Gilmore Girls

Not every woman can look like Salma Hayek, but every woman can smell like her. Just in time for the holidays, InsideBayArea.com has released a list of the fragrances favored by television's leading ladies. Not everyone understands the appeal of expensive perfume, and nobody wants to be around someone doused in it. Perfume is an indulgence when you're penny pinching, but I've got to admit that it's one of my own weaknesses.

As you might expect, the perfumes on the list are ridiculously pricey, but at least, no one is wearing Britney's Curious for Women. I personally can't afford any of these scents - even in the 1 oz. bottle - but I can certainly "test" them at Sephora. Here are some list highlights: The Gilmore Girls' Lauren Graham wears Fracas by Robert Piguet; Men in Trees' Anne Heche wears Amaze by IsaDora; Ugly Betty's Salma Hayek wears Narciso Rodriguez's For Her; Big Day's Marla Sokoloff wears Trish McEvoy's #9; and Brothers & Sisters' Calista Flockhart wears be by becker.eshaya.

(S07E10) For the last few weeks, I've been wondering if David Rosenthal and company have been turning Lorelai Gilmore into a more childish, petulant character than she had been in recent years, or if she's always been this childish and petulant, but her act has started to wear thin. After this episode, I've determined it's a little bit of each, leaning towards the "written that way" side. There really seems to be no reason that Lor should be so mean-spirited nowadays, especially towards her parents. She's pushing 40. She owns a successful business. And she's finally married to her high school sweetheart, who just happens to be loaded. So why does she still act like a baby?

In short: it's an easy way to for the writers to make Christopher look like a putz.

(S07E09) This one felt cozy, didn't it? Snappy dialogue, funny situations (I mean, come on... huge knitting needles and balls of yarn?), quirky parties, story development... This week's episode felt almost... almost like the Gilmore Girls we knew and loved, moreso than any we've seen this year so far. One problem, though:

Christopher.

How is he gumming up the works so much, literally, figuratively, and everything in between? It's not like the town never knew he existed up until now; he's been in and out of Lor and Rory's life for over 20 years. Surely, the folks in Stars Hollow would be treating him more warmly in the past than they are now, when he's Mr. Lorelai Gilmore. There's just one thing that can explain this: Sloppiness.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: we have way too much free time on our hands. Case in point is the Gilmorepedia, a new entry in the ever-growing wiki community that can be found on the Internet. This wiki's particular focus is on the WB/CW program Gilmore Girls.

Well, it will be this wiki's primary focus. Right now, it's pretty empty. All that's entered is a brief plot outline of the show, pictures of Lorelai and Rory, and summaries of the first five episodes of the premiere season. So, it could certainly use some input from those of you who also have way too much time on their hands. No, seriously. It would be nice to have a central location for Gilmore Girls material; it certainly helps us poor bloggers out when we need a particular piece of information about the show.

So, community of the Internet, start filling in the blanks over at Gilmorepedia. You can get there via this link.

(S07E08) Hmmmm......

Ya think something's a'brewin' in Gilmore-land?

Lorelai is trying to convince herself as much as Rory that marrying Christopher was the good and right thing to do; meanwhile, she's running to see Luke at the hospital when April has appendicitis. She resists, but then relents when Chris wants to make some changes around the house; meanwhile, she's definitely keeping the name Gilmore, because she doesn't want to be called "Lorelai Hayden Planetarium." And here's the biggest thing: despite the fact that she married Rory's dad, she, Chris, and everyone else knows who the rock is in Rory's life. That's going to be a lot for ol' Christopher to overcome, isn't it?

(S07E07) Thanks for ruining things, Mike.

I'm talking to Mike Ausiello, TV Guide's resident Gilmore Girls fan and spoiler king. Because he had well-placed moles over at GG (he was an extra there, after all), he revealed a big-ass plot point from this episode a few weeks ago, and by the time it wrapped around the Internets, even spoiler-averse people like me knew what was going to happen tonight. So the surprise wasn't there at all.

(By the way, I like Mike. Even interviewed him once. Nice fella. But he's gotten so big that it's hard to avoid his spoilers, even if you want to.)

(S07E06) In this episode of Gilmore Girls, kiddies, we have entered what is known as the Bizarro Gilmore World (maybe there there Rory's name is Yror). People talk and talk and talk but say nothing. Christopher and Lorelai act like lame Yale parents. Rory doesn't wear gobs and gobs of mascara. Emily and Richard are the most sensible people in the room. Seemingly reasonable swim coaches become nightmare dates in the span of ten seconds. And Sookie appreciates vegetables that come from someone other than her husband Jackson. Problem with Bizarro Worlds, though, is that they don't seem to ever make a lick of sense, and go about things the wrong way just because they can.

