In this age of easily maintained celebrity, all you need to stay in front of people's eyes are a pretty face and a willingness to be there. Mario Lopez has both, and he's built that into a a career that keeps him resurfacing from one unrelated project to another without ever really showing any particular gifts for performing.

Now, he's going to host the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show this February on USA -- because, when you think elite canine breeding competitions, you think Mario Lopez. (Somewhere in all this is a joke about what a dog Saved by the Bell was, but it's too much of a reach to go there.)

MIchael Cera got into a hot tub with the cast of MTV's Jersey Shore recently. I'm hoping this was a promotion for Youth in Revolt and not a meeting of new friends. Cera talks about going on The Late Show with his hair like that, but he didn't (though his hair is pretty bizarre right now as it is). Actually, that clip is better than this one. It shows Cera on La Femme Nikita years ago.

Remember how shocked and appalled you felt when you learned that a contestant on The Bachelor was fired for having an inappropriate relationship with a producer? Me neither.

That contestant, identified by Radar Online as Rozlyn Papa, admits there was an inappropriate relationship, but denies any sexual connotations that have been attached to it.

She also said she and the producer are no longer together and even though she knew that reality TV wasn't exactly real, she still "had no idea the extent of the show manipulation."

Welcome to Hollywood, sweetheart.

Call it an unfortunate coincidence or a bigger publicity stunt tragedy than unleashing a cage of rabid cougars in a mall to promote Cougar Town.

A producer for ABC's The Bachelor has been fired for giving one of the show's female contestants a rose of his own.

Chris Harrison, the show's host, confirmed the affair on a Los Angeles radio show and called it "incredibly unfortunate" and "embarrassing." That means ABC is going to hype the s#*& out of it in the new season. Sounds to me like the reality show producer did his job.

I admit it. I'm hooked on Keeping Up With the Kardashians, and I have no idea why. Clearly, I need to get a life.

Anyway, last night's episode revolved around the fact that Kris has control of all the money, to the point where Bruce doesn't have his own bank account or even his own credit card, for that matter. Well, that might not be true. When the girls were razzing Kris and rifling through her wallet, they pulled out a card with Bruce's name on it (among the 53 other credit cards of Kris's).

But it sounds like all Bruce gets is an ATM card, and even then, he has to run purchases by Kris first. He wanted to buy a new remote-controlled helicopter which, at this stage of the game, he should be able to do. But Kris wasn't too keen on the idea. Meanwhile, she goes out and buys a $4,000 dress that the girls deemed not that special.

It's no secret that Kris is a bit of a control freak, but doesn't it seem weird that Bruce doesn't have his own account or credit card?

Tonight at 10, Food Network's 10,000th food competition show debuts. It's called The Worst Cooks in America, and it's hosted by Anne Burrell and Beau MacMillan. I have a big problem with it, and it's not just that it's the 10,000th food competition show on Food Network (OK, maybe I have two problems with it).

Here's the set-up: ten horrible cooks compete in a ten week "boot camp," and whoever improves the most gets $25,000. That sounds like a lot of fun, right? We all know people who can't cook, and if they're trying to cook something a little bit more complex than canned soup, it could be entertaining.

But here's my question: what's to stop these people from lying?

More of our best of the decade coverage, which started on Tuesday. You can read the other posts at the link above. Here, we talk about the cheesiest in reality from the decade. And there was a lot of cheesy going around.

The turn of the millennium was the point when television networks were watching the rise of Survivor, The Amazing Race, and American Idol and thought, "I can do that!" What they didn't realize was that to maintain a high quality level, they still needed a big budget.

Instead of monetary prizes, networks turned to things like love, the experience, and the belief of fifteen minutes of fame to entice people to participate. Slowly with the help of networks like Fox, E!, and VH1, reality shows got more classless and turned trashy. Like a car accident, viewers can't stop watching. The decade has provided a countless number of trashy reality shows and here is TV Squad's favorites of the decade.

More of our best of the decade coverage, which started on Tuesday. You can read the other posts at the link above. Here, we talk about a major category that came of age in the aughts: Reality shows.

While I would never call myself a reality TV junkie, it really bugs me when people make blanket statements like, "I hate reality TV," or, "Reality TV is the bane of my existence." The genre has grown so much in the past decade that it has become just like scripted television, in that there's good and there's bad. Even though we're splitting this up into two lists, "Reality," and "Trashy Reality," you won't see a single show that starts with, "Who Wants to Marry" on either list.

