That's Entertainment!

I love "Grey's Anatomy." This is no secret. Half the world also loves Grey's Anatomy. I love the writing, the music, the acting, the plot lines, the characters, absolutely everything about it.

In fact, I've come up with a storyline that will make me love it even more — Dr. Preston Burke gets hit by a bus and dies.

Look, Isaiah Washington needs to be fired. Period.

Back in October, when I first heard about the fight between him and Patrick Dempsey on set, I thought, 'hmm, that's not too cool.' Then I heard about why they were fighting and though, 'damn, that's REALLY not cool.'

As everyone knows, word is that Washington called fellow co-star T.R. Knight the f-word. And no, I'm not being immature or censured by not writing out the word. I just refuse to write such a vile word in my blog.

Time passed and Washington apologized and people moved on.

Until Monday night at the Golden Globes when a reporters brought up the infamous scuffle, and Washington (rather snarkily, I might add) said, "“No, I did not call (co-star) T.R. (Knight) a f-----,� Washington told reporters. “Never happened, never happened.�

Um. Wow. Completely uncalled for. The cast stood behind him, obviously uncomfortable as show creator Shonda Rimes tried to laugh it off.

Katherine Heigl (Dr. Isobel Stevens) later blasted Washington (rightfully so) and basically said the dude should never be allowed to talk in public. Hear hear!

Then Knight appeared on "Ellen" on Wednesday and damn near broke this blogger's heart.

Now that the backstory is out of the way ... why isn't this guy fired yet?!!?

I know he's popular, he's a big part of the show, blah blah blah. But there's like 3,000 other series regulars, all of whom are awesome, and the show could definitely survive without him.

Washington issued an apology Thursday. Great. Good for him. I'm pretty sure he did that back then, too. Apologies are just words, probably written by his publicist.

His co-stars are obviously uncomfortable around him. But that doesn't even matter. People can work with people they don't like. It happens.

But the thing is, he used a homophobic slur. TWICE. Publicly! If he was in ANY other profession, he would have been canned long ago.

I'm pretty sure it wouldn't fly here in the news room if I used the same derogatory term and then got in a fight with someone about it. I'd be flipping burgers by now, I guarantee it.

Not to mention, if this situation is reversed, and Knight called Washington the "n-word" ... well, I can only imagine how fast he would have been let go.

There are just some things that are unacceptable. Some behavior can't be erased.

No, this shouldn't be something that completely makes or breaks his career. But it should break his career on "Grey's Anatomy."

Now, every time I watch him on screen with someone, I'm looking for little signs that the person he's interacting with really hates him in real life. It's distracting. It makes me uncomfortable. I can't help that , it just does.

I have a zero tolerance when it comes to hateful slurs of any kind. If Shonda Rimes was smart, she would put an end to this. She wouldn't let Washington get away with, well, basically nothing being done to him beyond being vilifed in the press.

I really doubt she's going to do anything though, and that's truly the saddest thing of all. This kind of behavior will keep on going, and people will think that it's tolerable, because that's what we're learning from this whole thing.

Posted by Kelly Parker at 09:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I wasn't expecting this. I was only going to watch a few episodes. I was basically bored to tears for the first 8 episodes. And then Flicka got voted off, and suddenly "Survivor" became immensely more entertaining.

The pick up in the entertainment factor didn't actually have anything to do with her getting voted off. I liked her just fine, although it was obvious she didn't know how to play the game to win. But she wasn't horribly offensive or annoying or stupid, so I didn't mind having her around.

But it was like right after she was gone, things started picking up, and I found myself actually caring about a couple of the contestants. It all started with the mutiny, I think. After that, with Aitu as the underdog, I had someone to root for. Things actually got exciting, and then the puny team of four one by one picked off members of the Goliath Raro tribe. Damn, it was good television!

And now with EVERY SINGLE SHOW I WATCH on hiatus until January, "Survivor" was going to be the one bright spot in my week. Turns out, the finals is this SUNDAY. Say what? There's still six people in the game!

