Yes, folks that's right, she's not quite finished yet. Today, on her 27th birthday, the trainwreck known as Britney Spears is unleashing her sixth studio CD, "Circus," with all the fanfare required. Fanfare which included a "mockumentary" on MTV Sunday night titled "Britney Spears: For The Record."
I had taped it because I was too busy watching Twilight on the Internet for the umpteenth time ... I think I'm beyond reviewing this film now, though trying to convince myself that I'm still on the fence whether I like it or not ... much like Edward, who can't keep himself away from Bella, I can't seem to stay away from the flick ...
But back to Britney - So I sat down last night to watch her self-conducted interview and was - absolutely, totally bored!! Except for the few minutes when Madonna showed up to make things interesting, I found this show nearly unwatchable. If you're curious and missed it, don't worry, MTV has a habit of playing things to death, and it was already on again when I was home over lunch yesterday.
Proving she can still draw a crowd, (the show was seen by more than 3.7 million viewers in its debut) Brit didn't provide us with any insight into what the hell happened over the last two years - i.e. the head shaving ("because everyone does it"), K-Fed, the breakdowns, rehab, partying with Paris sans panties, flashing the paparazzi or her affair with Adnan what's-his-name, a known pap.
Instead, we got to see Brit's daddy making cheese grits for her, Brit sitting in a chair at home, having her hair and make-up done, rehearsing with dancers for a video, shopping in stores that are closed just for her, and being chased by photogs everywhere she goes. (OK, I'm jealous - I'd like to experience some of those things - the shopping and hair and make-up every morning, would be very cool.) But is it any wonder that this girl's lost touch with reality? By her own admission, her life the way it is is "all I've ever known."
Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed Britney's music over the years and I enjoyed her videos too. But there was nothing more entertaining than watching her self-destruct in full view of the public ... sad, yes, and I do hope that she's back on track. Afterall, she's got two adorable little boys that need their mom.
Anyway, her new CD is getting pretty positive reviews, however, most critics concede that last year's disc "Blackout," though highly unheard, was better. The first single Womanizer debuted at No. 1 two days after its release and you can expect that Circus will do the same.

As for me, I'll stick with Madonna - she's got her stuff together and at 50 still looks incredible! Yes, I'm a child of the '80s and grew up watching the Material Girl strut her stuff as MTV's first video superstar. While I haven't agreed with everything she's done, I do admire her strength and ability to continue to reinvent herself and entertain us as well.
Madonna's appearance toward the end of Britney Spears: For the Record is the only reason I can recommend watching this show. Nearly twice her age, she looks twice as hot as Britney.

On TV Tonight: The World Music Awards in Monaco airs at 8 p.m. on MNT17 (My Network Television 17, great name, huh?). Artists scheduled to perform include Beyonce, Mariah Carey, Akon, Estelle and Kid Rock. This faux awards show is usually a snooze, but hey, get used to it - awards season it just around the corner ...


And it wouldn't be December if they're weren't some Xmas shows on tonight.
ABC kicks off at 8 p.m. with the Rankin & Bass favorite Santa Claus is Coming to Town - so "put one foot in front of the other" and visit the Burgermeister Meisterburger for heartwarming a tale of Kris Kringle, the Winter Warlock and friends.


Tom Hanks?
ABC Family presents the graphically animated Polar Express at 8:30 p.m. featuring a freaky-looking Tom Hanks-anime as the Christmas train's conductor. I have to admit, as strange at Hanks looks animated, I absolutely loved this movie. It's a great one to sit down with the whole family and watch, plus Josh Groban's "Believe" is perfect for getting in the spirit.

USA presents Will Ferrell's Elf at 8 p.m. I know lots of people love this movie, but I didn't. And, yes, I've tried watching it again and again and I just can't get into it. I've found that I'm about 50/50 on Ferrell's movies. Some make me laugh hysterically, while others just fall flat. I think it has a lot to do with the supporting players i.e. Anchorman's Steve Carrell and Paul Rudd.

New on DVD: Sexy Angelina Jolie shakes things up with James McAvoy in Wanted, a tale of assassins based on the popular videogame.

It's time for another trip to Narnia for the Pevensie siblings, where they are enlisted to once again help ward off an evil king in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. I enjoyed this one at the movies, it's not great, but entertaining. And handsome Brit Ben Barnes does more than a satisfying turn as the rightful heir to the throne. However, the film loses something with the absence of lion king Aslan, but don't worry, he shows up before the end.

