Spaghetti Cat, Spaghetti Cat....

I have a comedy boner for Joel McHale and is writers over at The Soup....

Here is why...



Long live Spaghetti Cat...

Labor Day Weekend....

This week has been amazing with all the speeches and fanfare in Denver. And of course John McCain had to go ruin it for me and all of us women who are actually intelligent enough to know when we are being pandered to. Below is Obama's awe inspiring speech.

Please watch it in its entirety and understand: YES WE CAN!

And on that note, my posts will be few and far in between the next few days as I am going to be spending as much time outside as possible, including seeing Sonic Youth at the last show at McCarren Park Pool.

Enjoy your weekend. And see you lovelies on Tuesday!

Project Runawy - Driven to Product Placement - Episode 7 Recap !

So I know it’s been a bit since I dished about and recapped the previous night’s Project Runway, but I have missed it so and apparently so have you readers so here we go.

For a very quick recap, Daniel was sent home in Episode Six for his lack of creativity and flamboyance in his drag queen outfit. Joe took home the prize that night and her seriously deserved it. Honestly, I think its insanely hillarious that the straight dude from Detroit is the designer who took home the prize that night. On the previous challenge, Episode Five, the designers had to pair up and create an outfit for Brooke Shields’ cahracter on that NBC’s Lipstick Jungle. Kelli and Dan produced the worst outfit, which was in Michael Kor’s words “Slutty, Slutty, Slutty” and Kelli was sent packing.


So last night, Episode Seven, greeted the designers with an interesting individual challenge. They were to pillage “car parts” from a bunch of Saturn Hybrids (HELLO PRODUCT PLACEMENT!) from some rooftop in Murray Hill and create a “fresh look” with it. Basically what Tim Gunn said was that since almost all the designers used tablecloths in the first challenge (Supermarket Madness) they wanted to see serious “out of the box” stuff here. All around I think most people did quite well on this challenge and it seemed that they took Tim’s ideas and criticisms to heart. The only two who truly messed up in my eyes were actually the bottom two, Keith and Stella, but more on them in a bit.

In my opinion, Korto, Terri, Jerrell and Leanne knocked this out of the park and I think those could be the final four. Terri created an ensemble that could have been Stella’s but it was made much better than Stella could have. Her biker chic look was just deemed as safe by the judges since they can only pick out three. I think the outfit as a whole was very wearable, but didn’t have that “what the hell is this made with” feel the other top three did. Jerrell made a bustier and a skirt with real car parts and it looked incredibly futuristic. Korto’s seat belt woven coat was breathtaking and beyond well done, but the overall shaped of the coat was similar to other pieces she has already made this season, which is what probably separated her from a win. Her coat was lauded over by the female judges as something “they would want to own in many colors”. Laura Bennett, one of the final four designers from season three stepped in for Nina Garcia last night for the runway show and she adored the coat. And finally the winner was Leanne. Her leather, overly constructed, yet streamlined dress was beautiful. It fit her model incredibly well, looked unlike any other pieces up there and the silhouette was now. Rachel Zoe, incredibly skinny stylist, future Bravo star and guest judge last night, said it was “ready for the Paris runways”. Joe’s wasn’t terrible, but it was way too “designed by a straight male” for me. It definitely fit the Saturn concept, just wasn’t great. Suede and Kenley’s were truly forgettable and those two were lucky Stella and Keith were around. And Blaine, who I usually can’t stand, ended up in the bottom three for an ill fitting gown which personally I liked but the judges couldn’t stand. He was safe for another day. For some reason, Stella, the designer who uses leather, grommets, chains and all other kinds of hard ass biker crap in her designs decided to create some Conway looking version of a Thierry Mugler bandage suit. Not so cute. It was ill fitting, poorly constructed and not well thought out. It was a bore to be honest and didn’t really represent Stella. And then there is Keith, who whined and pouted the whole episode about the judge’s “not getting his aesthetic” which is code for “why does everyone think I stink?”. Ugh his self pity party was boring me and his designs were pretty bad overall. It also doesn’t help when you yell at the judges, tell your model she can’t sit in the garment and then talk to both the model and judges like they are dirt really isn’t the way to win this competition. Michael Kors gave him a swift kick in the butt and the judges sent him packing.

Here are my favorites...












And my not so muches....












