Is it just me or...

or has network television news lost a ton of credibility, especially in the wake of the biggest news event of the year... bin Laden's death?

Oh, wait... wasn't the biggest story of the year Prince William and Kate Middleton's royal wedding? Well, that was what the networks wanted us to think, a sentiment that was punctuated by them sending their main firepower to London to, essentially, act like grand marshalls. Meanwhile, the southern region of the United States were ravaged by devastating tornadoes and nary a network dared to pull one of the anchors away from London to cover the crisis. Seems to me that the myopic view of these news organizations mirrored the blase response of the Bush administration during Katrina, although in the government's defense, there were many other issues they had to deal with. And yes, Katrina should've been on the top of the list, therefore the tornadoes should've been on top of the network's list.

Which is not to say that I didn't watch the wedding. I did. On CNN, fortunately. And yes, they had their firepower involved in the coverage, but their approach to covering the wedding was less obstructive. Meaning, I didn't see Anderson Cooper or Piers Morgan's puss more than I saw Will or Kate. I didn't hear their voices or the voices of some dubious pundit or royal insider instead of the vows or hymns. And fortunately, CNN got back to the news and stayed with it, while dropping sparse reruns of it throughout their regular programming. And before you say it, yes, I realize that CNN didn't have to be obnoxious about the wedding, since their skanky cousin, HLN, was more than glad to run the topic into the ground. I mean, really, Brooke Anderson and most especially Jane Velez Mitchell, was it really necessary to rock large hats 12 hours after the wedding? And hello, neither of them was actually at the wedding, so... And fcuk it... Jane Velez-Mitchell's @$$ was in fcuking New York, so why 'front?

And finally, the death blow... all of these questions about why President Obama wasn't invited. Was he snubbed? Would he have been a distraction? Why? Why? Why?

Then BOOYAH!!! bin Laden's death, at the order of President Obama. And frankly, to me, many of the networks' 'firepower' looked like wet packs of matches when Monday morning came. They looked inept, out of place and uncomfortable, which is fitting because, somewhere, along the way, they convinced themselves that stories are only important if and only if their stars have a ringside seat.

Personally, I hope these humiliations continue, especially if they prompt these news organizations to behave like news organizations, not gushy teenyboppers.

Hasta Que El Dinero Nos Separe... done

Idealizing anything can cause unnecessary problems. And yet, I can't stop this compulsion, although I know all too well that nothing is totally perfect.

In the last few months, my love affair with telenovelas was wearing thin, mainly because the 'Gran Final' for some of my telenovelas have been hit and miss. For example, En Nombre Del Amor was a disappointment, despite enjoying the stories leading up to the conclusion. And with Mi Pecado, while I wasn't nearly as invested in this telenovela, the gran final was fantastic, especially seeing Carmelo disheveled and deranged in prison. So had some trepidation when it came to the Gran Final for Hasta Que El Dinero Nos Separe. After all, in the weeks leading up to the conclusion, the story seemed to drag a bit, and frankly, there were one too many Alejandra crying over Rafael scenes. Again, my criticisms of that may be unfounded, since I don't understand Spanish and may have missed a crucial plot point. At any rate, I marvel at how wrong I was about how Hasta Que El Dinero Nos Separe would conclude. In fact, I'd venture to say that it was the best finale of soap opera/telenovela that I have ever seen.

In previous posts, I've lamented (read: bitched!) about how American soaps end, or rather, the fact that they get canceled. And it's understandable that most of these soaps that have been on the air have a difficult time encapsulating their long histories in the remaining months, but the haste in winding down storylines that likely didn't work usually took a lot of time away from giving fans a satisfactory goodbye. For example, Santa Barbara's finale centered around Warren and B.J.'s wedding, which was a shame, since their history wasn't as entrenched as other characters. Or Guiding Light, which did resolve some long overdue relationships like Alexandra and Fletcher; however, a lot of time was spent on Josh and Reva, who in my mind, pissed away a lot of time and fans' patience during the last years. The same goes with As the World Turns. While it was nice to see the Hughes' presence in the last episode, they were glaringly absent in the shows leading up to the finale, since the writers decided to focus on Jack and Carly (yet again).

So yeah, I expected that Hasta Que El Dinero Nos Separe would center on Rafael and Alejandra, but imagine my surprise at how the gran final was a celebration of the whole collective. Yes, it was off-putting that several brides shared their wedding with Alejandra, but you know what - I kinda liked it. I liked that the reception was a vehicle for breaking the fourth wall, i.e. showing clips of significant and funny moments involving many of the personnel from the dealership on the large projection screen on the reception hall stage. And it was good to see the staff of the beauty shop, the two cops who had a knack at stopping the main characters for silly infractions, and Vicky's father at the reception as well. And Sadina. And the staff meeting at the old dealership with a staff that bear a strange resemblance to Marino, Ramirez, Claudia, Dandy, Rosella, Jimenez, etc. And the use of top notch actors familiar to regular telenovela viewers implied a reverence for this telenovela that exceeded mine.

