A Note About the Best Bad Guy Name Ever

Truly, you cannot compete with the minds of Buffy. They gave us legendary vampire henchman:
<-----Mr. Trick.

How many people are evil henchmen and referred to as Mister? Not many. Plus he got an episode named after him- season 3's "Faith, Hope and Trick."

Would you mess with this guy? I wouldn't. And yes, he got dusted and all his plans were foiled, but he was good.

A Note About the Heartbreak Survival Guide... BOOKS

In my last post, I outlined two great movies to get you over a heartbreak slump. Here is a book that will take your mind off why he forgot to call, or whatever.

Something Borrowed
* As of May 6th, it will be a movie too. I discovered it in book form first.

I am completely devouring Emily Giffin's "Something Borrowed." Very much in the vain of the movie The Romantics, its a simple story of two best friends and one guy. Rachel, the book's main character, is brunette, a lawyer, and always playing second fiddle to Darcy, her childhood best friend. Darcy has blonde hair, a perfect figure, men fawning all over her, a glam pr job she got with no experience, and a sense of entitlement that rivals the queen of a small country.

In essence, you can't imagine how Rachel has put up with Darcy for over 20 years because Darcy is the typical Queen B-eyotch (see Alison (Pretty Little Liars), Cordelia Chase (Buffy) or Lila Fowler (Sweet Valley High) etc... for more direction). So its natural to feel bad for Rachel when she gets drunk at her 30th birthday and sleeps with Darcy's fiance. At first, you're like, oh this is all she needed, just to feel good about herself. But the more you learn about Rachel and Darcy, the more you want bridezilla to suffer. As everyone keeps pointing out to Rachel that she's 30, single, and everyone else has moved on or is happy, you want to fight for her right to be 30 and a potential home wrecker.

SPOILER ALERT:
Rachel begins dating Dex's pal Marcus, and begins an affair with Dex. But she also begins dating Dex's pal Marcus. Emotions begin to get crazy as the wedding approaches (at the end of the summer). Its a constant balance of self-denial, self-loathing and freedom that keep you glued to Rachel's tale. Rachel saw him first, she was friends with him first, but she was scared, and Darcy won/stole him.

WHY YOU WILL LIKE IT:
Everyone has had Darcy as a friend before. You know the girl I'm talking about. She embarrassed you or ruined a good moment or told a secret, or took something you really wanted. We all have that in our life. Seeing someone fight back (even if it does involve stealing her fiance, which is frowned upon in polite circles), its cathartic on some level for the reader.

AS FOR THE MOVIE: The movie stars Ginnifer Goodwin as Rachel (hopefully with her He's Just Not That Into You charm), and Kate Hudson as entitled Darcy (perhaps with the How to Lose a Guy In Ten Days spunk and Almost Famous girlish attractiveness). Colin Egglesfield (hot chef Auggie from the Melrose Place 2009 reboot) is the man in contention. He's pretty dashing, although I liked him better with his chef scruff. For some reason, the character Ethan (a close friend living in London that the girls fought over at age ten) has become a major (and it seems present in NY) character, played by John Krasinski (Jim Halpert from The Office). What can I say, it won't bother me too much because I love Mr. Halpert.

SIDENOTE- Krasinski's humor saved the Streep-Baldwin contraption It's Complicated.

A Note About the Heartbreak Survival Guide... MOVIES

....or the books, movies, TV shows, and music to get you over a guy.

MOVIES:- NEW
The Romantics (2010)
* Apparently is is a book too, but I saw the movie before I knew it was a book.

Don't be fooled by the girly rom-com title. The Romantics is a dark look at a group of college friends (although seriously Josh Duhmal makes Adam Brody and Elijah Wood look like little boys as opposed to contemporaries) assembled for the wedding of their best pals Tom (Josh D) and Lila (Anna Paquin). The rub, of course, is that Lila's best friend and former roommate, Laura (Katie Holmes) used to date Tom, and is having an affair with him all the while. And Laura used to date Tom for years back in college, until one weekend the gang got together at Lila's family's house (where they've all reunited for the wedding), and Tom left dating Lila and dumping Laura.

