This will is a bit of a delayed recap, because I am home sick today. It's not my best. My apologies.

Christian Siriano is blabbing to all sorts of media, saying Season 5 of Project Runway is the pits. So far, I agree. Yet another episode has left me unwowed. And, honestly, I'm shocked about the elimination.

The episode starts with Daniel saying he is sad Wesley is gone. (The rumor is that they are now dating!) The contestants then leave Atlas and head to the runway. They're all, of course, pumped for the next challenge. Heidi brings out the models assigned to the winner, Suede, and loser, Wes. She says Suede can pick Wes' model or stick with his. Suede replies: "Suede loves Tia; he could never change. So Suede is going to keep Tia." (Gag. Seriously, producers, it is so obvious that several of these contestants were picked to be the next "Christian." All strong personalities do not have the same charm.)

For the challenge, Tim Gunn says he's taking them for a night out on the town. ("We all know Tim ain't taking a bunch of us to his house," says Stella.) Blayne asks Tim if they're going out to the clubs. Nope. You're going on a double-decker tour bus, Blayne, and it's raining. Dressed in either a red or off-white poncho, each contestant must use a camera to capture different New York scene. A look of the choice will be inspired by the city at night. Korto is just really thinking about her hair vs. the humidity (I hear ya, Korto!).

The designers are divided into groups, and each group gets an hour to take shots in different parts of Manhattan, i.e. the public library and Times Square, where Blayne asks, "Is there any tanning salon here?" Stella can't figure out how to work the camera. They also edit in audio clips of Keith talking about how being gay in Salt Lake City is difficult, and how he always wanted to move to New York. Keith also says Stella and Kenley are talking smack about him. He says one of my favorite reality-show lines: "I'm not here to become their friends."

After a good night's sleep (and for Jerell, a smoothing facial mask), the contestants are ready to work. Tim greets them, and they have a half-hour to choose one photo to serve as inspiration. Then they get to go to Mood (their first visit!) to choose fabrics. The budget is $100. They all pick out some crazy fabric.

The designers have until 1 a.m. to work on their garmets. The winner will get immunity. "So push, push, push, push!" says Tim. There's the usual workroom panic and trashing each other's outfits. Then, Blayne says to Kenley: "I'm gonna eat you." Sigh.

Keith is making something that looks like a bunch of toilet paper (with flecks of color) taped to a dress. Stella chose something ... leather. She's hammering. It's making people mad. "I am rock and roll, and I'm going to die being rock and roll," she says. Tim does his rounds -- he's a bit worried about Kenley's '80s-ish idea; he's worried Jennifer won't have enough time to complete her dress. Leanne brings a smile to his face. Last episode, her garmet looked like Peter Pan gone wrong. Now, she's making a skirt that I adore. It's simple and edited, yet innovative. Finally, a contestant this season is listening to the judges.

Emily, on the other hand, doesn't care what Tim thinks. She has her own ideas! She has her own sense of style! She's happy with her dress, which is actually kind of cute black dress with big, awkward, bright corsagelike poof across the bust. It's not dreadfully awful, in my opinion, but it does resembles something I wore in a dance recital in 1988. 

Finally, Blayne busts out the long-awaited "Holla at cha boy!" we saw in previews. Tim says it: It sounds like he's saying challah. He asks what it means ... Blayne explains, and everyone starts saying "holla!" "Make it work! Carry on! Holla at cha boy!" Tim continues as he leaves. No, Tim! Don't be as annoying as Blayne, Stella and the rest of this cast. Stick with "Make it work!" Please?

The next day, as the designers and models prep for the show, Keith learns his model must drop out of the show, and that Wes' model, Alyssa, is coming back to take her place.

After some last-minute adjustments, it's time to see the work. First on the runway is Blayne's black dress that has some kind of rainbow-neon bunchy fabric spilling down it. It's very dance costume-y. Joe's dress is pretty; it has a gold top that looks just like the photo he took. Emily shows off her circa 1988 mambo dance dress. Leanne's well-edited skirt and top are next (Why can't this be sold on Bluefly?). Jennifer's outfit looks matronly and just plain ugly. It's not fun and young, and she admits that. It's actually probably one of the worst I've ever seen on the runway. Jerell produces a long, green strapless gown that's quite nice. Kelli has a funky black look that I dig but wouldn't wear myself. Daniel offers a passable black-and-gold dress. Kenley's outfit is kind of neat -- it has a great shape, but the pattern is a bit much for me. Stella's outfit, in her own words, "looked ... pretty hard and rocking." Except wasn't rocking. The vest and pants were silver and, well, trashy looking. Terri had a pretty cool outfit with a hip-hop-ish vibe. i don't know why I didn't talk about it earlier. I have a feeling the judges will like it.

I've forgotten Korto, Keith and Suede. Suede's goldish dress is pretty forgettable. Keith's dress still looks like toilet paper. Korto's black top and pants are nice but not winners. 

The top three are Kenley, Terri and Leanne. Bottom three: Keith, Jennifer and Emily. See the outfits here.

The judges like Kenley's play on volume. Judge Michael Kors says: "I think a girl that was not around in the '80s would really appreciate this dress." Keith is not so lucky. Heidi Klum says that unlike Kenley's outfit, this dress is lacking shape. Nina says the effect of little bits of paper looks sloppy.

Guest judge Sandra Bernhard loves Terri's outfit. (I don't know what Sandra knows about fashion, but I hear she is funny! Bring on the funny!) Terri describes her outfit as such: "My girl, she's, like, very confident, everyone knows her." She says Terri thought outside the box and that she likes "the whole attitude behind it." People would probably know Emily's girl, too, but for the wrong reason. They use the term "cha cha." Michael Kors says the explosion of ruffles is not place "fabulously."

Leanne: Praised by me; praised by Tim; praised by the judges. "It looks like it came right out of the store," Heidi ays. That's a great compliment. Jennifer's dress is panned, too. The hem looks terrible. She also talks about creating surreal effects, but there is no surrealism here, says Mr. Kors.

Judging time. They talk among themselves. Nina has "no comment" for Emily's dress. Ut-oh. Heidi is not interested in seeing more work from Jennifer. I think J is gone.

Kenley wins, which surprises me. But I'm OK with it. Emily is out. What? OK, it wasn't a great dress. But Jennifer's looked like something I could make! "Hell no, this was not the losing dress for this challenge," Emily says afterward. You know, I agree.

Coming up next week: Blayne doesn't know what "Sgt. Pepper" is. "Oh, my god," says Tim. My thoughts exactly, Tim.

Posted by Carla Correa at 4:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Project Runway
        

I turn on the television and see last week's episode on the screen. I'm later informed by Carla Correa that the first hour of the show is last week's results show. The second of the hour of is new. Thank goodness!

The newest episode starts with the return of judge Adam Shankman. (He's back from all his success directing Hairspray and Step Up 2 the Streets.)

Host Cat Deeley gets right down to business. Courtney and Mark are the first couple up. They dance a Viennese waltz choreographed by Jason Gilkison to "The Time of My Life" by David Cook. They appear to move really well together. He lifts her with ease to the pleasure of the audience. The routine ends in a tender embrace.

Adam says the top six are so strong. He says that the routine was good. He says Mark's rise and fall was the best any guy has done during the season. "Overall, it was an absolutely beautiful performance, and America is going to absolutely love it." Judge Mary Murphy says the lifts were effortless. "Mark, I fell like you really are growing week after week," she says. "This number did it for me this week." Judge Nigel Lythgoe says the routine was romantic. "You've started the evening really well," he says. "Congratulations."

Chelsie is the first solo of the evening. She dances to "When I Grow Up" by the Pussycat Dolls. She throws in a series of spins and ends with a split to the ground. This is a much better solo for her.

Twitch is next with his solo. He dances to "Midas Touch" by Midnight Star. He reveals a set of gold teeth. Then he puts on a pair of glasses. His moves are entertaining as usual. When he's done, Cat puts on Twitch's glasses and then tries on his teeth! OMG!!!!! I'm totally grossed out. How unsanitary!

Katee and Joshua are reunited with a contemporary piece choreographed by Tyce Diorio. They dance to "All By Myself" by Celine Dion (such a beautiful song). The stage is lit blue. Joshua does a huge leap over Katee. Then he picks her up with ease for a pretty lift. It is followed by him catching her in the air at the top of her leap. The rest of the routine is spectacular. When Celine hits her high notes, the two seem to go into overdrive. They are powerful, they are graceful, they are so good!

Adam gives a shout-out to Paula Abdul, who is in the audience. (She doesn't look drunk tonight. Who knew?) Adam then says Katee and Joshua are among the most exciting couples to grace the stage. He calls the pair and Diorio "The Holly Trinity of So You Think You Can Dance." He tells them that their routine was "awesome." Mary is gushing over the routine. "This was so filled with passion, strength, the leaps, that leap catch," she says. She predicts that both will end up in the finale. The three judges then give them a standing ovation. Nigel then gives choreographer Gillien Lynne a shout-out. He says Joshua is absolutely brilliant. "We don't expect it from you," he says. Nigel also praises Katee.

Chelsie and Twitch are next with a mambo choreographed by Tony Meredith and Melanie LaPatin. They dance to "Ahora Me Toca a Mi" by Victor Manuelle. Chelsie, as expected, is so strong. Her feet move so fast, it's almost as if she's moving in fast-forward mode. Twitch does a pretty good job keeping up with her.

Adam says Chelsie was an animal on the floor. He asks Twitch to be a little more animal. He says Twitch is a really good partner for Chelsie. Mary explains that the dance is extremely difficult. She praises Twitch for his ability to be on time with the count. She says Chelsie is a hot tamale. She says no one can touch Chelsie when it's time to dance in the Latin style. "Twitch, I'm very proud of you tonight," she adds. Nigel says her feet are fantastic. He says Twitch was slightly off. Overall, he praises the performance.

Katee is next with her solo. She dances to "Can't Stop" by Maroon 5. She's so full of energy. She moves perfectly with the music.

Joshua is next with his solo. He dances to "Like That" by Memphis Bleek. He throws in some huge jumps and a couple of dazzling tricks. There isn't much dancing though.

Courtney and Mark are back with a jazz routine choreographed by Sonya Tayek. (She's been one of my favorite choreographers this year.) They dance to "The Garden" by Mirah. There is some serious acting and passion demonstrated by the pair. It's very intense. They do a good job.

Adam says the routine was good. "That was sick," he says. "That was unbelievable." Mary calls it a weird love story. "I love it," she screams. Nigel says the routine worked for him. He also praises Courtney's ability to adapt to any genre of dance. He calls the routine the highlight of the night. (High praise indeed!)

Katee and Joshua are next with a paso doble choreographed by Jason Gilkison. They dance to "Filet" from Le Reve. The pair start off strong. Midway through the routine the music changes, the tempo increases and the pair goes into overdrive. The crowd goes wild. They finish with Joshua dragging Katee across the dance floor like a matador dragging his cape. It is stunning.

Adam says Joshua is brilliant. He tells Katee that she will be so proud of herself when she watches the routine on television. Mary says "true magic" happens on the stage when they are together. Then she screams. Nigel says there were so many good things in the routine. He predicts that Joshua will steal the show if he continues to dance this way.

Courtney is next with her solo. She dances to "Rock Your Soul" by Elisa. She does a good job of balancing the dance and tricks.

Mark performs the final solo of the episode when he dances to "Bum Like You" by Robyn. Mark is so odd! He dances like a bird during most of his routine. It is still entertaining.

Chelsie and Twitch dance a hip-hop routine choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon D'Umo to "Control" by The Vitamin String Quartet. They are essentially conductors battling for control of an orchestra. It's highly entertaining watching them move to a classical version of the Janet Jackson hit.

Adam loves the routine. Mary says Twitch was absolutely outstanding. "Everything just clicked," she says. Mary then praises Chelsie for keeping up with Twitch. Nigel says any of the top six could be in the top four during the finale.

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: So You Think You Can Dance
        

According to RealityTVWorld.com, here's a quick roundup:

Matt Grant of London Calling says former fiancee Shayne Lamas is liar. She told People magazine that he's OK with her keeping her engagement ring, adding that, "He wants to come over and look at it." Really? Are you sure about that Shayne? I can think of a million things he would likely rather do. Apparently, Grant hopes to auction the giant rock and give the proceeds to charity. I KNEW that whole "we're so in love" thing was a sham.

Graham Bunn says he's rekindled a relationship (with a soap star!). Looks like as of now, he won't be the next bachelor. 

Finally, ex-bachelor Andy Baldwin was spotted getting cozy with Dancing with the Stars' Karina Smirnoff in Vegas. 

Posted by Carla Correa at 3:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Bachelor/Bachelorette
        

Guest blogger Patrick Gutierrez on BB10:

Keesha's nomination of Jessie and Angie pretty much divided the Anti-Brian Crew into two factions: Memphis, Jessie, Angie and Michelle were on one side, while April, Libra and Ollie joined Keesha on the other.

Jessie got Keesha alone in the HOH room and told her Libra was running everything. Libra and April came up to the room but were sent away as Jessie continued to try and get Keesha to back-door Libra. The girls waited right outside the room until Jessie left and then went in to gauge where Keesha was, while Jessie was convinced he had gotten Keesha to switch her focus from Angie to Libra.

Libra, Ollie and Memphis were selected to play alongside the HOH and two nominees in the POV competition. The event had each contestant dressed like a flower lying down in a flower bed. The object was to lie there for one hour while water flowed onto your forehead. With no clock to use, the winner would be the person who got out of their bed closest to the one-hour mark without going over.

During the game, buckets of worms and other assorted nasty things were placed in each person's bed. Jessie got Libra to admit that she suggested he put up Steven. Keesha got out of her bed first, well before the hour mark. Libra was next, followed quickly by Jessie. A few minutes later, Angie got out, then Ollie and, last but not least, Memphis.

In a stunner, Keesha won the competition when everyone else went over one hour, thus getting disqualified.

With all the power in her hands, Keesha got a tearful plea from Angie to back-door Libra. The one sticking point for Keesha is the secret alliance she made with Libra on Day 4, giving her word to Libra that she would stay loyal until the end.

In the HOH room, Jessie made another attempt to sway Keesha. He pulled out all the stops, claiming Libra was talking smack about Keesha behind her back and making side deals with everyone.

(Meanwhile, "America’s Player," a twist introduced last season, might be returning to the BB house on a one-week basis. A fan vote will decide who gets the offer to become AP for the week. If that person agrees, he or she must do what the fans say. For the trouble, the AP will receive $20,000.)

Jessie wouldn't give up his fight, badgering Keesha in front of April and Renny to take him off the block. Keesha told Libra about it and then decided to tell the entire house that she gave her word to Libra and would not back-door her.

Later, a plane carrying a banner flew overhead, but before anyone outside could read it, they were all shuttled indoors. Memphis and his alliance agreed to tell the house the banner was from Steven and said, "Libra is a liar." Everyone ended up in the HOH room for the banner news, then Memphis started going off on Jerry for calling him a "womanizer" earlier. Jerry just sat back in his chair, cool as a cucumber, while Memphis wigged out before storming out of the room.

During the POV meeting, Keesha heard from Angie and Jessie but decided not to use the veto, leaving them both on the block to fight it out.

Thoughts: Keesha staying loyal to Libra is admirable, but it only makes her a bigger target going forward. Not the best game strategy. Jessie's desperation while on the block was fun to watch. "I can’t sleep! I can’t eat! I've lost 6 pounds!" Grow up, dude. You sound like a girlie-man!

Memphis is one tough dude, going off on a 75-year-old man like that. Whatever. And Libra's days are numbered. One way or another, she's going home soon …

Posted by Carla Correa at 2:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Big Brother
        

Lindsay Diokno watches another episode of High School Musical: Get in the Picture:

So the second part of round II of casting calls is the same as the first round -- there's a dancing segment, a solo segment and a duets segment. The final 10 get cut down to the final six.

First, this second batch of judges seems a lot more critical than the first batch, and I'm kind of pumped about that. Yeah, they're young kids with fragile egos, but there's also such a thing as positive criticism to help you improve your performance.

Posted by Carla Correa at 1:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: High School Musical: Get in the Picture
        

After an episode filled with complicated brain teasers, a challenge that required the contestants to conquer their fear of heights, and an interesting game of paintball, the often combative Paul became the Mole's latest victim.

His exit completely threw me for a loop. I thought Paul was either going to win the competition or be revealed as the saboteur. I was wrong.

