Aw, imho Entourage is much better than SATC. I really can't stand SATC, but I find Entourage terribly disarming. (Even as I type that, I wonder if that's some kind of internalised misogyny speaking, or jealousy, or something? But I don't THINK it is. I just - really, I cannot wrap my head around the level of consumer culture that SATC seems to represent. I cannot find it in my heart to give the faintest shadow of a fuck about designer brands. But I suspect Entourage is just as guilty of this vacuous twaddle, isn't it? But - it has Ari Gold.)

I think "Sex" is cute. But I don't think you're missing anything if you don't watch it. Ironically, I've never felt the urge to...pimp it to anyone, despite the name. I think it gets/got SO MUCH attention that it hardly needs my particular obsessive brand of fandom love. Because I guess I like being the underdog, like writing genfic when everyone else is about "VinceandErictheirloveissofuckin'pure!!1"(Yeah, I get it. I don't need to know about it, but I get it.Eric is cuter than Mandy Moore, imo) Much like nobody fics the Sopranos...ok, I won't say nobody...once in the long desert between new eps, I did actually findSopranos fic at FF.net. It was okay, but not good.

Oh the heck with Ari, it's Eric who keeps me coming back. Eric and Ari's wife - she's terrific. Adrian Grenier doesn't hurt the eyes either. I'm behind on the series. The last eps I watched the making of Medihine, however you spell it. Loved the director!

Oh! Speaking of Adrian Grenier, The Devil Wears Prada was on network tv the other night and I watched the last 45 minutes. I'd seen it before, & read the book, and like the movie and the actors. Anyway, I'd forgotten AG was in it, as the boyfriend, requisitely adorable. The person I completely forgot was in it is Simon Baker - an Oh! It's the Mentalist! moment. Also Tracy Thoms from Rent and Wonderfalls.

I believe it's "Medellin", as in the drug cartel.(That *still* isn't spelled right...the trials of being a brain-damaged crime freak.D'oh!) Eric is the group superego.I like Eric a lot, but I admit I don't pay much attention to him because I *am* him. Well, with breasts. Totally loyal friend, inclined to be subordinate, tougher than I look. Ari fascinates me because he doesn't go around worrying about doing the right thing like I do(except at home, which keeps him human.) Yeah, Vincent Chase is a foamy dude, and he knows it, too. He could be much more of a bastard than he is. That was a good movie, Java.

Entourage: OMGWTF happened to Beverly D' Angelo's face! She looks like she ran into the Carver from Nip-Tuck. Yikes...it's like plastic surgeons need bouncers..."You've had three procedures...you're cut off." And it's exceptionally weird on that show, because of Gold being Gold. Because if it were some kind of *effect*, just for Barbara Cooper, agent bitch-goddess, one might expect Ari to be all "I've known Babs so long she was on her first husband AND her first face...Isn't that right, baby?" I still swear there's no way wrinkles look worse than that.

OMG, just saw Herc from The Wire playing, essentially, the criminal version of Herc. Sloppy, lazy and half-assed(Except we actually do almost see the full Lombardozzi so not really half-assed at all. Too funny, though. On another board, I'd totally "LOL" that. but only Daddy speaks that way. (He does...it's pretty tragic when you find out your genius estranged father sends e-mail like an eighth grade girl, but that is one of a million crosses I bear in our relationship.

The editor of the Smile, Hon, You're In Baltimore zine(Which I was proud to be featured in last year) sent me a link of interest to Wirefiends and other crime junkies.

EJ,

Thought you might enjoy (as it were) this BBC clip featuring THE SUN's Peter Hermann, reflecting on his 15 years covering crime in The City That Bleeds:

[link]

(It's sort of wrong that hearing about his job made me jealous, but I was, at least momentarily. But there has to be an intervention required for a woman hearing about going in the rain at nine at night to talk about a shooting and thinking "lucky bastard."...that shit ain't seemly, yo.

Anna Paquin was on Fresh Air yesterday.

We watched the first 2 eps of True Blood and really disliked it. However, I keep hearing all this great stuff about it and wonder if we should have continued. Does it change much after the first 2 eps or is it more of the same?