Next week it should be a whole bunch of other whining about something. All in all the season is moving on as a meeker version of it’s original self. There has been a lot of chatter this go around, from myself and other bloggers, that Bravo just wants this season to just go away and have the show leave for Lifetime. The challenges are uninspired. The designers I think are actually a bit more accomplished than previous seasons, but without exciting challenges there is no way to showcase their talent. And with that idiot Blane adding “licious” after ever word and Suede speaking in the third person, I am sometimes pondering throwing my TV through a window. Andy Dehnart over at MSNBC.com looks deeper into how moving networks and possibly cities might actually get this ship sailing the high seas again.

And as always, check out other recaps at:
- Blogging Project Runway
- The Cut on NYMag.com
- Brian’s blog on AfterElton

I'll Say It...Thank You Hillary Clinton...

Not sure if it's from having grown up in the 90s with the help of Murphy Brown, Angela Chase, grrrl power and my strong single mother, but I will always hold a special place in my heart for Hillary Clinton. Last night's speech at the DNC was awe inspiring for so many reasons and the least of was the discussion of the party's policies. What Hillary has done has removed the narrative of "Can we do it?" to when will we do it. Her sentiments do not only make her a stand out as a politician but as an American woman. Have I agreed won everything she he done? Absolutely not, bit she's a politician and she's used to it. What I can appreciate more is her determination in the eye of he storm. Similarly to most woman in positions of power she has been vilified for years, but what make this year special was that it happened from her own party. Yet she never backed down. Bigger people have run from lesser opposition. But don't forget this woman is a pro at being vilified and demonized. Remember when her husband was very publicly caught cheating on her and the joke was that it was her fault. The woman has been picked apart by the media for the past twenty years so why should now be any different. She had to sit and listen while her preteen daughter was publicly compared to a dog by members of the media and the Republican party. As a wife she was found in unattractive and the likes of Rush
Limbaugh questioned whether we could even choose her as President and sit back and watch her AGE!

During her first Senate run she was called out for using her husbands position to win a political seat all the while only a few years ago being known as the brains behind the pants. Hillary has virtually taken all the abuse most men and angry woman wanted to lodge at feminism for the past 40 years and has happily done so with a smile. When she ran for President last year, I was excited but not just because she as the first viable female candidate to even have a chance at the position but that she had the guts to do it. Whatever you can say able this woman let it be known she has one he'll of a set of cajones. With nearly half the votes democrats placed during the primaries her reasoning as always questioned. While it takes a great deal of ego for anyone to run for the presidency it took her even more for the mere fact she has to deal with about twice the amount of criticism and backlash than others. I believe in her cause of breaking through that ceiling and can only imagine what her words did for young girls watching . I won't personally rehash her policy or the issues that some mark as the demise of her campaign in this here editorial because this is truly a portrait of her as a woman. Someone who didn't want her daughter to hit the middle aged mark and still hear the phrase "the First Woman" in front of any profession or title. And I can't agree with her more. What you can fault the woman for must be kept separate from what she was able to accomplish with such silly backlash. While I am excited for Obama as a candidate I can not say I was not upset last night that this will not be the person to represent us across the world. And I do hope that with all the work Hillary has done and those who came before and will come in the future, by the time I am the Senator's age "The First Woman" anything will be just a description of past events.

Here is Clinton's speech in its entirety from last night:

Monday Movie Box Office Recap!

I'm back baby.....and so is the Monday Movie Box Office Recap.

So Tropic Thunder, my pick to finally take The Dark Knight down from the number one spot, did that and then some. Hindered by the high performance of the 2008 Olympics, which ended up being the highest rated television program in history, Tropic Thunder has remained at the number one spot for the second week in a row. With no real strong competition this past weekend other than Michael Phelps and surprisingly The House Bunny, Tropic was a shoe in for the number one spot. The Hollywood skewering film within a film is freaking hilarious and was one of the only things that cheered me up post surgery last week. Robert Downey Jr., is as expected brilliant in a performance that could be one of the most hilarious self-satirizing in Hollywood history. Ben Stiller and Jack Black are for bad or worse Ben Stiller and Jack Black, but I can say that Stiller’s directorial hand in this did help to make himself look much more appealing on the screen. Standouts were Danny McBride as a buffoonish special effects man, Brandon T. Jackson as Alpa Chino, a rapper cum actor, and Jay Baruchel, MY FAVORITE, who reminded me of a young Tom Hanks. His portrayal of the naïve, yet intelligent newcomer to Hollywood felt authentic and managed to steal a lot of screen time from the big guys on campus. So Hollywood, if you are looking for the youthful version of Tom Hanks, I say look no farther.