The episode started off in Argentina. Host Jon Kelley asked the contestants to identify themselves as "young at heart." Paul and Craig immediately volunteered. Jon then created the teams of Nicole and Craig and Mark and Paul. The "young at heart" contestants were blindfolded. Their teammates were given a video camera, which they had to use to guide their partners through the mission. Those filming were not allowed to speak, and the video feed that was shown to the blindfolded contestants was from the perspective of the filmmaker. The feed was essentially reversed for the Craig and Paul.  

Needless to say, the lack of verbalization combined with the blindfold resulted in trouble.

Craig and Nicole messed up during the first part of the challenge, which required Craig to put items of assorted shapes into matching openings on a box. Paul displayed Mole-ish behavior when he missed kicking soccer balls into the net during the next portion of the challenge. Craig did the same thing. The next task involved the contestants pouring tea blindfolded. More problems ensued. Neither team completed this portion without spilling tea.

The last portion of the challenge involved the contestants walking a skinny plank from one rooftop to another. Oh yeah, did I mention that the contestants had to retrieve a piece of chalk midway through and successfully carry it to the other side?

Paul completed the mission within seconds of the allotted time. Craig called Jon "sadistic" when he learned about the mission. (He also reminded everyone that he has vertigo.) He failed the mission. (Mole behavior or a bad performance?)

After the mission, the players relaxed during dinner. Nicole and Paul were actually civil to one another. During a confessional, Paul said he was attempting to sabotage Nicole. (I knew it was too good to be true.)

The final mission of the episode "Cell Out" required each contestant to go into a cell and then complete a complicated word puzzle. After completing the puzzle, each contestant was allowed to enter a paintball course. The first person to complete the word puzzle was given the opportunity to be the paintball shooter and receive immunity.

Mark was the first to solve the word puzzle. He became the shooter. Craig was next. Nicole was third. Paul was last. The three entered the course.

One pellet hit Paul, but it didn't explode, so he was not eliminated. Nicole was hit and eliminated. Paul was then able to slink through the course and finish. Craig was not so lucky. Mark hit and eliminated him.

Then it was time to learn who received the exemption. Nicole, Paul, and Craig were given a sheet of paper before the start of the paintball course. One of the pieces of paper was marked. The contestant with the marked sheet of paper -- Craig -- would have gotten the exemption if he finished the course. So, when Mark eliminated Craig, he also earned a free pass to the final three. 

At dinner, Paul admitted to being nervous about the looming elimination. He also said the Mole was either Craig or Mark. (A little foreshadowing?)

Paul took his elimination in stride. He said he knew he was going to be eliminated. Nicole said she was sad to see Paul go.

"I wanted to kick his butt," she said. (Gotta love the pot-stirring ability of this abrasive contestant!)

I have to admit that I'm not sure which remaining contestant is the Mole. Nicole has been so over the top that I can't help think that she might be the Mole. Mark, at times, has been kind of crazy. (Remember his meltdown after the diaries were burned?) What about Craig? He has made it this far despite all of his poor performances during the challenges. How has this been possible? Could he be receiving help from the show's producers? Is he the Mole? What do you think?

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: The Mole
        

Patrick Gutierrez is back with another Big Brother 10 recap:

With Steven out of the house, the Anti-Brian Crew (ABCs) alliance remained intact, although Keesha was obviously sad to see him go. In the diary room after winning head of household, Keesha was promising to "turn the house upside down" with her nominations, while Dan continued to brag about throwing competitions to make himself look weak.

Keesha's roommates were empathetic when she was explaining why she liked Steven. Libra reacted strangely when Keesha said she didn't know whom to put up. Her alliance wants her to keep targeting the others, but Keesha seems out for revenge.

Everyone came to see Keesha's HOH room, including the picture of her adorable dog, Gizmo. Renny stuck around as Keesha read the letter from her family. Those two seemed to be getting close over the last few days and had a good discussion about Libra's treacherous ways before April showed up, causing Renny to leave. Keesha told April she wasn't going to do what the house wants. Later, with most of her alliance in the room, Keesha revealed she was targeting Angie. Memphis tried to talk her out of it to protect his mini-alliance, but Keesha wasn't listening. After promising to keep the conversation to himself, Memphis went right out and told Angie, Jessie and Michelle what Keesha was planning. The group decided to have Jessie try and talk her into nominating Libra.

The food competition had a sock hop theme. The house competed as one team. There were two giant, spinning records out of sight from each other. In the middle of each was a basket of decorative socks. Players were paired up and told to each get on a record. The goal was to match a pair of socks and place them on the board under different food items. Since you couldn't see each other, you had to talk your partner through what kind of sock you wanted to get. Some pairs played it smart, with one person calling out a sock and the other person looking for it in their basket, while other pairs, like Renny and Dan, talked over each other, wasting valuable time. The house finally told them to hang any sock just to get them out of there.

In the end, the house made out with some pretty decent eats for the week, including Michelle's favorite, "pigs feet."

With the nomination ceremony looming, Keesha huddled with April to discuss options. They agreed on Angie and then April suggested Memphis as the pawn, seeing as how he already won the car. But Jessie came up afterward and made a strong case for getting Libra out because most of the house dislikes her.

At the ceremony, Keesha stayed true to her gut, nominating Angie for getting her into trouble with the house in Week 1 when she tried to get her to keep Brian. She also nominated Jessie, saying he was a huge threat in the game and later confiding in the diary room that she can't stand his arrogance.

Thoughts: April said she loved the '60s, referring to the poodle skirts the girls had to wear for the food competition. Umm, wasn't that the '50s?

If Keesha wanted to knock off a member of her alliance, such as Jessie, she should've back-doored him. Now he has a chance to win the veto and stick around.

This might be the end of the ABCs. They look like they are ready to turn on each other.

Posted by Carla Correa at 1:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Big Brother
        

Lindsay Diokno's thoughts on High School Musical: Get in the Picture:

Today was the second round of casting calls, and I'm not feeling really strongly about any of the semifinalists, so I'm gonna talk about a few other things instead:

-- We met the other three faculty members on tonight's show. Jen looks a lot like Ellen Burstyn, and I'm already on Team Regina because of the faces she makes during bad auditions. It's nice to know that someone's willing to be a little more real about the lack of talent or personality in some of these auditions.

-- Why do these kids seem to know no music other than oldies, Edwin McCain or Disney songs? I love oldies, but I'm over hearing them get butchered or "redone." Classic songs are classic because they were good to begin with. I said it about American Idol contestants, and I'll say it again; quit putting your personal stamp on a really great piece and just perform it.

-- The "dramatic tension" before commercial breaks is really choppy and does nothing for me. Also, maybe it's editing issues, but it seems like a lot of kids from the on-the-spot auditions made it, while many casting call kids got the boot.

-- The only contestant that stood out for me was Christie from Hawaii, who talked about the struggle of being blond and blue-eyed in Hawaii's population. God bless her heart, I know she was being sincere, but hearing someone talk about the challenges of being blonde and blue-eyed is ... it's a little odd, that's all I'm saying.

-- MAJOR lack of Lachey tonight. What gives?

Maybe tomorrow night will have a little more oomph? The preview showed fighting, a key element to reality shows.

Posted by Carla Correa at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: High School Musical: Get in the Picture
        

Lindsay Diokno writes about I Love Money: 

When an episode immediately opens with drama, I know it's gonna be a good episode.

12 Pack approaches green team members Mr. Boston, Megan, Brandi C. and Destiney with a proposal -- throw the next challenge and the gold team would make sure Whiteboy was bounced. Of course, the green team members agree, and, of course, we know that alliance won't last an entire episode.

The gold team, led by 12 Pack, and the green team, led by Chance, lead their teams into the next challenge: the Chickenpult. In Flavor of Love, a contestant served Flav's mom a raw chicken; in this challenge, the teams assemble a catapult and fling raw chickens to their teammates, who must plate 5 chickens on a nearby table. I would kill to be on the dream team that creates these challenges. Yeah, this is the preview video, but I felt a picture of the Chickenpult didn't fully explain how great this invention is.

Posted by Carla Correa at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: I Love Money
        

A group number kicks off the program. It's modern and a lot better than last week's, and choreographed by a first-timer, whose name I miss. I need DVR.

Judge Toni says dancing is her drug. Nigel urges those who vote for dancers to vote for the president. Time for results:

First up, Katee. 

She's safe (no big surprise there).

Next is Will. He's been in the bottom before (when he was paired with Jessica). I realize seeing clips of last night that I like him more than I thought. But America disagrees. Among the men, he's in the bottom two (I thought it was going to be a bottom three. Given the reduced pool of contestants, this makes sense.) Then comes Comfort. Among women, she's in the bottom (as expected). Her partner Mark does not suffer the same fate.

Chelsea is safe, which puts Courtney in the bottom two. They show her backtage; she's not smiling.

Twitch (yay!) is up next. He's in the bottom (boo!). He crouches down on the stage and is visibly upset. That means Joshua is in.

Next, "The Man I Love" from Who Cares? performed by the Los Angeles Ballet. (Gotta fill this whole hour!)

Solos are up next. The performances won't change the results, though. Comfort dances to "Like This" by Mims. It's a lot better than her solo last night; perhaps she took Nigel's advice? Will dances to a song that I don't get the name of. It's really different than last night's solo, and Cat notes that. Nigel says Will and Twitch were the best performers of last night. He thinks "America" might have thought they'd be safe, so it didn't vote for them.

Courtney dances to "Passion" by Keesha Turner. It's fun and spunky. I hope Twitch follows suit, and he does, dancing to "Hollywood Swingin' " from Kool and the Gang.

Next up, LL Cool J. No way! He represents Queens, she was raised out in Brooklyn! His new song ("Baby?") doesn't really compare to those '90s hits. There's a lot of jumping and hand waving in the the audience.

OK, who's gone?  Comfort's out. She takes a look back at her "hits" again. A bit of deja vu. Will is heading home, too. I can't help but think if he were paired with Katee or Chelsea at the beginning he would have lasted a bit longer ...

A big group hug ends the show. What do you think about the results? 

Posted by Carla Correa at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: So You Think You Can Dance
        

Suede wants you to buy his dress on bluefly.com, Suede says. For $280, Suede says, you can head out to a cocktail party looking like a mess of a ballerina (but an eco-friendly one!). Suede says Suede and Bluefly only have time to sew 150 of these dresses. So pull out the credit card now.

(Note: Dress looks better in this photo than it did on actual runway.)

(Photo from bravotv.com) 

Posted by Carla Correa at 2:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Project Runway
        

Patrick Gutierrez's wife and fellow BB10 fan, Sacha, recaps the show for us:

Once again, it is eviction night, with the live audience adding excitement to the show. Dan and Steven are sitting in the dreaded green armchairs. They had very different strategies for staying in the house: Dan laid low and continued to play weak while Steven campaigned aggressively, making promises of loyalty. Keesha tried hard not to appear to be campaigning for Steven, however, at every opportunity, she pointed out a reason to keep him.

Lines of division have started to form in the ABC's. Jessie, Michelle, Angie and Memphis are on one side against Libra, April, Ollie and Keesha. Jerry, Renny, Dan and Steven are the floaters.

During the question and answer session, Julie stirred the pot, asking Jerry if he felt respected and Libra if age mattered. In typical Jerry fashion, he gave a long-winded "yes."

During the HOH interview, Julie asked Jessie to explain why he thinks the house views him as all body and no brains. He replied because he was the youngest in the house, and that is the typical stereotype. When asked about his weakness, his answer was Michelle and acting mature by not putting up Renny.

At the end of his last chance speech, Steven surprised everyone, Julie included, when he told the house to, well, do something not very nice. Anyone surprised he was voted out 9-0?

The HOH competition was a game of memory. The house guests were told aliens stole various items from different rooms in the house. Two players went head to head. Julie named a missing item ,and the players had to buzz in to name the room from which the item was taken. The winner then picked the next two contestants while the loser was eliminated.

The game continued until only Keesha and Libra were left. Libra answered incorrectly and started to walk away before turning around and giving the new HOH, Keesha, a hug.

Thoughts: Keesha has made it clear that she can't stand April or Libra but remains in their alliance. I wonder what she's going to do with the power. Dan's strategy of playing the weak link appears to be working for him. Memphis and Angie are starting to get close, so there might be three show-mances this season.

Posted by Carla Correa at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Big Brother
        

The show opens with a shot of Suede referring to himself in the third person, which I imagine we're all tired of, one episode in. It feels like someone gave him that advice so he'd stand out on the show -- it's like his "Spike hat" from Top Chef. ("I know! Only talk about yourself in the third person! Then people will start to think there's a buzz about you.") Or maybe he's really just that annoying.

We go right into the models, and Heidi announces something new: The winning model will get a spread in Elle magazine. They're all a-flutter, standing in the runway in their bare feet. There's some brief, manufactured drama over who gets which model, and then we learn the reason for the extra prize: The designers will make cocktail dresses, for their models, who will serve as clients AND do the fabric shopping. Oh, and the models can only buy eco-friendly fabrics. Now the designers are all a-flutter (but not barefoot), rolling their eyes and wringing their hands. Leanne looks smug and says, "I ALWAYS use green fabrics." (Bully for you.)

The models' shopping is pretty much a disaster. There's brief talk of hemp fabrics and I hear phrases such as, "I need, like, color." Many end up buying the same fuchsia, champagne, black and bronze organic satins and silks. One winds up with peacock feathers, and Kevin is none too pleased when she returns. He's huffy that the fabrics don't match, whatever that means, and asks what he's supposed to do with the feathers. Wesley calls his "disgusting," but he's wearing a sweater tied around his shoulders, so what does he know?

Only Suede (sadly) is making sense at this point, as the designers consult with their model-client hybrids: "There's a reason they are asking us to consult with our models, and it's not to just chit-chat, it's to listen to what they like."

The person to watch in much of the early sewing is Stella. She's again spouting forth about her rock 'n' roll style and how her model is really sort of hippie and how they just don't gibe at all. "I'm very urban," she keeps saying. You don't say! I want to scream "Make it work!" at the TV, but Tim will take care of that. ""I have no strategy. I'm confused. This is not what I do," she says. (What are you doing on this show?) This does not bode well. Eventually, she decides, "The judges need to know who I AM" and begins make a dress that's pretty much completely different from what she was asked to make.

Blayne's busy explaining that he's calling Heidi "Darthlicious" (another piece of bad advice from a well-meaning friend on how to stand out on the show?) because she's "dark inside." Right. This also does not bode well.

The final piece of not-boding-well comes when Korto says her model has a "figure" and she wants to enhance it. Uh-oh.

But I think my favorite part of the frenzied activity is Leanne mocking Suede in front of the camera, saying he needs to stop talking about himself in the third person. Third person! Fourth wall! I love it.

Day One beings to wrap up with Tim making the rounds. He tells Korto that she can't express herself through the seaming she's doing because it will be on the inside of the dress, and she sets him straight. No, those ragged strips are indeed part of the outer design. There's a long pause, and then an "Ohhhhh" from Tim, who follows with, "Everything about this has to be perfection, or it's going to be a hot mess."

Suede is "crazy doing strips" (bias strips) and Tim looks pleased. (Why?) But he's worried about Leanne's dress and tells her to edit. She says she wants to do a few more "foofy things" (lack of specificity = do not proceed!) on her bronze satin dress-thing.

Tim has an announcement: The winning designer's dress will be sold on Bluefly. They're a-flutter again!  And there will be a guest judge, a young Hollywood "starlet."

We go back into brief cutaways: Suede whines about all the sewing he has to do, Daniel frets about time left, and then Blayne starts mocking Stella's love of leather. She gets wind of it, calls him 12 years old, and then tells him to pick the leather out of his front teeth. I'm not sure why that was the best put-down of the day, but everyone seems to react like it was. (I'm sure there was a better one in there about his leathery skin.) They hug. Day's over.

Tim tells the designers the next morning they were supposed to be done last night (they were?), and they do their fittings in a hurry. Suede's dress looks interesting, from the two inches we can see of it as he blocks the model from the camera. Then he ruins it by saying, "Suede is rocking it!" and shooting finger guns.

Twenty-two minutes left, and we're already on the runway. The guest judge is Natalie Portman, and the designers are extra animated as Heidi goes over the "You're in, or you're out," speech twice.

There are still so many designers that we haven't seen all the dresses in the early part of the show. There are the expected champagne and bronze satin short things, a floaty gray and orange jersey dress from Jerell, a cute short black satin dress from Daniel (he finished!), a navy (black?) and white dress that I LOVE from Emily, a hot pink and black short thing from Blayne, and Suede's bias-cut-and-sewn red and champagne top with a HUGE tulle skirt. Wha? Most of the dresses I love the most are immediately safe (sniff, bye, friends, guess I won't be buying you on Bluefly).

The top/bottom six are:

-Kenley (a knee-length champagne silk dress with a black belt and high collar). The judges love it, and the Michael Kors calls it "chic."

