Warm Glowing Warming Glow

So You Think You Can Dance Top 6

Wow! Is it just me or is there a huge difference between eight dancers and six? The stage looks empty. Where is everyone? That said, I think we have the right final three. Maybe Gev should have been there, too, I don't know. Joshua winks before his solo and my stomach flips over. He's going to win!

Cat is wearing silver, per usual. I like the flippy hair. Not crazy about the dress.

No time for the usual introductory blather from the judges. Adam Shankman is our guest judge, which is surprising and not encouraging.

Mark/Courtney. This is pretty good, although it makes me nervous because Mark is super-femme-y and I keep expecting someone -- Nigel -- to draw attention to it. Shankman is surprisingly brief. But, as if to make up for that, Mary is unusually incoherent, almost Paula-Abdul-like, in fact. What am I saying? Mary can never even at her worst approach Paula. But the shouting is starting to make me very tired. OK. We're safe -- no limp wrist talk from Uncle Nigel.

Chelsie. Pussycat Dolls. Uh-oh. Is this smart, Chelsie? Does your audience want to think of you as a Pussycat Doll? Chelsie! You are not a whore!

Twitch. Midnight Star. Gold teeth, glasses. I feel like the take-away from Will's ouster was that America does not like gimmicks, and this routine . . . is nothing but gimmicks. OK, some good moves, but this is 90% bullshit and 10% mugging. But. I'm a sucker . . . for Cat. Her post-routine bits with the glasses and teeth make me laugh out loud.

Joshua/Katee. Another weepy contemporary piece. It's technically flawless, but super-boring -- and I usually like the lachrymose shit. The judges like it, I think. Shankman for some reason just rambles about himself for about 15 minutes and I have to wander away.

Chelsie/Twitch. Wow. No one wants to say it, but I will: Twitch just shat the bed. The judges fall all over themselves trying not to criticize him. Oh wait. No, actually, Nigel says it, pretty much. Is it just me or is Twitch in serious trouble?

Katee. Worst musical taste of the top 20? Hi, Katee! This routine sucks. Am I wrong? She doesn't show us anything in this routine.

Joshua. Memphis Bleek. This took maybe a little too long to get started and the best stuff was after the music had stopped. There was also a lot of just walking around between moves. But does it matter?

Mark/Courtney. It's a Sonya routine. I'm going to vomit from the anticipation. Huh. Good piece for these two (especially Mark), although it didn't speak to me as much as Sonya's others have. Of course the judges -- not Shankman, to his credit -- freak out about what a head case Sonya is. Whatever.

Joshua/Katee. I think I just had a seizure. Shankman makes a veiled reference to the presidential campaign. Right? Then Mary, predictably, shrieks herself hoarse, again. Nigel pretends he's going to criticize Joshua but instead says what I'm thinking, which is that Joshua has thrown the entire enterprise off balance with his awesomeness. Mary shrieks again. I want to rescind my seizure complaint now, because I've got a real problem: I think that prolonged exposure to Mary's voice is giving me deep tissue bruises -- everywhere.

Courtney. Elisa -- whoever the Hell that is. This looks like the same thing she's danced every week for as long as I can remember. But it might be enough.

Mark. It's a good performance, and a smart one, which is to say that he whips his shirt off.

Twitch/Chelsie. This is maybe the funniest routine we've ever seen. This is great. Somehow, though, for Shankman, it's all about his own film career. I give up. Mary seems to be saying goodbye to Twitch. Interesting.

Out: Oh, God. I can't tell. Twitch and Courtney? Joshua and Chelsie aren't going anywhere, but of the other four, I think any of them could be eliminated. This is crazy -- just let all six compete in the final.

More Hills Anticipation/Dread

The Fug Girls break down the exquisite Hills season four trailer here. I'm totally onboard now, if only because they'll be watching.

So You Think You Can Dance Top 8

Opening dance sequence -- I love Joshua. He dances the shit out of his five seconds. Almost as good? Katee's beehive.

