Project Runway's Museum muse,A.I.'s Hollywood week and the writer's strike is over!

It's getting close to finale time on Project Runway and we were all set for a double elimination with this last challenge,which was to select a work of art from one of three galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The designers were given cameras and allowed to roam about the Greek/Roman statue garden,the European paintings section and the Temple of Dendur(an Egyptian temple that was fully transported to the Met).

Guess what gallery Rami chose? Yep,he went for the Greek/Roman,selecting a statue of Aphrodite as his inspiration. You just had to walk thru that trapdoor,didn't you Rami? Yes,it was a beautiful dress(even if it reminds me a little of how the female love interest in Disney's Hercules was outfitted) but being a One Note Johnny is still boring,despite how well that note is played.




Sweet P ran into a snag when her model was late for her fitting(due to a family emergency)but that was the least of her worries. I like Sweet P but most of her work is either hit or miss and her peacock painting inspired dress was definitely a miss with the judges. She really should've created more of a peacock tail feather look on the oufit,maybe made some sort of eye motif or something a tad more dreamlike. Alas,she was given the "auf" from Heidi,so no Bryant Park for her!

Jillian's look came from a painting called "Master of the Argonauts",which gave her a chance to whip up one of her fail safe jackets with a gold lame number. That jacket was terrific but I was less impressed by the dress. It looked too Goldfinger for my taste.



When I was watching Christian put together this multi-layered number based on a Spanish portrait,I thought it was going to be insanely over the top. It was,but in a good way.


He totally wowed the judges and was declared the winner of this challenge as well as guaranteed a spot in the Final Three. He was pleased as punch about that(Christian would make a lousy poker player,he can't hide his emotions to save his life)and Jillian was told that she would join him in the finale. After Sweet P was dismissed,it was down to two: Rami and Chris March.




Then we were given a surprise announcement;seems that the judges couldn't decide between the two of them so they were both declared in for the finale. However,the catch was that the two of them had to show three of the strongest pieces of their collections and only then would one of them be allowed to be in the Final Three.

I credit guest judge Robert Cavalli with this turn of events,since he was the only judge who gave Chris any credit here and declared his gown to be the most artistic of the group. Yes, Chris's high collar was similar to that of the avant garde dress that he and Christian worked on,but if you look at the actual painting that he based his gown on(a portrait of a French noblewoman),you'll see that his goal of updating that look into a modern day couture dress was achieved.

The judges really don't seem to like Chris March or think that he would have lasted as long as he has. Even Tim Gunn gave him a scolding(after Christian ratted him out about taking a nap AFTER Chris's work was done)in the workroom,insisting that he needed to do more with his dress. Chris declined to do so,which was a good decision in my humble opinion.

Next week,we get the big PR reunion show,with follow-ups on those who have been sent home,find out what happened with Jack and gossip galore. Should be a blast!



Nip/Tuck ventured back to Matt and Julia this week,with Julia finally buying a clue that Eden's fabulous fruitcakes have mercury as the secret ingredient(why the hell did it take so long for one of those doctors she kept going to,to figure that out?)and foolish enough to confront Missykins on her own.

It would've been smarter and alot cooler for Olivia to have been hiding nearby in another room and then pop out at the right moment to bust Poison Ivy before she went and got the gun but street smarts have never been part of Julia's basic make-up there. Too bad she has to pay for that the hard way:






Matt didn't do better-after being rejected by Rachel(the only person with enough sense to tell him to go before things get bad),he went on the rebound with one of Christian's charity case patients who was not only a virgin but may well be his half sister to boot. If it wasn't for bad luck,this guy would have no luck at all,I swear.

That's not the worst part-Matt actually wants to continue to have a romance with this girl,finding incest websites to help her convince to go along with this(yeah,the internet is the perfect place to find moral justification)and apparently not tell Christian about their potential blood bond. As Buffy would say "Ewwww!" First off,someone needs to take a blood test here and secondly,if the two of them are related,the answer to this love question is a resounding "no,no,no!" Ick to the third power,Matt!

Next week is the season finale,where we'll find out what happened to Colleen,if Julia is still alive and kicking and how all of the Hollywood madness will affect Sean and Christian.



American Idol has completed Hollywood week and selected their Top 24 contenders for this season. As it was for me last time,I'm not very impressed by the fellas who made it this far. I did think that Josiah Leming was going to have a full out freak out,especially since his godawful rendition of "Stand By Me" sans the band flopped miserably. He did take his dismissal better than I expected,but not without some tears.

