TVSquad

When you hear about this celebrity tussle, I think you'll feel like me: "I would love to be a fly on the wall to watch these two go at it!" It turns out that Bravo's reality star, Flipping Out's Jeff Lewis, is fighting with Ashley Jensen, who plays Christina on Ugly Betty.

Jeff, who specializes in buying properties then fixing them up and selling them -- flipping -- has a house under construction right next door to the home of Ashley and hubby Terence Beesley. If you've watched even one episode of Flipping Out, you know that Jeff has OCD and is extremely difficult to work for -- he fires workers at least twice a season -- and presses buttons like nobody's business.

This tussle falls under the pressing buttons category. Lewis had a deck built onto the house he was re-constructing, the one right next door to Ashley's, and went over the property line. Now, in Yonkers that would be a reason to get upset; in Hollywood, it's a good enough reason to go to war.

When All My Children snared veteran head writer Chuck Pratt Jr. to take the reins and "write" the S.S. Pine Valley, the scribe promised swift action. With a look toward kicking up the soap's ratings more than a notch or two. Pratt, whose credits include Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, Melrose Place, Life Goes On and Santa Barbara, among others is certainly capable.

I liked ABC drafting Chuck for All My Children, but I'm thinking that the announcement yesterday, an open casting call for an Iraq war veteran to play an Iraq war veteran, is a publicity stunt. The executive producer, Julie Hanan Carruthers, said in a press release that casting a real life soldier will heighten the experience for viewers. Excuse me, but I think that's utter hogwash. All My Children doesn't need an actual veteran of the war in Iraq to create a great soap opera storyline. That's why they brought in Chuck Pratt, Jr.

David Spade will spend Sunday night doing what he does best - making mincemeat out of Hollywood's elite. Comedy Central's The Showbiz Show is hosting its first Oscar Blog. You'll be able to log-on and read real-time Oscar commentary from Spade and the show's writers. You'll also be able to comment and upload your own videos to the site by registering. This is, of course, also a great big publicity push for The Showbiz Show, which has its third season premiere on March 15th.

Whatever you may think of Spade, blogging may be the perfect outlet for his celebrity-aimed snark. Of course, I'm counting on him to avoid drawing urine dribbling out of Ellen's pants leg. That's Perez's gig.

[Via Press Release]

Remember that potentially homophobic Snickers ad that aired during the Super Bowl? The one where two guys are so enamored with a candy bar that they start eating it from opposite ends, Lady and the Tramp-style, and wind up accidentally kissing? They're so concerned that they just kissed that they decide to do something really macho to affirm their heterosexuality, so they start pulling out their chest hair. Because that's apparently what straight men do all the time.

Anyway, now that you're up to date, you won't be seeing that commercial on television anymore. Snickers got complaints from the Human Rights Campaign and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Apparently they thought the ad was homophobic. Who knew, I thought it was just anti-gay. Oh, right.

The wheel of publicity spins round and round. On January 18th, Rosie O'Donnell complained on The View that American Idol's judges were too harsh. She described them as "three millionaires, one probably intoxicated." Really, much like her remarks about Trump's hair, that description of the show doesn't seem that far out of line with the general public's perception of American Idol or, at the very least, of Paula Abdul. Nevertheless, Simon Cowell felt compelled to reply. Rosie's remarks "smacked of 'I'll have a go at Donald Trump - good for ratings. That died down, so now I'll do American Idol.' Next week it will be, 'I don't like the dresses on Dancing with the Stars.'"

Now, Rosie is on a show whose entire conceit is to gab it up on the pop culture and current events of the day so it really shouldn't surprise anyone that she moved from Trump's Miss America moralism to American Idol. I just hope Rosie doesn't respond to Cowell with some weird comment. That's one playground news cycle nobody needs. It would be so much easier if he'd just pull her pigtails, and she'd just step on his GoBot.