Cat Deeley is wearing a clingy black jersey number, super-short. Hair:loose. It's a good look. Still maybe a little more bronzer than I'm comfortable with, but good just the same.

Will/Courtney. My freaking Fox affiliate decided to shrink our show to about a fifth of the screen because it's raining outside, and it's possible some viewers are unaware of that. So, I couldn't really see, but the judges liked this. Something about Will and 300 -- I hate it when Uncle Nigel makes pop culture references.

Comfort. I think I've lost all perspective on Comfort. I feel like I keep seeing things in her that no one else does.

Twitch/Katee. These two are friends in real life. In this piece, Katee is playing -- I can't help but sense -- Mia Michaels. I'm sorry. I didn't love this piece. I loved Twitch in it, so much. Otherwise, this felt like someone told Mia, "Write a piece for that Duffy song." Am I wrong? It's good, but it's not truly crazy or personal the way Mia's usually are. Then the judges are out of hand for about 15 minutes. Toni Basil (I know! I can't believe I haven't said anything about her before, either!) says some stuff I have to translate and then immediately forget. Mary screams some thing long and incomprehensible, possibly about North Carolina.  Then there's a long, unfunny discussion about whether or not Nigel has ever imprisoned Mary. I'm serious -- I may have misunderstood the whole thing because at some point I stopped being able to process information, but that's what I think I heard.

Will. Wow. So this seems like a huge stunt to convince America that Will has a personality, and then the routine itself is one long insult with a wig on top. Wow. Either he's safe this week because he's Will, who can apparently do no wrong, or he's goneso because Jesus! He wasted most of his time standing in the back and then he did like a split. It was all wig! I'm insulted. I think America should be insulted.

Mark/Comfort. Wow. This was so much better than I expected -- I thought Mark would suck, but he was excellent. Then Nigel insulted Comfort -- "You're so much better when you perform to choreography." Wow. And that's the end of Comfort on this show.

Katee. My local Fox affiliate has fucked things up so badly that I can barely see this. It's just a series of stills accompanied by weird buzzes and clicks.

Joshua/Chelsie. Reception still blows, then it returns. Wow! I think it says a lot that Chelsie can hold her own with Joshua. Of course the downside to turning the shit out on a number like this is that Mary Murphy is going to scream at you about her God damn Hot Tamale Train. Toni Basil, though, is surprisingly lucid and measured in her response. She says what I think we all kind of think, at this point: "How can you not respond to Chelsie?"

Missed some in the middle . . .Mark's solo routine . . . I don't think it matters . . . Will/Courtney. No, I saw this but it left no impression. Chelsie -- I certainly did not see Chelsie perform.

Twitch/Katee. Eh. This seemed fine but kind of boring. They always just praise the crap out of Tyce Diorio, but here I don't think it's completed earned. Hmm. Nigel says that Twitch has the least training of any dancer in the competition -- is that high praise or subtle undermining? I can't tell.

Joshua. Fairly good routine -- it seemed to build a little too slowly. I think he meant to get more in before the end of his time.

Mark/Comfort. This was boring but it didn't bother me as much as it bothered the judges. My main problem -- the lighting made me feel like I was having a seizure. That doesn't seem fair to the dancers.

Courtney. Not very exciting -- why do all of the solo contemporary routines look exactly the same? Jump to the front of the stage, then swing back, then spin, then weird splayed-hip swaying . . . What does all of that represent?  Is it supposed to express something? I don't get it.

Joshua/Chelsie. Wow. The judges loved this, but it seemed to me clunky. Maybe that's just disco? It's supposed to look amateurish because it's really just something regular people do (or did) on the dance floor? Plus Gloria Estefan . . . OK, I get that the lifts are hard and they looked great. Glad the judges liked this as well.

Bottom Four: Mark, Comfort, Courtney, Will. Going home: Mark, Comfort, absolutely. No question.

Hot Whatever Mess

It's been a whole week and I still have nothing to say about last week's Project Runway season 5 premiere. I'm actually straining to remember who was the first designer sent home . . . OK. Got it -- the dude with the hair. He made the white coat with the sheer dress underneath that looked sort of rumpled. I think that this happens every season -- last season, for instance, was good, but I barely registered its premiere episode, either. There are too many people to keep track of and it doesn't even necessarily feel worth it, because you know most of them will get cut before you get to see enough of them to matter.

