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This Mary Tyler Moore episode from 1973 is one of my favorite sitcom episodes ever. Mary, known for her disastrous dinner parties,  is hosting a dinner party for the distinguished Congresswoman Geddes (Irene Tedrow) .  Mary asks Sue Ann (Betty White) to help her make the main course. Sue Ann makes it for her—6 servings of veal Orloff.

But when the guests arrive—including her friend Rhoda, who brings an unexpected date, and the uninvited arrival of newsman Ted Baxter- Mary panics.

The best part? Mary’s boss Lou Grant (Ed Asner) helps himself to a huge serving of the veal—3 portions worth. After a mortified Mary whispers to him that he took half the food and she doesn’t have enough for the rest of the guests, Lou hesitantly puts some of the veal back on the platter, saying “I guess I wasn’t as hungry as I thought”.

Now this should be interesting. Starting next week, two of my favorite shows will begin a crossover story arc. I don’t know all of the details, but it looks like over at ABC’s Private Practice, Addison’s smarmy brother, Archer (Grant Show), will be needing some serious medical attention—and Addison calls on the Grey’s Anatomy crew and her ex-husband Dr. McDreamy (Patrick Demspey) for some help!

The crossover is supposed to last for several episodes!

I love it when shows do stuff like this. It reminds me of the old kid’s cartoon, Scooby Doo‘s Laff-A-Lympics. It was always so weird seeing Fred Flinstone hanging out with Huckleberry Hound and The Blue Falcon.  

Wonder if we’ll see Seattle Grace’s resident ghost, Denny, walking the halls over at  Oceanside Wellness Center!

Seems like so far this season on American Idol, the producers have kept most of the Wackies at bay.  Guess they got wind of the fact that it was hard to take the show seriously as a competition, when the first 2 weeks were filled with blatantly talentless singers, clearly planted in there for “entertainment” value. And yes, a few Crazies.

Sure, they still have a few during the auditions, but they’ve cut it way back. I’m glad, to be honest. I never liked like that mean spirited part of the audition process. I don’t need to see Simon—and even Paula—roll their eyes, snicker, and make fun. Like I said, there’s still a few here and there, but not nearly as many as there has been in past seasons.

 Tonight it’s the end of the auditions and then it’s off to Hollywood! 

Oh, Whit! The kids on MTV’s The City must be getting comfy with Whitney Port- they’ve taken to calling her Whit. Not even L.C. ever called her that!

On this week’s episode, Whitney didn’t get much air time. The episode was mainly about Adam and Allie, friends of Whitney and her “boyfriend” Jay Lyon. Adam apparently cheated on Allie with a girl named Catarina. At an art show,  Cat decides to come clean and tell Allie how sorry she is, that Adam never said he had a girlfriend, blah blah blah. But come on! These kids are all intertwined. Cat knew. And Allie knows too.

I can’t decide if I like Allie or not. She’s a pretty little waif of a thing, rather sarcastic and she mumbles a bit. Either way, the Adam/Allie storyline is much more interesting than Whitney’s booooring romance with singer Jay. Those two have the most platonic romance I’ve ever seen on a reality show.

Also on this episode, Olivia  Palermo proved once again that she’s above it all too, when she cut Whit off as she was telling her the whole Adam/Allie/Catarina scoop. Olivia reminded Whit that she’s not in high school anymore!

The previews for next week look good. Resident biotch, People’s Revolution founder Kelly Cutrone, makes a cameo. She always makes for good TV!

Photo Credit: MTV

I definitely don’t want to turn this blog into a critique of the contestant’s beauty faux pas, but this one has to be mentioned.

Nikki is a beautiful girl- she looks like a young Sandra Bullock. So why did she wear an up-do last night that showed that she has…sideburns? That’s right, full fledged “boy” sideburns, which definitely looked like they had been cut.  The poor girl. It just wasn’t a good look.

Jason mustn’t have liked the sideburn look either. After his threesome date with Nikki and Stephanie, he gave the rose to Stephanie (who’s a sweetheart but looks like she has a tad too many Botox injections—oops, sorry I couldn’t help that one either!)

So Nikki  and her ‘burns got the boot. So did Shannon, Megan and Lauren. The show is winding down fast, with only 5 ladies left:  Jillian, Melissa, Naomi, Molly and Stephanie.

One of my favorite reads even today, this book by Newberry winner Mary Stolz is still a childhood favorite.

Martin Hastings is frustrated. He’s overweight, has no friends and resorts to bullying the pesky kids in his neighborhood. But you feel for him, because he often gets teased and provoked .  Oh, Martin also back-talks his teachers, something I can’t defend him on.