I was glad to see some of the ladies that I liked from earlier rounds go thru,like Amanda Overmeyer,Brooke White and Carly Smithson. Here are the gals in action:

ROCK N' ROLL NURSES ARE COOL



YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL,BROOKE



CARLY SHOWS SOME HEART



Random Notes: Special Edition




THE WRITER'S STRIKE IS OVER!!!: Finally,a deal has been made and the writers will be back at work. Many TV watchers will rejoice as a number of their favorite shows will be back on the air as soon as late March or early April. Alas,we Heroes fans will have to wait until the fall for Volume three but perhaps that is for the best.

Congratulations to the WGA and all of the writers for sticking to your guns. Glad to see you folks get what you deserve and look forward to enjoying plenty of lively conversations like this one:



And funny bits like this:



And what's a victory without a good victory song, I ask you ?:

Savor the darker side of love with dysfunctional duets

As an interesting Valentine's Day eve treat,I thought that instead of the traditional batch of love songs,it would be fun to feature what I call "dysfunctional duets"-two folks singing about how destructive their relationship actually is.



Sure,it's sweet to remember those musical moments where the two lovers get to declare to the world just much they adore each other,but what about those tunes in which a couple can't stand to be near each other or one person is more in love than the other? Better yet,what about a song about how love has taken a turn for the worse,inspiring the need for restraining orders? Let's take a look:

PARADISE BY THE DASHBOARD LIGHT

Meatloaf may not seem like the ideal Romeo but he does have the pipes to sing rather seductive tunes. Most folks recall the "Will you love me?" section of this song,which is a debate between an about to get amorous couple in the backseat of a car on the nature of their romance. Something tells me that this song could be a reenactment of many hasty marriages:



I'LL NEVER TELL

One of the best bittersweet moments of the renowned Buffy musical episode,"Once More,With Feeling" is this tribute to pre-wedding jitters by Xander(Nicholas Brendan)and his former vengeance demon lover Anya(Emma Caulfield). Too bad those two crazy kids didn't really listen to each other during this song and dance number,it would've spared them alot of future heartbreak:



BY THE SEA

Sweeney Todd is not just about murder and meatpies;it's about the brutal things we sometimes do for love. Mrs. Lovett's longings for a real romance with Mr. Todd are best expressed in this little ditty in which Sweeney doesn't contribute much to her frenzied fantasies but tell me that you haven't heard conversions like this from long time married couples while out at the mall:



AGONY,PART TWO

This is a rather unusual entry,since it's about two brother comparing their current relationships with women other than their wives. Into The Woods delightfully turns many of the conventions of fairy tale characters on their ear and even Prince Charming is not safe from being mocked for his less than faithfulness:



DON'T YOU WANT ME BABY

It's pretty obvious that the answer is "no" but some guys refuse to listen. I've always liked this song,especially since it sounds like the soundtrack to many a celebrity relationship gone sour:



OBSESSION

My sister helped me to remember this funky Animotion tune,with it's upbeat tone and wacky costume choices. I don't which fashion statement is scarier,the historical outfits or the clothes that the band actually chose to wear:



YOU DON'T BRING ME FLOWERS

For the finale,I just had to go old school and who better to do that than Babs herself? This classic salute to the slow death of a relationship by Streisand and Neil Diamond was considered rather romantic in the day but take a careful look at those lyrics,folks. This is a damn sad song:



Happy Valentine's Day,everyone!

Hanging tough with The Whitest Kids U Know

Last Thursday,instead of staying home to watch Smallville(which debuted Black Canary as well as brought back Green Arrow),I accompanied my sister to a taping of a The Whitest Kids U Know episode that will be shown later this spring. WKUK is the newest comedy sketch show sensation that had it's first season on the music channel Fuse and has just started Season Two on IFC,Sundays at 11 P.M..



My sister,being a major fan girl of theirs,was given an invite to the show due to her membership on one of the WKUK fansites. She was allowed to bring a guest,so I was tapped for that honor. While the two of us don't always agree on certain pop culture pleasures(she hates Gilmore Girls,for example, and even drew a very cranky cartoon about them,which I have on display with the first four seasons of the show on DVD that I got for Christmas this year)but we both know a good thing when we see it.



Our sense of humor can differ into opposite areas;she also loves Tim and Eric's Awesome Show,Great Job!,which is just too weirdly random for my taste. Nothing against Tim and Eric,I liked Tom Goes to the Mayor but I'm a gal who needs a little structure for the jokes to be set up on and then you can knock it down to size. Let me put it this way;back in the day,some folks were into Ren and Stimpy and others into Beavis and Butthead. I was a Beavis person. It was crude humor but damn funny and it made sense to me,unlike the surrealistic stylings of R&S.



Okay,back to the present-getting to the show was tricky at first,but not that hard. It did feel like a leg of The Amazing Race,with us missing the early bus and trying to catch up with it in the road and then later arriving at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center and reading over the directions like they were a clue to a Road Block.

