The Good Wife's Great Coup - Lisa Edelstein, woo hoo!

I have no idea how The Good Wife managed to snag Lisa Edelstein so soon after her departure from House, but good on them, on her (Edelstein) and also on us, the viewers. I think it's a great catch.

In a multiple-episode arc in the upcoming third season, she "will play a lawyer and born poker player whose sexiness is enhanced by her obvious intelligence" and someone from Will's past. Hmm... look out, Alicia :P

As usual, I'm excited to see how this plays out in the fall :)

(Source: TVLine)

Hotch is back - yay!

It took a long while, but Thomas Gibson is back for another two years on Criminal Minds.

Phew.

I guess for "mid-to-high seven figures, plus a signing bonus, ...doubling his previous salary", I would rather keep fans in suspense too as to whether I was going to go back again on a show fraught with casting issues.

Kuchi-paku Dancing Lion Speaker Giveaway

Well, I'm not giving one away PERSONALLY - but the site 100milligrams.com is giving one away to celebrate their 1,000 Facebook fan milestone on Facebook.

If you don't know what it is, it's that animal speaker that was last seen on The Good Wife. You can find videos on YouTube.

Like the poster says: Become a fan to find out how to win.

I believe it's a global contest, so there's no harm in trying out for it where ever on the planet you may be.

Related articles

• Kuchi-paku Dancing Animal Speakers (lifeasacynic.blogspot.com)

Fishburne not going back to CSI

Laurence Fishburne is not renewing his CSI contract, according to the TVLine.com piece here.

Frankly, I didn't really think he'd last very long on the small screen anyway, being a movies guy and all. 

Plus, not a lot of people took to his character like we all did with penguin-shuffle Grissom. I personally don't care one way or the other as it's still just a TV show after all. Almost every character on the show has had it rough in some way or another throughout the years, but losing a kidney to a psychopath is pretty tough too.

I just can't wait to see how Dr Ray Langston gets written out once the Nate Haskell arc is done with and Dr Ray leaves the Vegas crime lab one kidney less than when he came in. Will they promote one of the other characters, or will they bring back a recurring character to fill out the cast? I can't wait.

2011 MTV Movie Awards

I watch the MTV Movie Awards out of habit and because it's the award show to watch for people with short attention spans, and also for awards like Best Kiss and Best Line in a Movie.

The opening Hangover parody went a little over my head as I'm not stupid enough to ever want to watch The Hangover on purpose. But the point of these things are to remind us what the year's nominated movies are. Sudeikis and Lautner watching the girl-on-girl action scene from Black Swan? Heh.

I have no idea why they got Jason Sudeikis to host the MTV Movie Awards - I personally never thought of him as MTV hip, but what do I know? I think the guy was still in SNL mode as he spent half his monologue on making fun of Schwarzenegger to a crowd of mostly under 40. But the crack he made about Ashton Kutcher replacing older celebs personally and professionally? HILARIOUS... but that's because I also can't stand Ashton Kutcher.

I won't go in too much about the highlights because that's not hard to find on the interwebs.

While I'm sad that neither Inception or Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 didn't win more popcorn trophies, but I also have to remind myself that I'm not exactly their target audience, and it's still a popularity contest in the end.

I don't know about anyone else, but I think the Twilight movies should just take themselves out of the running next year. If Oprah can do it, so should they. Or perhaps I should just stop watching the MTV Movie Awards until 2014 because I'm just going to get myself all tweaked and annoyed for the next couple of years.

Jamie's 30 Minute Meals - Realistic, or no?

Been watching episodes of Jamie's 30 Minute Meals, and all I could think of was Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals (I know). I just can't believe it took him this long to get on the 30 minute meal bandwagon. It's also jarring to hear him suggest store-bought, prepacked alternatives after years of him going on about using fresh and natural ingredients.

What I like about the series

• Some of the tips, techniques and shortcuts that seriously didn't occur to me *D'OH!*
• His salad and dessert recipes

But seriously...

• The ingredients - NOT CHEAP and not just because I'm on the other side of the planet.
• Who has the time and money to equip their kitchen in a similar fashion? Seriously?
• The cleanup will take more than 30 minutes, I reckon :P
• Serving a dish on the same chopping board that you've chopped everything else on it? Really?

I read an article somewhere where several home cooks tried to pull off different 30 minute meal from Jamie's companion book to the series, only to fail miserably and take longer than 30 minutes.

I've come to several conclusions about Jamie Oliver's version of 30 Minute Meals - possible only if...

1. You're Jamie Oliver and/or have the crazy chef-y knife skills 
2. You really have the prep work done, which can't be fast :P
3. You got someone else to do the extra washing up - and the food processor and the other appliances he uses on the show need extra cleaning and care, like the garlic press :P

So I won't be crazy enough to buy the book, but goodness knows I already have several Jamie cookbooks that I may never cook out of.