Still, the only joy in Martin’s life is his dog, Rufus. Rufus is his only real friend.  Martin is a loner who  enjoys playing the saxophone, something he’s been practicing at. But when Martin gets into trouble, something has to give—or go.

His nemesis is next door neighbor Edward Frost, the skinny boy who has everything. But after he and Edward go at it, Martin begins to understand that it’s hard to live down his bad reputation, and he make some important changes in his life.

The Bully of Barkham Street was first published in 1963, but its message is timeless.

I’ve always been a fair-weather Madonna fan. When things are going good, I like her. When things are going bad (like with her dreaded “Sex” book, which I thought was just plain tacky) I don’t like her much.

I picked up the tell-all book written by her brother, Christopher, on a whim. I was looking for some light and fluffy reading. Who knew I how engrossed I would get in this deeply fascinating book? It’s interesting, because as I made my way through the book I couldn’t tell for sure if Christopher Ciccone is currently estranged from Madonna or not (apparently he is right now). The book had a balanced mix of “good” Madonna stories and “bad” Madonna stories. Okay, maybe there were slightly more “bad” stories, but Ciccone is careful to toss in an ample number of nice anecdotes about his sister, and constantly assures readers that he loves her and is proud of her.

But.

Madge can be a mean one! There are many tales about her controlling and irrational behavior. Since Christopher worked with Madonna for several decades, mainly as her dresser on her tours (a job he hated) and interior designer for many of her homes, he was with her through all of her ups and downs.

This book takes you from Madonna’s childhood up to the present (with the exception of her divorce from Guy Richie, which happened right after the book was published) with the insight that only a bitter sibling could bring us.

The bottom line: a fascinating read, even if you’re only a fair-weather Madonna fan.

I’ve never particularly been a fan of Britney Spears, but I was intrigued when, after all the trouble the Spears girls have gotten into the past 2 years, their mother, Lynne decided to pen a book. Titled “Through the Storm”, I can sum this book up in a couple of words: snooze fest.

I thought Mrs. Spears’ book would be interesting, but it’s written in a semi-defensive mode, with lame excuses for just about every faux pas the Spears family has made. Some of the choices were just plain stupid: Lynne, allowing her teen daughter to go on the tour without either of her parents (a family friend acted as guardian). Britney’s parents, allowing Rolling Stone to do a photo shoot of a teenage Britney, in her bedroom in a bra and shortie shorts. Then acting shocked when RS puts the shot on their cover (Lynne  thought the family would have a say in which photos were used). The family, standing by dumbly as Britney’s then-companion Sam Lufti allegedly threatened them and drugged their daughter (even more wacky is how Spears met Lufti—he crank called Lynne and she actually met with him!).

The book left me feeling depressed, to be honest. It’s sad that the Spears family didn’t have better guidance, more trustworthy advisers and handlers. And their family definitely suffered because of it.

This book may be interesting to die-hard Britney Spears fans but to me it was just sad.

I’m strangely intrigued by a bit player on the MTV “reality” show The City. Nevan Donahue has already been on several of the episodes. But who is this guy?

He’s not listed on the opening credits, but he keeps popping up on the show. He’s Olivia Palermo’s cousin, his dad is a New York art dealer, but I can’t tell if he’s a spoiled rich kid or a freeloader putting on an act.

After a bit of research I’ve found out one thing for sure: he’s a bad boy. Donahue’s ticket for “spitting on the subway” in Episode 2 is just the tip of the iceberg as far as his legal troubles go. Reports say that Donahue has a warrant out for his arrest in Florida, for an unseemly incident (I don’t want to get too tabloid here, so let’s just say it’s much more disgusting than spitting on a subway platform).

And as of this Monday’s episode, he’s pretty much homeless.  And most definitely unemployed.

 Looks like Olivia may be getting a new roomie!

I’m a fan of Grey’s Anatomy, but I hate the medical scenes. The blood and gore and scary diagnoses get DVR’d and I usually fast forward them. I know, I know, it’s a medical show but I’m over it. I just like to get to the real guts of the show: the love lives of the doctors.Which is why I’m shocked that I’ve been watching the medical scenes in the current 3-part story arc.  

Eric Stoltz (Mask, Chicago Hope) has been guest starring as a serial killer, fresh from death row, with a brain injury. McDreamy (Patrick Dempsey) despises the unremorseful creep, who murdered several women. But since he doesn’t want to die on death row, Stoltz’ character offers his liver to a dying child. McDreamy doesn’t want the guy to die in his hospital– he thinks the creep needs to go back to death row.

Stoltz’ acting is flawless. He plays the sinister killer to perfection. He‘s so mesmerizingly evil I can’t even believe it’s Eric Stoltz.

If this story arc doesn’t garner Eric Stoltz an Emmy nod, I don’t know what will.