We did make good time and had a good time as well. The show was a mix of taped segments for Season Two and the guys reenacting some of their best skits(due to the Writer's Strike,they were only able to have nine episodes filmed,so this concert edition will be the tenth one)on stage. It was so cool to see these skits done live,with little improvs and adlibs tossed in as bonuses. During one bit,where three of the guys had to stand perfectly still,you could catch them trying not to laugh. Truly priceless.

Here are some of the bits that we saw that night(a lot of this is not work or kid safe-you have been warned!):

THIS WOULD BE GREAT IF IT HAPPENED IN REAL LIFE:



BUSINESS AS USUAL IN HOLLYWOOD:



WHO KNEW HOW PROFOUND THE WORK OF GWYNETH PALTROW COULD BE?:



GOING TO THE THEATER WITH LINCOLN WAS NOT A PLEASANT EXPERIENCE:



I DON'T THINK THAT EVEN DR. PHIL COULD HELP THIS COUPLE OUT:



THE JOURNEY TO RECESS IS AN EPIC ONE,INDEED:



THIS SHOULD MAKE A DANDY CAMPAIGN SONG FOR SOME AMBITIOUS POLITICIAN IN THIS GREAT COUNTRY OF OURS:



The finale of the show was a live performance of Dinosaur Rap,the "first rap song about getting high with dinosaurs". Trevor encouraged the audience to sing along(there were subtitles on the video shown in the background)while the rest of the gang came out in dinosaur heads,tossing the appropriate props out to eager fans in the crowd. At the end,folks were invited to join them on stage and I was part of the pleased as punch crowd to shake a tail feather. Before I left,I did manage to join the "hug line" that developed around Trevor and received a brief embrace from him.

So,yes,it was one of the best experiences that I've had in my life and worth missing Smallville for. Thank you to my sister for taking me along with her and a big thanks to Trevor,Zach,Darrin,Sam and Timmy for putting one hell of a great show:

PBS Pride & Prejudice profile: Elizabeth Bennet

Since PBS' Complete Jane Austen series is now showing the modern classic miniseries of Pride & Prejudice for the rest of February,I decided to have character profiles of both the leading lady and gentleman of Jane Austen's most beloved novel(along with a tribute to many of my favorite supporting P&P players)posted here. After all,a review would be redundant and taking a good long look at these literary legends could shed some light on why they have endured thru out time.

Elizabeth Bennet is usually on the top ten list of admirable literary heroines and first choice when it comes to picking favorite Austen female characters. It's a little ironic,since she is not only the second of five daughters but also courted by her annoying cousin Mr. Collins as a runner-up selection upon his discovering that elder sister Jane has already taken another man's eye.



Elizabeth(called "Lizzy" by family and friends)is always first in her father's eyes and with her big sister Jane,who is her best friend and her emotional opposite in many ways. Where Lizzy is sarcastic and cynical about life,Jane hopes for the best and looks for the good in others.

Lizzy's importance in such a large and at times,noisy,family is neatly showcased at the beginning of the miniseries,which introduces the Bennets and sets up the social and financial circumstances that will dominate their roles in the drama yet to come. In other hands,this would be rather overwrought material but with Lizzie's good humor(which she shares with her father),the burden is considerably lightened:





Lizzie's bond with her father,the mocking but good hearted Mr. Bennet,is unlike many of the parent/child relationships depicted in that time period. In many ways,it is clear that Mr. Bennet sees her as the son he never had,crediting her intelligence and at times talking to her as an equal.

While Lizzie does love her mother,Mrs. Bennet and her matchmaking hysterics are hard to deal with,let alone get some heartfelt maternal advice from. One of my favorite moments of both the book and this adaptation is when Mr. Bennet puts in his two cents regarding Elizabeth's refusal to marry the ridiculous Mr. Collins. Many fathers in that time and place would've taken Mrs. Bennet's side but instead,Mr. Bennet takes a most revolutionary stand:





However smart and sensible Lizzy may be,she is rather quick to fall for Wickam's sob story about the so-called cruel treatment he recieved from Mr. Darcy. Granted that Darcy's cold nature made it a tad easy to believe him to be such a villain but even Jane has her doubts about him and she's one of the most trusting souls you'd ever met.

If you think about it,Wickam is extremely chatty about his woes despite proclaiming that he could never "expose" Mr. Darcy due to his respect for Darcy's late father. Fortunately,her Wickam flirtation doesn't get Lizzy into the kind of trouble that Lydia ultimately landed in but it does prove that she's just as vulnerable as her younger sisters when it comes to being sweet talked:





As to her dealings with Darcy,the love/hate vibes are loud and clear. Even tho she is determined not to like him,Mr. Darcy is too intense and intriguing to ignore. Part of her attraction to him is based on his seemingly humorless demeanor,which provokes her to engage him in verbal combat in the most unlikely of circumstances such as their dance at the Netherfield ball.