Their supposedly happy friends (engaged and married couples) are secretly miserable and getting drunk or making outwith each other. Best part, a knock-down, drag-out fight (read girly hurtful word fight) between Lila and Laura moments before they are about to walk down the aisle. FURTHER SPOILER: Laura tells Lila she slept with the groom the night before the wedding. The reason you side with Laura (and you will) is that Lila is just too damn perfect. You can't totally hate her, but she irks you a bit. Laura gets Tom on a deeper level, and all the cold creamed faces and perfect sundresses and refusing to drink in public (Lila's perfect girl traits) just make you want to hate her. Plus, she's totally mean to her younger sister, who everyone calls "minnow."

SPOILER ALERT:
Rain ruins the perfect outdoor wedding. Everyone runs for shelter, leaving Tom and Laura standing out in the rain. Will their passion and unrelenting pain leave them together? Will Tom go back inside and marry Lila even though he knows he belongs with Laura? Who knows?

WHY YOU WILL LIKE THIS:
If you have ever drawn a spider web-type map of your friends and played "who made out with who," then this movie is for you. See Laura's maid of honor speech, where she explains, "Our friends got the name 'the romantics' because of our incestuous dating history."

MOVIES- OLD
When Harry Met Sally (1989)

It begs the age-old question, "Can men and women be friends?"
It's final scene seems to confirm the age-old question with Harry's first answer- "No. Because sex always gets in the way...and the friendship is ultimately doomed."

SPOILER ALERT: Yes Harry and Sally end up married, in the end, 12 years and 3 months after their meeting. But they go through some seriously rough times. In the end, they don't really remain friends. Why? Love gets in the way. They alienate everyone else around them, driving themselves deeply into a co-dependent relationship where they can't be happy with anyone else, and finally the sex gets in the way. Then it's awkward. They talk, they say it meant nothing, they stop talking, they suffer, they get stuck as the maid of honor and best man at mutual friends' wedding. They spend the holidays alone. He shows up at the new years party, just before midnight, and outlines all the things that he loves about her. They kiss.

TIDBIT:
In the featurette titled "men and women can't be friends" on the DVD, director Rob Reiner and several psychologists, actors from the movie , and the scriptwriter (Nora Ephron) have a discussion about their little thesis. Reiner puts it best, saying, "I could never have the close relationship I have with my wife with another woman." They said it depends on the situation and circumstances, which really seem to say, if you're not 100 percent sure you will marry this person, then no, in the long term, you cannot have a deep, rich,committed friendship with them.

WHY YOU WILL LIKE THIS
Cause we all have some secret fantasy that all the pain and tears were worth it. And that some guy will keep calling and leaving silly messages asking for the chance to grovel.

A Note About Friends without Boundaries- AKA the Return of Cougartown

Dearest Cougartown,

I have missed you. You were gone far too long. It's been a long while since I thought of playing penny can, contemplated a 2pm siesta, made fun of tiny eyes, completely invaded a friend's personal space and boundaries, or sat down with a Big Carl-sized glass of wine.

But fear not! CT is back in 4 days! And even better- there are two episodes on this week! Big Carl glasses all around. In the meantime, I just realized there has been a string of CT "actors vs. writers"videos on NY Magazine's Vulture. Time to watch! I started with the last one (Christa Miller (Elie) lamenting to her husband/show creator Bill Lawrence about not getting to star in any videos). I'm going back to where it all began, video #1, where Dan Byrd (Travis) tries to convince the actors and writers to keep his hair the way it is. Spoiler alert- they do not like his hair, and mercilessly mock it!

