Memo to ABC!

First, last week's "Ugly Betty." I have never laughed so hard! Ok, maybe it was a bit scary realizing that I knew EVERY drag queen on the show, from my darling Hedda Lettuce to RuPaul to Varla Jean & Justin Bond. Not to mention Vanessa's brother, Chris Williams, in HIGH DRAG as "The Wonderfully Wicked Wilheldiva Hater." And Kristen Johnston as Helen needs to be locked up! And they're taking this show off the air? Uh, hello? ABC...where are the queens who run your network???

Chris Williams in DragChris & Vanessa Williams

"Lost, Lost & more Lost"

Ok, two weeks & I'm still sort of confused. The Others in the Temple? In the words of Butch & Sundance, "Who are those guys?" The parallel time-line scenario is really fascinating. Claire and the adoptive parent(s) with Kate along for the ride and then Ethan turning out to be her doctor. I loved that Kate went back to find Claire and stayed with her in the hospital. Back on the island, the scenes between Sawyer and Kate in the Other's village were so wonderful, and the love that James had for Juliet brought out another side of his character. But who has "claimed" Sayid? Jacob? And what was that cryptic remark to Jack about "the same thing that happened to your sister?" Then all of a sudden, there's Jack's sister Claire, rifle in hand saving the day. And one more question: what's with all the ankhs? The statue is holding two of them. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics on the island? Now where did they come from? Egyptian gods carried them by their loop, just as the statue does. OH NO!!! CHARIOTS OF THE GODS??? The ankh does represent the planet Venus. See where I'm going with this? Too much reading into things? Well, If you think you're "Lost" now, wait until next week!

For the BEST in "Lost" recaps, theories & such, go to my pal Bill Ervolino's "Completely Lost" site. It's a Losties dream! http://blogs.northjersey.com/blogs/completelylost

OK Addicted!

I tried, I REALLY tried to stay away from the roll-over that is "Grey's Anatomy" & "Private Practice," and then one day, there I was. If you thought the "Grey's" doctors are nuts, try these out for size. "PP" has the most dysfunctional, narcissistic, egomaniacal doctors on the planet, and unlike those at "Grey's," these guys make a %*#&+$^ of do-re-mi. It's a like a train wreck that you can't stop watching.

Mushytime

I know, I know, I'm a mushy sap for those 32 hanky shows, but I'm mad for the CW11's "Life Unexpected." Ok, I watched "The Waltons" and "Little House on the Prairie" and "Touched by an Angel." SO SUE ME!!! I need something cathartic to weep about once a week & this show is it. When Lux sold the lamp to pay the rent on her father's bar, I was gone. Try it, you'll like it. I want reports.

OMG!!! If you have not seen Claire Danes in the HBO film Temple Grandin, YOU MUST! This is an incredible performance and an incredible, true story of a woman who changed the way we look at the treatment animals, and achieved so much, years before anyone knew about autism, let alone autism spectrum disorder. Talk about crying buckets, this was a 12 hankie job & Danes gives a career changing performance that is an eye opener.

IN MEMORIAM - Frances Reid, 'Days of Our Lives' Matriarch, dies at 95

Frances Reid, the last original cast member of "Days of Our Lives," who portrayed the soap opera's matriarch, Alice Horton, for 42 years, died February 3, 2010, in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Ms. Reid was already a Broadway veteran when she debuted in the premiere of "Days of Our Lives" on Nov. 8, 1965. She made her final appearance in 2007. Familiar with the demands of daily, live TV after appearing on the soaps "As the World Turns" and "The Edge of Night," Ms. Reid was hesitant to take the part on "Days," but roles for women older than 40 were hard to come by, so she finally decided to accept the role, according to an NBC biography.

Her character was a housewife and longtime hospital volunteer. She once aided a prison escape by drugging doughnuts, a homemade baked good that was her specialty and often integral to her plot lines. In true soap fashion, the Horton matriarch was thought to have been killed off -- a doughnut played a role -- in 2004 but was found alive two months later. Ms. Reid was born in 1914, in Wichita Falls, Texas, and grew up in Berkeley, Calif. After studying acting at what was then called the Pasadena Community Playhouse, Ms. Reid appeared in more than a dozen productions on Broadway, playing Ophelia in Hamlet, Roxane opposite Jose Ferrer in Cyrano de Bergerac and Viola in Twelfth Night, in the late 1940s. In the early day of TV, she reprised the role of Roxane, again opposite Ferrer, in an adaptation of Cyrano that aired as an episode of "The Philco Television Playhouse." In 1954, she took her first part on a TV soap opera, playing the title character in "Portia Faces Life," but she quit after six months because she found the workload "exhausting," according to the Web site Soap Opera Central. Before joining "Days," Ms. Reid had roles on about 30 TV shows and later appeared in the 1966 movie Seconds with Rock Hudson and the 1971 movie The Andromeda Strain. While on a photographic safari in Africa about 20 years ago, Ms. Reid suffered a stroke that left her partially paralyzed. She returned to "Days" after achieving a near-complete recovery. She received an honorary Daytime Emmy in 2004 for lifetime achievement.

A FINAL NOTE: Super Bowl footnote to Peyton Manning..."neener, neener, neener...that's for what you did to our Jets!" GO SAINTS!!! Yay Drew Brees, The City of New Orleans deserved it!!!

See you next week...

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