Ooh-La-La, Prince Caspian
Handsome Brit Ben Barnes gives Robert Pattinson some competition!

And if you're already an X-Phile, than I don't need to remind you that X-Files: I Want to Believe hits DVD shelves today. Former FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are called back to duty when a former priest claims to be receiving psychic visions pertaining to a kidnapped agent.

Mulder & Scully in new flick
Apparently, I was one of the few who still wanted to believe and actually paid to see this flick in theaters. If you're a fan of the TV show, then this is a sure thing. Gone are all the conspiracy theories, and the film plays like a two-hour episode. It's satisfying and we get to find out exactly where Scully and Mulder's relationship lies. And, hey, it's just great to see Fox Mulder again ...

Bonus! I love this photo, had to add it here!

So this morning, all we could talk about was last night's season premiere of CSI on CBS. And by all, I mean, all my die-hard Survivor fans. Usually Thursday morning starts out with the greeting, "What did you think of Survivor last night?"
However, today we could not ignore the heart-breaking CSI episode fittingly titled "For Warrick."

Grisson holds his dying friend

For those of you who missed it, CSI, formerly television's number one rated show (it's still in the Top 10) began its ninth season with the death of one of its own. Last May's season eight finale ended with the shocking shooting of investigator Warrick Brown (Gary Dourdan) by Undersheriff McKeen. The show opened last night with a very brief recap, followed by CSI leader Gil Grissom (William Peterson) hearing the "officer down" call and being the first to find Warrick slumped over the steering wheel of his car. Racked with emotion, the usually reserved Grissom pulled his colleague from the car. Warrick, still alive, gasped and spat blood, while Grissom begged him to hang on. All the while McKeen hovered over them, stating that he had seen and briefly chased the shooter till he lost him.
Warrick died in Grissom's arms and the episode was a tear-jerker from that point on. As reaction spread throughout the department, even Capt. Jim Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) grieved (he wasn't Warrick's biggest fan). But perhaps the worst was Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger), since she truly loved Warrick and had always hoped for a closer relationship. As predicted by fans, former CSI team member (who departed last season) and Grissom love interest, Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox) returned to comfort her friends. Anyway, while still grieving, the team made it their first priority to find Warrick's killer and low-and-behold, by the end of the episode, McKeen was tracked down by the department, specifically CSI team member Nick Stokes (George Eads), who held him at gun point in a tense moment, before discharging his weapon into the ground, "missing" his intended target.
McKeen was taken into custody and the episode ended with a VERY moving memorial service for Warrick Brown. To watch or for more info, visit http://www.cbs.com/primetime/csi/

After proper respects were paid by my colleagues to Warrick, talk turned to Survivor: Gabon.
Yes, the show started out with Fang's Randy complaining about the rice again! Randy's made it well known that he is worried about his tribe eating too much ...
As I foretold yesterday, the tribes were shaken up last night. Seemingly called together for a reward challenge, tribe members were told to rank their members in order of importance to the tribe's survival. Here's how it went:
Kota: Marcus, Ace, Bob, Charlie, Jacquie, Corinne, Sugar and Kelly.
Fang: Matty, Dan, Randy, Crystal (who was very insulted being ranked 4th), Ken, GC and Suzie.

Survivors ranked
Then Jeff said the magic words - "Drop your buffs!" (Buffs are the tube-like piece of clothing all Survivors are required to have on their bodies at all times, identifying which tribe you belong to.)Taking the two top ranked tribe members, Marcus for Kota and Matty for Fang, Jeff instructed them each to pick a member from the other tribe to form their new tribe. Each newly picked member then got to pick another new member from the next tribe and so on.
Here's how they ended up:
New Kota: Marcus, Charlie, Dan, Randy, Corinne, Suzie and Bob.
New Fang: Matty, Ace, Crystal, Jacquie, Ken, Kelly and GC.
Since no one picked Sugar, she was sent to Exile Island (remember, Sugar already has the Immunity Idol) and would return to whichever tribe lost the immunity challenge and had to vote off a member. Thus evening out the tribes once again.
Randy, of course, started out already paranoid with his new tribe. He's worried since the original Kota members outnumber the new Kota's. And rightly so, we've all seen this before. The original members stick together and one-by-one pick off the "new" members from the rival tribe.
Fang lost their second immunity challenge in a row and, proving the all the stupid Fang members are still there, they decide to base their vote on whether or not Sugar has the Idol. We know she does, but they don't. In the end, the former Fang members stick together and vote out Jacquie, 5-2. To watch this episode or for more info visit http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivor/

