'Big Brother' All Stars: Showmance or something more?

Anyone who has been watching Big Brother:All Stars must wonder about Janelle. At first glance, that girl seems like the ultimate Big Brother player. She wins practically every competition, has won the Power of Veto multiple times to take herself off the block, and is just a great competitor all around. But what's with her and Dr. Will? Does she really believe this guy?

It's absurd that Will and Mike Boogie are in the final four. These guys are best friends. They own some business ventures together (and Boogie co-owns LA hotspot Dolce with Ashton Kutcher). This alliance has been out in the open from Day 1. And one of these guys shoulda been out the door the first week.

These guys really are puppetmasters, playing on Erica and Janelle's weaknesses (charming, rich boys). I think these girls are going to feel pretty stupid at the end of the day, especially since Janelle can't play in the HOH competetion. That means Boogie, Will, and Erica will be playing, so the Chill Town boys have a two out of three chance of winning HOH. It just depends on whose "boyfriend" wins as to which girl will be going home this week. Of course, Erica could always win HOH. Then she'll put up Janelle and Will.

Showmances aside, all in all, this has been the best season of Big Brother to date. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

UPDATE: Boogie won.

Let the Summer TV Games Begin

Ah, summertime. The time of endless reruns and really bad reality shows (think Big Brother).

First, I must say that I am really impressed with NBC for airing the new lottery-themed drama series Windfall during the summer. What a smart idea! Sure the writing is pretty bad (it's about on the same level as Fox's canceled show Reunion) and you could really care less about most of the characters (plus, there's way too many of them). But it's great to have a new drama to watch over the summer and yes, I'm sucked in after only two mediocre episodes. Hey, it's better then reruns.

VH1 has a pretty entertaining show right now called Super Group. It's a reality show featuring five rockers who form a new band together, this time with the unfortunate name of Damnocracy. (Their first name pick was FIST, so I guess Damn is slightly better?). Okay, so I'm an '80s heavy metal fan and I really do love Sebastian Bach, even though he is a diva and a loudmouth. The rest of the Super Group? Well, you can hate Ted Nugent, but there's something likeable about the guy, too. The guy from Anthrax, he's pretty low key and seems like a decent guy. Jason Bonham is mature and demands respect (after all he is the offspring of Led Zep legend John Bonham). I can't stand the porn guy-- Evan something or other who is from the group Biohazard, but really makes his living directing porn shoots starring his wife. Classy. But I do like this show, I really do, and it's nice to see Bas not so caked out anymore. (He was kinda chunky the last time I saw him on VH1).

Over at MTV, I like The Hills starring Laguna Beach's Lauren (LC) Conrad. The show is visually beautiful, just like Laguna Beach was, and all of the "characters" are pretty and perfectly coifed and accessorized. The converstions sound badly scripted even though it's supposed to be a reality show. Put it this way: the kids on this show are definitely aware that the cameras are there! Still, it's a show that I like-- it's sort of like background noise and it doesn't even matter if I miss an episode because there's no plot to miss.

The latest MTV Real World Road Rules challenge features all of the evil regulars (like Tina and Coral) and a dozen or so newbies dubbed the "fresh meat."  It's pretty funny how all of the members of the Austin RW cast are being voted off. Apparently they don't deserve to be there because Tina and Co. have paid their dues on previous challenges and they feel it's their "right" to make it to the end. I sometimes wonder why some of these kids agree to do these shows over and over again, but I think they get at least four grand just to be on the show, plus more if they win.

And then tomorrow, Big Brother 7 starts. Possibly the worst show on television. And yes, I'll be watching.

American Idol Revamped

Wow, has American Idol changed. At least since I last watched it, that is. I hated the first season of the Fox singing competition. All that karaoke-sounding pop music and oldies tunes. I think back then the lame song selections had something to do with copyright issues, that the owners of all of the good songs didn't want their music on some silly reality show. Fast forward a few years to today's American Idol, where bands like Queen and classic rockers like Rod Stewart are (well I don't want to say selling out, but...) all dying to get their music (and their faces!) on this show.

Last week's rendition of Queen songs was pretty horrendous. The only one worth a salt was Chris Daughtry because he has the voice for it. Taylor Hicks (the young guy with the very gray hair) was trying to be Elvis or something. Elvis doing Queen. And Kellie Pickler needed to stick to her wholesome country girl roots; her rocker vamp schtick just didn't work and it was even kinda scary.

In any event, the songs selections on Idol have vastly improved, because now that the show is a megahit, everyone wants their music on it. Except for ingrates like Kelly Clarkson, who seems to have forgotten where she came from.

Personally, I'm rooting for Chris Daughtry. Yes I like looking at pretty-boy Ace Young, but I don't think he'll make it to the end. Daughtry has the chops for it, though, with his strong vocal power. It would be so refreshing to see a hard rock type actually win this thing. But is America ready for that? I'm not sure. It wouldn't surprise me -- not one little bit-- to see someone "safe" like Kellie Pickler (A Carrie Underwood clone, in my opinion) win it at the end. But that's the beauty part of American Idol. You don't have to win it to have your career take off. (Example: Clay Aiken did not win American Idol).

So with just a few weeks left, we'll have to wait and see. But somehow I think we'll be seeing more of Chris (and Taylor and yes, even Ace) long after this edition of the show has ended.

VH1's Greatest Teen Stars: Accurate, to a point

I love VH1. They always have countdown shows and Behind the Music and The Greatest This and That. Their latest offering, The 100 Greatest Teen Stars, was great-- to a point. They always miss a few. And they always have a few that don't deserve a spot on their list.

The countdown was entertaining. I always wondered whatever happened to HR PufnStuf's Jack Wild (it ain't good).