-Wesley (a short bronze suede ... thing). He says he originally wanted something more voluminous, and the judges say the dress doesn't fit, is overworked, and the bow tie is just goofy. (Natalie Portman tries to be nice and says she loves the tie. Of course you do, Natalie.) Elle editor Nina says that "tiny, short and shiny is the quickest way to look cheap." (I'll keep that in mind.)

-Stella (an off-the-shoulder-but-one-arm-is-a-long-sleeve champagne satin short dress with lacing up the side). The judges like this?! I am shocked and appalled. Michael Kors keeps saying that he likes that she got her attitude and style into the dress, which is important. (Really?) Heidi says she's "much improved."

-Korto (yellow, with outer seams that essentially look like "Star Trek goes to the ball"). They call her seams "fins" -- yes! Her focus on her models curves make a size 0 girl look ... not like a 0. Not good.

-Suede (champagne and red mishmash top and tulle jutted-out short skirt). Natalie loves it. Nina calls it creative. And they all like that he did something different with new fabric. Heidi says she'd wear it if she were 10 years younger. What am I missing here? This dress is a nightmare!

-Leanne (bronze satin short dress with loops, pockets, off-shoulder bits, lots of detailing.) Leanne says she likes short dresses, but when asked, her model says it's not what she pictured. Uh-ohhhh. Natalie says it's like Peter Pan. (Yes! It is!) Kors says its five dresses in one. (Hee.)

We go backstage, where Leanne is wiping tears away, while the judges confer. They reach an agreement, and everyone tromps back on the runway. Heidi gives her third "You're in ... or you're OUT" speech of the night. We immediately find out that Stella is in (why?!) and Suede wins (WHY?!). He, of course, goes with the classic "Suede rocked it!" into the cameras, with some sort of devil horn/finger gun hand motion. I start to feel a little sick to my stomach.

Posted by Mary Hartney at 7:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Project Runway
        

John-John Williams IV is in Chicago at a hotel that does not have Fox (to our disbelief). So I'm filling in and recapping a well-danced So You Think You Can Dance.

There's new partnering tonight (again). Each pair will dance twice in addition to solos. First up are Will and Courtney (in a bright-yellow number) dancing the samba to "I Fell in Love With the DJ" by Che'nelle. (I missed who choreographed it. I'm new at recapping this!) Will's moves are slick, and Courtney's height is a definite advantage: Every move looks long and strong. And the chemistry: fantastic! "My hips are screaming," Courtney says after. Judge Nigel Lythgoe says he feels it's going to be a great night. He says the dance was spot on when they weren't thinking about technique. "It was absolutely fantastic," he says. He adds that all the guys look like they're out of the movie 300. Mary Murphy asks: "Where's Ashton? I think I'm being punked right now!" She says that's because they are two contemporary dancers, but they looked like samba dancers. She criticizes some of their technique, but overall, well, Mary screams. Judge Toni Basil says: "I forgot I was judging." That's the whole point, she says.

Comfort is next with her solo. She dances to "I Got This Down" by Simian Mobile Disco. It seems like she's not really taking a lot of steps. I don't know ... I (and everyone else watching, I'm sure) predict she's going to be in the bottom three again.

The second couple is Katee and Twitch. I'm really excited to see this team (I adore Twitch!). (They knew each other before they came to the show.) The first routine for them is a contemporary dance by Mia Michaels to "Mercy" by Duffy. There's a door on the stage that Katee kicks in; she's portraying an ex-girlfriend type. And they start off with a passionate lip lock! Woah! Twitch is slamming the door on Katee, and they dance on both sides. There are several leaps -- and an especially good one where he jumps over her. Nigel says it was hard to critque the dancing (which he later says was wonderful) because the performance was fantastic. "Everyone was captivated by it," he says. He calls it one of the most educated routines they've had on the show. I agree. Good dance should be good theater, too. Mary says a knock-knock joke ("Two who? Two of the best dancers we've ever seen on this show!"). Toni says Twitch, a hip-hop dancer, "lucked in because it was funk music, too." She didn't take notes on this one, either.

Will's solo is next. "Get Up Offa That Thing" by James Brown is his choice. He's wearing a suit and wig a la James. This number is hot (But seemed rather short? I wanted more!).

Mark and Comfort are third. Tabitha and Napoleon D'Umo create their quick hip-hop routine to "Party People" by Fergie. (I'm sure Comfort and her fans were pleased about this draw.) The school detention-themed routine starts off with them at desks, dressed in varsity letter jackets. I'm not really finding Mark believeable. The face he's making is kind of making me laugh. But, hey, his steps are OK. Comfort is on. Mark holds up a paper with what he wrote in "detention" -- "I will not be in the bottom ..." it said over and over. Nigel criticizes Comfort's solo but says she was incredible here (he agrees with me that she lacked steps in her solo). He says Mark was really good, too. Mary agrees with Nigel. I miss her comments, because my TV is cutting out because of a thunderstorm. She's smiling though! Toni says she know's the routine wasn't easy, but it was great. "You were rooted in the beat," she says.

Katee's solo is to "Taking Chances" by Celine Dion. I can't hear the music because the signal is messed up because of the weather; the picture is, too. I apologize. Unfortunately, I cannot control Comcast. I'm sure she was great. It's Katee!

Ballroom expert Chelsie and hip-hop dancer Joshua are up next with an Argentine tango choreographed by former contestant Dmitry Chaplin to "Forever Tango" from A Los Amigos. More props are in this routine (a table and chair). Nigel says they picked the most technical routine so far, and he compliments Chelsie on how she uses her legs. He says the choreography made the best of both their strengths and that the chemistry was there. Mary says Joshua set the mood and the dance was believable. She says the two are still on the "hot tamale train." Toni says, "Wow! That ending was spontaneous and torrid."

Mark's solos is to "Creator" by Santogold. I really don't like it. There's a lot of running around the stage instead of dancing. I'm gonna say he'll be in the bottom three.

Courtney and Will are back. Tabitha and Napoleon craft a slow hip-hop routine to Alicia Keys' "Like You'll Never See Me Again." The theme is getting to spend one last time with someone you love. Another prop: a hourglass. Will looks great in white (they joke that he's a ghost). The choreography is great, and they are really emotional. There's a lot of close dancing that I love. Nigel says that he's feeling affected by hip-hop routines this season, and that with this one, he felt like he was a voyeur. Mary says she has high expectations of the two and they didn't meet her expectations, they ... "blow my expectations right out of the water!!!!!" (Yes, the extra exclamation points are warranted for that scream). Toni agrees with the two.

Chelsie dances to "Damaged" by Danity Kane. The song choice is questionable, but she's fabulous. Her legs just don't stop moving. And, it's her birthday: She's 19. Happy happy!

Katee and Twitch are back with another routine about a guy, girl and the sexual tension between them. The Broadway number, "Sweet Georgia Brown" from Bubbling Brown Sugar is choreographed by Tyce Diorio and starts with a (you guessed it) prop: a sign saying "Looking for Mr. Right." It's slow, then gets really fast. It's a fun, but I don't love it. Nigel does. He says Twitch, the most untrained dancer, is rising to the occasion. He tells Katee, "There isn't one routine that you have done this season that I haven't enjoyed you doing." The Queen of Scream says she's can't fake them out: "That was terrific!" They say they look like they're on Broadway. Toni disagrees a bit. She says Twitch dances from the inside out, while Broadway dancers dance from the outside in (meaning they have material and need to find a way to relate to it, while Twitch takes what he feels and puts a bit of it into whatever dance he's doing). She says Katee needed to be a bit more deep and rough to match the vocal.

Lil' Mama's "Shawty Get Loose" is Joshua's pick for a solo. It includes his signature locking and popping, plus a nice split. It's OK. I can't really say much else. I'm not on the Joshua love train. Courtney's comtemporary routine, which immediately follows, is to "Where I Stood" by Missy Higgins. It's a beautiful routine with gorgeous turns.

Twitch's solo is "Go to Work" by Kay L. It's ... well, good old reliable Twitch. The street dancing is engaging and fun.

Comfort and Mark attempt a jazzy, sassy foxtrot by Jean-Marc Genereux to "Lady Luck" by the Brian Setzer Orchestra. The steps are a bit amateurish, and the dancers look like they are thinking. At least it ends with a nice lift (during which the couple spins). Nigel says, "Lady Luck walked out of the room when you got your foxtrot." Mary agrees. "Nothing was melting (or did she say melding?) together," she says. She adds that the closed hold was one of the worse she's ever seen (I concur). Toni says, "It's like a recital." That's not a good thing.

Chelsie and Joshua close the show with disco. The Doriana Sanchez routine, to "Everlasting Love" by Gloria Estefan, has amazing lifts (which show off Joshua's strength, though his feet look funny during some of them). Nigel complements the straight-press lift (and others) and notes Chelsie's courage. "You both carried it off really well," he says. Mary says the lifts' landings were great, too. She says it was "out of sight tonight." Toni says they evoked the spirit of disco. She said Joshua's lines weren't as long as men's in the disco era, but that Chelsie had those lines. "You really pulled it off," she concluded.

Who do you think will be at the bottom Thursday?

Posted by Carla Correa at 10:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: So You Think You Can Dance
        

Guest blogger Patrick Gutierrez on Big Brother 10:

Jessie made it clear to Dan that Steven was the target this week. Steven isolated himself in his room and was taking his nomination hard.

Memphis and Jessie talked about bringing Michelle and Angie into their alliance. Keesha told Steven if she was picked and won the veto competition, she would use it on him. She did get picked to play, and before the competition, she told Michelle, April and Libra that she wanted Steven to stay. They trashed her after she left the room, and Michelle went and told Jessie and Memphis about it as well.

The competition, License to Veto, had each contestant looking at a series of license plates, three of which combined to portray Big Brother sayings. Dan purposely guessed incorrectly and was the first one eliminated, followed by Jessie. Steven rang in on the second puzzle but got it wrong, so he was out. The third puzzle was for a slop pass, but whoever won it got eliminated from the veto competition. Libra, Keesha and Michelle, two of whom were on slop, knew the answer, but nobody rang in because they didn't want to lose the competition. Libra missed the fourth puzzle, leaving Michelle and Keesha as the last two players. Each had 10 points. Keesha rang in but missed the third license plate, giving the POV to Michelle.

After the veto competition, some of the other members of the ABC (Anti-Brian Crew) were questioning Keesha's motives for wanting to win the POV, so she confronted the group in the kitchen. Later, she began trying to turn Memphis and Jessie against Libra, blaming her for all the friction within the group. The two guys agreed Libra was a pot-stirrer and began wondering if it wouldn't be a bad idea to back door her this week.

Meanwhile, Renny told Jerry that Libra made a comment after the food competition about the two of them being old and slow, and Jerry confronted Libra about it. Things got heated quickly, and confrontations bounced back and forth between Libra, Renny and Jerry as they tried to figure out what was said by whom. "I didn't say you were slow and old!" Libra yelled to Renny. "You better not!" Renny screamed before storming out of the room.

Steven took advantage of the Libra drama and asked Jessie to have Michelle take him off the block. Jessie said it was up to Michelle, so they brought her up to the HOH room and Steven pleaded his case to her, offering to stay on the block if she would at least take off Dan. At the veto ceremony, Michelle chose not to use the POV, saving Libra for at least a week and likely sealing Steven's fate.

Thoughts: I thought Michelle should've used the POV to get Libra out. She could've pleased a lot of people. Instead, she might have made herself a target.

Keesha was brilliant turning the focus away from herself and onto Libra. It looked like the house was going to turn on her for trying to save Steven. Nice role reversal!

Another alliance better be formed soon to combat the ABC before they pick off the loners one by one. This means you, Renny and Jerry!

My dislikes this week are spread out as follows: Jessie: 60 percent, Memphis 20 percent and Libra percent.

Posted by Carla Correa at 1:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Big Brother
        

This episode of The Mole was ripe with opportunities for the Mole to strike.

The first challenge, "Go Figure," involved math and trivia. The contestants had to go out into the town of Mendoza to search for clues that revealed numbers. They then had to remember the numbers revealed during trivia questions. Those numbers were entered into a computer to complete a code. Basically, there were so many instances of sabotage or shear stupidity that it was almost impossible to home in on one competitor.

Folks were displaying Mole behavior from the beginning. It seemed that Nicole was deliberately getting math equations wrong. Paul got his team lost. And Clay's last minute heroics -- I'll get to that in a moment -- were very suspicious.

Craig and Nicole completed the mission first. Clay, Paul and Mark had fewer numbers to enter but managed to lag behind.

The "dumb" team -- Nicole and Craig -- messed up the challenge. So the entire group agreed to let Nicole go back into the town so that she could retrieve the proper numbers. (All the contestants were extremely cautious ... ) 

Meanwhile, Clay started looking at the puzzle and running the equation through his head. He suspiciously was able to figure out the number at the last second. The group won $30,000, which resulted in the overall pot increasing to $281,000.

After the challenge, the contestants headed back to the hotel. Once there, Mark and Clay discussed the previous elimination. Both agreed that Nicole and Craig were the leading Mole candidates. In a confessional, Clay admitted to not trusting Mark.

Later in the night, Clay went to Nicole to knock around strategy. (Double crossing?)

The next day, the group left Mendoza and went to Buenos Aires. Host Jon Kelley asked the contestants to pick the contestant they trust the most for the challenge, "Ticket To Ride." Each contestant was paired with their trusted partner. They exchanged facts about a loved one. Jon then asked each contestant five questions about their partner's loved one. If they answered three of the five questions correct, then the other contestant would be allowed to meet their loved one. If not, they were teased with getting a glimpse of their loved one, who was led away on a train.

Clay and Craig were first. Clay was charged with remembered facts about Craig's girlfriend. Clay came through, and Craig was allowed to reunite with his girlfriend.

Nicole and Clay were next. Nicole correctly answered the questions, and Clay was reunited with his wife.

Mark and Nicole were next. Mark passed the test and Nicole was reunited with her mother.

Clay and Mark were next. Clay succeeded and Mark was able to reunite with his wife.

Paul and Mark were next. Paul skipped so many questions that he virtually ruined any chance of being able to meet his family. As a result of the number of questions Paul skipped, it appeared that Mark would not able to complete the quiz. Guess what? Mark was able to pull it out. (Odd?)

Overall, the group increased the pot by another $50,000 with their perfect performance.

Nicole was crying to her mother about being the only "black female" left in the game. Her mother told her to come home. During a confessional, Nicole said she was going to throw the quiz so that she could return to the United States with her mom. (She couldn't possibly be serious ... right?)

Nicole's mother is a trip. She called Nicole "Omarosa" from The Apprentice during the execution. Could the show's producers have had the famous reality television alumna in mind when they cast Nicole as the Mole? Only time will tell.

Anyway, the quiz. Jon announced that there was another tie for the lowest-scoring quiz results. That means the contestant who finished the quiz in the least amount of time will stay. The slower contestant is going home. It's Clay! He says he's glad to be going home with his wife. (Yawn, yawn, yawn.)

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 1:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: The Mole
        

Guest blogger Lindsay Diokno on High School Musical: Get in the Picture:

The second half of the Eastern auditions went quickly (thankfully) and mostly painlessly, with the contestants going from 30 to 20 to 10 to six.

First, the kids were taught a dance routine, which went by FAST. I assume this is when the kids went from 30 to 20, because there were only 20 by the singing portion. Then the contestants performed a song from High School Musical, and I'm a little stunned at how many kids got through to semifinals with those vocals. I'll attribute the off-key performances to having to sing a cappella. Finally, 10 are called out to perform duets, and six are chosen from that batch.

Before we talk about the duets, the only one I think they shouldn't have cut was the feisty Estefenia (forgive me if I spelled that wrong, I have no DVR and couldn’t rewind to catch her name). She was a very good singer and had "stage presence," but the judges felt her accent affected her delivery too much. I found her to be a likable version of America's Next Top Model winner Jaslene.

So, we're down to the five duets. Each pair has a day to work on the harmonies and choreography for each song before they perform for a live audience in Epcot.

Tierney and James sing "Torn": So, I may be a little partial to this because I really really really like this song, but I think Tierny has a really great voice, and I thought it was interesting that they performed a song that's not a duet. I find it hilarious that Tierney, much like one of my high school friends, kept burping during rehearsal.

Bailey and John sing "I Want it That Way": The overachiever and class clown did a dramatic but kind of interesting rendition of a song I'm ashamed to admit is on my iPod.

Anthony and Jessalyn sing "Bubbly": Anthony sounds off-key in rehearsal, which makes Jessalyn look aggravated and makes me worried. When they hit the stage, they do a really adorable performance except for the part where Jessalyn slurred all her words.