Sure, it bothered me that Claudia didn't seem to pay for sleeping with Marco, but then again, there were times when I fell asleep before the end, so it's possible that Alejandra and Claudia had words. But I guess the word of the night was affection - affection for the show, the cast, and the audience. An affection that has been lacking in American soaps in favor of pacifying the soaps' sponsors who callously ordered the plug to be pulled. Finally, some respect was given to all of the people who invested their time in a genre that sometimes don't get their due.

It has been a long time that I said, out loud, how much I enjoyed a television show and how much I was going to miss it. And hopefully, I am not the only one who feels this way about Hasta Que El Dinero Nos Separe, because if enough people love it, maybe Univision will return it to its lineup like they did with La Fea mas Bella.

Here's a snippet of the premiere episode, which I stupidly missed.

Happy Birthdays, Dinah and Michael!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kinda crazy that this continues to happen. First, I find out that two of my favorite actresses, Rosalind Russell and Angelina Jolie, share the same birthday. Now, I find out that two of my favorite singers, Dinah Washington and Michael Jackson, also share the same b-day. Two very unique, beautiful voices who had lives with many highs and lows. Two unique souls who left too soon.

To be frank, I mainly heard Dinah during those K-Tel commercials during the 80s. And then there was that drag queen on Sally Jesse Raphael who sang To Sir With Love in the voices of a dozen of fantastic female singers like Doris Day, Eartha Kitt, and of course, Dinah. Finally, when I hit college, a Tower Records moved in a block away from campus and I finally bought one of her CDs - finally, I found my favorite female voice. Sure, Ella's voice had this elegance and grace about it, but there was something about Dinah. It could be sharp, tarty, soulful and kinda bell-like. Plus, I read up on her life in the liner notes - too much drama and upheaval, largely due to the desire to 'fit the part'. At any rate, I just loved her voice and the fact that she was so scrappy in life.



And as for Michael, some of his life shadows Dinah, although I never heard of him pulling a weapon out on anyone. He had similar hang ups about his looks, but had the financial means and the upgraded technologies to do something about it. Sadly, his improvements alienated some and was used against him at every turn. Nevertheless, I love him - the everchanging looks, the dancing, the smile, and of course, that voice. A beautiful, bell-like quality. Michael was just moving, whether he was on top of the world or in the midst of a crisis and he remains that way, even though he is gone.

Returning to Days of Our Lives... albeit temporarily

Likely, I will return to Young and the Restless, although I am deeply dissatisfied with the course it is taking, but for now, I am tuning into Days of Our Lives. Why? Because they are finally going to deal with Frances Reid's death via Alice Horton's slow and inevitable decline and death and so far, they're doing a pretty good job.

Pretty good... but not great.

The thing that I really like is how the Horton relatives are trickling into Salem to pay their final respects. Coupling that with old clips featuring Alice Horton, at various ages, offering her steadfast advice and support to her family and Salem's strays, TPTB are conducting a respectful tribute. And unlike with MacDonald Carey/Tom Horton, Alice's death will not come as quite a shock. And the added element of Alice's health declining after the death of her son, Mickey, makes sense.

However, I think that the Alice tribute is taking the backburner to stories that seem irrelevant, given the circumstances. I honestly don't care about Arianna (who's that?), Melanie (who's that?), Nicole, scheming for Brady's affections (yes, I know about that and that was the reason why I stopped watching Days), Carly interfering with Chloe (oh, Chloe) and Daniel (who's that?).

Chloe, Chloe, Chloe...

You know, it didn't help when the writers decided to scar Chloe via a car accident, fake her death, and eventually reunite and marry Brady in what had to be the most hastily put together supercouple wedding ever. That didn't bode well for Broe's future. When Nadia Bjorlin's foray into movies didn't work out, the @$$hat writers decided to salvage Phloe (Phillip and Chloe), which I was always thoroughly against, since Phillip was possessive and obsessive towards Chloe. But Chloe had to do something...

But Chloe still being tangled up with Phillip and cheating with Phillip? Come on!!!! Chloe has some pucker to her, which was the reason why I gravitated to her, but this storyline is just cheap. CHEAP!!!! When Alice finally goes, I'm outta there. It's demoralizing that Days took what, potentially, was an interesting character type and made her a insecure, bedhopping slut.

Channeling Broe... stat!!!!

Happy Father's Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rue McClanahan... gone

I realize that Rue passed away weeks ago, but I needed to mark her passing, regardless of how much time has passed.

