For you Rescue Me fans out there who are looking for something to keep you occupied in between episodes, you might want to check out John Scurti's celebrity blog over at TV Guide. Scurti, who plays Lt. Ken Shea (better known as Lou) on the show, posts weekly to his "Rescue Me Anti-Blog."

Wait a tic? "Anti-Blog" you ask? Well, it's hilarious. The postings have nothing to do with the show... sort of. It's just Scurti simply ranting and making erroneous statements about the show and his fellow cast members. It's like he's taken on the role of the angry curmudgeon who despises his co-workers and resents his job so that his only course of action is to bad-mouth everything. I wish he would post more than once a week because some of the stuff is downright hysterical.

Some of my favorite highlights?

• Callie Thorne (she plays Sheila) is sleeping with the entire New York Mets ballclub.
• The cast of The Sopranos frequently kidnaps Mike Lombardi (the Probie).
• Scurti has hired a personal trainer named Vlad to whip him into shape.

Any of this stuff sound believable?

• Michael Ausiello's friend asks, "How long will it be at school before Shiloh Pitt gets nicknamed Piloh Shitt?"
• EW's PopWatch blog is having a contest to see who can best recap what's going on with that Lost Experience online game.
• Tim Goodman gives his opinion of that Sopranos season finale everyone is talking about everyone is disappointed by.
• Here's Part 2 of Ken Levine's story about M*A*S*H and the demise of Col. Blake.
• Former TV Squad editor Dave Thomas has a new TV blog that's worth checking out, FireJeffZucker.com.

• Ken Levine has a great post about the killing off of popular TV characters, and talks about how the unexpected death of Henry Blake on M*A*S*H really stunned people.
• Aaron Barnhart has the press release NBC sent out, announcing that DirecTV had picked up the Sleuth Channel and its 15 million subscribers. That's the same amount of subscribers that TRIO had when DirecTV dropped that channel.
• Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch blog recounts what must have been an odd episode of Live with Regis and Kelly, with Vince Vaughn (subbing for Reege) talking about a childhood car accident, Kelly talking about her son breaking his arm earlier this week, and guest Denis Leary talking about how his dog died by eating 27 pounds of deer meat.
• Reality Blurred blog is reporting that the cast for Surreal Life 8 will include Randy "Macho Man" Savage, Phil Hellmuth, Playmate Tina Jordan, and Type O Negative's Peter Steele.
• Geek Entertainment TV has a video interview with comedian Tom Green.

• Over at his Bastard Machine blog, Tim Goodman isn't sure he believes that Lost will answers a bunch of questions in the season finale (as the ads have promised), but what the hell, is on for the ride anyway.
• TeeVee has some typically wiseass reactions to the CBS and NBC upfronts (that's a compliment, by the way - we like wiseass).
• TV writer Ken Levine tells his favorite casting story ever, when he had to audition actors for a 1993 show called Big Wave Dave's. But damn it, he still won't say who actor is!
• TV Newser has the story of Katie Couric's first appearance for CBS, at the upfronts.
  

• This week, Ken Levine talks about Teri Hatcher's new book and takes a trip to the Cheers bar in Boston.
• Lost writer watches Revenge of the Sith, and is really annoyed.
• Over at EW's PopWatch blog, Michael Slezak isn't sure why Felicity is firing guns now.
• Over at the West Wing News Blog, you can pick your favorite episodes, favorite episode endings, favorite lines, least  favorite episodes, and more.

Major news outlets are embracing the Web these days, expanding coverage to the blogosphere in a move that many see as the inevitable online future of television. There's already newspeople like Brian Williams and Elizabeth Vargas, each have a blog and webcast respectively, but what about Katie Couric, the much-hyped new addition to the CBS Evening News and 60 Minutes? Will she be kicking off her shoes and jumping into this crazy Web thing? According to her producers, Couric is interested in having a presence on the Web and using the medium to reach out to more people, though she isn't certain just how to approach it yet. While more people get their news from the televised broadcast than the accompanying Web sites, the number of people who seek out the Web alternative has been increasing.

