with Ballas' parents. Julianne and Mark became professional partners and Mark and Derek became good friends. The three of them had a singing group when they were younger called 2B1G (get it?) and now Derek and Mark play in a band called Almost Amy.

Aren't they adorable?

YES!!! Mystery solved!

Thanks to my wonderful sister, I have now figured out who Real Housewives' Lauri reminds me of! As you can see to the left, it is the puppet (NOT muppet, which explains why my google searches were unsuccessful), Madame. I'm not sure how we know this character - but it looks like she had a talk show in the early 80s. Anyway, I'm so glad someone knew who I was talking about and that I wasn't crazy - figures it would be my sis! (We come from a weird family, I guess - heehee...)

It's so nice to have this all figured out! Ah, I can now finally watch Real Housewives in peace.

"Last Christmas" for the new generation

Did you guys check out the Christmas specials this week? On Wednesday, I caught a little bit of NBC's Christmas at Rockefeller Center special. Ashley Tisdale, one of the many stars of Disney's megahit High School Musical (and its sequel), was one of the hosts and also performed - singing her version of Wham's "Last Christmas". My sister had "warned" me about this because I guess Ashley also performed this number during the Thanksgiving Day parade and my sister's reaction was something like, "hmmm... I don't think that quite works." Anyway, this time I got to see for myself! And yep, it was weird. First of all, was she even alive when this song came out? Well, I googled this and no, she was born in 1985 and Wham released "Last Christmas" the year before. But I guess it's not that weird... it would be like someone my age re-doing a song from 1974. I'd be curious to hear what today's version of "The Way We Were" would sound like!

OK, back to the performance - check it out and see what you think. It sounds like Ashley is one of those "manufactured" singers, you know, not that good but good enough. It sort of sounded like karaoke at a pre-teen slumber party.



Plus - she was lip syncing the whole time! She wasn't even dancing or anything. Inexcusable. I mean, even Britney managed to sing live during her appearance. Ah, the good ole days...

Project Runway Menswear Edition

Sweet P got pretty lucky this time, huh? Her shirt was a disaster! But everyone's outfit was kind of a mess. And on top of that - boring! And if anyone plans to audition for next season's Project Runway, it's best that you make sure you are well prepared to handle the following challenges beforehand:

- Designing for men
- Designing for women that are REAL sizes, not model thin
- Designing with unusual materials - plants, recyclable materials, grocery items, etc

Anyway, this episode brought back a random memory. Did Sweet P's shirt...


... remind you of the designer-wannabe shirt Denise made for Theo?

Another funny SNL clip

While I was home for the holidays, I happened to catch an old SNL episode on E!. Coincidentally, it was the Lindsay Lohan episode that had the Debbie Downer sketch that I had previously mentioned.

Well, there's another moment from this episode that made me laugh out loud. During Lohan's opening monologue, Rachel Dratch impersonated Hilary Duff, Amy Poehler impersonated Avril Lavigne, and Maya Rudolph impersonated Whitney Houston. While all the women were hilarious, Amy's interpretation of Avril was over the top hysterical!!! She appears about 2 minutes into the clip.

What are your recent downloads?

I'm all about iTunes now. I can't even remember the last time I bought a real, physical CD. In fact, I'm not even sure if I download an entire album anymore - unless it was for a soundtrack, like "Hairspray". Mostly, I just download random singles which is why I love those iTunes gift cards. I buy them for myself sometimes when I'm in line at the grocery or Target. Those came in real handy when I was building my marathon mix.

Anyway, so here's my fun question - what are the last five songs / albums that you've downloaded? (Or purchased - if you are old skool. heehee.)

Here are five tunes I've downloaded this month and that I've been listening to endlessly lately:

• Hate That I Love You - Rhianna w. Ne-Yo
  
• Love Song - Sara Bareilles
  
• Do It Well - Jennifer Lopez
  
• No One - Alicia Keys
  
• Because of You - Ne-Yo

Yeah, yeah, I know - I am totally Top 40. I can't help it! I like catchy songs!

