If I were to pick one commercial genre that I can't stand it's the pharmaceutical genre. Why do we even have commercials for Lipitor or Celexa or Flomax? The ads are always telling us to "Ask our doctor" about a certain medication.
You know what? I trust my doctor to know that, if I have a particular medical problem he's going to know what treatment is best for me and which treatment I should avoid. It just seems bizarre to me (and doctors I know) that there are commercials on TV for prescription medicine, as if we are knowledgeable enough about it to make a connection to a health problem we have.
On a new Penn & Teller's Bullshit tonight at 10 on Showtime, the duo tackles taxes. Should we pay them? Is it patriotic to pay them? The latter view is held by The Huffington Post's Roy Sekoff, who appears on the show to defend that view. I haven't seen the entire episode, but I'm guessing Penn disagrees.
The WGA strike continues. And it doesn't look like there's an end in sight (as all negotiations have stopped). The longer the strike lasts the greater impact it will have on the economy -- especially the California economy. So what is California's Governor Schwarzenegger doing about it?
He's out! Stephen Colbert is not going to be America's next president, or indeed, even the next presidential candidate.The South Carolina Democratic Executive Council voted to keep Stephen Colbert's name off the primary ballot, which pretty effectively ends his presidential campaign. Nevertheless, Colbert would not be Colbert without making a showy public withdrawal.
Colbert has been running for president in South Carolina, and chronicling his campaign adventures on The Colbert Report. Despite Colbert's position as a mock Republican, he campaigned as a Democrat, probably -- as The Huffington Post notes -- because it was less expensive to file as a liberal.
By now, you've surely heard about the writers' strike currently in full swing across the television and film industry in New York City and Los Angeles. And apparently, the writers are not the only ones getting in on the act. The Huffington Post is reporting that Jon Stewart of The Daily Show has committed to pay the salaries of his own writers and those of TheColbert Report for the next two weeks, so his writers won't be harmed financially by the strike during that period.
That's the topic of a post over on the Huffington Post by Bob Saget. The comedian, former Full House star and current host of 1 Vs. 100 ponders what he would do if he suddenly found out he only had 24 hours left in his life. Apparently, he'd spend a lot of time on a plane and laugh at his mother being injured in a surfing accident.
It's a funny piece, but my favorite was this comment, left by a poster named Crowhaul:
Bob, you don't need to be 'funny'. You've been there, done that. Why not hit us with some voice, instead. Need a subject? How about the tens of thousands of kids we've orphaned in Iraq? Dig deep, Bob. Get pissed.
Aaron Brown's contract with CNN ended last week, and now he can talk. Here's part one of his interview with TV Newser, and here's part two (parts three and four coming this week).
Gordon Ramsay says the parents of fat kids should be hauled off to court and fined.
A while back, I showcased some blogs that celebrities were (at the time) keeping. David Duchovny had one for a while, but it was just to promote one of his movies and he stopped it. Zach Braff had one for Garden State, but doesn't update it as much as he used to at his new site (though it's still pretty entertaining). And of course we know that Rosie O'Donnell updates hers, a little too much probably.
But there are other TV celebs who blog too, so it's time for an update. After the jump, a list of some of the better blogs out there.
A Huffington Post blogger has a suggestion for the Boy Scouts of America. Forget about starting fires with sticks for the sole purpose of roasting marshmallows. Blogger Marshall Fine has some more practical advice: Offer a Jack Bauer merit badge.
He urges the National Guard and the Boy Scouts to create a reality TV show which would put Scouts through several tests and inevitably yield boys who have the Bauer-like skills needed to fight terrorists.
Included among the skills they'd be expected to master to earn the badge: Creating fireballs, knocking people unconscious with a paddle whittled with a pocketknife and "learning the correct moment at which to threaten the interview subject's eye with a kitchen knife and his family with painful death."