Briana and Tony sing "Leave the Pieces": It was decent, but I don't think good it was enough to get either of them to the final six. Also, Tony's a nice kid, but I'm reeeaaaally tired of the producers pushing how he's this kid from a small town in Mississippi. We get it. He’s a small-town kid with big dreams. Move on.

Ciara and Isaiah sing "Change the World": Again, a really nice performance, but I feel they don't duet as much as compete with each other. I'm iffy on these two as well.

The judges deliberate and the dreamy Nick Lachey delivers the news: Jessalyn, Tony, Ciara and John are out.

So the first final six are:

Anthony: A Massachusetts boy with a hard-luck story, Anthony has a great smile, has a lot of energy and is really positive. Also, his reaction to being a finalist may have tugged the ol' heartstrings just a little.

Bailey: I can't express how excited I am that she made it. Her intensity is gonna be a blast to watch.

James: If I remember correctly, James has only been singing for a year, but he already sounds pretty good

Tierney: I'm gonna say right now that this girl will be in the top two. She's sweet, and she's got the kind of voice that comes naturally. You can't teach someone to have that kind of quality.

Briana: Looking back at my notes, I actually don't have anything on Briana. She's gonna need to bring some more personality to the forefront.

Isaiah: To be honest, I’m a little surprised that he made it. I think he's a really good overall performer but just not as strong a singer as some kids who were eliminated. I guess we’ll see if the judges note something that passed me by on this one.

I can't say much else. They glossed over the dance segment really quickly, and there hasn't been any sort of acting trial, so we'll have to wait till the finalists hit Utah for HSM camp.

NEXT WEEK: We won't find out much more about the first six, as the other three faculty members take over the Western casting call next Sunday. It'll give me time to prep my Team Anthony and Team Bailey shirts. For now, here's what sounds like Tierney performing the National Anthem. (It's hard to see her, and I think you'll see why.)

Posted by Carla Correa at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: High School Musical: Get in the Picture
        

Lindsay Diokno recaps another episode of VH1's I Love Money:

"Boston, when you gonna get plowed, dude?"

With an opening line like that, the rest of the episode can't be (and wasn't) disappointing.

Right off the bat, we check in on our established lovebirds, Destiney and Heat, and 12 Pack and Heather. It looks like nothing could split up these matches made in heaven, which means problems will ensue right around the half-hour mark.

For this episode's challenge, newly picked team captains Entertainer and Mr. Boston are told to split their team members into pairs for a luncheon. Understandably, Mr. Boston picks his teams with a gross food eating challenge in mind. You almost want to admire this kind of planning.

But the challenge, of course, is not eating gross food (sort of). "The Kiss-off" challenge is based on a record-setting make-out session between Flavor Flav and contestant New York on Flavor of Love -- which means that each pair in this challenge has to lock lips longer than any other pair for their team to win. The only pairing that matters is the charming Mr. Boston-Chance combo. Chance, by the way, is another guy that competed with Mr. Boston on I Love New York. Because every pair must kiss for their team to be in the challenge, Chance’s refusal to kiss Mr. Boston disqualifies the green team. Even though his team ragged on him, I have to back Chance up on this one -- Mr. Boston may have a clean bill of health, but I don’t know that $250,000 is worth making out with him.

In a related note, Destiney defends her beloved Heat when Chance blows up at him. Heat not coming to Destiney's defense disqualifies Heat in that relationship, and Entertainer moves in for the kill. Then one of the blondes that isn't Heather tries to start gold team drama by telling Heather that 12 Pack was flirting with someone else. Entertainer is ticked that not-Heather is starting drama for his team. During all this, Real calls the gold team "immoral." I laugh hysterically.

I laugh even harder when the Green team can't decide whom they want up for elimination, so they let Entertainer (paymaster for this challenge) decide for them. Instead of the green team getting the Whiteboy-Real-Chance trio split up, Entertainer picks Megan, Heat and Mr. Boston. Well-played, green team. Heat's obviously going home -- Entertainer hates Megan for causing drama, and he doesn't like Mr. Boston because, well, no one does. But Entertainer is the kind of guy who would kick off a person he thinks could stand between him and his woman, Destiney, whom he says he's dating less than a day after they start shacking up. I love how fast time moves on reality TV.

Anyway, there's a power outing where Megan cries about how she's misunderstood and Mr. Boston fakes throwing up. He says he hopes the sight of him throwing up doesn't hurt his chances with Megan. Let's review -- if Megan wins, she'll use the prize to spread awareness of mentally challenged dogs. She sounds like the kind of winner that you want to make a good impression on.

So Heat is eliminated, and he looks just a little drunk during the ceremony. Megan looks just a little scandalous in her bathing suit -- although bathing suit might be too generous a label. I don't know, can cloth be called clothing as long as it covers the essentials? And I'm just a little doubtful that Entertainer will take it all. A guy who plays off his emotions instead of playing smart and knocking off a strong competitor isn't someone who plays to win.

Next week's preview shows flying chicken carcasses, more nudity and men crying. In other words, it looks promising.

Stay classy, Heat. And a word of advice: The camera's just not that into you:

Posted by Carla Correa at 3:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: I Love Money
        

Guest blogger Lindsay Diokno's thoughts on the new High School Musical: Get in the Picture:

Having never watched anything remotely related to High School Musical before last night, I'm not sure what I should have expected, but what I saw wasn't much.

The gist of this ABC reality show is … to be honest, I was a little confused about what they win, so let me use ABC.com's words:

"This summer's reality show, Disney's High School Musical: Get in the Picture,' will award one prize winner the chance of a lifetime -- he or she will literally 'get in the picture' when that person stars in a music video shown in the end credits of the feature film, Disney's High School Musical 3: Senior Year, opening this fall. In addition, the winner will also receive an exclusive talent hold agreement with ABC and a recording contract for two singles with Walt Disney Records, one of which will be a version of the song from the music video."

So … the winner doesn't get a role in the movie, and he or she records a version of a song that may only be in the movie during the end credits. This is after weeks of music camp with six "faculty" members teaching these kids how to sing and dance. Sign ME up for this "chance of a lifetime" that will surely launch my career. Actually, I wouldn't mind auditioning for HSM if host Nick Lachey gave me a hug.

With that in mind, let’s talk about the only memorable moments of the Eastern casting calls:

--I was banking on some American Idol-esque auditions, but sadly no Simon Cowell of the theater set is on this show.

--"Faculty" member Bob Adler bears a strong resemblance to comedian/Fat Jesus lookalike Zack Galifianakis.

--The auditions critiques were FAR nicer than anything I heard when I did high school theater. But I'm pretty sure the teacher/directors from my high school days weren't getting paid nearly as much as these faculty members are.

--There's a suspicious amount of talk about having heart, drive and personality, and very little about anyone having actual talent.

That last part being said, there were some charming standouts. Meet the vocally talented Tierny, 17, who was picked up for the semifinals during a fellow classmate's audition. There's also Bostonian Anthony, who has one of those heartbreaking stories (Mom had knee surgery complications, union worker Dad was laid off) and rocks the "Jump on It" dance at school assemblies. And then there's Type-A Bailey, who has a 4.4 GPA and admits to being bossy. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say bossy is likely an understatement.

TONIGHT: See the semifinalists sing and dance their way to stardom! I'm just hoping ABC gets the drama going. A personality like Bailey picking on someone else would at least evoke some high school realism.

Until then, let's hope Anthony busts out some more Fresh Prince dance moves: 

Posted by Carla Correa at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: High School Musical: Get in the Picture
        

Guest blogger Patrick Gutierrez recaps tonight's episode of Big Brother 10:

With Jessie as head of household, the house quickly divided into two groups: Those who wanted Brian out last week and those who didn't. Angie, by way of her ill-fated attempt to keep Brian around, was now on the outside looking in. She tried talking to Jessie in his HOH room, but he blew her off.

Renny and Jerry ended up on the red team for the food competition, causing teammates April and Libra to grumble about being stuck with the "old people."

In the event, each team put two people in a giant barrel 10 feet in the air. Their job was to plug 20 holes in the bottom of each barrel. The corks were being delivered by a third teammate, while the remaining players on each team were standing under their opponents’ barrel with wine glasses. Their job was to catch the wine that escaped and deposit it in bottles. The challenge was to collect as much wine as possible in five minutes.

The green team was efficient throughout the competition, particularly Dan, their cork-thrower. The red team was ineffective, as April kept air-mailing her corks or throwing them up without notifying her teammates, so the corks kept getting lost in the wine. The green team won easily and got food for the week. April and Libra, faced with their second straight week on slop, started to snipe at each other after the event was over.

Back in the house, Dan got Jessie alone in the HOH room and put his cards on the table regarding his alliance with Brian.

Meanwhile, Memphis was downstairs sharing why he's so unemotional, explaining he lost his dad when he was 15, and he's also had his heart broken by a woman.

At the nomination ceremony, Jessie bypassed his dislike for Renny and put up Steven and Dan for eviction, claiming they were both against him. He also took offense to Steven not going upstairs to see his HOH room.

Thoughts: I'm withdrawing 75 percent of my dislike for Memphis and transferring it to Jessie. That kid is completely full of himself. His HOH room had more pictures of him posing than it did of his family!

After the nomination ceremony, Jessie confided in the diary room that Steven is his real target. I'm not sure if that's what his group wants or if he's going his own way on that. Right now, it appears the anti-Brian crew is in complete control of the house.

Posted by Carla Correa at 10:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Big Brother
        

The night starts with a high-energy, colorful Bollywood routine choreographed by Nakul Dev Mahajan. The group dances to "JBJ" from Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. It's beautiful. The stage is filled with streaks of fluorescent colors as the competitors prance about. The routine ends with some of the men hoisting Katee in the air.

Next, host Cat Deeley announces that the makeup artist and several choreographers on the show have earned Emmy nominations. Then she launches a recap from last night's episode.

After, the women perform a Mia Michaels routine to "Ave Maria" by Celine Dion. Dressed in white dresses with long, stringy hair, they gently throw their bodies across the stage. It's so soft and beautiful. The audience claps wildly.

It's time to find out who's in the bottom two: It's Comfort and Kherington.

The men, who are dressed in white tank-tops and black pants, dance a routine by Nigel Lythgoe! They dance to "Five Guys Named Moe" from Five Guys Named Moe.

The routine is very funky. At one point, they start stepping. It's pretty entertaining. I'm very surprised by the routine. It's not what I expect from Nigel. He quickly admits that his assistants helped him with the stepping and locking moves. (That makes more sense.)

Cat immediately lines up the men to reveal the bottom two: It's Mark and Gev.

Cat announces that the bottom four contestants will have an opportunity to perform a solo. (Earlier in the episode, Cat told the audience that the solos will not affect the outcome of which contestants are being sent home.)

Comfort is first with "Egypt, Egypt" by Egyptian Lover. As usual, she has a lot of energy. Nigel says she has another opportunity. Mary says Comfort came back to do a marvelous job. Lil' C says his heart is beating very fast because of her dancing. He says Comfort has evolved the most of any dancer. Comfort says the show is the best experience ever.

Mark is next dancing to "Black Betty" by Ram Jam. He does a great job timing each move to every single beat. Nigel says Mark is quirky and has great musicality. Lil' C says Mark is very focused. "You are always working," he says. "Keep doing what you're doing."

Kherington is next. She dances to "Myphilosophy" by Inner. She's pretty good. Lil' C says Kherington has been great in the competition. Mary says Kherington has been a front-runner. "You're an amazing, brilliant dancer," she says. Nigel says Kherington has film-star looks. "She's got a hell of a future," he says.

Gev is next with "Felling Good" by Michael Buble. He's so amazing with his tricks. My jaw drops. Lil' C says he's a fan of the little guy. "You dance with so much heart," he says. Mary says Gev has been tremendous in all of the performances. "He's one of the most loveable contestants on the show," she says. Nigel says Gev is outstanding.

We're back for the commercials. Cat announces that Kherington is leaving! (Wow!)

It's time for the men. Gev is going home. He thanks everyone for the opportunity and says he's looking forward to the tour.

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: So You Think You Can Dance
        

Tonight's episode is going to give me headache! There are a slew of things happening. Substitutions, solos and new partnering, oh my!

Host Cat Deeley informs us that Jessica is out of the competition (not a surprise if you read this blog). Jessica comes on stage and tells the audience that she has a couple of broken and fractured ribs. So, she's out of the competition, and Comfort, who was eliminated last week, is in.

We get right into the routines and the new pairs.

Joshua and Courtney are the first new pair. They perform a hip-hop routine choreographed by Dave Scott. They dance to "Skippin'" by Mario. I think they do a really good job. Joshua, in particular, kills the routine. Courtney does a good job keeping up. She really reminds me of Jennifer Lopez from her In Living Color days. Judge Lil' C praises Courtney and the couple's chemistry. Judge Mary Murphy squeals that they have great chemistry. She says Joshua stole the show: "He did blow it up out there." Judge Nigel Lythgoe says Joshua did a lot of great dancing, and Courtney's dancing was not as strong as her character work.

Chelsie is next with a solo to "Pon de Replay" by Rihanna. She doesn't do that much to impress me.

Kherington and Mark are the next new couple. They are assigned a two-step routine choreographed by Ronnie DeBenedetta and Brandi Jobais. They dance to "Kick Back" by Ty England. The routine has a lot of great steps and a couple of spectacular lifts. Lil' C says they attacked it from the wrong direction. He says there was a missstep in the beginning. "You didn't nail it for me," he says. Mary remarks that the routine was very tough. She criticizes Kherington's arm placement and praises Mark for having to deal with Kherington's faults. Nigel says Kherington needs to trust Mark more. "You didn't give up," Nigel says. (I think they are trouble.)

Gev is next with "Hello Goodbye (Uncool)" by Lupe Fiasco featuring UNKLE. He's really good with his break dancing and tricks. It should get him some points.

Comfort and Twitch are next with a smooth Waltz choreographed by Hunter Johnson. They dance to "Open Arms" by Journey. She looks so pretty in this light-blue ballroom dress. They nail this spectacular lift at the end. Lil' C says he enjoyed the routine. He says they weren't floating. He says Comfort was more graceful than he's ever seen her. Mary says the routine was lacking power. "It's not going to cut it," she says. "They rise, and the fall it wasn't there. It was choppy, it was clunky." Nigel says it wasn't strong enough. "It certainly wasn't strong enough for a top 10 dancer." (They are in so much danger.)

Courtney's solo is next. She dances to "I Want You To Need Me" by Celine Dion. She has a lot of leaps and great moves, unlike Chelsie.

Katee and Will are next with a Broadway routine choreographed by Tyce Diorio. They dance to "Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat" from Guys and Dolls. They're so entertaining. It's not the typical, corny Broadway routine. It does a good job of mixing in great dance with a little bit of acting. "You guys rocked my boat. It was buck," Lil' C says. Mary says Katee is so cute and fun. "The talent you possess is out of this world." She also loves Will. "You weren't afraid to just go out there." Nigel says it was terrific. "They are our most technical dancers. That is a terrific routine." Nigel says they are absolutely brilliant.

Mark is next with his solo. He dances to "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen. He's so odd, but he's a very good dancer.

Chelsie and Gev are paired together with a contemporary routine choreographed by Sonja Tayeh. They dance to "These Arms of Mine" by Otis Redding. It reminds me of Dirty Dancing; it just has that hot summer night feel to it.

Lil' C says they committed to the routine. Mary says she believed the chemistry. She compliments Gev's leaps. "Chelsie you were beautiful as always," she says. Nigel says he didn't feel that Gev had passion.

Comfort dances to "Need A Boss" by Sareefa featuring Ludacris. She's so authentic and passionate with her hip-hop moves. She's very powerful; her solo is very strong.

Twitch is next dancing to "I Question Mark" by Wade Robson. He's very powerful and smooth.

Courtney and Joshua are next with a rumba choreographed by Jean Marc Genereux. They dance to "Hero" by Enrique Iglesias. They are a very good pair. I feel the passion; I see the technique. It's a good routine. Lil' C says the routine took his breath away. "Josh was so confident," he says. He tells Courtney she was elegant. Mary says the rumba is difficult. "You were stroking the floor Joshua," Mary says. She says the whole thing was fantastic. Nigel says he's impressed with Joshua's strength.

Katee is next with her solo. She dances to one of my favorites, "This Woman's Work" by Maxwell. She's so graceful and powerful. She really feels the music.

