Jessica Simpson Meets the Parents
Jessica Simpson Meets the Parents
Getting a jump-start on her skills as an aunt (her sister Ashlee will be giving birth later this year) Jessica Simpson was spotted carrying a friend’s baby yesterday (July 2).
The “With You” singer was joined by her BFF hairstylist Ken Paves and a few pals for lunch at a restaurant in Santa Monica, California.
And the aspiring country singer was looking her part in a denim jacket overtop a beautiful blue and white printed summer dress teamed with a pair of aviator sunglasses.
According to press, Jessica met her boyfriend Tony Romo’s parents this past weekend. The still-going-strong couple flew out to Janesville, Wisconsin to have dinner with the Romos at their local Olive Garden.
A witness reports that things went well. “She scooted up next to him during the meal. They were acting like a couple. They were laughing. It was just a big family being out.”
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Let’s do a little “Whatever happened to…”
Commercials can be a really strong jump start for memories and nostalgia. In fact, I think they can sometimes trigger a certain feeling in us even more than TV shows because they were repeated 700 times when we kids and we remember them strongly, even though we don’t see them any longer.
After the jump we catch up with three classic commercial icons from the 80s. One famous for swinging a hammer, one famous for getting confronted by his dad, and one famous for fishing.
First off, listen to these two cover songs by a man named Reid Maclean.
Fantastic, right? You’re probably wondering who the heck this guy is and where you can buy his albums. You might know him from this spot in the 80s:
Yup, Reid is the “I learned it by watching you!” kid. He’s in his 30s now and an accomplished musician. Here’s his site, where you can find out about his album Bright Fading Star and listen to a few tracks. “Full Time Job” and “Ne’er Do Well” are really beautiful and have become two of my current favorites.
Here’s a classic ad, probably the most famous computer commercial of all-time. It ran only a couple of times, once during the Super Bowl:
The woman swinging the large hammer is Anya Major, who was a discus thrower and one of the few people who could actually swing that thing. She went on to play “Nikita” in the video for the Elton John song and also released her own album. She lives in England.
And how about the famous Oscar Mayer “Fisherman” commercial?
His name is Andy Lambros and he was four when he made that commercial. He’s owned several businesses since then and is also a musician. Here’s his site, though it looks like it hasn’t been updated in a while.
The Riches: The Lying King (season finale)
(S02E07) I debated whether or not I should follow that post title up with a “kind of” or an “unfortunately.” Because really, it is unfortunate that season two was cut short by the strike. If we were gearing up to watch the next six episodes of season two, this would have been a pivotal episode.
With Dahlia’s breakdown, Didi rebelling against her father, and the growing tension between Wayne and Quinn, things are building nicely. As a season finale though, I’m left feeling disappointed. Still, “The Lying King” did offer up some good bits to the story. More on that, after the jump.
To start, let us go to the end, with Quinn’s closing words for the season, “I have your son.” Last week I suspected that was the motivation for his interest in Cael. But they did do a good job selling the possibility that Quinn could have other ideas. For just a moment, as he defended Wayne to Cael, you could almost believe that he was a changed man and did want to take the family in a different direction. Alas, as we saw, not so much.
Clearly, Wayne wants no part of a partnership with Quinn. We’re missing some pretty big bits to that back story, and it’s something that I would really like to see in season three. Of course, even if Quinn was sincere in his desire to deal with Wayne, that ship had already sailed with what happened at the Bayou Hills construction site. Sabotage and just showing up to take over are not the friendliest of methods for saying let’s be partners.
For me, the best part of the Bayou Hills construction story was the entrance of Wayne’s mafia muscle. It was good to get Minkov back into the story. It’s a great example of just what the Riches project has become for the Malloys. It did all start on a fluke. It was a perfect storm of coincidences that brought them into this situation to begin with. And with everything that has happened, all the close calls, they should have cut and run by now, cashing out for whatever they could from Doug’s estate.
And they almost did, but then we had Bayou Hills and the promise of the big payday. It’s just as much the definitive deadline as it is the $13 million. When they first took this gamble, it was all wide open. But now, if Wayne can just get to the end of the Bayou Hills project he can disappear with a big score. So now the game becomes juggling all of the balls until the very last minute. It’s a tricky bit of business. He doesn’t have to actually solve all of these problems. He just has to delay any negative resolutions until just after he’s out.
That’s what we see shaping up with Minkov. Given the choice, Wayne would surely side with Hugh and turn the tables on Minkov. And really, unless he absolutely has to in order to keep the game going, he’s not going to throw Hugh under the bus. At some level, Wayne is growing to like Hugh. When we see Hugh stop to share a genuine moment where he thanks Doug for everything he does for him, it is just that much more pressure on Wayne. It all makes for a fascinating story.
On the other side of our tale, we have Dahlia. I found myself mesmerized by Minnie Driver this week. The breakdown of Dahlia as her past and her present just overwhelm her is great TV. It was impressive how much of her story they were able to tell by letting us watch her think about her situation. Dahlia’s part of the story also served as the setting for some of the best Nina scenes we have had yet. I’ve liked the Nina character from the start, but watching her deal with Jim’s death, and both Dahlia and Wayne, was Nina at her best. It really showed just how much alike Wayne and Dahlia are. She is so angry with Wayne, yet doing the exact same thing to Nina.
The only part of Dahlia’s story, and the episode, that didn’t work for me was the scene with Devereaux. I just wasn’t buying his sudden kiss of Dahlia to start with, let alone with his wife and kids just inside the house. That’s just not at all what I got from all of the earlier Devereaux scenes.
As to the kids, there’s not a lot to take from Sam and Cael’s involvement this week. I’m curious to see more with Sam and his new friend, but as this was the season finale, that bit felt kind of tacked on because they needed something for Sam to be doing. And Cael, he was more or less playing support to get to Quinn’s big line. There was a bit more for Didi this week though. Dahlia tossing Wayne under the bus by telling Didi about Pete set a lot of things in motion. The telling line for me was Didi asking Wayne if that’s who they are now. She’s left searching and confused, seeing everything falling apart and takes off for some good old fashioned teen age rebellion.
And there we are. All the seeds have been planted for what should surely be a great season three. I do wish that we could get all of those answers over the next couple months as a full season two raps up, but what are you gonna do? I suppose we should take from it that six episodes of a very good show is still a check in the win column.
Lindsay Lohan Picks Pumpkins
Lindsay Lohan Picks Pumpkins
It’s getting to be that time of year… a chill in the air… the leaves are starting to turn a bit… and at the end of the month, we’ll all get dressed up and celebrate Halloween. And it looks like Lindsay Lohan is getting a jump start on the festivities.
The crimson-haired rehab resident was spotted out and about in search of the perfect pumpkin for her jack-o-lantern. It looks like she doesn’t want to show up to arts and crafts hour unprepared.
LiLo looked comfy in her loungewear, including a maroon hoodie and black stretch pants. She appeared to be in her own little world, sporting headphones and her oversized celeb-sunglasses.
Soon thereafter, the Georgia Rule actress was picked up by her father for a five-day retreat to a “secluded mountain lodge.”