Their battles become more brutal when Darcy first proposes to her;he does start out well but with his insults towards her family(just after Lizzy discovers that he helped to break up Jane and Bingley),her ire towards him can not be contained. While Wickam's name is brought up,it's really the injury done to Jane and Darcy's open disdain for her relations that really tick her off and you can't help but cheer her on even while you want the two of them to fall in love:



By the time Darcy proposes to her again,both of them know more about the other and have learned to not be so hasty in their earlier judgments. The ending of the story is truly a happy one because Elizabeth has found a man who is worthy of her in the best sense. He respects her mind and has grown to respect her loyalties to her loved ones,as well as appreciating her "fine eyes".

Elizabeth has not only made a good financial match,she has made a great stride forward for women everywhere by insisting on settling down with her soul mate and not having to pay for it with tragic results(and no,I don't see Lydia's bad marriage as a fee-face it,that girl was always going to hook up with a loser). It's not hard to see why Elizabeth Bennet is the ideal Austen girl,and a role model for many other women both fictional and real,to follow.




Next week,I'll be focusing on Mr. Darcy,the ideal Austen male. Colin Firth was not the first actor to bring him to life but he is pretty much the pin-up boy for P&P and Austen fangirls. Yes,that includes me too-not made of stone,people!:

There Will Be Blood mixed with OIL!

I was finally able to catch one of the major contenders for Best Picture in this year's Oscar race,There Will Be Blood,which also has the front runner for Best Actor as it's star,Daniel Day-Lewis. Day-Lewis plays the part of Daniel Plainview,a self made oil man during the early days of the big oil boom in America who has unofficially adopted an orphaned child of one of his workers as his son and partner.



The boy,H.W.,goes around with Plainview on his business trips and adds to his image as a "family man" in his hustling and scheming to buy up potentially oil rich land as cheaply as possible.

During their travels,a tip about some very viable property comes from a young man named Paul Sunday,who knows plenty about it since it's his pious but poor family's homestead. The Plainviews check it out and find the Sunday farm worth buying but run into a little interference from Eli Sunday(Paul Dano,who plays both of the Sunday brothers),the wannabe preacher of the clan:





This is only the beginning of the clashes that these two have with each other,as Eli seeks to gain his own fortune thru the influence of his growing ministry and getting what he can from Plainview,who not only blocks him at every turn but becomes more emotionally withdrawn and paranoid over time. Things get even murkier when a tragic event affects H.W. for life,and the helplessness that Plainview feels over that drives a wedge between the two.

Eli finds a way to exploit Plainview's pain about that to his advantage for which Daniel despises him even more than before:





I'm not a big fan of Paul Thomas Anderson but this movie made me a believer. When I saw Boogie Nights,the first big movie of his that generated quite a bit of hype,it felt a little flat to me. While I enjoyed many of the scenes(my favorite has to be the Sister Christian drug deal bit),by the time the film had reached it's conclusion,I felt disconnected to the entire thing. The sum of the parts didn't fully gel together to form a truly cohesive whole. Magnolia sounded like more of the same,so I avoided that film altogether.

With There Will Be Blood,it was the exact opposite. Everything clicked together in perfect harmony,from the slow but steady pulse of the soundtrack(created by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood) to the amazing cinematography and down to the actors themselves who worked well with each other,like cogs in a well oiled machine.



That's not to say that the performances were mechanical,if anything,they were the life's blood of the story. Daniel Day-Lewis has been well praised here for his work and rightly so. He has the rare ability to make an over the top character not just a
platform for him to strut around on,but to bring forth the humanity of that character as well,making him more real and relatable without compromising his true essence or making apologies for him:





Paul Dano is excellent as well,and I really think he deserved a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role as Eli. Some have said that Day-Lewis overwhelms him here but in my opinion,his tempered meek and mild persona for the character is a fitting contrast to Plainview's bluster and brass tacks approach to life. Dano definitely holds his own and then some:



To sum this up as succinctly as I can,the movie is flat out brilliant and one of the best films I've seen in a long,long time. It has honestly earned each and every one of it's eight Oscar nominations and I hope that we can have an Academy Awards ceremony this year just so that we can hear Daniel Day-Lewis' acceptance speech(and maybe PTA's,too).



I've been reading the Upton Sinclair novel upon which the movie was based,called OIL!,which was written in 1927. PTA loosely based TWBB on the book,changing the names of the characters(Daniel Plainview's original name is J. Arnold Ross,for example)and while most of the early dialogue and situations are from the first 150 pages of OIL!,the rest of the movie's plot sprung solely from the imagination of PTA.