Someone please help me name that muppet!

OK, something on the Real Housewives of Orange County has really been bugging me lately so I thought I'd just throw it out there and see if anyone can help. One of the housewives, Lauri, is often referred to as the "hot" one, MILF if you will. And I just don't get it because to me, she looks like the roughest one out of the bunch! Sure, she has a fit body compared to the others, but her face is just bleh! Like a man in drag. (I'm sorry, but that's the best way to describe it!) And one of the college-age boys once referred to her as the most beautiful woman in the world. Really? Anyway, the thing that bugs me is that every time I see her, she reminds me of an old lady muppet but I can't really place the muppet name or where she's appeared (The Muppet Show? Sesame Street? A Muppet movie?) I've googled and can't find a picture of this muppet. It's not one of the muppets listed here. I know this is a RANDOM question, but if you have any ideas, let me know!

Dancing with the Stars came to an end tonight. I actually enjoyed all the montages (plus it helped that I watched it off my DVR so it was quick to run through). The highlight clips reminded me how much I missed and enjoyed Drew Lachey as the guest host! But I'm glad to have another dance show to look forward to for January.

As for The Hills, is it really possible that we've seen the last of Justin Bobby??? I hope so! Were you guys as pissed as I was when Audrina left with him after their blow up at Opera? I'm glad she dropped him off alone. And could Spencer be any more immature about the wedding stuff?

Top Four "Did You See That?" Moments of the Week

American Music Awards - Well, I thought I was somewhat in touch with the teen set, but apparently not. Who the heck are the Jonas Brothers? Based on their performance at the AMAs, they are "hot stuff" with the tweens. I only mention them here because one of them did a nice recovery after falling during their big stage entrance. And boo for the much too hyped performance by Beyonce. They kept teasing that everyone would be talking about this performance. I expected some extravagant stage number with tons of dancers and flames and other special effects, etc. And it just ended up being a country version of "Irreplaceable" sung with some band called Sugarland.

Project Runway - The caliber of their celebrity guests is growing big time! Check out who visits the designers in the second week of this season. (I would have thought someone like her would be reserved for the finale, you know?)

Dancing with the Stars Results Show - Sabrina and Mark return and do an amazing performance to Avril Lavigne's "Complicated":



Grey's Anatomy - The last scene with Seth Green and his exploding artery. I was screaming when I saw that!!! Was anyone else scared that Bailey got hit between the crashing emergency vehicles? Or is anyone else still worried that Meredith is now stuck under one of them?

Gossip Girl and Project Runway

Gossip Girl: So do you think Chuck really likes Blair or is he just putting on a good show to get in her pants? I'm so confused! It was kinda nice that he bought her that diamond necklace that she wanted and he *was* there at midnight on her birthday, unlike Nate (aka Carrie Underwood's BF) who was having a late night chat with Jenny. Are they going to get together now? Is he still in love with Serena or just moving on? Maybe he just likes girls with long blonde hair! I suppose if I looked up the books, I could figure out what's going to happen but I won't spoil it. Unless the writer's strike continues and there are no more new episodes...

Project Runway: First off, I'm not surprised they saved the wacky one and booted off the boring one with poor execution. Remember Vince from last season??? They'll keep the kooky lady around for a little bit, I bet... And what's up with the models? Is it just me, or are they across the board REALLY bad??? I felt like they just ripped them out of some local modeling school in some mall in NJ or something. They walked funny, didn't seem confident, seemed to be struggling with walking in heels, etc. I didn't feel like any of them were really selling it like the models from season's past.

It's that time of the year again...

... for People Magazine to announce their "Sexiest Man Alive"! And as you can see, this year's winner is Jason Bourne himself, otherwise known as Matt Damon. Not my particular cup of tea, but I consider him a worthy winner. Especially when I read this article where he thought Tom Brady should have received the "honor" instead.

Anyway, congrats to Matt - I remember during the press junkets for the Ocean movies that George Clooney and Brad Pitt would tease him about never having this prestigious honor since they've both been named twice. Heck, even Matt's buddy, Ben Affleck, has received this accolade.