Musical TV Episodes- From Buffy to Greys

So a week ago, I watched the Grey's Anatomy- The Musical Event. It was good. I liked it. Although as the Ew.com review clearly pointed out an alarming details -and I always notice those alarming details in shows- but why was everyone singing and having happy sex while Callie lay there possibly dying? That major fact aside, and the way too liberal amount of singing they gave Dr. Hunt, it was a good episode. There were stronger songs- Running on Sunshine, How to Save A Life, Chasing Cars, and The Story (watch the live version- its so much better than the recorded one)- to name a few.

FLASHBACK MOMENT- I looked up the clip where "Chasing Cars" was first used, back in the 2006 season 2 finale- when Karev had a heart and pulled Izzy off her dead fiance's bed. Check it out, George is alive, Meredith is still dark and twisty,Callie has a horrible mess of hair, and even the slutty redhead nurse is in the background. Meanwhile, McDreamy is acting all McShady because he just met Meredith in the exam room and he's supposed to be working things out with the wife. Christina is going to reconcile with Dr. Burke (and how weird was it for her to constantly be touting his procedure in this episode, I mean the dude left her at the altar). To further add to this nostalgia, check out Chris O'Donnell as McVet. Ah, memories.

First of all, thank you to Greys for letting Eli (AKA Franco from Rescue Me) dance Dr. Bailey all around the nurses' station and Scott Foley sing. I'm a big fan of the Foley and I'm 99% sure he is going to make a complete career comeback!

Second, I love Sara Ramirez's voice more than life itself. This is why the musical worked. she led the cast in her ephemeral half-there/floating ghost form, singing everyone through their pain.

Third, wonderfully sexy singing came from Karev and McSteamy! They deserved to sing more. And Mr. McDreamy was mysteriously silent- and he did sing the tiniest bit in the movie Enchanted. On second thought, I think he was the only one that didn't sing.... but he had beautiful jazz hands during "That's How You Know."

Fourth, what is going on with the Lexie/Mark/Avery thing? she wants Mark, she cares for him through the birth of his kid, and when Avery gives her an ultimatum (good for you, Avery- don't be a shelf-boy, there is a fine line between waiting outside her door and waiting for someone who will never give their heart to you!), she goes home with him.

So to return to musical episodes, it all started with Cop Rock, but that was too high concept at the time. Without VH1- nobody would have known about CR. But if CR is the founding father, the Teddy Roosevelt if you will, of musical tv show episodes, then Buffy the Vampire Slayer is certainly the hell-raising Alice Roosevelt daughter of them. And that is why I will be posting about the groundbreaking season 6 episode, "Once More, With Feeling"(view the original trailer in the link) tomorrow. Check it out!

Screaming Like a 12 Year Old for NKOTBSB!

In case you've been living under a media rock today, you missed the world premiere of the new NKOTBSB song! I've only listened to the Itunes clip (yeah, a clip- because right now its only available in iTunes Canada, and Youtube)

I can't even describe the amazingness of this song- Bryan, Joey, Jordan, Nick and all our other buddies (AJ, Howie, Jonathan, Donnie, and Danny) are rocking this song. It's a combination of BSB's more recent club-like R&B/pop mix songs like "Bye Bye Love" and "Straight Through My Heart" and NKOTB's "Lights, Camera, Action" and "Put It On My Tab" (minus Akon).

I love Nick's line, "You're gonna see its empty without me in your bed, baby you'll change your mind!" When it comes to US iTunes tomorrow, it's going on constant repeat. While I've been writing this post, I've easily listened to it about 5 times in a row.

In the meantime, enjoy the Joey McIntyre photo show on the Youtube video. Yum!

I can't wait to see them live this summer! Even though they had to cancel our concert and bump it to late July, which is really not cool. But in the meantime, I can entertain myself with my signed Nick carter CD, and my fond memories of closing down Times Square in '01 for BSB's perfomance on TRL and waiting at Macy's all day to see NKOTB three years ago.