This movie is truly a crowd pleaser if you enjoy you enjoy satire, action, screwball comedies and Hollywood. In other theaters around town, The House Bunny, starring the always funny Anna Farris and up and coming stars like Emma Stone and Kat Dennings came in a strong second and will hopefully remain in strong numbers with the young female demographic and the shitastic looking Death Race came in third, which is not surprising to anyone. Dark Knight comes closer to the $500 Million mark with each day and Star Wars: The Clone Wars is up on their heals. I think crazier than anything is Mamma Mia!'s staying power. I guess once the Phelpps nonsense died down, moms headed out for some fun in the theater with Meryl Streep and ABBA.

Here is the rest of the Box Office Top ten, courtesy of Box Office Mojo.
1. Tropic Thunder - $15 million
2. The House Bunny - $12.3 million
3. Death Race - $16 million
4. The Dark Knight - $10.3 million
5. Star Wars: The Clone Wars - $5.7 million
6. Pineapple Express - $5.6 million
7. Mirrors - $4.9 million
8. The Longshots - $4.35 million
9. Mamma Mia! - $4.3 million
10. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - $4 million

A word to the wise…or to you my dear readers.....

The past few weeks you might have noticed some sparse posting here and I discussed it briefly in a few of my posts, but to keep things short and sweet, I was busy recuperating from a minor surgery. As of now, I am close to being back to my 100% percent goodness, which honestly means I am DVRing Big Brother and watching it later, as opposed to watching TV NON-Stop while propped up on pillows and pain killers like a sad Judy Garland story. With my new found energy, I just wanted to let you all know that The Spielster will be doing its best to up the ante for the Fall and Winter season. We will be getting a face lift, more daily posts and some other exciting news. As always I want to thank you readers who kept coming back each day to see if there were updates, when there were none.

And while I am fine tuning and updating things around here, I would love feedback from you my readers. Are there topics/stories/ideas/bands/shows/comedians/movies/bar mitzvahs you like me to cover? Feel free to email me at Spielarama@gmail.com. Things are looking up for me and The Spielster. Enjoy!

And I know its been played to death here and on other sites, but please let’s give it up to the Pickle Girl for always bringing a smile to my bitter, neurotic face. Book marking this on YouTube was the first thing I did with my new iPhone.

Margaret Cho saves me from a boring Thursday Night

If you have not yet checked out the season premiere of Margaret Cho's new show The Cho Show...YOU MUST!!! One of the ballsiest and funniest ladies this side of Brett Somers has a new "reality" show on VH1. And here is just a snippet of the goodness that is Cho.

• VH1 TV Shows
• Music Videos
• Celebrity Photos
• News & Gossip

If you can't et your lazy ass to VH1 when they re-run this shit a bazillion times, check out the whole episode currently streaming on Logo.

Christina Applegate Stands Up to Cancer

Recently I had sort of health scare, which required me to get undergo some minor surgery last week. Without getting into too many details, there were a few days where I was miserable, scared and truly pissed off about my situation. Luckily, I have a great doctor, an amazing boyfriend, a loving mom and some kick ass friends and family who have been helping me through everything. There are few things other than your loved ones that can make you feel better when you are sick. My standard go-tos are Archie comics, soup, pudding and classic films. And by classic films I mean “Valley Girl”, “Troop Beverly Hills” and “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitters Dead”. “Don’t Tell” is truly the best comedy ever made to cheer yourself up. It has everything: hijinks, a love story, a mystery, teen angst, redemption and a cool early 90’s fashion show all rolled into one. And it stars one of my favorite comedians and actresses Christina Applegate. While I have always loved the funny blonde, her uncanny comedic timing was something that always impressed me about her. Other than her TV role as Kelly Bundy, she generally shied away from repeatedly playing the typical blonde airhead. So two weeks ago, when I found out I had to have surgery I immediately ran home, crawled in bed and turned on “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitters Dead”.

Ironically, Christina Applegate was going through her own traumatic medical scare at the same time. Applegate, who is genetically predisposed for breast cancer, found a cancerous lump in her one of her breasts last month. She immediately let the media know about her battle and that she should be fine because they caught it so early due to Applegate’s diligent early detection efforts. Simply put, the strong ass woman decided to confront her disease head on, make no bones about it and take an amazingly strong approach to making sure it doesn’t rear its ugliness in her face again. Earlier this week, she sat down with ABC’s Good Morning America News anchor Robin Roberts, who has also battled the disease, to discuss her treatment, prognosis and where she is going next. Applegate revealed, while she had only found a lump in one breast, she decided for her health and future sanity to undergo a double mastectomy. "My decision, after looking at all the treatment plans that were possibilities for me, the only one that seemed the most logical and the one that was going to work for me was to have a bilateral mastectomy," said Applegate. Her mother, Nancy Priddy, also had a mastectomy a few years ago, after she was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time over the course of twenty years. Applegate said it was watching her mother battle the disease that made her sure of her decision to remove both breasts.