Kherington and Mark are next with a Tyce DiOrio jazz routine. They dance to "Canned Heat" by Jamiroquai. The song is from the movie Center Stage. They kick, they turn and they slide across the stage. I'm not sure what to write in addition to that. Lil' C says it's a good routine. He says Kherington nailed the lifts. He tells Mark to be a little more confident in those lifts. Mary says she wasn't not crazy about the routine. "I wanted to get fired up about this," she says. "It made me happy. But at this point in the game, I want to be fired up." She says Mark was a little lost. Nigel says the routine didn't have heart or passion. "At this point, you are going to have to do something that will make people get up off the couch and pick up the phone," he adds.

Will is next with a solo. He dances to "Dance With My Father" by Luther Vandross. He looks like such a professional. What a great dancer! It looks effortless.

Comfort and Twitch are next with a Dave Scott hip-hop routine. I'm very excited because both are hip-hop dancers. They dance to "Forever" by Chris Brown. Dang! They are good.
"That was kind of buck," Lil' C says. He says Twitch was so precise. He says it was the best Comfort has done. Mary screams. "You guys were terrific," she says. "Comfort you're a fighter."  She bows to Twitch. Nigel says it didn't look choreographed (that's a huge compliment). "It was brilliant," he says. "You did a great job."

Kherington is next with her solo. She dances to "Breaking Dishes" by Rihanna. Her routine lacks the energy of Courtney and the authority of Comfort.

Katee and Will dance the pas de deux by Desmond Richardson and Dwight Rhoden. They dance to "Imagine" by American Idol runner-up David Archuleta. The routine is technically difficult, and there are so many quick moves and beautiful lifts. There is a slight bobble in the beginning by Katee, but it is overshadowed by the remainder of the routine. The performance, especially this fabulous lift at the end, is fantastic.

Lil' C says the routine was great. "You guys danced with so much commitment," he says. "You guys delivered Desmond's piece." Mary says it was exquisite. "It was phenomenal," she adds. First Nigel gushes over the choreographer. Then Nigel says he hasn't seen such beautiful dancing on the show. "You are absolutely brilliant, the pair of you," Nigel says.

Joshua is next. He dances to "Jam" by Michael Jackson. He starts with a roundoff back-handspring. He then bursts into a series of pops, locks and tricks. He's really good.

Chelsie and Gev dance the jive choreographed by Jean-Marc Genereux. They dance to "The House Is Rockin" by Brian Setzer. They are very fast.  She's so spectacular. He does a good job keeping up with her. Lil' C says she outdanced him. "She led the whole time," he says. "Gev, you've got to pick it up a little bit." Mary says they did a terrific job. "I think it is a great partnership," she says, adding that she wants Gev to have more fun. Nigel says Chelsie was outstanding. He says the pair did a great job.

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 3:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: So You Think You Can Dance
        

Antonio Sabato Jr., the muscular, bronzed heart-throb actor, took the title in last night's finale. His efforts in past weeks -- including last week's perfect 10s performance -- paid off.   

He beat Stacey Dash, who finished second, and Wee Man, who finished third. The episode was kind of boring. It was mostly a recap of the entire season as opposed to competitors performing last-minute heroics to snatch the title.  

I really feel bad for Dash. She's been a top contestant for most of the season. To finish second must be pretty tough. I guess she's probably used to it; she played second fiddle to Alicia Silverstone in Clueless. Now she's the bridesmaid to Sabato Jr. Home girl can't seem to catch a break!

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 3:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Project Runway is back for its last season in the Big Apple and its last season on Bravo. This disappoints me: The show is moving to the Lifetime network, and, apparently, Los Angeles next year. L.A.? Sure, the City of Angels is more fashionable than say, Charm City. But a PR without the Parsons The New School of Design workroom and the hustle and bustle of Eighth Avenue just doesn't seem right. Don't convince me otherwise: N.Y.C. is the fashion capital. I'll have to savor this season, I guess.

Which brings me to the first episode, which was fabulous. As in, it was fabulous TV. Fabulous fashion? Not so much.

The much younger cast includes some designers that catch my eye. Among them: Jerell, 28, who has designed for Saudi royalty. Jennifer, 27, who describes her style as "Holly Golightly goes to a Salvador Dali exhibit" (I have high hopes; I'm a huge Breakfast at Tiffany's fan). Suede, 37, who has experience designing jeans and is tired of making millions for other people. "Suede needs to make millions for Suede!" Suede also talks in the third person -- bleh! And who could forget Blayne, the 23-year-old who is obsessed with tanning and likes neon. Enough said.

The first challenge begins at 4 a.m. with Tim Gunn knocking on contestants' doors. Soon, the gang is heading down the street to Gristedes grocery store. The first challenge is a repeat of the first challenge in Season 1: Make an outfit from items in the store. Special guest judge Austin Scarlett (still pale, still dramatic) fills us and the designers in on the details: Each designer has a half-hour to shop and a $75 budget. Originality is emphasized.

Austin won this challenge four seasons ago with a dress made of corn husks. You'd think that by Season 4, these contestants would have learned from past designers' successes (say, a dress made of corn husks) and mistakes. So, when the judges say be creative, be creative! Do NOT grab a tablecloth and drape it around a body and call it a dress. But that's what a good number of contestants does. I think the ones who grab a horrendous black-and-white checked tablecloth are especially doomed. Hounds tooth is not in, and a tablecloth that resembles hounds tooth is more unfortunate.

Back at Parsons (which L.A.'s Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising should NOT replace), the designers realize that their materials are AWFUL. Most of the episode centers on Stella, a 42-year-old rocker who is working with the flimsiest trash bags I've ever seen. With a $75 budget, she certainly could have sprung for the Hefty Cinch Sacks, no? We're treated to about 10 straight minutes of Stella griping about her "fabric." "My fabric is trash!" she whines. Why, yes, it is, Stella.

As Stella stares at and tears her trash bags, lamenting that she'll be a joke if she's the first eliminated designer, Tim assesses some of the garmets-in-the-making. Daniel is creating a cocktail dress, with a sweetheart top, out of blue plastic cups. He's using an iron to melt the plastic. I don't find it particularly pretty, but it's certainly innovative. Kelli, 27, is using coffee, bleach, etc. to stain vacuum bags for the bottom of a skirt. The top is made of burned coffee filters, push pins and spiral notebook binding. Blayne takes the cake when he announces that his outfit is going to be "girlicious." What he's creating looks like some kind of black-and-neon diaper-leotard thing. I have no words, only laughter.

Tim doesn't laugh, but he does say that he thinks judges Heidi Klum, Nina Garcia, Michael Kors and Scarlett will say the designers are "a bunch of slackers." Wisely, tablecloth-grabbers Leanne and Korto dress up their pieces with cookies and candy (Leanne) and vegetables (Korto). But not Jerry, the self-proclaimed next big thing in fashion. The 42-year-old doesn't want to ruin his look by piling on extraneous purchases. Oh, no, his raincoat made out of a shower curtain, which covers up possibly one of the worst dresses I've ever seen, will do just fine. I'm a sucker for cute jackets (perhaps that's why I'm such a big Jillian Lewis fan), but this coat, while well-structured, is uninspired and looks like, you guessed it: a shower curtain. It only gets worse when his model must pull on yellow rubber cleaning gloves. It looks like she's ready to walk a runway at a Superfund site.

A lot of the pieces on the runway are forgettable. I really hope that what we're seeing isn't an indication of this pool's talent. The vegetable trim is a smart move for Korto, who along with Daniel and Kelli, is in the top three. The bottom three includes Stella (no shocker), Blayne (ditto) and Jerry (double ditto). Kelli wins, but Daniel's cocktail dress is a close second. Korto gets recognition for being the only designer to use produce. And though she used a tablecloth, the yellow dress is impeccable. Blayne's Playboy-bunny-on-acid outfit is panned (to make matters worse, he's written "girlicious" on his model's leg! AND he thinks it's wearable for a night out on the town!), but he's safe. Stella's trash is trashed, but she, too, is safe. I figured as much, because the editing was such to make us think she was going home. Jerry is sent packing.

Overlooked pieces of the night? Terri's top made of mops. The design is intricate and pretty. Joe's oven-mitt top and pasta skirt. The skirt was just OK, but the top was cute! Check out all the outfits here.

Best moment yet to come: A clip shows Tim Gunn saying, "Holla 'atcha boy."

Posted by Carla Correa at 1:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Project Runway
        

Patrick Gutierrez on BB10:

It was eviction night, with a live audience to boot, and Brian and Renny were on the block. Brian figured if he could get five votes, Jerry would break the tie in his favor, so he and Dan looked for potential candidates to turn. In the meantime, Brian tried being "The Fun Guy" in an effort to win people over. He even put on a sock-puppet show which showed him getting evicted. A premonition, perhaps?
 
Angie went to Keesha to see if she was open to the idea of keeping Brian, but the April Alliance saw them talking, and then things got heated between April and Keesha outside. April retreated to her room and had a good cry while Keesha stewed outside.
 
In the end, Brian was unable to sway the house and ended up leaving by a vote of 9-1. Dan was the lone dissenter, staying loyal to his homie.
 

Posted by Carla Correa at 10:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Big Brother
        

I'm a huge Project Runway fan, so I'm surprised that I'm not TOO excited about Season 5 tonight. It seems like Season 4 just ended (and it seems we're still on Christian overload), and Season 6 will air on Lifetime later this year, too. (Yes, you read that right: three seasons of PR in 2008.) I'd rather have quality over quantity, so here's hoping that the designers bring it and that Tim Gunn says some great lines. (I adore his vocabulary.) Check out the (younger) cast and more details, and check back for a recap of the premiere.

Posted by Carla Correa at 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Project Runway
        

R&B crooner Blu Cantrell was the first to go. Olympic swimmer Janet Evans couldn't get the gold. An injury cut short the hopes of Brady Bunch alumnus Christopher Knight. Pouty-lipped Rachel Hunter didn't have the goods to get into the finals. It just seems like yesterday when Celebrity Circus started. But here we are, at the finale ...

We're left with Clueless alumna Stacey Dash, Jackass regular Wee Man and heart-throb actor Antonio Sabato Jr.

My money is on Dash. She's been a favorite of the judges since the beginning, although I'm worried that Wee Man might steal the show because of his feats of strength. Man candy Sabato could sway judges Aurelia Cats, Mitch Gaylord and over-the-top flamboyant Louie Spence.

Check it out at 10 tonight on NBC. 

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Brian continued to be full of himself, taking credit for Jerry’s nominations. The conflict between Renny and Jessie continued, with Renny fanning the flames at a wine (whine?) party in Jerry’s room.

Looking to get a strong competitor out early, Brian began trying to turn the tide against Jessie, going one by one to several houseguests, trying to get them to vote the bodybuilder out. His claim was that he had Jerry's ear on possible replacement nominees and was promising to keep them safe if they agreed to vote his way.

The veto competition had contestants dressed in sleepwear, looking for bears in pillows. The sticky part was that they had to crawl back and forth under a bridge through a river of honey to get the bears. It was close between Michelle and Jessie, but the bodybuilder flexed enough muscle to win.

Brian's alliance decided to target Memphis as a replacement nominee. Libra and April began speculating about whom Brian might be in an alliance with. The two girls confronted Ollie about his alliance. During that meeting, Libra got Ollie and April to see that Brian was the true threat. Ollie decided to break from his alliance. The threesome persuaded the house (minus Brian and Dan) to go up to Jerry's room and try and persuade him to put Brian up. Clearly taken aback, Jerry appeared resistant, saying "I'm not sure I trust any of you."

After second thought, however, Jerry did, in fact, put Brian up as a replacement nominee. He felt so bad about it, he didn’t wear any military gear, saying he didn’t want to embarrass the military by going back on his word to Brian.

Thoughts: I hate to say I told you so about Brian but, "I TOLD YOU SO!" He was too aggressive, too soon, and it came back to bite him.

I like Libra. She's the real Dr. Will of the house, lying in the cut until it's time to pounce. She is the most responsible for Brian being on the block.

Renny could end up being this season's Sheila, being kept around until the final three, because she hasn't shown any ability during the first two competitions.

The house worked together to get Brian nominated, but it'll be interesting to see who stays with whom as the eventual alliances are made. My guess is Ollie will remain with April while Libra fades back into the cut.

I still don't like Memphis …

Posted by Carla Correa at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Big Brother
        

After last week's absence, I was totally ready for a double dose of The Mole. What I got was a near heart attack. At first, I thought that a Bachelorette special was going to replace The Mole again. Then, I was disappointed when I realized that the first hour of the two-hour "Mole special" was actually a recap of the season. (Yawn!)

I was surprised to learn that Nicole admitted to Alex and Clay that she sabotaged the luge mission a couple of episodes ago so that people would think she is the Mole. (Wow! She's taking the whole double agent thing to a new level.)

Nicole began this week's real episode lamenting that she was the only woman left in the game. Would this be her last week? We'll get back to that later. The first mission, "Grapes of Cash," required the contestants to go to a vineyard. The mission was complex. Craig and Nicole had to solve brain teasers. The answers correlated with directions to retrieve wine bottles from the vineyard. Each time the contestants retrieved another bottle, the speed on the treadmill that Mark was on would increase. The game continued as long as Mark was able to stay on the treadmill. (Complicated, right?)

The contestants succeeded and earned the full $70,000. Of course, Paul and Nicole were at each other's throats. (God, I hope one of them is the Mole. It isn't healthy to have so much mutual disdain.)

"Swing Out," the second mission of the episode, required the contestants to attempt to hit a target with a bag of tea while bouncing from a bungee chord. Contestants Mark, Paul, and Clay could not hit the target.

Craig was next. Before he jumped, he confessed to suffering from vertigo. (That was a new detail.) During his jump, he let out this God-awful scream that led the other contestants to believe that he was injured. (He wasn't.)

To add another twist, host John tempted each contestant with an exemption. In order to get one, a person needed to complete the mission, then estimate how much money the group would earn. Each person failed to hit the target except for Alex, who acted extra Molish. (First, the show's producers distorted the host's voice when he offered Alex the exemption. And remember, he was the only contestant to complete the mission. Just a lucky effort? Maybe not.)

The group earned $4,000 out of a potential $60,000. But even Alex overestimated how much money they'd get, so none of the contestants received an exemption.

Going into the quiz, Mark and Clay attempted to get Alex drunk so that it would affect his judgment. (Were these two channeling meat-head frat boys?) The pair's scheme worked. Alex was sent packing. I was totally shocked! I had no idea he was going home. I thought for sure he could have been the Mole.

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: The Mole
        

Comfort, the hip-hop dancer who was ousted last week, is getting a second chance to prove herself on So You Think You Can Dance. Apparently, an injury forced Jessica (who might have been kicked off, too, last week, if the show could cut two women at a time) to quit the competition. Fox isn't revealing the injury, but the network said Jessica's doctor advised her to leave.

"Her full recovery is paramount and will only come with rest," series executive producer and judge Nigel Lythgoe told a Television Critics Association meeting, according to the Associated Press.

The contestants will be paired with new dance partners tomorrow; that frees up Will to perhaps snag an equally talented partner.

What do you think? Does Comfort deserve to be back?

(Photo courtesy Fox via Associated Press) 

Posted by Carla Correa at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: So You Think You Can Dance
        

Lindsay Diokno is back to recap I Love Money:

I don’t know if I’ve just been watching too much reality TV, or if the editors of I Love Money are getting that lazy, but last night’s episode was fairly predictable.

The installment kicked off with team captains Hoopz and Whiteboy getting their teams’ first assignment via cell phone. (First sign of laziness: The teams get orders through cell phones. Even Tila Tequila’s producers were “clever” enough to dole out messages in a bottle. But if my production credits included shows with contestants named Pumkin and Nibblz, I’d phone it in, too.)

So, back to the first assignment -- both teams must pick a new team captain, and will pick a new one for each challenge. After each challenge, the captain of the losing team has to put three team members on the chopping block. The captain of the winning team, or “paymaster,” then chooses who is going to be kicked off -- I’m sorry, “bounced.” Eliminated contestants are “bounced.”

The gold team picks Rodeo as captain, and the green team picks Destiney after Chance does nothing to make a game plan for his team. He does display his stellar rock-climbing skillz by attempting to climb a wall in the house. In the words of green team member Heat, “This team is very disastrous.”

Thanks to the heavy-handed editing, we know the “united” gold team is going to lose the next challenge. Each challenge is based on memorable moments from the shows that the contestants were on previously. The teams’ first challenge is “The Bed Battle Challenge,” where contestants hit each other with giant pugil sticks on a giant bed suspended over water until one of the players is eliminated. This is based on the first episode from Flavor of Love 2, in which two women got into a physical fight over a bed and hit each other with giant flowers:

The results? A green team win.