[via Lost Remote]

• Tim Goodman is one of the best TV critics working today, and now he has a blog! Tim Goodman: The Bastard Machine. Check out his concerns on where Lost is headed, and who he calls Cigarette Smoking Man (hint: it's someone on Survivor).
• Aaron Barnhart from The Kansas City Star explains the rise and fall of ABC's Commander-In-Chief.
• Some truly disturbing pics of four guys from The Amazing Race.
• Over at Romenesko: maybe Katie Couric should take half of her new CBS salary and spend it on reporting.

• TV Barn's Aaron Barnhart thinks that product placements on television have jumped the shark.
• Every year, TeeVee.org creates an elaborate April Fool's web site. This year it's the TeeVeePedia!
• Ken Levine describes his first directing gig, on a Wings episode in the mid 90s. (Side note: I was an extra on a Wings episode several episodes before this and I probably met Ken. Life is funny.)
• Did you know that Survivor's Shane is an actor?

All the cool kids are doing it.

Blogs, that is. Keith Olbermann has one, Brian Williams and NBC News have one. Heck, even Rosie O'Donnell has one. Now, CNN's Anderson Cooper has started a blog at the cnn.com site. You can leave comments, and Cooper actually seems to be updated it rather frequently, and if he doesn't, he has a guest blogger from CNN fill in for him.

[via Gawker]

(Part 3 of 5)

Everyone said that the news anchor was dead. That they were going to be replaced by pundits, scrolling, bite-sized news, and blogs. So it's pretty amazing how much news news anchors made in 2005.

Anderson Cooper made waves this year (no pun intended). Not only did he get the spot that Aaron Brown used to have, he showed he had some serious newsman chops by confronting Senator Mary Landrieu about the lack of local and federal response to Hurricane Katrina. Cooper has been a good, serious reporter for years, but this year he really hit the big time and became the most talked about anchor on TV.

Dan Rather left under a fog of controversy (the Bush memos), but replacement Bob Schieffer has been a solid, calming prescence. If there is one single argument why the big network, dinnertime newscast should stay around, it's his show. CBS is reportedly testing various anchors and various formats for their news show. Let's hope Schieffer sticks around in some big way.

Brian Williams took over for Tom Brokaw, and I think he surprised some people with his steady, professional work (though I'm not quite sure why everyone is so surprised - he's been doing the job for years).

Keith Olbermann's Countdown continues to be one of the bright spots on MSNBC's schedule. He's a talented, smart guy, and his takedowns of people like Bill O'Reilly, John Gibson, and others were some of the great moments in 2005 news.

Of course, we lost one of the big three network anchors when Peter Jennings died of lung cancer. His death (along with Brokaw and Rather leaving) was said to have signaled the end of the network newscast. But with Brian Williams still getting good ratings, ABC's World News Tonight getting revamped, and Bob Schieffer getting many kudos for his solid work over at CBS, I don't think that 2006 will see the end of the network anchor either.

The Weblogs, Inc. network features over 100 independent, unfiltered bloggers producing over 1,000 blog posts a week across over 75 industry-leading blogs. Each week we ask our bloggers to choose their top posts, which we bring to you in one easy-to-read weekly post. You’ll find links to the hottest posts from the past week after the jump including a Macromedia MAX ticket for next to nothing, the Charles Bronson farm and the Nintendo Revolution controller. Plus, when your done with the full listing after the jump check out the Open Source Weblog for a special live blogging event today (September 17) only.

The Weblogs, Inc. network features over 100 independent, unfiltered bloggers producing over 1,000 blog posts a week across over 75 industry-leading blogs. Each week we ask our bloggers to choose their top posts, which we bring to you in one easy-to-read weekly post. You’ll find links to the hottest posts from the past week after the jump including a special review contest, celebrity virginity, and even the best Windows emulator for Mac. Enjoy!

Coming fresh on the heels of NBC exec Jeff Zucker's comments that The Today Show needed to explore being more interactive here comes news that blogs are comin'.  The first will feature posts from Al Roker (chili recipes maybe?) and Matt Lauer and is called "Your Window On Our World".

This is good, because what we really needed was more forced and awkward banter from the talking heads on morning television.  When was the last time anyone wondered what life was like behind the scenes at The Today Show?