Anyway, I'm almost tempted to not post this, because I hate to dignify stupid girlicious. It's a pretty good article, though -- my favorite part is reading the sources' qualifications. My favorite is the English professor and author of Slayer Slang: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Lexicon. Of course that would be exactly the person I would want to ask about television slang, but it's funny that someone bothered to track him down to ask about girlicious. Ugh. I think I just ground down about an eight of an inch off my front teeth while typing that stupid word.

Who's Next? Scott Scanlon?

So I think this is old news: Shannen Doherty is definitely joining 90210 for at least a handful of episodes. This was confirmed last week, during the networks' press tour. Today, Michael Ausiello reported that Ann Gillespie will also be back, as Kelly's Mom (as well as the mother of high schooler Erin "Silver" Silver), Jackie Taylor.

While I liked Gillespie's performance as the drunk Jackie during the first season, I thought the character lost focus after she dried out. Consequently, I'm not that excited about this news. In fact, I'm not looking forward to the return of Shannen, for that matter.

Am I alone in thinking that bringing back all of these actors from the original show is a bad idea? Maybe, but I think I have a good argument. First of all, I'm having a hard time imagining how this is going to work -- how many people are on this show now? Who is our audience? The people who were around for the first iteration of this show -- and stopped watching at least four years before the show went off the air? The teens who weren't alive when the original show aired? Adults who like watching shows about high school? Which of these groups really wants to deal with Tori Spelling and Shannen Doherty on their television? (Do you even remember what that was like? It was not good, and that was before Tori got all over-tanned and mother-hating, and she's the talented one: Shannen was wooden back in the day, and judging from fleeting recent glimpses, she's only gotten worse.) Which section of the audience cares about the further adventures of these characters? Isn't all of this specious nostalgia going to take away from what we really want -- young people and their angst?

Hills Season 4 Trailer

Remember when we are all "whatever" about The Hills? As Lauren might narrate, then a little video came along that would change everything.

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The new season begins August 18. Yeah, that's too soon. I can wait, too. Still, this clip? Kind of exciting.

So You Think You Can Dance Results

I hate this show. I hate this show. I hate this show. Seriously. That was torture. Not American Idol results show torture -- not at all boring or enraging, actually -- but too suspenseful and awful.

I think I called the bottom four -- didn't I? Wait, I totally didn't -- I called the women and Mark, but I had this crazy theory that Will would be the other bottom guy, a theory I'm too embarrassed to try to explain right now. And I'm still sort of shocked about Gev. No, I'm really shocked.

The group dance numbers were all really good -- even the weird Celine Dion "Ave Maria" number. Who knew the idea of Nigel hanging out with five young men would be even creepier than the sight of Nigel ogling all of the young women?

So You Think You Can Dance Top 10

First and most important . . . what is Cat Deeley wearing tonight? Gold lamé, plus a lot of bronzer. It's . . . not the most flattering frock she's worn. Her hair is good, though.

Jessica. Of course my first response is “If she can walk in those heels, she can dance. Faker!” Then “my side” -- who's heard of someone who can't dance because she hurt her side? Then of course I feel like an ass when she reveals she has two broken ribs.

Joshua/Courtney. Wow! That's a lot of lighting and costumes and other special effects. I kind of wish they had just come out and danced, instead of acting out some weird, sexed up Frankenstein story.

Chelsie. Good, solid routine. I don't think she's going anywhere. Who is watching this show? Who is voting? I've assumed teen and pre-teen girls. But does it matter? I bet a lot of people like Chelsie – she's so little and cute.

Mark/Kherington. Say what you will about this show, the on-screen personalities are about a million times classier than the ones on American Idol. Even here, when they hate the entire thing (with good reason), they're really nice about it. Mark is wearing higher heels than Kherington is.