12 Pack vs. Whiteboy (green team win for Whiteboy)

Entertainer v. Heat (gold team win for Entertainer, complete with some sexy smoker’s cough and a montage of sboth competitors smoking beforehand)

Hoopz vs. Real (gold team win for Hoopz because Real is too hung up on how cute he thinks Hoopz is)

Rodeo vs. Chance (gold team win for Chance)

Nibblz vs. Mr. Boston (green team win for Boston -- who knew?)

Afterward, both teams are taken into “The Vault,” where everyone’s checks are kept. We learn that after every competition, the losing team will go to the vault and choose three members for elimination. Obviously, the weakest players have got to go, so the green team puts Pumkin, Toastee and Nibblz on the chopping block -- but they’re given a “power outing” time with Destiney to convince her why each of them should stay. I thought they initially said “power hour,” but realized that would be dumb because every hour on this show has people drinking nonstop, so a power hour would be pointless. Pumkin and Toastee manage to convince Destiney that they’re physically weaker players and Nibblz should go. (Spoiler alert and second sign of show’s laziness -- we know long before the elimination that Nibblz gets the boot.) Oh, and Toastee fakes an ankle injury, and Pumkin says she had an eating disorder, which I’m pretty sure Pumkin herself said is a lie. This defines why I watch bad reality TV -- I wouldn’t lie about having a serious injury or disorder, nor would I go on a reality show as a cry for attention, so I feel pretty good about judging these people.

Goodbye to Nibblz and her souped-up dominatrix dungeon. Next week promises the disintegration of alliances, romantic drama, more camera time for Heather (who was sorely missed this week) and likely more shots of Mr. Boston wearing far too little. Mr. Boston, you name the time and place, and I will buy you some pants. That offer does not have an expiration date. It makes me uncomfortable when you wear thongs. It makes America uncomfortable when you wear thongs. Pants are not out of style, so please wear them more often.

At this point, I’m hesitant to make picks because some contestants got so little face time, but Whiteboy and Entertainer are looking like strong competitors. I still have faith in my girl Heather to take it all, and I have a lot of faith that the Entertainer-Destiney-Heat love triangle will cause major drama. That’s all for now. I have to spend my day feeling good about never having to battle someone with giant fake flower bouquets.

Posted by Carla Correa at 3:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: I Love Money
        

Guest blogger Patrick Gutierrez writes about the season premiere of Big Brother 10:

It’s Patrick, filling in for lovely new mom Sarah. The first episode is history, so let’s get to it!

There are 13 house guests this season, and for the first time since Season 3, there are no preexisting relationships among the contestants. The house guests are on their own ...

A quick breakdown of the cast:

Angie, 29: recently divorced pharmaceutical sales rep from Orlando, Fla.

April, 30: finance manager for a car dealership in Arizona

Brian, 27: phone salesman from California

Dan, 24: Catholic school teacher from Michigan

Jessie, 22: professional bodybuilder from Iowa

Jerry, 75: great-grandfather from Texas who served in the Marine Corps

Keesha, 29: Hooters girl from California

Libra, 31: mother of three from Texas who works in HR

Memphis, 25: “mixologist” (bartender) from Los Angeles

Michelle, 28: real estate agent from Rhode Island

Ollie, 27: son of a preacher from Minnesota

Renny, 53: beauty-salon owner from New Orleans

Steven, 35: gay rodeo competitor from Texas

The “unexpected” arrived earlier than ever, as contestants were forced to choose the first head of household (HOH) before they even entered the house. Unable to vote for themselves, each contestant cast their vote based on “first impressions and gut instinct.” The results were not immediately shared with the group.

The house mates were then allowed to move into the Big Brother house in three groups. Renny, Dan, Angie, Jessie and April were first up. Libra, Brian, Keesha and Memphis were next to enter the house, followed by Steven, Jerry, Michelle, and Ollie. The house mates spent some time getting to know each other, and then the house divided into two groups for the first competition. Someone needed to sit out and, before knowing what was at stake, Jessie volunteered.

With six players on each side, the two teams battled to stay off slop for the week. Jessie, for volunteering, automatically got food. But they were also playing for a classic car, and once Jessie found that out, he immediately regretted his decision not to play. The red team was Angie, Renny, Memphis, Steven, Dan and Michelle. The white team was Jerry, Ollie, Libra, April, Keesha and Brian. The competition entailed team members climbing into an upside-down VW bug suspended in midair and pulling it back and forth on a pulley system, picking up a gas can on one end and dropping it, and a player, on the other until there was one player left. The red team easily won the competition, and the last two teammates, Memphis and Steven, each claiming they didn’t have a car, played Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who would win. Memphis prevailed and selected the ‘69 Camaro over the ’66 Mustang.

Next, the mystery of the HOH vote was revealed. Showing no originality whatsoever, the majority of the house mates voted for the two oldest contestants. Jerry edged out Renny, 4 to 3, giving him the first HOH.

Brian and Dan quickly forged an alliance and brought Ollie into the fold. Brian went up to Jerry’s room to try to persuade him to keep him and his people off the chopping block. Luckily for him, Renny and Jessie made Jerry’s decision easy when they got into a little tiff late in the night. With the lights off and everyone in her room in their beds, Renny started acting mental, laughing and rambling, claiming the door was locked. Steven got up and opened the door, at which point Renny started making a high-pitched batlike sound over and over. Everyone was upset with her, but Jessie was the one dumb enough to make a big deal about it, and the two of them had a few words. Jerry took advantage of that and nominated both of them for eviction, noting that the two of them were bringing an uneasy vibe to the house.

That’s where we stand. Now, for my thoughts …

I can never figure out why so many contestants are so quick to judge each other. It really upsets me. That being said, here are the two contestants I dislike already:

Memphis: That guy rubs me the wrong way. I think it’s because he’s precisely the kind of bartender who’ll ignore me when I’m trying to buy a drink. That and he calls himself a “hustler.” Whatever, dude. Of course, he had to win the car. I hope that puts a big fat bulls-eye on his back.

Renny: The beauties hated her from the start (typical), but at least I waited until she gave me a legitimate reason. What was that in the bedroom? Do you think she’s mentally ill? If she is, do you have any moral qualms with sticking her in there?

I have a theory. (OK, I just came up with a theory, but I think it’s pretty solid.) If I don’t know your name after the first episode, you’re not going to win. The theory goes that because you didn’t do anything remarkable enough to get noticed, you don’t have what it takes to play the game.

Judging by her giving out free feels to everyone, it looks like April is making an early claim to the title of “house ... well, you know.” I’m sure there will be “more” of her to watch on BBAD (Big Brother After Dark).

Brian’s making moves too early, I think. That seems to come back to haunt you if you aren’t careful, and he doesn’t strike me as a good enough manipulator a la Dr. Will to pull it off.

I thought Jerry’s nominations were perfect. Two easy targets were presented, and he took them out. I doubt he’ll face any repercussions. Of course, it won’t matter. He’s clearly the Chicken George of the group. A complete nonthreat who will be kept around until it’s convenient to get rid of him. Still, he did offer my favorite line of the night. When Renny said, “You were a Marine?” he replied, “I’m still a Marine.” Semper Fi, Jerry!

What’d you think? Whom do you dislike so far?

Posted by Carla Correa at 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Big Brother
        

This past weekend, I checked out Spike Mendelsohn's new Good Stuff Eatery on Capitol Hill (if you're familiar with the area, it's in the narrow building where Pulp on the Hill used to be). The Top Chef contestant offers a variety of burgers, salads, sides (fries, onion rings) and some tasty-looking milkshakes (I didn't try one; the burger I ordered was big enough).

The line was out the door (plenty of Bravo-watching 20-somethings and their boyfriends), and a guy outside who I assume was Spike's dad (who, with his wife, are owners of the eatery, which they hope to turn into a chain; Spike is executive chef) talked about the menu like a proud father would. His comments went something like this: "If you're looking for something good, the Colletti's Smokehouse is good. So is the Spike's 5 Napkin. ... Well, everything is good! And beer! We have the Moon ... Blue Moon, and Red Stripe!"

Once inside, I spent about 10 minutes waiting to order and staring at Spike bagging burgers for his line cooks. In fact, many of the customers were silent -- like me, they were staring at Spike. He was wearing a signature (ugly) red-and-black hat, and at one point he addressed the crowd: "How's everyone doing? You're all gonna get fed!" He was pretty charming in person.

My boyfriend and I tried the Good Stuff Melt (a burger topped with cheddar, muenster, caramelized onions, mushrooms) and Spike's Village Fries (seasoned with rosemary, thyme and pepper). The burger (like Five Guys, two patties) was pretty tasty. The best I've ever had? No. But it was pretty good. I actually wanted to substitute a turkey patty for the beef one, but the woman at the register didn't know how to do that. Maybe next time, when it's not so hectic.

Posted by Carla Correa at 1:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Top Chef
        

The night starts with an ultra-cool hip-hop routine choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo to Ne-Yo's "Closer." The dancers are all dressed in these funky red running suits that glow in the dark. They move as one. There is a lot of break dancing and tricks. The routine is super-smooth.

There is a lot on the line tonight. Those contestants who survive will make it into the top 10, which means that they will be be part of the So You Think You Can Dance tour in the fall.

Host Cat Deeley gets things started almost immediately when she calls the first two couple on to stage. Comfort and Thayne are first. The clips of last night's routines show that the judges weren't huge fans. Katee and Joshua are also on stage. The clips of their routines are shown, including that insane Bollywood routine. It gives me chills watching it again. The judges loved them the night before. Does the audience agree? Yes. They are safe. Comfort and Thayne are in the bottom three.

Judge Mia Michaels says, "America got it right." She says it will be sad if either leaves. "I don't feel that either one of you has reached your potential. I really want you to stay."

I think Comfort's number is up. She's been in the bottom three almost every week. You can only cheat death so many times ...

Up next: Jessica and Will and Chelsie and Mark. The clips show Jessica and Will's first routine, a contemporary masterpiece that brought down the house. Their second routine -- the quickstep -- wasn't so hot. The clip also includes a stank comment by Mia to Jessica. Chelsie and Mark are next. The judges praised both of their routines. Which couple is in the bottom three? Jessica and Will.

Judge Mary Murphy says her heart is aching to see them in the bottom three. She says Will is magnificent on the stage. Mary says she will be fighting for the pair. (That's not good for Comfort and Thayne.)

Courtney and Gev and Kherington and Twitch are on stage. One couple is in the bottom three. Is it Courtney and Gev, who danced an Indiana Jones-inspired jazz routine and a hot Latin dance? Or is it Kherington and Twitch, who did an ill-received tango? It's Kherington and Twitch.

Judge Nigel Lythgoe says nobody is safe. About Kherington and Twitch, he says, "You showed that you were slightly uncomfortable. That is the danger." Nigel adds that they might be safe this week. (Thayne and Comfort are in serious, serious trouble.)

A trio of Alvin Ailey dancers perform Revelations to "Sinner Man" by Billy Pointer. The routine gives me chills as in conjures images of African-American persistence and strength. The judges give the routine a standing ovation. It is damn good.

It's time to get to the solos. Comfort is first. She dances to "Oh Timbaland" by Timbaland. She works the entire stage. (I think her fate has been determined.) Thayne is next. He dances to "Come Home" by OneRepublic. It's not his best solo. (He's also in trouble.)

Jessica's next with "Best for Last" by Adele. It's a so-so routine. Will dances to "Daraijan" by Kodo. It's a fast-paced African dance. He's barely got on clothes. (Is the temperature rising?) The crowd goes wild. (He's so safe!)

Kherington is next dancing to "All We Are" by OneRepublic. I'm not really impressed. It's forgettable. Twitch is last. He dances to "We Gonna Win" by Miri Ben-Ari. He shows a lot of control as he pops and locks. It's a very popular routine. The crowd screams loudly.

Katy Perry takes the stage and sings "I Kissed A Girl." (I wonder how the ultra-religious viewers in those red states like her performance?) She starts a little shaky but gets stronger as the song progresses.

We're back! Kherington is safe. Comfort and Jessica remain. Jessica is safe because of the overall strength of her routines. (She can so thank Will for that.) Comfort is going home. Comfort says she is blessed and promises that this is not the end of her.

The men are next. Twitch is first. He is safe. Will is next. "You're work is superb," Nigel tells him. Thayne is going home. Nigel tells Thayne that he wishes the judges could send two girls home this week. (Ouch!) He also tells Thayne that Mia Michaels wants to work with him in the future. (I don't know if I've ever heard that before.)

The ever-smiling Thayne doesn't get an opportunity to speak! Not fair!

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: So You Think You Can Dance
        

Maryland Institute College of Art student Bryan East is competing on the second season of MTV's America's Best Dance Crew. Bryan (who dances under the name "Boogie Mind") and his D.C.-based crew, Boogie Bots, have been advancing through the rounds. The Randy Jackson-produced show is filming in Los Angeles, but MICA says Bryan will return to school in September. He'll be a senior.

Crew members Migs and Magic Mike are also Marylanders. Mike, according to his MySpace page, goes to UMBC. Migs' MySpace page says he's a UMBC grad who lives in Baltimore.

America's Best Dance Crew airs at 10 p.m. Thursdays. Check the guys out!

Posted by Carla Correa at 9:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Maryland reality contestants
        

I like the new two-dance per couple format on So You Think You Can Dance. We get right down to the dancing. 

Mark and Chelsie are first with a salsa routine choreographed by Alex Da Silva to "Fuego" by Joe Bataan. She's wearing this God-awful dress with feathers. The dancing is great. They really keep up with the beat and do a great job with all the quick steps and lifts of the demanding routine.

"Terrific opening," Judge Nigel Lythgoe says. He praises Mark. Nigel says that Chelsie was fantastic. Judge Mary Murphy says that the number worked for her. She says Mark could be more loose at the top. "You dance with such power and strength," she adds. Mary also says Chelsie was phenomenal. Judge Mia Michaels says Chelsie is so "freakin' gorgeous." She says the routine was "smokin' hot."

Before commercial break, host Cat Deeley announces that the evening will feature the first Bollywood routine. (Now that I've got to see! I wonder what couple will be assigned this dance?) 

It's not Comfort and Thayne, who are next with a hip-hop routine choreographed by Napoleon and Tabitha D'umo. They dance to "Can We Chill" by Ne-Yo. I love the song and the choreography. Thayne does a pretty good job keeping up with Comfort, who is a hip-hop dancer. Cat describes the routine as a hip-hop Days of Our Lives.

Nigel says that Comfort really didn't relate to Thayne. "I didn't see what you added to the routine," Nigel says to Comfort. He predicts they will be in the bottom three. Mary says the routine lacked chemistry: "There are lots of little nuances that were cool and groovy, but it will not get me to stand up right now." Mia says it was a "little better than good." She says they have to work on chemistry. Mia says Comfort was just "riding." She says Thayne needed to get into the "meat and potatoes" of the piece. (I think they are in big trouble.)

Jessica and Will dance a contemporary piece choreographed by Tyce DiOrio to "Silence" from the Unfaithful soundtrack. They are close to naked, and they are extremely close to one another. The routine is hot.

Nigel says it was stunning. He praises Will's lines and strength. He says that Jessica was keeping up with Will and that he felt a connection. Mary applauds and admits to blushing. "That was one of the most amazing pieces I've seen on the show," she says. Mia says they really explored "newness." "It was like the perfect, moving, human body art," Mia adds. "It just was alive."

Courtney and Gev are next with a cha-cha choreographed by former contestants Anya Garnis and Pasha Kovalev. They dance to a remix of "Don't Stop The Music" by Rihanna. I can't keep my eyes off Courtney. She's so commanding of attention.

Nigel says Courtney is as sexy as Anya. (That's good.) He's says the routine was great fun to watch, and they are perfect with each other. Mary says the routine was magic. "It was hot, cha-cha-cha-cha," Mary says. She says she can overlook Gev's lack of technical work because of the overall performance. She says the routine was on that "Hot Tamale Train." Mia says they are not the best dancers on the show, but they are great performers. "You're killing the floor; you're burning the stage up," she says.

Kherington and Twitch are next with a krumping routine choreographed by Lil' C. They dance to "2 Buck 4 TV" by Tha J-Squad. They are in sync and powerful. Overall, they are pretty good.

Nigel says Kherington did "a damn good job." He also says Twitch did a good job. He says the energy dropped during the last 16 bars. Mary says Twitch did a good job, and Kherington was brilliant. Mia says that was "dirty, disgusting, nasty and buck." (All good things.)

My favorite couple, Katee and Joshua, are next with a waltz choreographed by Jean-Marc Genereux to "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls. (Talk about high school flashbacks!) They are so pretty and fluid on the stage. It is the most acrobatic waltz routine I've seen.