While Applegate did she was angry, confused and pissed off about her original diagnosis, especially after the years of preemptive care she had and strict diets she adhered to, she quickly went into “take-care-of-business mode” to remove the disease and get on the road to recovery. The invasive surgery was performed three weeks ago and the cute actress is already back to her old self, cracking jokes on GMA. Currently, she has not undergone any additional efforts, such as radiation or chemotherapy, but Applegate said she is “100% cancer free”. She also poked fun at the reconstructive surgery that lies ahead of her on GMA saying “I'm gonna have cute boobs till I'm 90", with regards to her future implants.

While there is a very tough road in front of her, it looks like Christina is staying strong and sticking to what she does best – being funny. The actress was nominated for an Emmy for her starring role in Samantha Who?, which returns to ABC this Fall season. She will also appear with other celebrities on the cross channel effort TV special Stand Up to Cancer, airing Sept. 5 on all three major networks, ABC, CBS and NBC, which will raise funds for cancer research. Christina also said that she looks forward to creating programs that will raise money for MRIs and gene testing for women who might be unable to afford it, since early detection was truly the savior in this case. All in all, I know that this was beyond a difficult choice to make, but I love that this warrior, who also described her mother in a similar fashion, has been so vocal in regards to this battle and has given other women the courage to face this ugly disease. I am glad that she is cancer free and I hope that Hollywood begins to take a deeper look at this beyond talented strong woman, who should truly be a role model to all.


For more information about Christina’s battle and what you can do, check out these links:
ABC News
U.S. News & World Report
Stand Up 2 Cancer
Susan G. Komen For the Cure
USA Today
Images Courtesy of Reuters

Out of Commission

Hey there everyone. Just wanted to give you all a heads up. No I am not being lazy, but merely recuperating after a minor surgery and it wasn't a boob job.

I should resume my regular posting schedule sometime next week, but just typing this into my iPhone made me sick as a dog. Enjoy the weekends and be sure to check out Tropic Thunder this weekend...Here's the trailer if you have yet to see it.

We Are Having Technical Difficulties

BLargh!!! We are having technical difficulties at the moment and Drafts are posting as Posts and Posts are going to Drafts and none of you are getting to hear about how I think Scientology is behind the death of Isaac Hayes or how successful I believe Tropic Thunder is going to be. Or worse, we have yet to discuss this Sunday's I LOVE MONEY or tonight's FLipping Out Reunion.

I will try and get everything straightened up for you dear readers by late this afternoon, but no promises.

Don't worry! All these difficulties will go away very soon!

The Sisterhood of the Press Tour

Ah the dreaded press tour. By most actors and actresses, it is the most annoying part of making a major studio film. Press tours vary, but usually they ramp up the two weeks before the films box office release, meaning celebrities are forced to be in a room with the idiots they wrapped filming with months ago and discuss various things like the process of making the movie, their personal lives and those lovely personal anecdotes they all practice before meeting Jay Leno. Personally, I love watching actresses wax moronic on news programs about how thrilling it was “just working with these people” and how “exciting the process” was. I love the interviews even more when they are on those half-ass morning shows only Fox truly knows how to produce, which is why Good Day LA is MY FAVORITE MORNING SHOW EVER! They use to rebroadcast here at noon, but alas they shelved the idea and with it broke my heart. Almost like a real life version of “Anchorman”, GMLA is always able to lower the level of celebrity interviews just enough to make everything cringe worthy and their chat with the girls from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 was no different. Last week, America Ferrera and Blake Lively, half of the cast, stopped by to push their movie on the public, when the interviewer went all OMG over Gossip Girl. While I get the fact that GG is a major hit and will most likely draw even bigger ratings the second season, that shit is for another interview at another time. And I am not the only one who thinks this way, please check out said clip, courtesy of The Soup on E! and see what America Ferrera thinks about her cast mate Blake and the gushing about the new season of Gossip Girl.

Monday Movie Box Office Recap - The Caped Crusader wins again!