This list is dedicated not to the guilty pleasures, but to the shows that you wouldn't be embarrassed for your neighbors to know you watch: the classy reality, if you will. So without further ado, here is TV Squad's list of the best reality shows of the decade.

The new season - the 23rd! - of MTV's The Real World debuts tonight at 10. I used to watch this show religiously, but that was a long, long time ago. I missed the first season for some reason, but I really loved seasons 2 and 3 (L.A. and San Francisco). It was actually compelling TV back then, before media-savvy young people went on the show just to get their 15 minutes of reality fame. So I probably won't watch the D.C. season.

More of our best of the decade coverage, which started on Tuesday. You can read the other posts at the link above. Here, we talk about a very aught-like phenomenon: the cult of celebrity.

There is no clearer metaphor for the concept of being a celebrity than the Hollywood Walk of Fame. You work hard to chase your dream and achieve a career for yourself by making your name known to the masses of the universe.

Then when you've grabbed that star and become a regular fixture in the flash bulb of the press' cameras, how does the public honor your tireless toil and efforts? They throw you down on a sidewalk and walk all over you.

In the Aughts, however, a new celebrity oozed out of the primordial muck. A celebrity that still suffered the slings and arrows of the tabloid press and a complete loss of the right to privacy, but achieved their stardom by simply cutting out all that pesky hard work and tireless effort nonsense. These are the celebrities who became famous by simply because they were famous.

It should go without saying that we here at TV Squad are infinitely familiar with spoilers, so naturally this New York Times article caught my eye. Even if it did spoil the end of The Sopranos for me. Thanks, Grey Lady!

The paper's ArtsBeat blog has declared an official moratorium on spoiler complaints and given "amnesty" for their readers to talk about the best surprise endings in the last decade. What are your favorite TV endings that you now have the right to spoil the hell out of for people too lazy to get up and discover them for themselves?

And it should go without saying: don't complain about how any of the comments below have spoiled anything for you. The only way I could make the spoiler warning any bigger is by typing the word "SPOILER" in all caps and pasting over and over in this post.

Is your life a crazy amalgamation of multiple girlfriends and wild infidelity? Do you often find yourself in strange situations that involve a pair of handcuffed strippers, a goat and a poorly guarded public swimming pool? Do you have a felony arrest record? Then put that talent to work!

New York residents can learn the ins and outs of the national reality TV spotlight by enrolling in the New York Reality TV School.

The school, founded by acting coach and TV director/producer Robert Galinsky, teaches students in both class workshops and private lessons how to develop a personality that TV producers look for in a reality star and how to package yourself for that big audition. I wonder if the curriculum includes a boxing workout?

[via EOnline]

It's too easy to call Jon and Kate Plus 8 a train wreck and leave it at that.

If ever there was a cautionary tale about the perils of easy fame, this is it. In the course of a year, we watched Jon and Kate
go from a benignly dysfunctional reality TV family to a textbook case of what happens to "normal" people under the glare of TV lights. The Gosselins seemed to lose themselves completely in the glare of the spotlight and jettisoned their values and morals for more camera time. Calling their story a "train wreck" doesn't even begin to surmise the dissolution of a family and the viewing public's fascination with its implosion.

While there are reality shows like The Amazing Race, Survivor, or even Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List garnering praise and Emmys for their quality level or American Idol, America's Next Top Model, or So You Think You Can Dance giving real people with potential to fulfill their dreams, trashy reality shows appear like the black sheep of the family. They are loud, brash, and sleazy. Like a car crash, you can't help but turn and look.

For reality television, 2009 has provided some of the biggest reasons why reality television gets a bad reputation. Four cable channels have become festering points for Trashy Reality in 2009: VH1, E!, MTV, and WE.

It seems that Sen. Joseph Vitale's efforts to get Jersey Shore kicked off the air go far beyond some wimpy boycotts. He has officially, as Monty Burns would say, "released the hounds" minus, of course, any actual hounds...yet.

The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development has launched an investigation into the show's employment and wage practices at Vitale's request. This news comes on the same day that Vitale publicly declared his disdain for the show and wished that MTV would cancel it.

Even if you're not a fan of the show, you have to admit this feels a little over the line. Whadayathinkaboutit?