The judges are a little more lukewarm about the routine. Nigel says Joshua was too bouncy. "The rest of it, I think you did very well." He says Katee was very beautiful. Mary says all the lifts were great, but the execution was not there. "As a whole, it was OK," she says. Mia says it was a little more clumsy. "Katee, you are a gift to dance," Mia says.

Chelsie and Mark are next with a Broadway routine choreographed by Tyce DiOrio. They dance to "I'm a Woman" from Smokey Joe's Cafe. Ya'll know how I normally feel about Broadway routines. This one is actually enjoyable. It's very sassy, jazzy and soulful. 

Nigel says the routine was hot. "Terrific routine, he says. "Well done." Mary says it was sultry, sexy,and bluesy. She says Chelsie has a good attitude. Mia says "it worked" and it was "a success." However, she says it showed Mark's lack of technique, and she says she wants to see more movement from Chelsie.

Comfort and Thayne have a contemporary routine choreographed by Mandy Moore. They dance to "A Different Corner" by George Michael. The routine involves a lot of floor work and lifts. There is not a lot of movement.

Nigel says, "I would have liked to see another couple dance it." (Ouch!) Mary says, "It wasn't completely believable." Mia says that Comfort can only "fake technique so much" and that she looks forward to working with Thayne in the future.

Jessica and Will are next with a quickstep choreographed by Tony Meredith and Melanie LaPatin. They dance to "Bandstand Boogie" by Barry Manilow. They start with a series of acrobatics.

Nigel says the performance was good, but the actual quickstep was not. Mary says Will's outfit worked against the routine; she also didn't like the routine. Mia says Jessica was stiff and disconnected. She says Will looks tired of carrying Jessica. "Will, you need a new partner." (That stings!)

Courtney and Gev are next with a Mandy Moore jazz routine. They dance to "Standing There" by The Creatures. Their outfits remind me of Indiana Jones (bad memories ... ). The routine is fast-paced.

Nigel says it was fun with no substance. Mary says it was rough and raw. "I loved the routine. I loved the way you danced it," she says. She says Courtney is dynamic. "It was just pure entertainment," she says. Mia tells them they are one of her top couples.  

Kherington and Twitch are next with a smooth tango choreographed by Jean-Marc Genereux. They dance to "Assassin's Tango" from Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Twitch compares the routine to the movie. It's actually kind of boring.

Nigel says Twitch didn't seem "honest."  "The steps weren't quite right," he says. Nigel says there was no passion from Kherington. "You murdered the dance routine; not each other." Mary says the middle of the routine didn't really work. Mia, who has been very tough on the competitors all night, says they were not committed. "There was nothing there," Mia says. "It was a little stiff for me."

Katee and Joshua end the evening with the Bollywood routine choreographed by Nakul Dev Mahajan. They dance to "Dhoom Taana" from Om Shanti Om. It is my favorite routine of the night. It has so much energy, and it makes me feel good. They are such performers. She looks beautiful; he is so powerful. They make such a wonderful couple. They can basically handle any form of dancing.

"Fantastic," Nigel says. "That was tremendous. Good work." Mary says they are stars. "You guys did everything right," she says. "You guys were amazing. You are definitely back on the Hot Tamale Train." Mia says it was great fun. "Great job. Great work."

I predict Comfort and Thayne, Jessica and Will and Kherington and Twitch will be in the bottom three.

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 1:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: So You Think You Can Dance
        

She won more challenges than any other competitor in the history of Hell's Kitchen. It was fitting that 25-year-old culinary student Christina Machamer defeated Louis Petrozza, a 47-year-old catering director, and took the top prize as the new executive chef of Chef Gordon Ramsay's London restaurant in West Hollywood. In addition to the new title, Christina also wins $250,000. Not bad.

"Christina had the least amount of experience going into Hell's Kitchen," Ramsay said. "But she had the most potential. I absolutely made the right decision."

I honestly had no idea whom Ramsay was going to chose. He was so complimentary of each contestant.

The win wasn't without some struggle. Controversial contestants Matt and Jen lived up to their bad reputations and nearly screwed it up for both contestants. Matt, who was working in Jen's kitchen, struggled with monkfish. Jen, who was working for Petrozza, struggled with onion rings! (Unbelievable!)

Overall, the final dinner service was pretty good.

"What a night!" Ramsay said. He told both that they did a good job during their service.

Both Petrozza and Christina sounded very confident going into the final decision. 

"I don't want to lose to Chrisitna," Petrozza said. "Christina's a kid. A very talented kid, but still a kid."

Christina had the last laugh.

(Photo courtesy of Fox) 

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 10:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Here's a rambling recap (sorry, the three hours were hard to keep track of) of last night's Bachelorette finale for any of you who did not see it (but from the droves of comments, it seems like everyone was watching).

The final episode includes a visit with her family. DeAnna says Jesse and Jason's visit will not be the same as Brad's -- that the family will be leery. Chrissy, D's sister, says the Brad situation crushed her family.

Jason shows up first with flowers and such. The fact that he has a son gives dad pause. But otherwise, the family really likes Jason. Jason tells Chrissy that he hasn't felt this strong for anyone -- that he thought he did when he got married, but he didn't. I'm sure his ex-wife, however awful she might be, will appreciate that comment. Jason also asks Mr. Pappas for D's hand. He says: "I am in love with your daughter, and I did not expect to say that right now." Dad comments that nobody has ever had the guts to ask him that before. I didn't watch the Brad Womack season, so I'm assuming that the much-talked-about Brad did NOT ask for D's hand. More Jason love ensues. The family really likes him.

Jesse's up. He nervous and sweaty, but he DID get his hair cut. I think it's cute that he's not as suave as Jason. Meeting the family after six or so weeks, PLUS TV cameras -- who wouldn't be nervous? "Jesse is not a guy DeAnna has normally dated," D's dad tells us. DeAnna's worried that he's so nervous that he might not be showing the family whom he really is. The sister seems to be doubting this match, too. My favorite comment has to be when Dad mentions that he doesn't want D to skimp on visits to Georgia once she's married: "I have a son that is 6 foot 5, 350 pounds that will come and hunt you down." (I think he said son? Please correct me if I'm wrong.) Dad adds that the only thing he feels like he knows about Jesse is that he snowboards, and that he thinks Jason looks at D differently than Jesse. Jesse thinks he blew it. I think, at this point, Jesse must have it in the bag. The editing is key here, and I really think that the show wants us to think Jason's the one.

I also don't know why I wrote down more notes about the Jesse visit, but I did. I like Jason. He's attractive, well-spoken, etc. But the odd couple idea is more fun.

So, then both bachelors have a meal at the same time with the family. A bit awkward. My notes are a bit awkward, too, so here are the highlights: Grandpa's advice (to Jesse? to Jason?): "Always agree with your wife." Jesse comments (to the camera, to the grandparents, to her dad? I can't remember), "I'm just so into her, it hurts." He mentions he's found himself crying over DeAnna. Jesse, too, asks Dad for D's hand. Dad asks Jesse if he's ready. Well, he gets butterflies and his palms sweat! Finally, dad tells Jesse: "When you have my daughter with you, you keep the hair short." Sister-in-law Crystal comments that Jason and his son might fast-forward D's life. "Do you see one as the father of your children more than the other?" asks sister Chrissy.

Back to the Bahamas fun stuff. Jesse and DeAnna go to "their own island." They see fish. Jesse talks more about how great D is. "When you love someone, every second you get to be with them is ridiculous," he says (or something that like). Seriously, what a great sound bite. He then pulls out a little surprise for her. It's a book of thoughts, and, honestly, it's really pretty. He says that he hopes to get the opportunity to continue the book with her, then reads it out loud. He tells her he loves him. She doesn't say it back, she tells the camera, because she only wants to say it to one guy.

J No. 2 and D take a boat to middle of ocean -- they are swimming with sharks! It's a pretty cool date. Afterward, he unveils a board game he made for her called "Eight Roses." I'm not sure which handmade gift I like better. The game took them through their dates and things they've done. One "card" tells them to relive their first kiss. While kissing, she remembered that he put her hand on her chin. Another card reads, "It's secret time: Ask Jason to tell you something new." I know what's coming. You guessed it: He tells her he loves her. Like with Jesse, she doesn't say it back.

Next up: obligatory balcony-based reflection scene. "I can only hope he feels the same way about me," she says about the one she's chosen. Seriously? I  think he does. These guys are dripping with infatuation, love, sappiness, etc.

Time to look at rings: The jewelers asks Jason: "First time you're looking at rings?" Actually not, he says. Hee! Jesse freaks out a bit on the way there. They both pick out huge diamonds. 

For the big day, Jason picks out a snazzy orange tie. Jesse wears a pinkish shirt and a paisley tie (Something a dad would wear, my boyfriend comments.) Jesse has some hand-written notes, which I swear say something like "many years of whip cream? ... cherry?" I have no idea. Maybe I'm seeing things. D, who says she is now "100 percent sure," is wearing a fabulous strapless dress that fades from blue to green.

The best part is seeing who comes out of the limo first, then you KNOW who the winner is! They NEVER reverse this on this show. It's Jason! He tells his the orange tie was Ty's idea: orange for Georgia peach. Aw! J bends down on one knee, and she says, "No , I can't ... let me talk to you." She says she knows her life would have been good with him, but that she's in love with someone else. She adds that she meant everything she said to him. Jason kind of looks around. "I really did fall in love with you," he says. There's a long hug. He leaves. His expression in the limo says it all.  

Jesse's up! D calls Jesse "man of my dreams." It's a cute proposal, and D finally gets to tell him that she loves him. It ends with her saying, "I can't believe I'm going to marry the guy with the pink shoelaces!" And the hideous jacket. But Jesse does seem to have a heart of gold.

Posted by Carla Correa at 1:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Bachelor/Bachelorette
        

Last night, DeAnna Pappas picked Jesse, a snowboarder, over Jason, dad and account executive. I'm still watching the "After the Final Rose" special (three hours of The Bachelorette on one night!), so look for a recap/more gossip tomorrow.

 (Photo courtesy of ABC)

Posted by Carla Correa at 10:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (212)
Categories: Bachelor/Bachelorette
        

Our very own Sarah Kickler Kelber passes along this funny YouTube find. Check it out:

Talk about tedious editing!

Posted by Carla Correa at 2:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Guest blogger Lindsay Diokno recaps the first episode of I Love Money: 

I watched the first episode of I Love Money last night, and it was about what I expected -- a lot of smack talk, even more censor beeps and little in the way of clothing. Oh, and someone was eliminated (like that's why I'm watching the show).

The show opened with our 17 contestants arriving at their Mexican paradise by boat. There's footage of the contestants jumping from their boats to the beach and fighting for beds. Boring. All you need to know is that Midget Mac and Mr. Boston don't get beds. Mr. Boston proceeds to be as awkward as possible -- he asks one woman if he can share a bed with her, then changes clothes in the kitchen in front of a second. Mr. Boston is the guy you knew in college who toes the line between awkwardly desperate and completely creepy; you want to root for him, but he makes it very difficult.

(I could talk about the alliances and romantic "bonds" that have already formed, but you know those will be out the window by the next episode, so we'll look at those next week.)

Before the first challenge, the contestants are each given an oversized check for the $250,000 prize, and they're told that when they're "bounced" from the show, their check will be voided. I'm bowled over by this clever wordplay. The contestants also talk about what they'll do with the money if they win.

Toastee says she can't get employment because of her alleged appearance in some materials that are decidedly not family-friendly, so she'll use the money to pay for med school. The Entertainer wants to get out of his parents' house. Whiteboy wants to pay off his bills. Heat and Hoopz want to help out their families.

Some are … potentially more or less admirable: Brandi C. wants to build a life-sized Barbie House. I, too, have always wanted to live in a pink-and-purple Dream House. Megan wants to rescue mentally challenged dogs. So … yeah. Nibblz wants to expand her dominatrix dungeon. I had an English teacher who said the dominatrix profession is one of the three highest-paying careers for women in the U.S. I guess it must not be paying well enough if Nibblz has to compete for $250,000.

Then, the first challenge is given: Each contestant has 30 seconds to stuff his or her bikini with pesos while in a money booth. The two with the highest amount of money will be team captains and pick the two teams for the show. Some people are disqualified for one reason or another, but Midget Mac refuses to wear his bikini all together -- between that and some harsh words he yelled at some of the female contestants, take a wild guess who's getting eliminated this week. Mr. Boston proves himself a creeper once again -- in order to fit more money in his bikini bottom, he pulls out toilet paper that he was using to pad the swimsuit. For some reason, everyone else's bottoms fit normally, but Mr. Boston's fits like a thong. I'm currently drafting my petition to stop him from wearing skimpy Speedos.

The winners are Hoopz and Whiteboy, so they're safe from elimination, and everyone but Midget Mac starts brown-nosing. Teams are picked, and the only really funny moment was Brandi C. doing 10 weak push-ups, falling down after and getting picked last. Midget Mac refused to apologize to the women he insulted, so he was 'bounced."

The final teams are:

Gold: Hoopz, Rodeo, 12 Pack, Entertainer, Heather, Toastee, Pumkin and Nibblz

Green: Whiteboy, Chance, Real, Mr. Boston, Heat, Destiney, Megan and Brandi C.

Picks for the winner? Hoopz, Rodeo or Heather. Rodeo is physically strong and can keep her cool when everyone else starts getting upset. Heather and Hoopz are both competitive and may play a little smarter than everyone else.

Picks for the best fight? A lot of the guys on this show get very violent very fast, so there's a good chance of Mr. Boston getting a beatdown. But based on Flavor of Love, I'm gonna have to say Pumkin getting into a brawl will be the best fight. Picks for the best "romantic bond"? I can't even consider Real, because the preview of him wooing Hoopz actually looks sincere. Heather gets with one of the guys in the previews, so that could lead to some great arguments and alcohol-infused affection. But I'm a fan of classic love triangles, so I'm rooting for the Destiney/Entertainer/Heat angle.

That's about all the reality TV I can talk about for today, so I’ll leave you with this clip of Midget Mac. Stay classy, Midget Mac.

Posted by Carla Correa at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: I Love Money
        

The episode starts with a Tyce DiOrio Broadway routine to "Money, Money" from Cabaret. By now, I think you know how I feel about Broadway routines. This one is no exception. It's lame. 

After the five minutes of bad theater are over, host Cat Deeley gets right down to business. Deeley, who has redeemed herself with a stunning red dress and gold necklace that looks like something Cleopatra would have worn, announces the first two couples: Kherington and Twitch and Joshua and Katee.

Deeley announces that both are safe. The two teams freak out and jump around with enthusiasm. (I wonder how they would act if they won the competition?)

Kourtni L. and Matt are next. The night before they performed a hip-hop routine that the judges hated, and a Mambo routine that faired better with the judges. They are in the bottom three.

Courtney G. and Gev are next. The night before they performed a hip-hop routine and then a Broadway routine. They are in the bottom three. Judge Nigel Lythgoe says there is no real reason why they are there. "It's just the way it goes," he says. 

Chelsie H. and Mark are next. They performed a jazz routine and a foxtrot. They are safe.

Comfort and Thayne are did a Broadway routine and a slow waltz. Jessica and Will performed a jive and a lyrical jazz routine. Comfort and Thayne are the third couple in the bottom three.

Time for the solos. Kourtni L. is first. She dances to "No Man" by Nina Stone. She's so graceful, and she makes each move look effortless. Matt is next, dancing to "Sweet Contentment" by Bradley James and the Roades. His leaps are huge, and his moves are so fluid.

Courtney G. is next. It's her first time in the bottom three (and Gev's). She dances to "What's Another Day" by Maria Mena, an artist from Norway. Her routine is fast-paced. Gev has a routine to "Everybody Loves A Carnival " by Fatboy Slim. He's very entertaining with a series of pops, locks and drops. He ends with a running front flip. The crowd goes wild.

Comfort is next with a routine to "Hit The Floor" by Twista featuring Pitbull. I'm scared that her solo might not be enough to get her through another week. Thayne dances to "I Want To Break Free" by Queen. He seems very enthusiastic as he hurls his body through the air. He's always so entertaining.

OneRepublic is next. Deeley announces that the group has sold more than 8 million albums. Surprisingly, the guys are not singing their hit "Apologize." The song they choose to sing, "Say (All I Need)," is horrible.

The judges are back with their decisions.Nigel goes into a sappy speech about how he has never cared about group of contestants on the show as much as this year. (Oh, brother!) He announces that the judges are not unanimous in their decision about the female performers.

Courtney G. is safe. She breaks down, and cries. Nigel tells Comfort that he didn't vote for her because she had a weak solo. She's safe. Kourtni's out. She says she is thankful for the opportunity. "This is not even the top for me," she promises.