Well it wouldn’t be a Monday Box Office Recap without The Dark Knight at the number one spot. This makes it four weeks running that the caped crusader and his demented nemesis have beat the competition and while the grosses are shrinking considerably, The Dark Knight is coming close to beating Star Wars and Titanic and make it the number one all-time box office grossing film. I wasn’t surprised that Pineapple Express came in second to the quickly on its way to number one of all time Dark Knight, but I am excited that the film came in second this weekend with a three day gross of $24 million and $40 million since its opening on Wednesday. The stoner/action film surrounding two burnouts running from murders, mobsters and crooked cops had an impressive opening for Seth Rogen and pals only confirms the idea of Mr. Rogen as a leading man in Hollywood’s eyes and that stoner comedies do not have to follow the standard formula of being dumb. In third place this past weekend was the third installment, and hopefully last, of The Mummy franchise. And in fourth and fifth, it was a weak opening for The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 and a decent performance for Sony’s Step Brothers.

Here is the rest of the Box Office Top ten, courtesy of Box Office Mojo.
1. The Dark Knight - $26 million
2. Pineapple Express - $22 million
3. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - $16 million
4. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 - $11 million
5. Step Brothers - $9 million
6. Mamma Mia! - $8 million
7. Journey to the Center of the Earth - $4.9 million
8. Hancock - $3.3 million
9. Swing Vote - $3.1 million
10. Wall-E - $3 million

And to sort of end The Dark Knight craziness, here is lovely trailer CollegeHumor.com is sharing with us. Its a gruesome and sick movie trail, redone by kids.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Later today, we will get into the wonder that is Tropic Thunder, which will be the movie to take down The Dark Knight this weekend. The movie, a hilarious skewering of Hollywood from inside, is set to bring the funny and action, with immensely talented stars.

Enjoy!

Can I love Anderson Cooper anymore? I guess so!

So I have always really liked Anderson Cooper. I am not sure if it was coverage of Hurricane Katrina, his amazing fashion sense, his snappy wit or the fact that while he is a serious journalist, he never seems to take himself or his job too seriously. But the video below of him and fellow CNN reporter Erica Hill going to town on Mama Lohan and her reaction to Cooper’s hysterical visit on Regis and Kelly is genius. For those of you new to this story, Cooper guest hosted Regis and Kelly earlier in the week and some choice words for the "Living Lohan" program and more specifically Dina Lohan. He basically called her bad mom who cares more about stardom then her kids. He also rips into Ali Lohan and how she should just be a kid. Dina got all pissy when she finally heard what he said and contacted OK! Magazine to give a comment. Anderson then discussed the issue with Erica Hill in an extremely funny way, per the video below. Please check it out.



Anderson is a refreshing change in Hollywood and the media. He is not afraid to lay some punches when it comes to these celebrities who seem to only be famous for being famous. His blunt honesty regarding the yucky soul sucking “Living Lohan” program is a bit of fresh air in this celebrity ass kissing world we are in now. And Mama and Papa Lohan should really shut their traps unless they feel like going to head with Cooper on an actual news program and not a snippy comment sent to a gossip rag.

Movie Box Office Recap - Only Three Days Late!

While there is definitely chatter about a curse surrounding the stars of The Dark Knight, with the shocking overdose death of Heath Ledger earlier this year, the very public family squabbles for Christian Bale and the car crash/divorce shocker for Morgan Freeman this week, the Caped Crusader made his reign at the top of the box office span to a third week this past weekend. This allowed the movie to break another record with scoring over $400 Million at the box office in three weeks of less. The Dark Knight’s hold on movie goers seems to be unending and while it has around $200 million more bucks to pull into to beat the all time box office record of Titanic, if it continues to draw in even half of its past weekend numbers in the next few weeks it wouldn’t be unbelievable if it came away as the number one of all time. It has already removed Shrek 2’s record and is quickly creeping up on Star Wars’. Interestingly the third installment of The Mummy franchise, which was released seven years after the second movie, came in second place this past weekend. Step Brothers was able to keep up and came in at third place, while Mamma Mia pulled in decent totals in fourth and the other Brendan Fraser movie in the top five (yes I am surprised I could say that well) Journey to the Center of the Earth remained in fifth place. With yesterday’s release of the highly anticipated stoner/mystery Apatow produced Seth Rogen starring Pineapple Express, let’s see if Dark Knight can hold onto its top spot.





Here is the rest of the Box Office Top ten, courtesy of Box Office Mojo.
1. The Dark Knight - $43 million
2. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - $40 million
3. Step Brothers - $16.5 million
4. Mamma Mia! - $12.6 million
5. Journey to the Center of the Earth - $6.7 million
6. Swing Vote - $6.2 million
7. Hancock - $5 million
8. Wall-E - $4.6 million
9. The X-Files: I Want to Believe - $3.4 million
10. Space Chimps - $2.8 million