So good for him!

Wow - even HBO is covering this!

OK, I know I'm not a big sports fan but I do realize that Michigan and Ohio State have one of the biggest collegiate rivalries EVER if not *the* biggest. (Is it the biggest? I don't know.)

But still - I was pleasantly surprised to flip to HBO and see that it was airing a documentary on this rivalry. So it's pretty big, huh?

I was enjoying all the wisecracking jokes on OSU by Michigan alumni but I am in a weird position since I'm originally from Ohio but chose to attend Michigan (but c'mon - it *is* the academic superior of the two!) Anyway - jokes on OSU are funny, but jokes on the state of Ohio? Not funny. (And no, I don't remember any of them.)

Anyway, I'm looking forward to finally watching my first Michigan football game this season on Saturday - and if I only watch one, this is the one to watch!

GO BLUE!


** Update: I didn't realize this the first time I visited the site, but there's also a vote so click here and VOTE MICHIGAN!

"You have to crash a brand new car to break it in."

These wise words were uttered during Bravo's The Real Housewives of Orange County (just starting their third season, by the way).

And guess what - no Jo or Slade this season! I'm a little disappointed since Jo was kind of entertaining. But Slade is annoying so I guess that's OK.

I found out some scoop here. Either Jo and Slade declined to appear because of Jo's recording commitments (yes, it's not just Heidi, but her, too) OR Bravo didn't invite them because Jo is no longer a "housewife" (which she never really was in the first place)since her and Slade broke up.

But bonus, rumor is that they may do a spin-off focusing on Jo and her musical ambitions.

Also, being a Big Ten girl, I'm not too familiar with the Cali schools, but I thought Berkeley was the smarty pants one? Apparently Jeana's daughter, Kara, is going there because she didn't get accepted to either of her top two choices, USC and UCLA. I'm worried for this SoCal girl... it's a big culture change to Berkeley.

Random Tomato Adventure that made me laugh

OK, short story - this is a video clip of a woman who decides to spend an entire work day in NYC in a gigantic tomato costume. I'll warn you that it's a long clip, but it made me chuckle - especially the scenes in the subway.



Long story: Back in the day, I was a huge fan of Television Without Pity. This is a very entertaining site that gives lengthy recaps of your favorite shows and because of the witty commentary, the recaps are often more entertaining than the shows themselves. It's a great site to goof off with at work. :) I'm not sure why I don't read it as often now... I guess my own blogs give me enough goof off time. Heehee.

Anyway, one of the founders and editors of TWoP, this person nicknamed "Sars", decided to ask her readers to raise $40,000 for a charity. If they met their goal, she would wear a tomato costume and re-enact a scene from My So-Called Life. I guess it's this "classic" scene after Jordan Catalano first kisses Angela Chase and then she twirls around on the sidewalk and stuff.

Well, I wasn't familiar with this scene so I found it here - it's about six minutes in.

The Great Debate: Should Lauren reunite with Heidi?

"I want to forgive you... [pause] and I want to forget you."

Eee... yikes!

What was your reaction to this? Mine was more of a jaw dropping shock but when watched the aftershow online afterward (first time doing so and it's rather entertaining), the crowd was cheering her on!

So I'm torn (and yes, I know, that it's pretty sad when I get torn over something like this) on whether or not Lauren and Heidi should be friends.

On one hand, Heidi pretty much crawled back to Lauren asking for her forgiveness. She went to Lauren's apartment and even brought pretty yellow flowers! And you know Lauren really missed Heidi's friendship back when her and Audrina had that teary fireside chat at the beach.

And honestly, who cares anymore about the sex video scandal! It's such old news now. It doesn't even matter if they did or didn't have one - even if they did, it's not exactly that scandalous - considering where they live and all. :)

On the other hand, Heidi is in love with a guy who seems to take pleasure in making Lauren miserable. They did a funny thing on the aftershow - they showed the clip of Heidi saying "Spencer doesn't hate you" followed by a montage of umpteen clips from various episodes where Spencer is totally trashing Lauren. Heehee.