Does that mean that the book was lacking and shouldn't be bothered with? Certainly not! If anything,this is a great opportunity for those like myself who have always heard how wonderful Upton Sinclair's work is but felt too intimidated by his prose to give it a fair try. OIL! is extremely readable and just as interesting of a character study concerning the nature of greed and commerce upon society as the film is.

I can understand how adapting it straight from the text might not work out for the best for a full length feature film(even one with such a long running time as TWBB turned out to have)and instead,we are given a pretty sweet and savvy two for one deal. Enjoy the film and rediscover the book or read the book first and then savor what the film has to offer.

The most common debate over book to film adaptations is which one is better than the other. In this case,the point is moot. Both are compelling tales of the pursuit of wealth and prominence in America and the price a person is asked to pay,both in professional and in emotional life. Talk about an embarrassment of riches,folks. Whatever timetable suits you best,experience both the film and the novel. You won't regret either one.

Project Runway puts on it's fight face,the last of the American Idol auditions and Nip/Tuck madness continues

This week's challenge on Project Runway was to create an outfit for one of the WWE Divas to wear in the ring(I love it that they had to shop for materials at a place called The Spandex House,which sounds so wrong in a really right way). I noticed that the designers who did well in this challenge were the ones who were best able to get into the spirit of things and not keep having inner sighs about "having to do this just to stay in the competition"(yes,Rami,I'm looking at you!).

Christian gets on my nerves but he deserves props for delivering the goods on this leather and lace number that he made for Kristal. He not only gave her an outfit that suited her tastes and WWE persona,he had fun while doing it. Too bad that everyone else didn't share in his enthusiasm.



Sweet P's struggles were obvious here,as her inability to connect with Candice Michelle's style held her back from putting together a good ensemble. She seemed to get the concept of "robe and reveal",but the robe that Sweet P made revealed way too much and looked like a bargain basement lingerie number.

She just couldn't get head around the fact that a)Candice Michelle wanted something over the top and overly adorned and b)that she was the one who had to do it. Sweet P,sometimes in life,you have to give the folks what they want. It's the professional way to get things done.



While Ricky did like his girl Layla,he did her no favors by putting her in that bright orange bathing suit with a gold and black cover-up that made her look boxy. First off,orange was a truly bad color choice;it blended into her skin tone too well. Red would've been better or a cool,crisp gold. And yes,it was entirely too much of a bathing suit to suit the needs of a WWE gal about to step into the ring.

Rami's dismal not so pretty in pink two piece for Torrie Wilson displeased the judges as well(along with Sweet P and her tribute to Eva Gabor)but it was Ricky who was sent home. Plenty of fans would've shipped him out sooner yet the timing of his departure felt so right. Atleast his former roommates won't have to keep washing his crying towel any longer.



Kudos to Chris March,for throwing a knock-out punch with this fashionably fierce look for Maria! Turns out that she and Chris share a love of leopard prints,which inspired him to create a "caged animal" look for her. The guest judges,Richie Rich and Traver Rains from Heatherette,even adored the glitter lining that Chris had given the hoodie and agreed with Michael Kors that the whole ensemble had a very expensive look to it.

Jillian's tight ended tomboy number for Michelle McCool was a crowd pleaser too,but it was Chris March who took the win for this round. Finally! Happy to see him get some solo props for once here! The number of contestants is getting smaller and smaller,which means that there should be plenty of drama in the next couple of episodes. Should be fun for all.



This week on Nip/Tuck,some of the Knots Landing gals appeared as a group of wealthy First Wives who chose Christian to be their personal plastic surgeon(especially after his audition dinner,where he revealed his "ace of clubs"). I thought that it was Joan Van Ark who wanted to have her face made over as a feline but it was Donna Mills who ran with the crazy here,my bad!



Van Ark did look scary enough as it is-honey,you need to lay off the Botox,seriously! In other subplot news,Eden and Kimber popped in,to get Eden's eye repaired after her first porn shoot with Kimber took a turn for the violent and Colleen's phony agent status was exposed by Bliss(the PR chick who tried to get Sean and Christian a reality show gig)when she brought Sean over to the mall to see Colleen's teddy bear stand.

Colleen didn't take that rejection well,since she appeared at Sean's apartment with bloody hands by the end of the episode. It looks as if she slashed her wrists but given her tendencies towards teddy bear retaliation,we can't be too sure that all of the gore belongs to her:



One thing that you can say about this show,it certainly keeps you on your toes. Next week,the focus will go back to Julia as Eden's poisoning plot seems to be on the verge of exposure. Maybe Colleen will recover long enough to put one of them out of their misery.