It's time for the men. Gev is first. Nigel tells him that the judges were "absolutely pleased" with his solo. He's safe. Nigel says Matt has not progressed since he has joined the show. He's eliminated. Thayne is safe.
Matt says his favorite moment has been performing with the other dances on stage. He says they are the best in the world.

Do you agree with the eliminations?

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: So You Think You Can Dance
        

The seven couples will perform twice. So host Cat Deeley, who was dreadfully adorned in this horrible black and white dress -- gets right to work.

Jessica and Will are first with the jive choreographed by Tony Meredith and Melanie LaPatin to "Choo Choo Ch' Boogie" from Five Guys Named Moe. Will is much more polished than Jessica. Judge Mary Murphy says there are a lot of missed connections. Overall a good performance, she says. Judge Nigel Lythgoe agrees with the other judges and basically says Jessica is the weaker of the two.

Comfort and Thayne do a Broadway routine choreographed to "Cool" from West Side Story. Judge Tabitha D'Umo says she feels the chemistry. Judge Napoleon D'Umo also likes it. Mary says she likes the new partnership. She says she is proud of Comfort's performance. She says that Thayne does a good job. Nigel says it wasn't good enough.  

Kourtni and Matt are next with a Cicely Bradley and Olisa Thompson hip-hop routine to "How Do I Breath" by Mario. I immediately notice how off Kourtni is during the performance. Matt's really overshadowing her.
Tabitha says she's surprised with Matt's performance. Napoleon says it's not good enough. Mary says she doesn't feel the performance. Nigel says there is nothing to get a hold of. "It was a bit like hip-hop on sleeping pills," he says. (Ouch!) 

Chelsie and Mark do a Mandy Moore jazz routine to "Kiss Kiss" by Holly Valance. It's very fast and entertaining. Tabitha says they are able to tell the story. Napoleon says they have a good chemistry. Mary screams that she loves the routine. Nigel says they are the first couple of the night with a connection. "Together ... magic," he says.

Kherington and Twitch are next with a paso doble choreographed by Tony Meredith and Melanie LaPatin to "Malaguena" by Brian Setzer. They both make use of caps to start the routine. it's high energy. His posture is a little strange. Napoleon praises the routine. Tabitha says it is a slow build. Mary says the routiine is full of passion. She says the cap work is so-so. She says the routine is "just OK." Nigel says it is entertianing. Nigel says Twitch needs to work on his shoulder position. He basically says Twitch is the weaker of the two.

Katee and Joshua do a contemporary routine choreographed by Mia Michaels to "Hometown Glory" by Adele. It's one of the most dramatic pieces of the night. They stay in character throughout. The crowd loves it. Tabitha says she loves the routine. She says the pair commands the stage. Napoleon says "they've got it." Mary says they haven't messed up through the course of the compeition. She says that Katee is amazing. Nigel says the routine is simple in look and really difficult to do. He says they are one of the three or four couples that will make the season phenomenal.

Courtney G. and Gev are next with a hip-hop routine choreographed by Olisa Thompson and Cicely Bradley to "Lights, Camera, Action!" by Mr. Cheeks. She does a great job. She actually reminds me of a flygirl from In Living Color. She's got skills. Napoleon says Courtney does a better job than Gev. Tabitha says she's feeling Courtney. Mary says Gev isn't hitting it hard enough, but Courtney kills the routine. Nigel says it's fun and funky but doesn't sit comfortably.

Jessica and Will do a lyrical jazz routine choreographed by Mandy Moore to "Alone" by Heart. Mary says the couple is on the "hot tamale train." Nigel says it is fabulous. "It is absolutely beautiful," Nigel says.

Comfort and Thayne are next with a smooth waltz choreographed by Edward Simon to "Hov Arek Sarer Jan" by New Age Armenia. It's a very peaceful yet sensual routine. Napoleon says he really enjoys it. Tabitha says Comfort looks like an angel. She says she's not crazy about Thayne. "It felt phony," she says. Mary says she loves it. "Wow!" Mary says. She praises Comfort. Nigel agrees. He praises the lifts. He says Comfort looks beautiful.

Kourtni and Matt are next with the mambo. They dance to an Alex Da Silva routine to "Ban Con Tin" by Super All-Star. She rebounds from their first routine. It isn't as tight as it should have been. Tabitha says she's hot and cold on the routine. Napoleon says Matt needs to get down more. Mary says Kourtni is hot but that she doesn't believe the chemistry. She says it is too bouncy. Nigel says they don't extend enough. "It's just got to be stronger for me," Nigel says. He then tells audience members that they shouldn't come if they are going to boo comments. (Wow, Nigel!)

Chelsie and Mark  dance the Foxtrot to "It's My Life" by Paul Anka. It feels very old Hollywood. Tabitha praises Chelsie. Napoleon says they are a pleasure to watch. He says they look like they love to dance. Mary says it is elegant and classy. Nigel says Mark is very uncomfortable, and that he should stop dancing from the tips of his toes.

Kherington and Twitch are next with a Mia Michael's contemporary routine to "Dreaming With a Broken Heart" by John Mayer. It's a very imaginative piece. It involves a mattress that is elevated at a slant. The two dance about and jump on and off the bed. They even throw rose petals throughout the routine. Tabitha says they redeem themselves. Napoleon says Twitch does a great job. Mary says it is powerful and dynamic. She loves it. Nigel says they are committed to the routine. "I couldn't stop watching it," he says, adding that they are the second couple to watch.

Katee and Joshua are next with a West Coast swing routine choreographed by Benji Schwimmer to "Shake It" by Brother Yusef.  They do a series of flips, lifts and quick steps. They are so entertaining. Mary says it is a great routine. Nigel says they have the ability to adapt to different styles. "Well done, the pair of you," he says.

Courtney G. and Gev are the last to perform. They do a Broadway routine to "New York, New York" from On The Town. They have a good amount of tricks. But I'm not a huge fan of Broadway. It's so over-the-top and cheesy. Tabitha says overall the performance is amazing. Mary says it is dynamic. "You guys could be headed to the finals," she says, Nigel says the routine is terrific. "You gave it everything you had to give, and that was enough for me tonight," he says.

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: So You Think You Can Dance
        

Guest blogger Lindsay Diokno previews VH1's I Love Money:

I'm not proud that I've seen almost every episode of every season of Flavor of Love, Rock of Love and I Love New York, but I'm still going to watch I Love Money.
 
The premise is simple -- contestants from VH1's dating shows milk their 15 minutes of fame by competing to win $250,000. You'll find it more entertaining if you remember this show isn't exactly Emmy material.
 
Not as familiar with the contestants as I (sadly) am? VH1 is airing the questionably named "Meet the All Stars" casting special all week. If you can't catch one of the 10 or 15 airings a day, here's the cast rundown before Sunday's premiere:

Posted by Carla Correa at 9:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: I Love Money
        

After a near 10-minute recap of the season, it was time to get down to business and see who was going to win Hell's Kitchen. Too bad we're going to have to wait until next week to find out.

Petrozza and Christina were charged with creating their own restaurant. That meant each was allowed to craft their own menu and design their own dinning room. Christina seemed to have a better sense of what she wanted; Petrozza seemed to be a little indecisive. Chef Gordon Ramsay called the two into his office and told them that he was having second thoughts if they were right for the top prize.

Of course, this was done to be extra dramatic. Ramsay was joking. He told them that he in fact had the right contestants for the final. (Come on now. We knew there was no way Ramsay was going to second-guess his own picks.)

Ramsay reminded the two finalists what was on the line -- an executive chef position at London restaurant of West Hollywood.

He then informed the two that he wanted them to visit his other restaurant in New York City. While in New York, Ramsay asked each to make their signature dish to be judged by executive chefs from his restaurants from around the world.

Christina made New York strip steak, fingerling potatoes and sweet corn succotash. Petrozza made filet mignon with caramelized onion risotto.

Petrozza won 3-2. As a result, he earned the first pick of former contestants that Ramsay invited back to help the two finalists cook and then serve their food to customers.

(For what it's worth, Whoppi Goldberg made a special appearance to wish the contestants good luck. She was literally on scene for a couple of seconds.)

When the pair returned to Los Angeles, Christina was disgusted by the way her restaurant was developing. She was totally against the color scheme of the room -- even though she picked it out. In something resembling Mommy Dearest, Christina totally did an about face and demanded that the window treatments and wallpaper be changed.

While the crew scrambled to adjust to Christina's mercurial behavior, it was time for the two contestants to choose from the ousted contestants.  

Petrozza first picked Bobby. Christina chose Corey. Petrozza chose Ben. Christina picked Louross. And then the show ended with a lame "to be continued" preview for the second part of the finale next week. I was totally disappointed that I'd have to wait another week to learn the winning cook. And I immediately wanted to find out who was going to get stuck with Jen and Matt. (Lord knows that neither wanted to chose either contestant.) We'll see next week. 

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 7:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

American Idol finalist Kristy Lee Cook apparently has signed a record deal with 19 Recordings/Arista Nashville. Her first single, "15 Minutes of Shame," is expected in August. A shame is right. Say it ain't so! Kristy Lee Cook was soooo bad on this season of Idol. I am simply shocked. I admit that country music is not my favorite, but I know good singing when I hear it. She doesn't have it.

How can you compare Cook to Carrie Underwood or even Kellie Pickler? You can't. She doesn't have the vocal chops or stage presence of either Idol-alumna-turned-country-music star. Heck, I don't think Cook could hold court with a number of the contestants on this season of Nashville Star.

Please, please, please somebody tell me what is so special about Ms. Cook?

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 5:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: American Idol
        

I'm finally getting around to recapping last night's episode of The Bachelorette. I wish I had consistently recapped the show, but I kept getting so darn confused about when it was on ( 8 p.m.? 9 p.m.? One hour or two?) and ultimately always missed a good chunk of the show.

DeAnna Pappas might have thought that former pro basketball player Graham would be the one standing in the end: But he wasn't. Jesse, Jason and Jeremy are on Grand Bahama Island for dates (overnight, perhaps?) with D. First up, Jeremy.

DeAnna wants to see Jeremy cut loose and have fun. Fun = a spin on Jet Skis. Then, they sit on the beach. But the date is not so fun. In fact, it's awkward. As in silence and staring. Time for dinner. More awkwardness. My boyfriend yells from the kitchen: "It's like The Hills! There's no talking!" Jeremy is reminding me more of a teenage boy with a crush on the cheerleading captain than the confident front-runner we all pegged him to be. Finally, he gets out what he's been wanting to say: He is falling in love with her. (I still don't buy the whole "I love you"-in-six-dates scenario.) Next comes the fantasy suite invite. For those readers not familiar with the show, host Chris Harrison "sends" a note asking the men if they'd like to spend the night with the bachelorette. Jeremy's quick reply is, "Should we go now?" He says his dream is that he's down on one knee, proposing to DeAnna. She's on "cloud nine." I am kind of bored. They disappear behind a closed door.

Jason, the cute 31-year-old account executive and father is ready for his date. He says D "hasn't seen the real exciting, fun side" of Jason. Their activity is an off-road jeep drive (DeAnna says that while driving, Jason "wasn't playing it safe." Are they having fun yet? Yes.) followed by a picnic in a remote spot. They go kayaking. Jason tells the camera that he's falling more in love with DeAnna. During dinner, his response to the fantasy suite is  "Yeah!" -- then he throws the card into the air. (Note: If Chris is indeed sending these invites, his handwriting is very feminine.) Jason then says he snuck out and went shopping last night, and presents her with a sand-dollar necklace. He thanks her "for something that hasn't happened to me in a long time" and "for teaching me that i can fall in love again." Is this sappy? Yes. I usually hate sap, but there's something about Jason that I really like.

Finally, Jesse. DeAnna says she needs Jesse to act like her boyfriend (they just had their first kiss last episode, but she's been kissing the other guys for quite some time). They go horseback riding (on the beach and in the ocean), which looks awfully fun to me despite the fact that every time I ride a horse, I fall off it. Jesse says to DeAnna, "You are ridiculous!" I'm assuming he's talking about the awesome date, but don't these guys get that the producers probably create these fabulous scenarios? At dinner, J tells D that she looks stunning. (She's wearing a 1980-ish, off-the-shoulder striped baggy shirt and headband. I'm not feeling it.) They discuss how they're on the "before 30" program for kids, which probably makes many viewers feel old. More serious discussion ensues about how she'll fit into Jesse's snowboarding life. When it comes to the fantasy suite, Jesse responds: "I don't know if I can [stay overnight with you] before I meet your dad." DeAnna: "Are you for real?" "Finally! Good television!" I think. But then Jesse says, "Just kidding!"

Elimination time. Jesse gets the first rose. Wow! I didn't expect that one. But hey, maybe opposites attract. And he is a sweet guy. Next? Jason! Perfect-on-paper Jeremy is out! He can't even look at her. DeAnna tells him that she didn't want to confuse the bond over losing parents (both his parents are dead; her mom died) for love. She apologizes and cries. "I didn't see it coming," he says. Then, once in the limo, being driven away to his non-DeAnna existence, he tells the driver to stop! But does he do anything crazy, like run back and beg for her love? No, he just kind of walks around outside and wallows.

Next up! The "Men Tell All" special. I'll sum up the hour with three highlights:

Jeremy exudes so much more personality. He gets cuter in my eyes. DeAnna lets us know that she wanted to end up with him so badly but that her dates with the other J's made it clear that he wasn't the one. Perhaps he will be the next bachelor?

Some suitor I've long since forgotten about calls D "Obsessive Compulsive DeAnna." I find this pretty funny. She is fairly obsessive about telling the guys that they need to open up.

Finally, our bachelorette tells us: "I am very happy, I am in love, and I am engaged."

Who do you think she'll end up with? (I've read that many of the guys think Jesse will be the one.) What did you think of the episode? Should people in their mid- to late-20s be going on a TV to find a spouse? 

Posted by Carla Correa at 10:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (51)
Categories: Bachelor/Bachelorette
        

Just when you think you've got a good idea of what's going to happen on The Mole, a new twist leads you in another direction. I was totally caught off guard with the contestant eliminated in this episode. But I'll get to that a little later.  

The show started where it ended last week. Craig said he was still recovering from hypothermia. He was totally dreading the first mission, and for good reason. The group was taken to an old, abandoned prison for the task, which required them to free themselves after being chained together. The key to their freedom could only be accessed if the group agreed to allow each contestant enough slack in the chain to reach it. The catch? Next to the key was an exemption. If any contestant took the exemption, he would then force the remaining contestants to sleep in the cold prison the rest of the night.
 

Craig freed himself and did not take the exemption. Kristen was next, and so on. When it came down to Alex and Mark, there was a bit of a standstill. Alex was finally able to persuade Mark to allow him to free himself. He didn't take the exemption. 

That left Mark. Several of the contestants thought that Mark was going to take the exemption, but he didn't. He later confessed that he didn't take it because it would draw suspicion to himself. (Mole behavior?) 

The next day, the group left the Andes Mountains and went to Mendoza, Argentina. The group split into two vans and drove to a new location, which host Jon Kelley described as "The Napa Valley" of Argentina. Paul made sure the road trip remained interesting. He started taunting Clay to the point that they almost came to blows. Clay went so far as to throw a lemon at Paul. Eventually, Clay got into the other van to get away from the always-prickly Paul. The group got to Mendoza without further incident.

In the episode's second challenge, the group was required to complete a race using different means of transportation. Craig, who was "selected" leader, was able to decide the way each competitor would complete the mission. Craig could choose from a variety of modes, including a scooter and bicycle. But Craig was tempted to handicap his teammates: If none of the contestants made it to the finish line, Craig would receive an exemption. (Craig was selected leader because he was the first contestant to say the word exemption during a conversation with Jon. Totally Mole behavior!)

Craig made the contestants use the worst forms of transportation possible. Clay had to ride a unicycle. Kristen had to use stilts. The funniest mode was when Craig selected sworn enemies Nicole and Paul to dress in a llama outfit.

Needless to say, the contestants were none too pleased. In fact, they refused to complete the mission. (Craig later said he suspected Mark of being the Mole for persuading the group not to finish.) As a result, the group did not add any more money to the pot, and Craig got an exemption. The contestants were really mad at Craig. He lost the trust and respect of most of them.

The elimination basically came out of nowhere. Looking back at it, I guess there was a little foreshadowing that Kristen would leave. There was a little clip of all the contestants talking about their strategy. Kristen admitted to focusing her attention on the same contestant each quiz. Other contestants said they used an encompassing method that didn't adversely affect them if they suspected the wrong person of being the Mole.

I'm really sad to see Kristen go. She was a fierce competitor. I liked her strength and intelligence. I also thought she had a decent shot of either winning the competition or being the Mole.  

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 5:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: The Mole