Canadian Hottie!

This is Nazneen Contractor, a Canadian actress currently appearing on The Border, a CBC (Canadian) knockoff of Spooks or 24:

Sadly, this picture cannot convey her best asset: her sexy voice. If you ever get a chance to watch The Border, you should really check it out, if only to see Nazneen!

Random TV News

Here’s a bunch of random stories from the world of TV land:

– Fox has cancelled King of the Hill. Well, not “cancelled” so much as “will not renew”. This isn’t exactly surprising, since the show’s creators have moved on to other things – Mike Judge is doing a new series for ABC and Greg Daniels went on to produce The Office for NBC.

– For some reason, Fox has renewed American Dad. The show is OK, but I find the premise wearing thin.

– Jon Hamm of Mad Men is in talks to play Liz Lemon’s boyfriend in several episodes of 30 Rock.

– It might be the end for Pushing Daisies. Word on the street is that ABC has told the show’s producers to treat episode 13 as the “series finale” just in case the show does not get the order for the “back nine” episodes. Actually, the episode is supposed to work “either way” – as a series finale or as a springboard for the final nine episodes – so the network is covered in either case. This is both good and bad news. “Bad” because it looks like Daisies won’t be around next year; “Good” because it appears that the show, at the very least, won’t be unceremoniously yanked off the air.

January Jones: Goddess

OK, I promise that I’ll stop posting Mad Men stuff… but I just had to post these beautiful pictures of January Jones from an unknown photoshoot. I think Betty Draper, her character on Mad Men, is a modern day Grace Kelly… and is one of the most beautiful women in the world. Outside of the “Betty Draper” character, however, January Jones is usually less than impressive… especially in candid shots. I think she needs a new stylist. At any rate, I saw these online last night, and she looks really good in them, so I thought I’d share:

(click to enlarge)
(click to enlarge)

More pics after the jump!

Continue reading “January Jones: Goddess”

Quote of the Day

“History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of ‘history’ it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time – and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened… There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda… You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning… And that, I think, was the handle – that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting – on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave… So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark – that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.”

– Hunter S. Thompson
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Mad Men: “Meditations in an Emergency”

Well, my two favorite football teams – the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and the Pittsburgh Steelers – both lost this past weekend. Normally, I’d be a horrible mood about it… but Sunday was the season finale of Mad Men… so let’s get right to it:

Many viewers wondered what Sally’s “Mommy, you’re bleeding!” comment was about near the end of the previous episode. We didn’t have to wait long to find an answer: Betty’s pregnant, thanks to her liaison with Don in “The Inheritance”. Betty’s physician, Dr. Aldrich, is all excited about the pregnancy… until Betty tells him that she can’t possibly have a baby right now. The doctor looks at Betty and says that “if we’re having the conversation I think we’re having, there are alternatives”.

He then says that he can’t believe that Betty – a wealthy, married woman – would consider even “it”. He tells her that as soon as she tells her husband and friends that she’ll “get into the swing of things” and that she’ll be OK. Dr. Aldrich apparently works out of his home, and when he leaves the room for a moment to go find a portable heater (so that Betty can undress for the examination), Birdie picks up her coat and purse… and leaves.

Back at Sterling Cooper, the “usual suspects” – Harry, Paul, Ken and Peggy – wonder why management wants all of their numbers way before they’re due. Paul wonders if the urgency has anything to do with Don’s absence in California. Harry says that he’s figured it out: Pete told him that the aerospace industry is about to take off (heh) out there, and that Don must be landing a giant account. Paul wonders if Don’s breaking off to start his own agency. Harry counters that he might be working to open Sterling Cooper West. He then laments that President Kennedy is giving a speech that night; since ads don’t run during presidential speeches, that’s revenue that Sterling Cooper is missing out on.

Peggy then goes to visit Pete, who’s eating a sandwich in his office. She asks if he’s told anyone about Clearasil yet; he sarcastically says that “it slipped his mind”. He also says that he’s waiting on a call from North American Aviation about a possible new deal. He then asks Peggy what to say to Duck. Peggy tells him to just tell him the truth, and that people respect that.

Continue reading “Mad Men: “Meditations in an Emergency””

Lionsgate looking for a new runner?

In “TV speak”, a show runner is the person responsible for the day to day operations of a TV show (e.g. the person that “runs” the show). Although the show runner can, theoretically, be anyone, it is usually a writer, especially if that writer is a big part of the show’s existence. In the case of Mad Men, Matt Weiner is the head writer, a producer, and all around “grand poobah” of the series. And his contract with Lionsgate – the company that produces Mad Men – is up for renewal.

Weiner has asked for $10 million a year, a figure that Lionsgate claims is far too high for their basic cable budget. Since Lionsgate is contracted with AMC for two more seasons of the show, they’ll have to have someone be the show runner, even if that’s not Weiner. However, he is the heart and soul of a show that gets fantastic reviews, decent ratings, and also won the first “Best Drama” Emmy for a basic cable series.

As TV Squad notes, Lionsgate will have to pay Wiener the money. It’s that simple. Mad Men has a fanatic fan base (obviously), and any drop in quality would instantly be noticed by them. Without Wiener you have no show… so ante up the ducats, Lionsgate!

Read all about it here.

Another Reason to Hate Outsourcing!

Companies love outsourcing. It saves them huge amounts of money over hiring Americans, not only with salaries (why pay an American $9/hour to do a job you can pay an Indian $9/day to do?), but also with benefits, payroll taxes, property taxes, and a million other things.

Consumers, on the other hand, hate it. The hate is partly due to the language barrier that often comes with outsourcing. But it’s also due to some of the things the foreign companies do themselves, such as order their call takers to adopt an American name and persona when talking to customers. When a guy that sounds like Apu from The Simpsons tries to tell you that his name is Bob and he’s from Kansas City, Oregon… well, it’s just insulting.

And now it seems like you can add identity theft to the list of concerns over outsourcing. Actually, identity theft via outsourcing is nothing new… but this story from The Consumerist should give you pause. The Consumerist article, written by one of the call takers at a Chase call center in the US, is a giant bucket of fail.

It seems that Chase has a call center and a “security team” in the the United States, but their off-hours security is outsourced to a call center in the Philippines. The US call center people noticed a male with a distinctive voice calling them frequently, apparently probing for any information he could get about a few accounts. The call takers passed the information on to the US branch of Chase’s security team, who quickly put a block on the account.

Continue reading “Another Reason to Hate Outsourcing!”

Restaurant Fail!

This restaurant is located in Louisville, Kentucky. It’s apparently known as the Cardinals Café, and is located close to the University of Louisville, whose teams are known as the Cardinals (or Cards, for short). Apparently the restaurant got a crappy health inspection, so the manager decided to use that to their advantage:

Classy! You’d of thought that they’d at least done a better job of matching the fonts, though!