Speaking of misery,American Idol has finished up their audition rounds in Atlanta and will be starting the Hollywood rounds next week. Sometimes,I can understand why Paula feels the need to add a lil' something extra to her Coke cup after sitting thru hours of bad singing(I know there's a good joke to made about how she must be used to that,but I'm not going there,folks!).

Anyway,let us savor the last of the crazy contestant goodness together,shall we? After all,there was plenty to be had and it would be a shame not to indulge in such a literal embarrassment of riches:

IF I COULD FALL INTO THE FLOOR...



I FEEL SORRY FOR THE DOG-SAVE HIM,SIMON!



THIS IS AMERICAN IDOL,NOT AMERICAN IDIOT



Random Notes:



Top Chef: Season 4 of the Bravo series begins in March and this time,the competition takes place in Chicago. I like the sound of that,since it might be a chance to move away from all of the fish dishes that the chefs kept running to alot last season. Let's hope that the feuding and the fighting for first place is as flavorful as the food the chefs have to serve.

Smallville: I'm going to have to miss tonight's episode,due to a chance to attend a taping of a The Whitest Kids U Know episode,which is too bad since Green Arrow will back and Black Canary makes her debut in Metropolis. Oh,well,I can enjoy it when the reruns start up again:

Have You Found Her,and the answer is"What is Janice Erlbaum's amazing new memoir?"

When Janice Erlbaum was fifteen,she ran away from home,angry and confused and spent some time at a homeless shelter for teenagers. Twenty years later,she went back to that same shelter to become a volunteer. Janice was now a successful writer with a pretty stable life and wanted to repay some of the kindness that helped her get out of the emotional hole that she had been in.

Janice became known as "The Bead Lady"(her way of breaking the ice with the girls at the shelter was to set up an arts and crafts table)and despite being warned not to play favorites with any of the residents,she couldn't help but do so anyway. Many of the girls she wanted to mentor one on one didn't lead her into trouble but that all changed when Samantha arrived on the scene.



Samantha seemed to be a cut above the rest,a clever,well read girl who loved to write and could play Beethoven on a piano without having to have sheet music present. Sam also had tales of her tragic childhood to tell about her meth cook of a father,a mother who sold her into prostitution,a sister in a coma and a brother in the Navy who cut off all ties with the family. Sam was trying to quit using drugs,which had damaged her kidneys severely,and her numerous injuries and infections made that struggle even harder.



Janice wound up getting very close to Sam,visiting her during Sam's many hospital stays and rehab bouts,helping Sam move in with a friend after the two of them had skipped out of the shelter and even promising Sam a trip to Disney World if she stayed sober for a year. Janice was determined to help Sam,especially after Sam had revealed that she had been diagnosed with HIV.

However,certain warning signs popped up that perhaps all was not what it seemed when it came to Sam. Janice offered to be her legal guardian and asked Sam if she could be her health care proxy,something that Sam reluctantly agreed to. Whenever Janice tried to find out the exact details of Sam's health problems,Sam always seemed to find a way not to have Janice meet any of her doctors or get any solid info from someone other than her.

When the ultimate truth was revealed,it lead Janice to realize some of her own emotional needs that she had been indulging in by allowing Sam to become the daily focus of her life. She wasn't the only one taken in by Sam's duplicity but she had to ask herself why she was willing to do so and what was it about Sam that made Janice identity with her on such a personal level.



I didn't read Erlbaum's earlier memoir,Girlbomb,which is also the title of her blog,but that wasn't a hindrance to my compulsive need to read this book. Erlbaum's narrative is very addicting,compelling the reader to turn the pages and get as drawn into her experiences as she did herself. At times,it was like being in the audience of a horror movie where you want to warn the heroine not to open that door or go off alone in the woods but all the shouting at the screen doesn't stop her from getting where she has to go,in the end.

Erlbaum's emotional honesty about how this whole portion of her life affected her and the other people in her world truly endears her to the reader. It's not a story that would make one be turned off to the whole idea of reaching out to someone who is in need,rather it's a good way to encourage a person to keep their eyes open as they seek to not only help out but help themselves in the process.

Have You Found Her will be out in bookstores on February 12,and if you're looking for an interesting and emotionally investing read,give it a try. It's a worthy journey of the heart and soul.

Miss Austen Regrets but we viewers do not

The latest entry in PBS' Complete Jane Austen series was a brief biopic entitled Miss Austen Regrets,which starred Olivia Williams as the lady in question towards the end of her life and mulling over her past choices in love. The prologue shows one of Jane's more well known marriage proposals,given by Harris Bigg-Wither,whom Jane accepts in the evening and then rejects by morning.

The vast majority of the film deals with Jane's relationship with her niece Fanny Knight(Imogen Poots),a lively young woman seeking some romantic advice from her favorite aunt. Jane is more than willing to help Fanny out but does not pretend that her personal experience in these matters is a tad limited.