Gev. Oops. Not really dancing and his best move didn't come until after the song ended. Still, he's not lazy -- check out those arms.

Twitch/Comfort. Wow. Journey. This is a routine to Journey. That's all I can think. And then so much for the judges being nice. They were at least constructive -- except for maybe Little C., whom I didn't entirely understand -- but not nearly as kind as they were to Mark and Kherington.

Courtney. Very good routine, not much to say about it -- about what you'd expect her to do.

Katee/Will. That's an interesting pairing. Tyce Diorio. This is going to be great – two of the technically best dancers, right? – or disastrous – if we finally have to hold Will accountable for a so-so routine. I call it a disaster, but the judges love it. Is it possible that Will is hypnotizing America with his smoking bod? Plus did Nigel just admit that they were too harsh toward Katee during the auditions?

Mark. Oh no -- this is the "Bohemian Rhapsody" routine we saw during auditions. Learn a new routine, Mark! It's good, though, and Mark's clowning afterwards is a lot less distracting than usual. What a gaywad, though.

Gev/Chelsie. I liked this, but maybe not as much as I expected. No, it was really good. I just decided. It was a smart, well-choreographed routine. It's nice that two halves of the two high-chemistry couples from the first half of the season (ie, Gev and Courtney and Mark and Chelsie) were able to communicate a real connection to one another -- I agree with I think it was Nigel, who gave a lot of the credit to the choreography.

Comfort. Still too big for this damned show. What are we going to do with her?

Twitch. Jesus. Best of the night. I think he actually ended in time with the end of the music! Twitch isn't going anywhere anyway, but Jesus! This routine really makes the other guys -- especially Gev -- look bad.

Joshua/Courtney. Wait. Everyone is doing two routines in addition to a solo? Now I get why Mark danced "Bohemian Rhapsody" again. Holy shit, though. Joshua is going to win this thing. He's so great. I barely saw Courtney (whom I usually love) -- both fluid and masculine.

Katee. Bitch did an interpretive number to "This Woman's Work." I'm done.

Mark/Kherington. That Jamiroqui song from Center Stage. I think Tyce Diorio saw that movie, too. I liked this better when Jody Sawyer did it. I think it says a lot about Mark's chemistry with Chelsie (and his lack of chemistry with Kherington) that Mark seems really, really femme this week. Seriously, too -- do these two hate each other or what?

Will. This is both very good and very boring. Even Cat doesn't have anything to say about it.

Twitch/Comfort. That was exactly right. There we go. Really good chemistry. Little C. explains "buck," which I still don't get. Comfort is super-gracious about the "You usually suck, but not tonight!" pile-on.

Kherington. Good -- about what you'd expect.

Will/Katee. Pas de deux. To "Imagine." Huh. And yet -- sooo much better than their first routine. It's nice that the judges are coming around on Katee -- I noticed this last week, as well. Is she the most highly-praised of the women now?

Joshua. Really good. Maybe not as good as Twitch's? But as good as you'd expect, based on what we've seen of Joshua this season -- a little startling, even, because we haven't seen him dance solo since Las Vegas.

Gev/Chelsie. Seems like old times. Seriously. So Chelsie danced circles around Gev, basically led him around like an old dog, except that Gev is so game and the trust between the partners is so strong that you almost feel like it's intentional. Wow. Mary said what I was thinking -- it was a little like Dancing with the Stars. 

I can't tell who's going home. Mark, must be -- and either Comfort or Kherington.

Did Someone Order a Townie?

Yes, Blair, we did.  That's September 1 for the season premiere.

That's all we know, except this: According to People, this dude will be playing Leighton Meester's new love interest, when the show returns. I saw The Nanny Diaries (albeit on a plane) and don't remember him -- maybe he played one of Chris Evans's dicky friends?

And of course this:

Amy Poehler in The Office Spin-Off

The latest news is that Amy Poehler will be starring in the spin-off of The Office, which is scheduled to premiere after the 2009 Super Bowl. That's all I know.

Except don't call it a spin-off: it's just Greg Daniels's new show, which probably won't be a spin-off of The Office at all.