There was one and only one reason why I wanted to speak to Tori Spelling at NBC's TCA party: No, it wasn't because of 90210, though I was curious about it. It was because of my girlfriend.
I'm serious. She's a big fan of the Tori and Dean reality series on Oxygen, and she's told me on more than one occasion that she thinks that, if circumstances allowed, that she could be friends with the semi-estranged daughter of late TV magnate Aaron Spelling. When I told Tori (her husband, Dean McDermott, was there but must have been grabbing some mac and cheese or something) that I only know the show because of my girlfriend, she understood. "We hear that a lot. It's OK."
So I've been back from LA for a couple of days, watching Rich and Keith file frantic reports from Comic-Con. It just makes me shake my head in sympathy. Though CC is a different animal from the TCAs, in both structure and in sheer volume of people and activities, I still know exactly how they feel. It all starts to feel like a blur after awhile -- panels, reporter scrums, parties, meeting your favorite (and not-so-favorite) TV stars... When you get back to "normal life," it almost feels like it never happened.
Anyway, now that I have a day or two to reflect, I took a cue from our friends at AOL and came up with a list of things I learned on this press tour. But this list will involve both the network-related things I learned with what I learned about celebrities, my fellow critics, and myself.
The pending writer's strike could mean a surge in demand for reality tv. That is the only reason I can think of why they might be giving Coolio his own reality show.
Kid Rock won't be charged for that "brawl" he was in at the VMA's.
Ellen DeGeneres will be the first celebrity "briefcase babe" on Deal or No Deal.