Bye-Bye Jacquie

Weekend Watch: Umm, let's see, I still haven't watched the Sci-Fi channel premiere of Sanctuary yet, and the second episode airs tonight at 10 p.m. Same for Cartoon Network's Star Wars: Clone Wars, airing their next ep at 9 p.m. Oh, the guilt, I feel like I'm really letting George Lucas down. Boy, am I getting waaaay behind!

Sign of the Apocolypse: Over on ABC tonight at 10 p.m. is the new season of 20/20 and just guess what this once prestigious news show is promoting?Yes, folks, Britney Spears will debut her new video for "Womanizer" on what was once Barbara Walters turf. What would Hugh Downs say ...

And in case you haven't read the books or seen any of the movies yet, Disney Channel will be broadcasting the original Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone at 9 p.m. I guess you can probably tell since I'm mentioning it here - I love this movie!
Yes, I've read all the books, the first four before this movie came out, but I still love to watch it. It's good for the whole family - not too many like that anymore.

Harry Potter, age 11
Remember when Harry was this little and cute?

Harry Potter, age 19
Times have changed!

You're on your own for Saturday night, there's nothing on the schedule that interests me at all. I guess that means DVD night!

Sunday is, of course, Hell Night! There's just too much on! But I'll be watching the Amazing Race on CBS at 8, followed by HBO's True Blood and Entourage at 9 and 10, respectively. I still haven't caught up on last week's Dexter (9 pm, Showtime) and at 10 pm another new episode dawns for David Duchovny's Californication. Fortunately, Showtime is gratuitous enough to repeat the episode immediately after at 10:30 pm.

Yes, I'll continue to tape Desperate Housewives (ABC, 9pm), because I don't want to be left out of the loop at work. However, VH1 is throwing a new show into the mix at the same time ... and it's one I know I just can't resist ... Rock of Love Charm School, hosted by Sharon Osbourne.
Bringing the best of the best (or should I say the skankiest of the skanks) from Brett Michael's dating show Rock of Love, this promises to be a real schlockfest! And in case you miss it, VH1's gracious enough to air it all week long - I usually catch up with these type shows when they repeat Sunday mornings. It's a great way to start the day ...

And in other Desperate Housewives news: Eonline reports that for November sweeps Fairview will be hit by a massive fire, and some characters won't survive. First the tornado and now this, you'd better think twice about moving onto Wisteria Lane.


FX has given the green light to a second season of my fave new show Sons of Anarchy (I told you it was good)! Variety reports that the network has ordered 13 new episodes of the outlaw show. Another FX hit, The Riches, however, has been cancelled.

Halloween Horror Watch: Tune in tonight to TNT for a double dose of the supernatural. Final Destination, a teen slasher flick that was better than most, begins at 8 pm. The plot revolves around some students who "cheated" death early on and now death is individually finishing the job. The beginning of this film portrays one of the most realistic plane crashes I've ever seen in film, worth checking out.
Afterwards at 10 pm is Underworld, a goth-style vampire flick with great special effects, revolving around the eternal war between vampires and lykens (werewolves). Very stylish, think Matrix with vamps and wolves.


Saturday night brings the granddaddy of slasher films John Carpenter's superb Halloween to the Independent Film Channel at 9 pm. This great flick opened the floodgates on all teen-slasher-horror to come after, the good and the bad, and also spawned a franchise that grew to ridiculous proportions, even bringing back heroine Lori Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) 20 years later for Halloween: H20. Not to mention a remake last year, directed by Rob Zombie, giving us a little more insight to chiller-killer Michael Myers.
Despite what you might think about the silly sequels, you have to admit that the original is one of the scariest movies of all time! "The Night He Came Home" ... not bad for a guy in a William Shatner mask!

Michael Myers

And IFC offers up another Halloween treat Sunday night at 9:30 pm with Jeepers Creepers. Yes, it's another teen-slasher flick, but I have to admit, the Creeper gives me nightmares!
Have a scary weekend!

The Creeper!