CAUTION! CONTENT MAY BE TOXIC!

I can't help myself. To faithful readers who might be offended by today's post, I apologize. It's not my intention to offend anyone but if I don't speak up about these two issues - I will have to go bang my head against the wall...and that would hurt, so choose to do this. If you are offended and wish to bang my head against the wall - well, you have to catch me first. Good luck.

Let me start with Julia Louis-Dreyfus - and her stupid -- you heard right -- STUPID TV show, "The New Adventures of Old Christine." I'm no fan of Julia Louis (sorry, I have a pet peeve about this whole hyphenated name thing; if ya don't want to take your husband's name, fine, but don't saddle your kids with names that stretch to Mars)...so I can't defend myself by saying, "Oh, she's such a great actress, why has she stooped so low?" Personally, she never impressed me on Seinfeld, but then, I never much cared for Seinfeld, either. I mean, after the first 6 months...it was the same thing over and over and over. JMHO

Meanwhile, Julia Louis knows someone at CBS or she paid someone at CBS, (or CBS was really desperate), cause her new show, "The New Adventures of Old Christine," is no competition for Laverne and Shirley, or Murphy Brown, or Ellen Degeneres. Those shows had talented writers and women who knew how to deliver comedy. Of course, that was back when writers knew how to write comedy. On "The New Adventures of Old Christine" they can't even create a decent show title. 

Beyond the uninspiring title and the grade school plotline, this picture of "New Christine" holding a mug that says #1 Mom is so --- nauseating, it makes me sick. Wait - that's redundant. Well, so be it. It makes me sick twice over. This show is so badly scripted and badly acted I'm at a loss of how to adequately describe it. How about: bad, really bad! There is nothing motherly about the character - unless you count that she has an 8 year-old son. Unless you think mauling said son on a regular basis - and acting like he's a puppy that should never grow up - is motherly. Unless you think sparring with the rich crowd at the exclusive school she sends her son to - is motherly. [Did anyone see the episode where she takes her son, Richie, to school and he asks, "Where are the black kids?" cause there aren't any? Why wasn't the show cancelled RIGHT THEN?]

Besides making Moms look bad - this character also makes women, in general, look bad. Whining about being divorced, about not having enough money (though she sends her son to an exclusive school), and about not getting enough sex since her divorce - is ludicrous. The recent episode where Christine went to the grocery store to pick up a one-night stand and showed up at the exclusive school the next day glowing - was nothing short of contemptible! Please - please tell me newly divorced women with children don't really do this! I prefer to think we've come a long way baby - and we don't have to start acting like rutting pigs to satisfy a viewing public made up of...other women and their KIDS. If CBS is listening - don't give me that baloney about it being in prime time when the kiddies are in bed. Kids today don't go to bed. And, even if they did, the rest of us would like something -- well, funny to watch.

Okay...enough of Julia Louis. It's not entirely her fault. Maybe she really believes the show is funny. She doesn't live in the real world, after all. She lives in Hollywood. (wherever the show is produced is Hollywood - even if it's produced in New Jersey or Chicago or Las Vegas; and yes, I know it isn't. The point is: Hollywood has no clue as to what the REAL world is like.)

Let's move on...second rant. Amanda Congdon from Rocketboom. Apparently this story is all over the net. Rocketboom is a vlog. Amanda is, or rather - was, the star. She was one-half of the show. The other half is someone name Andrew Baron. I like Andrew. From his note at the link above, he sounds like a decent guy [purely conjecture on my part, I admit it]. Amanda...on the other hand...doesn't deserve one iota of the press she's getting (and here I am giving her more!). I saw mention of her 'leaving' Rocketboom or being 'fired' from Rocketboom here and there, and I wondered what all the hype was about. When Frank Barnako wrote about it in his blog, well, curiosity got the better of me. I had to go look-see what all the fuss was about.

Apparently, the fuss is about - nothing. Nada. Zip. Let Amanda Congdon go wherever she pleases, who the heck cares??? She's a vapid blonde with no talent who happened to be in the right place at the right time and now...she's being 'courted' by Hollywood? Hey, maybe she's going to replace one of the vacant-eyed women on "The New Christine Show" - one of the rich Moms who checked their personalities at the door! She fits the bill.

It disturbs me that we are elevating these women and these shows to the status of celebrity worship that they don't deserve. It disturbs me that Amanda Congdon can attract so much attention - because she happened to be a partner in a popular vlog - and things went south. So @#$% what!  Please... go to the site and watch a few of her insipid videos - if you think that's talent, well...you need to rent a Jodie Foster movie or be forced to watch Creature from the Black Lagoon a few dozen times...in the first case you might finally see what real talent is, and in the second I hope you figure out that the creature was the only one in the movie with talent.

Whew! I'm done. This is a rant. I admit it. I warned you in the beginning. Sad to say - "The New Adventures of Old Christine" was renewed for another season. Gag me with a spoon! And Amanda... she will likely end up on her feet (or not - pun intended), and we will see her in a revised "I Dream of Jeanie"... in which case, "The New Adventures of Old Christine" will be in big trouble. Cause, at least that show was funny.

Me, I'll just click around my cable channels for "Law and Order" or "CSI," or see what's on Lifetime. Thank you very much, as Kyra Sedgwick (Brenda, in The Closure,) is fond of saying. Hey - she's good AND she's funny. You see, it can be done.