E True Hollywood Story!

Sunday night at 9pm the E network will be broadcasting the Jenny McCarthy Hollywood story. Promoted as: "Singled out for fame and failure, this smokin' funny girl kept on laughing."

The program claims to document the "rise and fall" of this Hollywood star. It will trace her career from playboy playmate, through the failed sitcom "Jenny" and finally to her current role as wife and mother.

If you are asking why it is that ginandtacos.com cares you need look no further than Jenny McCarthy's mother, whose last name is mike. Look for back issues of In Style magazine to see photographs of mike asleep at Jenny's wedding to John Asher.

Suggested Jenny McCarthy viewing: Baseketball (starring Trey Parker and Matt Stone)

He Named the Boat Summer

Spoliers for The O.C. Finale and Angel that aired last night. Deal with it.

Has a major character on a network TV show ever gotten an abortion? And has life been ok for her afterwards? I was trying to think of this last night - Claire on Six Feet Under gets one at the end of season three, and then goes on a ridiculous dream sequence where every dead character on the show is glowing in a halo and taking care of a new glowing baby in Heaven (take that pro-choicers!) - but that's hardly network TV.

The O.C. finished last night, and most of the episode was spent agonizing over whether or not that main character's pregnant ex-girlfriend Theresa, who he is prone to hooking up with, would get an abortion. There was an interesting class element to it that was only hinted at - we have a rich white Californian family rounding the wagons to protect their son's good fortunes by befriending the poverty stricken servant he's knocked up and "being there for her" while politely forcing her into getting rid of the child ("You'll need someone there for you. I'll drive [you to the abortion clinic]"). The Coen parents reminded me a little of newly-rich Harry in Rabbit is Rich while he is trying to explain to his son, equally as detached from it all as Ryan, that they can just bribe his knocked up girlfriend into getting rid of the child ("she has a lot of brothers and sisters....she'll understand the value of a dollar").

But while Harry was forced to marry the girl he knocked up in the earlier books, and fought as hard as he could (which being Harry wasn't all that hard) to stop his son from having to do the same, Mrs. Coen had an abortion earlier in her life, and looked like she really wanted Theresa to not have an abortion to make up for it. Was it just me or did she guilt her into having the child? Even Peter Gallagher, who is as close to a moral compass as the show is going to have, was taken aback by his wife's actions.

Anyway, the season finale was thankfully on the good side. Anyone in their mid-20s watching a completely unrealistic (kids in high schools wearing sport coats?) teen drama is more than likely a fan of nostalgic sentimentality, and the finale shovels it on.

It so sentimential that the finale ended up almost being entirely about the first episode. And not just in the continunity references - Seth's boat and plan to spend the summer sailing alone, the beach with the first party, the shots of Ryan leaving in the reverse order of him showing up. All the characters are back at base zero - Ryan's stuck in Chino in what appears to be a bad news situation, Marrisa is drinking alone and Seth is friendless again with his plan to go sailing alone for the summer (bringing him back to borderline sociopath from cutesy emo geek).

I don't know if I can wait until October for it to start again. I'm still working through my thoughts about Angel last night - Wesley was in top form, and the in-joking and earlier Buffy references are a nice touch, but I could have done without Andrew (he was good the first time on the show though). While Buffy was really funny Angel never got the humor right, and last night's episode in Italy showed that. What should have been much funnier felt flat - all the real humor was from the random Buffy trivia thrown out (I particularly liked how they each tried to take credit for saving the world at the end of Buffy Season 2 with the portal).

GINANDTACOS.COM - WORKING HARDER THAN A ONE-LEGGED MAN PLAYING SOCCER

And it's all for you.

Far from having shot our entire creative wad with the grand re-opening of the site on April 1, there are plenty of new things coming up to help you waste time at work.

- The (upcoming) Ginandtacos.com tribute to Media Consolidation. It's a comprehensive list of who owns what (it took a while to compile, seeing as how ClearChannel owns 900+ radio stations) along with an interactive game: We give you a major media outlet and you guess which bloated plutocrat of the airwaves owns it!

- New movie and music reviews. The summer movie season is right around the corner, and we know you can't live without knowing why nothing is going to be worth your $7.50.

- A new weekly Ginandtacos.com column in The Hub, a Champaign-Urbana weekly newspaper. Media critics everywhere praise The Hub for its high standards and cutting-edge reporting. Michael Moore raves: "There is no doubt about the fact that The Hub is printed weekly". Noted media critic Douglas Rushkoff observes: "It used to be called 'The Octopus'."

- For our new Champaign readers coming from The Hub's weekly column, please check out our Drinking in Champaign feature full of reviews of every bar worth (and not worth) going to in your city.

- Comics page updates from Mike.

And of course, more daily ranting. So don't go away just yet. While you're waiting, have you perused Mike's "On children, by children"? It chronicles the writings of some of his former (rich white suburban) summer camp students, featuring such musings as "Why it's important not to be queer" and "Why I hate mexicans".

Good times. Good times.

I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM, WE ALL SCREAM FOR GENEVA CONVENTION VIOLATIONS

Memo to R. Kelly. And Rob Lowe. And the American/British soldiers accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners by beating them, urinating on them, and otherwise violating every major international agreement regarding the conduct of war.

If you're going to do something illegal, DON'T FUCKING PHOTOGRAPH IT. I mean, I guess that's the level of criminal sophistication to be expected when we send our annual supply of high school dropouts to fight a war, but FOR GOD'S SAKE, DON'T TAKE PICTURES OF YOURSELF COMMITTING FELONIES. I fail to comprehend the mindset of someone who thinks "I want to pee on this prisoner / 14 year old girl" followed immediately by "Someone get a camera".

It bit R. Kelly in the ass, and now a number of military heads will roll as a result of the same failure to comprehend the basic principles of extralegal deportment. If anyone still fails to see the danger of our military mentality - which teaches "what" to do but never "why" - I think the court of international opinion is about to offer its analysis. Sending off heavily-armed 18 year olds with empty skulls save for a lot of "Defend America, kill all the brown people" indoctrination gives us every reason to doubt the immediate and plaintive White House and Pentagon assertions that these incidents were isolated.

I wonder why these people hate us and failed to hail us as their liberators.