Well, that crazy Mark Burnett has decided to totally flip the world upside down and have THREE people make it to the final tribal council. I'm not sure how I feel about this, except now it's even more likely that my two hotties (and picks to win the whole thing) Ozzy and Yul will get to the end. These two have always been awesome. I used to be a big Yule-lover, but lately, I'm firmly planting myself in Camp Ozzy. The man is an animal, and I mean that in a good way.

Good riddance to Candace and her inane crying and kissy-faces with the totally dull, but sort of cute, Adam.

I never expected to find myself actually caring about the outcome of this season, but here I am, totally loving on it.

In other TV news:

Veronica Mars: Was I pleased with how the rapist mystery was handled? In a word, yes. I was going to be angry if it had turned out to be one of the angry women femini-Nazis. But having it be the tag team work of two people? Good call, Rob Thomas. Even better was having the guy that Veronica herself got off the hook and out of jail end up being the big bad. It was a good first story arc, and it will segue nicely into the "Who killed Dean O'Dell?" story for the next arc. I have some early predictions and guesses, but it's far too soon to throw them out there. For the record, I called Moe (the crazy RA) being involved from the very first episode of the season. Him and his tea and his "frakiness" was just screaming whacko to me. I finally got one right! Wahoo!

Gilmore Girls: So my Luke/Lorelai love kinda petered out at the beginning of this season, and I slowly fell in love with Christopher. He's too cute and charming and he and Lorelai had a lovely little courtship that was uncomplicated and not full of annoying 13-year-olds with bad hair and glasses. (I am not an April fan). But then the crazy lovebirds got married, and the cracks are starting to show. All I have to say is, sucks to wait a bazillion years to get married and then wind up in divorce court after just a couple months. Cuz you so know this ain't happening for long. Nice knowing you Chris!

Friday Night Lights: Dang, this show is amazing. I love it more and more every week. A reader of my column pointed out to me that it is not exactly the family show it is being touted as. Yes, it has underage sex and lots of drinking and generally normal teenage behavior, so it isn't super appropriate for the youngins. But it still has a damn good message about all of that stuff, and it's something I think teens and parents alike can watch and enjoy together. It makes me cry almost every week, and although it's true I've been known to cry during lots of shows, this one is pretty consistent in its efforts to turn me into good old waterworks. I pray that the powers that be recognize how great it is and keep it around a little while. Although, I'm over Smash's steroid thing. Screw that and give him a real storyline. It's hard to tell who's cuter: Matt Saracan or Jason Street. I think I want them both. =)

The Nine: Eek, this one is not looking so good. I KNOW they aren't just gonna cancel it without telling me what all happened in that bank. But, of course, they are. That's too bad, really.

Ugly Betty: Another of my FAVORITE SHOWS EVER. This one just has it all. I'm laughing out loud one minute, pondering their cheesy, but subtle messages, and damn near crying the next minute. Great cast, great storylines. Marc and Amanda are the awesomest pair on TV right now and Betty is basically my new hero.

Grey's Anatomy: Of course, this show is as solid as ever. Love love loving it! I just saw on the ABC store that they're selling mugs that say Dr. McDreamy on them when they're cold, and when you fill it up with hot liquid, it changes colors and says Dr. McSteamy instead. Seriously?! Greatest thing ever! Hint, for anyone looking to buy me a Xmas present — this is a winner! I foreshadow some super HOT hooking up between Alex and Addison, who might just be the most beautiful couple in the history of the world. And some super naughty hooking up with Izzie and McSteamy. Oh, you know you'll love it. Meredith, as usual, continues to bore me. Not even scenes with Patrick Dempsey can liven that character up for me.

Well, I watch about a billion more shows, and have plenty of thoughts to go on and on about all of them, since that's really all I can do until winter hiatus is over. My TiVo will get a nice well-deserved Christmas vacation.

In football news (because yes, football is entertainment) I made it into the playoffs in my fantasy football league. I wound up in 2nd place, where I sat comfortably for most of the season. Hey, there's nothing like making some easy cash and watching a great season.

