Fumarama

I thought this was awesome. It was on women's wear daily dot com. I don't usually visit this website, but i was sent there by the WaPo's Celebritology.

TABLOID GLARE: Twenty-first-century Americans may have an unquenchable thirst for the latest celebrity dish. But former president Bill Clinton is not among them. "I think there's something wrong with modern culture if Britney Spears — who I happen to like — can't have a personal crisis without having it splashed all over the tabloids," he griped. Clinton, himself one of the bigger stars in the celebrity constellation, took exception to the media's ever-expanding eye into people's private lives Friday in a talk to about 1,000 media types assembled by TV Land for the upfronts.

The former president said his own tastes in entertainment run more to Fox's "24" ("even if it's on that uber right-wing channel"), ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" and ABC's "Boston Legal." Of the latter, Clinton chuckled: "The chemistry between William Shatner and James Spader is something to behold every week."

People talk about having a couple of beers with the ex-president. But you know what I would love, to sit down with him and talk tv. (There could be beer there, maybe something sweet for me like Raspberry Cider.) Anyway, I wonder if Clinton really watches these shows or if he was choosing it to be hip with the TV Land crowd. He had to choose shows that we popular enough so he seemed normal and one of the people, but not shows that people universally think of as trash. So he chose Emmy winning shows.

This got me thinking, if I were president what shows would I tell the public I watched. Well, I would have to drop anything on the CW. It is not that i think those shows are bad, but once you mention you watch the CW, no one takes you seriously, except for Everybody Hates Chris, that is ok to look because people love Chris Rock. I think I would have to disavow all reality except for Top Chef and Project Runway, those are ok reality. However, I might want to avoid cable tv entirely because there are still many homes without it.

I think I would choose Heroes, Friday Night Lights, and Ugly Betty. Those are critically acclaimed, popular shows. Well, Friday Night Lights has terrible ratings. OH MY GOD, if I were a beloved ex-president I could announce publicly that I like a floundering show like Friday Night Lights and people might start watching it. I want to be a beloved ex-president.

Hugh Grant is awesome. Watching a Hugh Grant movie is like one of those recurring SNL sketches, where you take the same character and put him in different situations. Awkward, funny british guy attends four weddings and then a funeral, awkward british guy falls in love with a famous actress, awkward British guy as new prime minister of England, and now awkward british guy as aging 80s pop singer. I once saw him on Inside the Actors Studio (back when I found that show interesting as opposed to pretentious) and he played awkward, funny British guy as actor doing an interview. And it never gets old! And even better...he does not ruin it by trying to stretch or change.

Now I am not saying every actor needs to do this...but you know, if you are really good at playing one thing, and audiences like it...

So this brings me to Rob Lowe. I loved him on the West Wing. And then he did a bunch of things that as far as I could tell was lame. However, he recently joined the cast of Brothers and Sisters as an idealistic (and absurdly liberal) Republican senator. And, my god, he is dreamy. He was supposed to only be on for a few episodes but the audience responded so well that they kept him on. The man has found his niche in idealistic young politicos. so it is very unlikely that Rob Lowe would listen to me (though he should!) but he should take the Hugh Grant route and play nothing else for the rest of his life.

why I don't watch Lost.

Well, I did not watch Lost from the beginning because it was my first year of law school and I did not think I should take on new shows plus I found Alias (also a JJ Abrams show) with its million unresolved questions and torture scenes really frustrating. Plus, there was supposed to be a monster and monsters are scary. But of-course Lost then became this huge show that everyone kept talking about. I could not escape it. (Ha. Its just like how the castaways can't escape the island...ok, not funny, sorry). I read massive amounts about television and pop culture generally. And for some shows I can avoid any plot point reveals, for example I have never seen the Wire, but I know nothing about it but the premise and plan to rent the DVDs over the summer. But for shows like Lost (and the Sopranos and Dancing with the Stars), details of the show are everywhere. Entertainment Weekly featured the first character to die on Lost on its cover right after it happened. I was in a Bar Bri MPRE class today and the instructor made a point about legal ethics by using an episode of the Sopranos, and I was mad because it was hilarious but it was just ruined for me. In short, there seems no point in watching cause I already know what happens.

This problem may be uniquely mine because I really like being surprised. I mean it is not necessary, I have enjoyed the Harry Potter movies. But it is just more enjoyable if I don't know what is going to happen. I would even go so far as to say that I was a little sad when I read Hamlet and already knew he was going to die at the end.

Actually, I have a funny story about that. We read Hamlet my senior year of high school. At some point as we were going through it, I mentioned that Hamlet dies at the end. And my friend yelled at me for ruining the ending for her.
And I was like, but "everyone knows that Hamlet dies at the end it is a Shakesperean tragedy, everyone dies."
"Well, I did not know that"
"oh crap. the play would have been better for you if you did not know" at which point I yelled at her for not having sufficient cultural literacy.

Yes that was obnoxious of me. I have totally changed since then.