But the omissions were so glaring! No Robby Benson? No Glynnis O'Connor ? (OK, I'm an Ode to Billy Joe fan). And who the hell is John Francis Daley, anyway??? I'm still pissed at VH1 for not recognizing Kim Richards during their Greatest Child Star series. But all in all, this series was good. David Cassidy was mentioned. So was Matt Dillon. And Melissa Sue Anderson-- aka Mary Ingalls-- finally got her day. Out of her sister's shadow.

In case you missed it -- SPOILER ALERT -- here are the Top 10:

1. Molly Ringwald 2. Rob Lowe 3. Britney Spears 4. Anthony Michael Hall 5. Shannen Doherty 6. David Cassidy 7. Winona Ryder 8. Corey Haim  9. River Phoenix 10. Matt Dillon

Oprah's Scolding of James Frey: Must See TV

I'm an Oprah fan. I admit it. Most weeks I check oprah.com to see what the topics are for the upcoming week's shows. This past week I was very disappointed. Most of the topics were depressing. Monday: terrorists and suicide bombers, Tuesday: the bird flu, Wednesday: a bankrobbing father. Stuff I would rather not think about.

I like Fun Oprah. You know, the decorating segments with Nate Berkus, the celebrity interviews, the shows about entertaining and food and fashion.

Well, Oprah made certainly trumped Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week with her show on Thursday. I wasn't expecting what I saw when she invited author James Frey back on her show. I didn't even know Mr. Frey was scheduled to be on, because the oprah.com site said TBA (To Be Announced) when I checked about Thursday's show earlier in the week.

Oprah gave the guy quite a tongue lashing. She was Pissed Off Oprah. And also a very Disappointed Oprah. I've never seen her like this. Frey looked like a kid who had been sent to the principal's office. By the end of the interview, he had his head down-- truly, truly ashamed. He didn't mind lying to Larry King, but when he talked to Oprah it was like going to confession. He confessed his sins.

Now I know the haters out there will say that Oprah only changed her tune about Frey because of the backlash she received when she called into King's show to support him. But I truly believe that she believed in this guy, believed in his book, and only thought he had changed a few minor points in the book for clarity's sake, or to protect the innocent.

When Frey admitted that Lily, one of the "characters" in A Million Little Pieces (Oprah also questioned why he referred to the people in his book as characters) didn't actually hang herself, Oprah looked as though she were about to cry. She had been touched by that scene in the book, had actually called friends to mourn over it, and now Frey tells her that things didn't actually happen that way.

I'm glad Oprah confronted James Frey. He may want to climb under a rock for a little while and that's okay. He should come out of this fine, once he tells the whole truth. Yes, he'll be okay and he'll probably go on to write another book and someone will publish it and this will be old news. People have survived worse scandals than this and have come out smelling like roses. And no one can dipsute that Frey is a talented (and imaginative) writer, so that will get him through this. We'll see James Frey again.

What I don't ever want to see again is Crushed Oprah. No, I'm ready for a week-long marathon of Nate Berkus decorating episodes...

The James Frey Hoopla: Why We Care

OK, so last fall Oprah resurrected her book club to introduce a new book: James Frey's A Million Little Pieces. Oprah raved about this book and I liked the look of the cover (yes, I do judge a book by its cover, the cover is important), but after reading a quick excerpt on Amazon, I determined that the book seemed too damn depressing for me. So no, I haven't read the book.

But I sure have been following this week's events. In case you're living under a rock, Mr. Frey was busted by The Smoking Gun website for alleged "inaccuaracies" (OK, let's call it what it is: lies) in his book. Apparently ol' Jimmy is a major embellisher. His people and Oprah and everyone else involved have been doing damage control all week.

Why do I care about this? Simply stated, A Million Little Pieces was touted as a memoir. Mr. Frey is a now a very rich man, thanks to Oprah (whom I adore, by the way--she's not my problem here), but his memoir was apparently filled with untruths.

Now any aspiring writer knows that it is much easier to get a nonfiction book published than a fiction book. And I read that Mr. Frey first tried to sell the book as fiction, but no one wanted it. It seemed much more "interesting" marketed as memoir, I suppose. So how much of it is even true? Is it a memoir or is it fiction? Maybe a little of both. Either way, I feel that the readers of this book were duped. Big time. It doesn't matter if you paid money for this book, borrowed it from a friend or from the library,   you were still duped into thinking that what you read all really happened.

We may never know how much of this book was truth or fiction. Either way, James Frey made out like a bandit.

A Tribute to Charles Lane

One of my favorite character actors, Charles Lane, will be celebrating his 101st birthday later this month. That's right, you heard me: 101st. As in, he was born in the year 1905.

If you've watched any classic TV in the last 50 years, you know who Charles Lane is. If you've ever watched old movies like "It's a Wonderful Life" or "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World," you've seen him, too.

Lane's IMBD bio lists him in hundreds of movie and television roles. This great actor has appeared on just about every classic TV series, from "I Love Lucy" to "Soap." He is probably best known for his role as Homer Bledsoe in "Petticoat Junction," but I like him best when he just unexpectedly pops up on a show I'm watching. "Little House on the Prairie." "The Odd Couple." "The Beverly Hillbillies."

My favorite is a 1967 "Bewitched" appearance, when he played cranky old Mr. Mortimer in an episode called "Humbug Not to be Spoken Here." I also liked his stint as banker, Mr. Barnsdahl, in "The Lucy Show." (Pop culture alert: This was before Gale Gordon came on board as Mr. Mooney).

Anyway, let's join in in celebrating the 101st birthday of one of my favorite actors of all time. He's had a prolific career, one that deserves a nod.

Happy 101st, Mr. Lane!