For me, The Golden Girls' Blanche was an acquired taste. I understood Rose's innocence, Dorothy's doubts, and Sophia's scrappiness, but Blanche was one of the elements that I had to grow on; fortunately, once I hit my 20s, I finally 'got' Blanche. And in subsequent years, I realized that of all of the characters, Blanche came 'of age' during the run of the show. Yes, Blanche was known to be the sexy, promiscuous one of the bunch, but you also saw how she repaired her damaged relationships with her children, grapple with her own aging (getting a pacemaker comes to mind, along with doubting her allure, albeit temporarily), deal with the residual pain of being widowed and adapting to life choices of family members (brother Clayton's homosexuality and Big Daddy's marriage to a younger woman and his long ago affair with her nanny).

But enough with the internal reconciliations - some of Blanche's best moments involved the rest of her roommates. Unfortunately, I couldn't find my favorite Blanche clips on Utube, like when Blanche was trying to comfort Rose and Dorothy after they had a falling out due to their children sexing each other. Or the clip when Blanche taunted Sophia while she was on a date with Fidel Santiago, resulting in one of Sophia's best burns. But the clips I did find illustrate the awesomeness of Blanche, which Rue McClanahan portrayed with effortless panache.

Happy Birthday, Judy Garland!!!!

Happy Birthday, Marilyn Monroe!!!

She was an unexpected surprise to me, a fact that may be lost on some. Like many so-called icons, she was talked up so much, that I didn't want to look into why so many loved her. But thanks to ole skool, commercial-free, actually showing classic movies American Movie Classic, I got a sample of why so many found Marilyn special.

She really was special - vulnerable and absolutely adorable. Sexy, of course, but that's only incidental, IMO. She was soft, both in manner and in appearance, something that women should aspire to more often.

Loved Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, especially because of the friendship between Dorothy and Lorelei. Marilyn was rarely paired with other women, in terms of friendships, and no, I can't count How to Marry a Millionaire because that was more about strategy. I wished that Marilyn was paired with more women, in terms of onscreen relationships - maybe it would've made her seem less threatening, although I still have a problem with women being threatened by another woman's sexuality, especially when the sexuality is far from pornographic or superficial. After all, Jean Harlow was often pair with Una Merkal and that onscreen pairing did wonders to add dimension to Harlow's persona (and it was fun and funny).

At any rate, this clip is the reason why Marilyn was added to my list of actresses/stars whose tears at the hands of another warrants butchy, ass-kicking wrath, because some hearts should not be hurt, whether accidentally or intentionally.

Soooooooooo wrong... but soooooooooooooo fcuking funny!

RIP, Gary Coleman.

Gary Coleman... gone

I like how fans are giving celebs their flowers while they are still hear. I really love how Betty White is getting hers; kinda dubious about Brett Michaels is getting his, especially if the flowers seem to be ill-gotten (The Apprentice). Nevertheless, people should let others know that their efforts are appreciated while they are coherent and healthy enough to appreciate it. Sadly, Gary Coleman didn't get his until he was in a coma, so who knows if he ever heard or knew about them.

Didn't much care for the press' treatment of his death on Friday, especially the way The Insider handled it. Yes, they were respectful, but they were also deceitful and hypocritical. They should've acknowledged that their stage was the scene of one of Gary's last public humiliations and that it was at the hands of legal expert Lisa Bloom, who preceded to do a victory lap on various 24/7 news outlets like CNN and HLN. I hope our peroxided Ursula relished the amulet containing Coleman's outburst because hopefully, her conduct after the unwarranted confrontation will be remembered, just as Nancy Grace's grilling of Melinda Duckett continues to be a black mark.

At any rate, I hope that at some point, Gary was proud of his work on television. As I said in a previous post, I will never understand this conspiracy of making people/audiences forget. Gary Coleman was more than 'What'cha talkin' 'bout, Willis?' Hell, the first season of Diff'rent Strokes wasn't made by that line. It was the sincerity of the performances. It was the writing. It was the chemistry among the actors. It was the way that the child actors melded with their adult counterparts. It was too bad that Diff'rent Strokes drifted away from those elements and at points, became too preachy and heavy. But then again, the audience was partly to blame, since they had certain expectations on how things should've played out onscreen and off, resulting in limited opportunities for the younger actors.

Nevertheless, Gary Coleman possessed a spark. And while he carried it onto Diff'rent Strokes, he had it long before, as demonstrated on previous guest starring appearances like on Good Times and The Jeffersons. His appearance on The Jeffersons was one of my favorite performances - loud/smart-mouthed Raymond, George's nephew from Chicago. Little Raymond gave Uncle George the blues BIG TIME!







Doing good work, at some point, is better than never doing it at all. And the fact that Gary did it while battling serious health problems deserves additional consideration. Hopefully, NOW, Gary will find some peace and maybe, a resurgent (albeit procrastinated) amount of respect.