So really - how well would their friendship work given the Spencer issue?

Changing topics - what the hell is wrong with Audrina??? Why is she so obsessed with a guy that just looks so filthy and gross and burps incessantly on their dates? And did Sean Kingston send flowers to just her or both her and Chiara?

Next week Heidi and Spencer break up... is this when that fake break up will come into play?

SNL Flashback: Debbie Downer

This post is dedicated to my friend Jen who didn't understand my Debbie Downer reference. This sketch is particularly funny because it's the one with Lindsay Lohan where the actors struggled with keeping straight faces.

Another strike! My world is crumbling...

Egads - Broadway stagehands are now on strike meaning most of the shows were dark yesterday. Theatre-goers were able to get refunds for tickets to canceled shows or exchange the tickets for the next available date. Sucks for the out of town folks that had their hearts on seeing their favorite shows. Shows not affected by the strike are listed here.

So sad. I like my Times Square to be a happy place.

Speaking of Broadway, I got to watch the Broadway musical version of Legally Blonde. MTV actually aired a presentation of it and did this cute thing where they got the girls from The Hills to host it.

I think Legally Blonde debuted in San Francisco before opening on Broadway and I remember listening to a sound clip from the show thinking it was way too cheesy. I was surprised - the tunes from the show are actually kind of catchy. Be warned, the phrase "Omigod - omigod, you guys!" is repeated constantly throughout the show but overall, it's pretty cute with fun song and dance numbers. A lot of the punchlines are straight out of the movie so that was kind of repetitive, but it was still pretty entertaining.

It was interesting to see where they made the musical numbers - some are obvious choices like Elle's Harvard admission "essay" and the "Bend and Snap". But some were kind of random - like our introduction to Brooke Wyndham (Elle's murder suspect / fitness guru / sorority sister) with the jump-roping-on-crack number, "Whipped into Shape".

Click here for a sneak preview. It looks like there should be encore presentations on MTV on November 13th at 11AM.

Holiday Time and Thursday Night TV

I went to Starbucks this morning and yay! It's red cup time, meaning the holidays are finally here! I love seeing red Starbucks cups - makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. But for some reason, I wasn't really paying attention until after I ordered so I got my orange mocha frappuccino light instead of the peppermint mocha version.

I also like all the holiday commercials that are now. Even those cheesy ones from Kay's Jewelers.

Anyway... on to Thursday night TV. My biggest laugh out loud moment was when Amanda broke out into "My milkshake brings all the boys to the yards..." during Wilhemina and Bradford's wedding on Ugly Betty. HILARIOUS! Runner ups: 1) montage of Kenneth's parties on 30 Rock, particularly the Halloween one where Tina Fey dressed up as Harry Potter and 2)Meredith's facial expressions when George and Izzie complained about their lack of chemistry on Grey's Anatomy. Speaking of which, that storyline has been so annoying! They put us through all that ickiness and broke Callie's heart only for them to not end up together because they are bad under the sheets??? Why waste our time, writers??? (By the way, I am totally freaking out about the writer's strike - look how long we have until our favorite shows go into repeats - until who knows when!!! This is serious, people, we might not get Lost until fall 2008, maybe even spring 2009! WAAAHHH!)

Regarding The Office, does anyone else find it interesting that being a new couple has resulted in Pam looking cuter than ever, but Jim is at his scruffiest?

Do you have all the fashion essentials?

On Tim Gunn's Guide to Style, Tim always highlights the "basics" that every woman should have in their closet. I've been meaning to get a copy of this for my reference and here it is!

Tim Gunn’s 10 Essential Items Every Woman Needs

• Basic black dress
  
• Trench coat
  
• Classic dress pants
  
• Classic white shirt
  
• Skirt
  
• Blazer
  
• Day dress
  
• Cashmere sweater
  
• Jeans
  
• A comfortable alternative to a sweatsuit

Outside the cashmere sweater, I think I have something that represents the rest of the items, but they're not perfect. You know, not really nice classic pieces that will last for awhile. And I think that will be the goal... don't know how long it will take, but I hope to be a real grown up and have all the essentials!