You can easily see why Fanny would want to hang out with her Aunt Jane,a witty woman with some small amount of fame who still enjoys a good flirtation and a couple of glasses of wine in the evening.

Jane's life,however,is not all fun and games-she struggles with doubts about her writing,worries when her brother's financial troubles threaten to take away the only comfortable home that Jane,her big sister Cassandra(Greta Scacchi)and their mother have had in years.



Jane also runs into a former beau of hers,Mr. Brook Bridges(Hugh Bonneville),as well as entertains a crush on a young doctor who attends her brother Henry during his illness,a year before Jane's own health problems started to arise.

One of the best things about this film is how down to earth is about all of the situations that Jane and her family had to deal with. There's not an overblown or over dramatized scene here,even when confrontations and arguments crop up:





Olivia Williams is excellent as Jane,a woman who was determined to live her life in a way that pleased her but yet still had struggles with not only those decisions that affected her happiness but also extended into the lives of her sister and mother as well.

One of the most sad and beautifully touching scenes in the film is between an ailing Jane and Cassandra in attendance as the two of them share their sorrows over choices that lead them to where they are now. A truly bittersweet moment of sibling bonding and love,with both ladies hitting of the right notes that makes you want to cry in a non cheesy-break-out-the-Kleenex kind of way.

This past summer's Austen biopic,Becoming Jane,will be out on DVD soon and it may be an interesting bookend to Miss Austen Regrets(even with Tom Lefroy not being as strongly highlighted in MAR as he is in the Hathaway film). If you wish to see Miss Austen Regrets on video,you will have to wait for the upcoming Sense and Sensibility miniseries DVD,which will offer the film as one of it's bonus features. Miss Austen Regrets is a melancholy yet memorable tribute to the literary legend that is Jane Austen and one that both fans and historians can mutually enjoy.



Next week begins the Pride and Prejudice miniseries run,which I am sure that many delighted Austen fans will be watching,even if they have already seen it more times that they can count and own it on either video or DVD.(full disclosure:I not only have the VHS set of P&P,I have two DVD sets of it,one of which is kept as a display item in my Jane Austen shrine. Yes,I have a Jane Austen shrine-no joke. I wear my geek girl colors with pride,folks).

Since there's no need to review P&P,I decided that for each week of the miniseries that I would have a character profile of the leading lady and gentleman,along with a college of my favorite good and bad supporting players in this story. We will begin with Miss Independent herself,Elizabeth Bennet:

On The Shelf with Jennifer Donnelly

Good old fashioned novels that have strong heroines,multiple characters and subplots and riveting emotional drama are always in demand but not so easy to find. An excellent place to start would be with the works of Jennifer Donnelly,who has just released the second book in her Rose trilogy,The Winter Rose.

Her first Rose title(which was also her first novel)was The Tea Rose,which introduced readers to Fiona Finnegan,a poor young woman living in the Whitechapel section of London during the time of Jack the Ripper who was able to rise from the misery and tragic events that befall her family to create a major tea export empire in both London and New York while seeking to be with her one true love.

Fiona is featured in The Winter Rose but it's another member of her family that has taken center stage here-her believed to be dead brother Charlie,who was reborn as Sid Malone,feared crime boss of Whitechapel. Sid's life begins to change when he meets up with feisty lady doctor India Selwyn Jones,a newly graduated physician who is determined to bring forth medical advancements to help the poor of the city and is recovering from her own wounds of the heart.

Donnelly has also written two children's books,one of which(A Northern Light)has won several awards,including the Carnegie Medal,The Los Angeles Times Book Prize and a Printz honor book,along with being on a number of Best Books lists such as The London Times,Irish Times,Publisher's Weekly and the School Library Journal.


She is currently working on the third Rose book,along with spreading the good word about The Winter Rose and I was happy to be able to ask her a few questions:



1) The Tea Rose was originally intended to be a one shot novel and now your latest book,The Winter Rose,is officially part two of a Finnegan Family trilogy. What brought you back to these characters?






When I finished The Tea Rose, I actually - foolishly - thought I was finished with Fiona Finnegan and her family. After all, it had taken over ten years of my life to write that book and I needed a break. I soon found out, however, that these characters weren't finished with me.


I wasn't planning on writing a second book, not at all, but after a few weeks after The Tea Rose was published, I found myself wondering what that girl was up to, and missing Joe and Seamie, and most of all, wondering what on earth was going to become of Charlie, Fiona's blacksheep brother -now Sid Malone.





At the same time, out of nowhere, this new character materialized in my
head- a young, idealistic woman doctor. A counterpoint to Malone. I knew what she looked like and that she was Maud's sister. Why Maud's sister? God only knows.

