I was amped for the premiere of the new Fox sitcom The Return of Jezebel James. First off, as someone whose relationship to TV normally mimics that of a wino and a big bottle of Night Train, the writer’s strike and its aftermath has been hard for me. Second, series creator Amy Sherman-Palladino was the brains (and something like 80% of the dialogue) behind Gilmore Girls, and I loved Gilmore Girls. And finally, if 2007 was the year of the unexpected-pregnancy film, 2008 is shaping up to be the year of the Odd Couple-esque gestational-surrogacy comedy—along with Jezebel James, there’s the upcoming Tina Fey-Amy Poehler film Baby Mama—and I was curious to see how a half-hour sitcom was going to tackle the tricky subject of assisted reproduction.

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by Margaret Price

Project Runway 4: The Season of Love. And no designer was more lovable than the prancing, snapping, flat-iron–wielding Christian Siriano, who ended up winning it all—the final runway showdown, the spread in Elle, and the $10K Fan Favorite prize. Sassing and sewing with equal velocity, the diminuitive designer and self-described "big deal" introduced us to an array of hip, new-to-many-Americans phrases: Fierce! Ferosh! A hot mess up in here! A hot tranny mess up in here!

Wait. Tranny?

I feel sheepish asking for reader participation when my own contributions to this neglected blog have been so pathetic. I do hereby swear to post every day for the next week if you all help me out here, okay?

I'm looking for references to abortion or unplanned pregnancy on tv shows or in films over the past year or so. Knocked Up, Waitress, and Juno are, of course, already on the list. What else should be there?

Peeing on a stick has become a rite of passage for both those struggling to get pregnant and those who would rather not find themselves with child at this time. Last year's two hot procreation films, Juno and Knocked Up both had scenes taking advantage of that universal feeling of anticipation and/or anxiety we feel when waiting for that little window to display its character.

If you, like me, aren't sure you can stomach another season—'scuse me, "cycle"—of Tyra Banks, the two Jays, and a handful of hot messes who will never be models, but you still kind of want to keep up on the show, might I suggest reading the excellent recaps on SFGate.com's Culture Blog?

Taking a break from its steady routine of made-for-TV women-in-peril movies, the Lifetime channel recently premiered How To Look Good Naked, a new series that joins makeover mainstays like TLC's What Not To Wear and Style’s How Do I Look? with a similar mix of fashion policing and talk therapy.

On this Bravo reality show, Patti Stanger, the President and CEO of "The Millionaire's Club" finds and matches stereotypically attractive women to rich dudes who can't seem to find a "decent" woman to have a relationship with. Basically, she's a pimp. She has rules about the couple not having sex until they are "committed", a sort of bizarrely puritanical twist that doesn't make it any less creepy.

I don't know if there's a clearer sign that the writer's strike is killing good television than the insanity broadcast last night on the CW.

On the subway this morning, I sat next to a man reading, Why Men Marry Bitches. Somewhat comically, the woman sitting on the other side of me was reading Che Guevara's essays on How to Change the World.

As I climbed the stairs from the subway headed for Penn station, the strap on my enormous bag broke, so I was left carrying it like a sack of potatoes. Which was a huge bummer because I'd left my other bags in Brooklyn. 

Lisa was waiting for me inside the station, and we boarded the train to Washington, DC. It was close to 90 degrees when we exited the train station to board the subway, and on the subway, lo-fi advertising for Nike flashed at us inside the tunnel. Ugh.