By the way, season 4 of Project Runway starts on November 14th - yay!

Earthquake!

So I've been in northern California for over six years now - I've been around for some earthquakes but none that I really remember.

Well, I finally had my first real experience last Tuesday during the 5.6 earthquake in the San Jose area. And I know, these are very serious natural phenomenons and not thrill rides, but since all is safe, I will admit - it was really cool!

I happened to be driving home when it occurred (it was around 8PM) and I saw some friends of mine walking around the neighborhood. I pulled over to chat with them and then it happened. My friend was leaning into my car since we were chatting and then his wife started freaking out a bit.

I did notice some rocking but I honestly thought my friend was shaking my car. (I don't know, he could have been that strong!) So I just sat there in my car while it was rocking (nothing major, it really felt like someone moving it) and it lasted for quite a bit - at least 10 seconds or so. Long enough for us to actually comment that it was still going on.

Anyway, it was cool - it stopped, I drove home, my friends walked home and all is good. Everything was fine in my apartment but I guess those closer to the 'quake had some things move around.

I'm pretty sure we felt an aftershock the next day when I was at work. My building is not exactly the most solid. I'm on the second floor and sometimes when someone is walking by rather heavily, my monitor will kind of shake. But we all felt the shaking and it was pretty major, but brief.

Anyway, hopefully that will be the worse I experience!

Wait - you mean this show isn't 100% real?

I missed Monday's episode of The Hills, but apparently one of the storylines followed Heidi's 21st birthday. If you recall from last season, she spent her 20th birthday in an Audrey Hepburn 'do complete with tiara clubbin' with friends (and avoiding Audrina). This year, she got all dolled up for an intimate dinner with just her and Spencer. And it sounded like she spent most of the dinner convincing herself that she's having a good time.



But when in *reality*, she had a rockin' 21st birthday celebration in Vegas. She even performed!!!



So what do you guys think? I personally enjoyed Spencer's "raise the roof" background support. I know sound quality isn't great, but do you think she was singing at all? Looked like major lip sync action to me. Also, I hope she works out her choreography or performance movements or something... looks kind of silly to me. :)

Anyway, I guess the show producers are completely avoiding Heidi's aspiring singing career and Lauren's fashion line when editing for this show. It's interesting. It seems like Lauren is still working as an intern at Teen Vogue while simultaneously launching her own fashion line. I mean, it's not all fake - she does appear to be doing some grunt work like when she had to help out with the Marc Jacobs crew in NYC. And Heidi would have to balance her time between doing PR in cute pencil skirts at Bolthouse while recording her tunes.

And how about the other people/cast? Like when they hired Elodie's replacement at Bolthouse. Did they really interview real PR people and then say oh, yeah, by the way - you could potentially be a cast member in an MTV drama? Or did MTV people just cast the person themselves?

I'll stop thinking about it now. It'll probably just make my head explode.

Funniest thing I saw on TV last week

Did any of you watch 30 Rock last week? It was HYSTERICAL! As if the "Page Off" wasn't funny enough (how do they come up with these characters???), they also had the best scene EVER with the therapy scene between Alec Baldwin and Tracy Morgan.

If you're not familiar with the show, it is based on the behind the scenes antics for a Saturday Night Live-like show. Tina Fey is the head writer (somehow she is perfect for this role!), Tracy Morgan is one of the lead actors on the fake show, and Alec Baldwin is the "suit" (I'm not sure if he is just the head of the network or head of the GE corporation that owns the network, but basically he's "The Man" on this show.)

Anyway, Tracy's character has daddy issues so Alec's character sets up a therapy session for him to work the issues out. And then... well, hilarity ensues...

I'll be shocked if Alec doesn't score an Emmy for this alone. He was practically breaking a sweat!