Final thoughts on that: The Chargers are soooo winning the Super Bowl. Mark my words. I've been right about everything else this season. And I'd love to see them battle the Saints. What a game that would be!

Posted by Kelly Parker at 11:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yes, I am officially a 2006 NaNoWriMo winner. I somehow managed to sit down and write 12,000 words in the last two days to put me over the 50,000 word mark. I won't lie, I was pretty misty-eyed when I hit the word count button for the 85,987 time and saw that it finally, finally read 50,000. I even marked the 50,000 word in bold. FYI, it was "would." Not the most exciting word of all time, but it's mine and it was my 50,000th.

I'm off to celebrate with a sampler of beer at the Sierra Nevada Brewery, but I will pontificate more on this experience at a later date. I surely need to give my poor fingers a break for awhile.

Posted by Kelly Parker at 06:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So today officially marks the halfway mark of NaNoWriMo. And I am officially more than halfway done with my goal of 50,000 words. Of course, my novel will not be finished at 50K, and is looking to settle around 75K-85K by the time all is said and done.

The reason for my lack of blogging and possibility my lack of ability to hold an intelligent conversation is due to that I have been writing nonstop. And when I'm not writing, I'm thinking about writing, planning out scenes in my head, even practicing dialogue aloud. Yes, we writers are odd.

So I haven't been doing much else in the way of ... living, really. But that's OK, because this experience is so totally worth it.

The genre my novel would fall into is "chick lit." It's becoming a sort of autobiographical story, where my main character is a definite extention of myself, and one of the main male characters is directly ripped off from a guy I know in real life. That said, the novel is just as much fictional as it is nonfictional. It's a nice balance, I think. You gotta write what you know about, right? Which is why I ended up turning my main character into a journalist. She started out working in the television biz, but let's face it -- I don't know squat about that. At least now I know what a newsroom looks like and the types of people who work in them. It gives it a much more realistic feeling.

The urge to rewrite and revise has been strong, but I'm forcing myself to plug along anyway. December is for revising. November is for writing.

In case you were curious, my novel has a name finally! It's called "Serendipity is for Suckers," and I don't think you could get more chick lit-y than that.

I bought this really great book called "See Jane Write" and it is basically a how-to for writing chick lit. The last chapter even told me how to go about getting an agent and shopping my manuscript around for possible publication. It's all very exciting to think about.

I tried to get my first novel published when I was 16. One of the people I sent it to wrote me back in a very snarky fashion and said, "We won't even read manuscripts that come from teenagers." Ouch. Thanks, buddy.

So when I try it again, granted with only about 7 more years experience under my belt, I hope that I am taken somewhat more seriously. Because despite my moments of wanting to give up and delete all 28,000 words of crap, the thing really isn't half bad.

As I head into the final stretch, I'm still motivated as ever to get this puppy finished, and yes, into a bookstore near you by Spring 2008.

Posted by Kelly Parker at 02:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OK, so I was probably the only person in the world who believed that OJ Simpson was innocent. I defended him, and in my grade school ways I was still trying to see the good in everyone.

But now, with OJ's new book and his scheduled on-air TV interview with publisher Judith Regan on FOX, entitled scarily, "O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here's How It Happened," I'm going to have side with the rest of the world and say that this dude is just freaking CREEPY.

What kind of sane person would DO something like this? He knows everyone still thinks he's guilty. And he's just giving us more reason to believe he is. I bet he's just laughing at everyone. He won. He was acquitted and he'll never go to jail for what he did. So what better time to fully disclose to us what really happened, under the assumption, "If I DId It."

Come on, he isn't fooling anyone. This is the most tacky thing I've ever heard of. Can't he just let his victim's rest in peace? And what about their families? How awful for them.

Shame on FOX for doing this, especially because you know they're only doing it for money.

I suppose justice and integrity don't have anything to do with American culture anymore.

