Image used under a Creative Commons license courtesy flickr user Nrbelex. I’m glad BabylonSista weighed in so substantially on Real Housewives of Atlanta, because I’ve been feeling some substantial ambiguity about how addicted I am to the show and how I feel about the women on it. One of the charms and dangers of the Real Housewives franchise is that its appeal is based in judgement.... 

Image used under a Creative Commons license courtesy Capital M. I’ve been meaning to direct y’all to Aylin Zafar’s excellent piece on the sitcom resurgence, which she connects to changes in the national mood and entertainment tastes: But after nine years of drama overload, national morale is turning. Viewers are looking for relief, compassion, and healing from television; they’re... 

Image used under a Creative Commons license courtesy DerekFleener. If you haven’t read Lynn Hirschberg’s savage, dead-on takedown of M.I.A. (as a person, not as an artist, she is frank about her musical talent), it’s a fantastic way to spend an hour or so this weekend. I started reading it on my phone on the way back from a happy hour and quite literally couldn’t stop.  It’s... 

Image used under a Creative Commons license courtesy mrhooks. I’m excited about some of the shifts to NBC’s fall schedule (though holding back Parks and Recreation is a crime), particularly the move that puts 30 Rock right after Community.  I’ve long thought that Community kind of stole 30 Rock‘s thunder with a setting that was equally quirky but more relateable,... 

Image used under a Creative Commons license courtesy of Bobby Chromik-Lawcrow. It’s genuinely none of my business.  I know that.  But given her upcoming romantic comedy with Common, and the fact that she’s penning a scripted VH1show about the lives of single black women in Atlanta (Which stars Stacey Dash, for whom so much love, and which sounds pretty great.  More Atlanta... 

Image used under a Creative Commons license courtesy of amika_san. So, recently I’ve had a number of experiences where folks have inferred from my pop culture references that I’m, um, old.  I know this isn’t true, exactly–anyone who thinks having seen Contact in theaters makes one ancient is themselves so young to practically be fetal.  But I was a little freaked... 

Image used under a Creative Commons license courtesy of The Cure of Brian. Once upon a time, Mean Girls was the movie that was supposed to kick-start the hell out of Lindsay Lohan’s enormously promising career.  Today, she’s so unmarketable and worrisome that Nintendo wouldn’t even put her on the cover of the Mean Girls video game.  That’s about the definition... 

Image used under a Creative Commons license courtesy of clairegren. Jezebel says the era of breast implants in Hollywood might be over.  SEK, blogging over at Lawyers, Guns and Money, notes that a casting call for the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie saying women with implants need not apply, is sexist in its own way: the standard it’s imposing might not be encouraging women to have... 

Image used under a Creative Commons license courtesy of Chris-Havard Berge. Before this year, across every Academy Awards celebration, only four science-fiction movies had ever been nominated for Best Picture: Dr. Strangelove (if you count it as sci-fi), A Clockwork Orange, Star Wars and E.T.  None of them had ever won.  The nomination of District 9 and Avatar increased that... 

Image used under a Creative Commons license, courtesy Brancani….Antonio. Unlike Haiti, where I have no particular knowledge, insight, or right to speak, I’ve spent some time in Chile, and my family has developed some strong ties with folks down there.  I’m waiting to hear back to make sure that everyone is okay.  I’m wondering what happened to the ELEMENTAL public...