Can you tell that I found this episode completely irritating?

Sister is doing it for herself. When Gilmore wraps and the Studio 60 guest spots dry up, Lauren Graham will be able to fall back on her production chops. Graham has unveiled a slate of shows that she'll be executive producing with Warner Brothers Television under the banner of Good Game Entertainment. Good Game Vice-President Kathy Ebel is a college friend of Graham's, and the Warner Brothers' partnership is good so long as Gilmore Girls is on the air.

What's on the Good Game girls slate so far? First up is an international auction house-set dramedy called Objects of Desire. The show, which has been sold to The CW, is an ensemble show that promises a mix of "juicy workplace soap and behind-the-scenes intrigue" as well as a procedural element that follows an art object's history over the course of the show.

(S07E05) Even though Gilmore Girls fans have complained about everything that has occurred from the beginning of Season Six until now, they have to admit that the best thing to come out of this somewhat fallow creative period of the show is a character that was introduced early last year: Paul Anka.

That neurotic dog has been the source of a lot of comedy the last year and a quarter, hasn't he? Hearing Lorelai reel off all his fobiles in the opener of this episode made me laugh; he likes chewing a certain shoe, and will only catch tennis balls of a certain brand and color. How Lor keeps these things straight is anyone's guess. And then, as she rattles them off, and Chris grows weary of the litany of doggie quirks, Paul Anka just lies there, like any dog, probably contemplating where he's going to sleep later on that day. It's a contrast that I've always found to be very funny.

(S07E04) Damn you, Dave Rosenthal! You're making me start to like the idea of Christopher and Lorelai together. I can't believe I'm actually thinking it, much less writing it; but tonight's episode showed why that couple has always been so good together over the years. I just wish we didn't have to see those two be cute and laugh and have banter about Snakes on a Plane together at the expense of Luke.

But Luke's OK, sorta. He's got the Tortured Plot Device -- known to most people as April -- in his life.

(S07E03) Have you noticed that the way Gilmore Girls is being shot this season seems somewhat... different? The film is less grainy... the sets are lit differently... there are more close-ups... something is odd. Yes, I'm nitpicking, but GG under the Rosenthal regime just has this feeling around it that's different from the Palladino era.

You could see it with the first appearance of Richard and Emily this season, right in the cold open. Rory and Lorelai are back doing the Friday night dinners, and the dining room of the Gilmore estate seemed brighter, not as big as before. And Richard's toupee was different. If it weren't for Emily yelling at a 10-year-old finishing school protégé, the whole thing was making me think that we landed in some sort of parallel GG universe.

(S07E02) Holy out-of-character, Batman! This is what fans were afraid was going to happen during the new Rosenthal regime: a slowish episode where people do and say things that no one has ever seen or heard them do, punctuated by forced "classic Gilmore" dialogue that neither flowed right nor made much sense in the context of the episode.

I've got to say, I was immensely let down here, in more ways than one. How many ways, exactly? Well, right now I can count five:

1. Predictability - As soon as the cold open started and we saw Luke driving in his truck with a map in his hand, we knew exactly what was going to happen.

(S07E01) I decided to watch this episode a second time, just to see if my early assessment of it was correct. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't just so damn happy to have Gilmore Girls back, that I missed some fundamental change, something that would tell me that new EP David Rosenthal was going to completely screw up the transfer from Team Palladino and turn this show into something different than the one I came to know and love.

And, you know what? It is different. But those differences weren't due to the transfer in power. No, this show started changing while Team Palladino was still around, and I'm not sure if it's ever going to go back to what it was.

It looks like Gilmore Girls. It certainly sounds like Gilmore Girls. And it's just as funny, fast-paced, and quirky as Gilmore Girls. This is a good start.

Every fan on the planet was worried about their favorite mother-daughter team when show creator Amy-Sheman Palladino and her husband Daniel Palladino left the show last spring in a contract dispute with Warner Brothers. Even though the new show-runner, David Rosenthal, had experience on the show, fans were worried he wouldn't be able to capture the classic Gilmore Girls "voice." Most of all, fans were also worried that season seven wouldn't strike the show's signature lightness, which even the Palladinos had trouble capturing last year.

Well, I saw the Season Seven premiere over the weekend, and I've got to tell you, GG fans, you don't have anything to worry about... at least not yet.

Yup, yup, you read that right. Gilmore Girls star Lauren Graham is going to guest star on two episodes of the new NBC show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. And here's the cool twist: she's going to play herself! She's going to be the "host" on an episode of the fictional variety show depicted on the show, and the two episodes will feature Graham dealing with the staff, going through rehearsals, and hosting the "show."

Hmmm...maybe that's why Grahm and Matthew Perry were seen together at a party before the Emmys?