Posted by Kelly Parker at 01:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I know writing about politics is not exactly in the scope of this blog. Unless you consider the Republicans losing a bunch of seats in Congress entertaining — which I do.

Let it be known that for as long as I've been able to vote, I have never gone to bed happy on election night. Tonight, I might be able to sleep a little easier. There were a lot of victories, but definitely too many defeats to be too happy.

Probably the biggest bummer for me nationwide is the number of states that have decided to ban gay marriage. I just don't understand why people across the country are trying so hard to be hateful. Shame on South Carolina, Idaho, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin. The results aren't official yet for Colorado and South Dakota, but its looking like the ban will pass there, too.

Arizona might be the one state who will get things right and reject the proposition.

As far as abortion-related props go, I couldn't be happier that South Dakota voters rejected what would have been the strictest abortion law in the country.

The jury is still out on Prop 85 in California, and a similar prop in Oregon, but I'm pretty confident those will fail, too. This is good news.

On the stem cell research front in Missouri, CNN.com is reporting it at 50-50 right now with 81 percent of precincts reporting. The yes vote has been inreasing steadily, so it looks like it could pass. It'll be a close call.

It may seem like none of these should matter to me, even Prop 85 because I'm over 18, since I don't live in any of those states. But, just as a human being who has a little something called compassion, it just makes me sad that so many people are so ignorant and close-minded in this country.

I'm not going to proclaim to know too much about economics and budgets and deficits and all the "numbers" stuff, so I won't even bother commenting on all the bond measures and stuff. I've really always been more concerned about the social and moral issues.

Locally, it's too soon to know anything, but if Mary Flynn can keep her lead and if Maureen Kirk can gain some more votes, I'll be a happy camper.

Posted by Kelly Parker at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, I haven't seen tonight's episode of "Survivor" yet, but the buzz around the newsroom is that Chico's own Flica Flame got voted off the island after 18 days.

I'm a little bummed. I found myself rooting for the hometown girl, even though I never had any thoughts that she'd make it to the end. She didn't have a good enough strategy for that. But she was a strong physical player and didn't ruffle too many feathers as far as I could tell. I thought she might at least make it to the final merge.

But hey, being voted off 8th isn't too bad. (I think my math is right on that one.)

And I know I said I'd probably stop watching once she got the boot, but now I've gone and gotten all attached to it, and I think I'll stick around to see who can win it. I don't have a favorite now, so somebody better do something exciting to keep me invested.

I'll probably recap more once I've seen the ep and why she got voted off. So long, Flica. I can't wait until Heather Hacking (I assume it will be her) gets an interview with Flica herself. I want to know the details, like how much did she get paid for lasting 18 days? She had to have gotten SOMETHING.

Posted by Kelly Parker at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If this fancy widget thing works like I think it's supposed to, it will update everytime I write more in my novel.

2,500 down, 47,500 more to go. Yikes!

Posted by Kelly Parker at 01:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A story that just came across the AP wire:

Robber dies after accidentally shooting himself
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A suspected robber died after accidentally shooting himself in the leg while he and another man held up a Pinole liquor store, authorities said.
Police found the body of Sharffeequa Williams, 24, on a West Oakland street a few minutes after the holdup Saturday morning.
Security cameras recorded footage of Williams shooting himself at the liquor store counter while returning a gun to his waistband, according to Oakland police.
Williams and the other suspect then fled in a dark-colored American vehicle similar to a Ford Crown Victoria, Pinole police said.
Officers found a trail of blood and recovered a handgun dropped at the scene. Authorities believe Williams bled to death after shooting himself in a major artery.
Police were still looking for the accomplice.

That's natural selection for you, right there, folks.

Posted by Kelly Parker at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Basically the greatest video ever. Although I do feel a little sorry for the dude. Poor kid can never show his face anywhere ever again.

This next clip is pretty much the reason that I hate people. This woman would fit right in with all the people who call "Tell it to the E-R" with their inane complaints. People just need to get over stuff. Seriously. But at least this makes for something funny to listen to.

Posted by Kelly Parker at 09:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)