I knew she was a dedicated physician, a social reformer, and as committed to the public good as Sid Malone was to his own dark pursuits. I also knew she was a wounded soul. Like Sid. And I knew that they would meet in the only place in London where two such characters could meet in 1900-Whitechapel.

2)Both of the Rose books take place during the late 1800s to the early
1900s. Why does that period of time interest you so much?


All of history is fascinating to me, but this time period is extraordinarily compelling. It's when the Old World became the New World, when we began to recognize ourselves as modern people.




Queen Victoria's reign ended. The West had been through the Industrial Revolution. Women were beginning to demand the vote. Labor was making its voice heard. Artists challenged notions of acceptable subject matter, and social reformers demanded a more just society. The very foundations of the modern welfare state were being laid in this period, and there was a breathtaking sense of newness and possibility.




3) You've also written a Young Adult novel(A Northern Light)and a children's book(Humble Pie). Are there other genres that you'd like to tackle in your writing?

I'm toying with the idea of something set in the here and now. Not sure about it, because I like living in the past, and the future is terrifying to me.


4)Who are some of your favorite authors?

There are so, so many. And they're all over the map: James Joyce, Stephen King, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Jeanette Winterson to name but a handful. Plus songwriters who tell amazing stories like Tom Waits and Bruce Springsteen.




5)What book inspired you the most to become a writer?

So many books have inspired me, but for The Winter Rose in particular, the big influences were authors like Barbara Taylor Bradford and Colleen McCullough, who wrote big fat fabulous 70s blockbusters like A Woman of Substance and The Thorn Birds. For a long time, books like those ruined me for literature. After reading them I wanted every character to triumph. And every ending to be happy.




In my head, I rewrote the classics. Remember The Scarlet Letter? In my version Hester Prynne tells that wuss of a Dimmesdale where to go. Then she uses her embroidery skills on her own line of dresses- it was called A-line Designs. She opens Boston's first multi-level,full-service, luxury department store, catches the governor's eye, and lives happily ever after. Cheered on, of course, by her sassy, sexy,wisecracking gay best-friend.


6)Which member of the Finnegan family will be taking center stage in the final Rose book?

Seamie Finnegan, the youngest sibling. And Willa Alden, the woman he loves. I'm dying to find out what happens to those two!




7)Would you prefer to have your work be adapted for television or a Hollywood film?

Because they're so long and epic and involve three family members, it seems like a mini-series would be the best format for a dramatic adaption of the Rose books. I would love to see A Woman of Substance sort of series, or something like Berkeley Square.

Thank you,Jennifer,for giving us here at LRG your time and attention. I urge all of you looking for a great absorbing read to drive away the winter doldrums to seek out both the Tea and Winter Rose to plant in your mental garden to bloom into beautiful blossoms of literary delight.

What's left in the pop culture grab bag this week?

Since this is the end of the week and things are rather calm on the entertainment front for the moment(unless you count the release of Over Her Dead Body as a major event),I thought that the best way to send you out on your merry weekend way is with a few pop culture odds and ends.

First off,there's another "save the show" fan movement that's purchasing food items to persuade a network to change it's mind. This one is for USA's The 4400,a great show that's been one of my favorite Spring/Summer sci-fi series and deserves to be kept on the air. Folks are buying sunflower seeds(the preferred snack of pivotal character Dr. Kevin Burghoff)and shipping them to the execs at USA.

I hope that they are successful in their quest,especially since the season four finale set up some very intriguing possibilities for the characters to explore:





Matt Damon's mock feud with Jimmy Kimmel hit an amusing highpoint this week,when Kimmel's girlfriend Sarah Silverman decided to get in on the act. Sarah whipped up one of her charming musical numbers,which would go over well at the Oscars in my opinion:





Newsweek has a commentary in their online issue entitled "The Oscars Should Die",which is so not cool. While I do agree that the show needs to be way more spontaneous and could stand to lose some of the flab that stretches out the running time,to simply toss it aside would be robbing film fans around the world of their cinematic Super Bowl.

Yes,I miss the days when Cher could be counted on to show up in one of those wacky Bob Mackie gowns and Billy Crystal's "Oscar,Oscar" singalongs were not to be missed. We need some more of the wonderful weirdness of Hollywood to sparkle and shine,not to mention appreciating a good sense of humor that doesn't kiss up to the establishment.

Just look at a few of these clips and tell me that we have to do away with the Academy Awards-come on ,people!:

THIS IS NOT HER SWAN SONG



WHAT PAULA ABDUL DOES WHEN SHE'S NOT ON AMERICAN IDOL



A FRIEND LIKE NELL



WHY THIS DIDN'T WIN BEST SONG THAT YEAR IS BEYOND ME