Jude's Thursday Dish #36

Hey, if celebs can keep coming out of retirement, why can't I? (Read post below) Sure, I'm no Lance Armstrong, but don't we all deserve a chance to change our minds? I've had a REALLY tough time not having an audience for my Pop Culture obsession. John can only take so much of my rants and raves. So, without further delay, here's the 36th edition of Thursday Dish.

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1. WOW! MJ is dead. You know how you'll never forget where you were when you heard big news? I was walking in to a Internet cafe in Seoul when I saw on a big screen TV that Princess Di had died. I was in a writing class up at the U of U when the O.J. verdict was announced. A kid walked by in the hallway and looked into the classroom, looked at me and mouthed, "Not guilty." I think this will be up there with those moments. I had just dropped Katie off at a birthday party and I was listening to 101.9 The End. The D.J. said he had just seen on TMZ that Michael Jackson was dead. I was on Highland Drive stopping at the 7-11. CRAZY! In some ways, it was a total shock, but in others, it's not really a surprise. Too many iconic personalities have died too young.

I've been trying to suck up all the info I can. Once I rushed home, I hurried and got online. TMZ was the only place I could find that had the info, but the other entertainment websites were reporting he had a cardiac arrest. But on Eonline, they have this great little app called Celebri-Tweet and it shows the most popular, latest Tweets from Hollywood. A bunch of celebs kept Tweeting their reactions, especially Ashton Kutcher who kept updating who was confirming the info. Ryan Seacrest was updating before he went on air. Minutes later, it was popping up everywhere like CNN, MSNBC, etc. I can't believe how fast they can get the info up. I'm watching CNN right now and they are already interviewing the family spokesperson, etc. Reports started coming in around 4:20-ish, and no one has really be able to confirm his death until right now, 5:25 p.m. Still, news is SO competitive now. Everyone has to stay on the air and come up with something, even if it's not solid news quite yet. Ugh -- Al Sharpton is on the news now. I hate when other famous peeps use these moments to get on air. If you were really grieving, wouldn't you be in your own privacy? Not spouting off to the world?

MJ was such a huge part of my growing up. I remember when we got MTV and my older brother, Brad, and I just devoured the "Thriller" video. My friend, Laurie, had a poster of him with his little bow tie. We thought he was so hot. I was a huge fan for a long time. Unfortunately, his personal problems and his bizarre behavior sometimes overshadowed what an amazingly talented person he was. He did so much great humanitarian work and in so many ways, he was a good man. He was obviously terribly uncomfortable with his life and very troubled. It didn't help that he became the butt of a lot of jokes. The late night shows were the worst offenders. Even when I was watching the last week of Jay Leno's run on "The Tonight Show", he was making tasteless jokes about him. I'm not justifying any actions he may or may not have done. But, I hope he'll be remembered for his talent and his strengths. Everyone deserves to be memorialized for the good they did.

R.I.P., Michael.

2. On another sad note, Farrah Fawcett died today. I watched a little bit of her documentary and it was really sad. I think Farrah is a good example of how a "has been" becomes more endearing to the public once they become ill. I'm thinking Christopher Reeve or even, Michael J. Fox. Not saying that people didn't love them before, but their popularity had definitely cooled off until they had very public battles with illness. Unfortunately, she was almost completely off the radar before she got cancer. But, her influence has grown and she was actually able to really bring some positive exposure -- and a famous face -- to cancer. It's a bit of a shame that her death will be overshadowed by MJ's, but what can you say? He was the King of Pop.

3. I am SOOO excited for the TV show "Glee." It aired after one of the final "American Idol" episodes, but I didn't see it. I've been hearing so much good buzz about it that I finally watched it online at fox.com. GO WATCH THAT PILOT! It seriously gave me GLEE! The music, the comedy... Jane Lynch is CLASSIC. Even the first line of the pilot is worth watching. It's coming on air in the fall for a full season and I can't wait. Here's a quick peek:

Quick Lunch Rush on the last 2 months of Pop Culture going on's...

-- Happy Kris Allen won "American Idol" but HATE that there were so many out there going off about him that Glambert was robbed and personally attacking Kris Allen. They had great respect for each other and it was all good. Loved all the interviews on EW's Idolatry: http://www.ew.com/ew/package/0,,20007164_20174011,00.html. Matt Giraud is really funny and cool in real life. Danny Gokey is NOT. And Adam being gay? In other news, the sky is blue.

-- Bawled like a baby during the "Lost" finale. Totally in mourning one of my favorite characters. Will have to post a post-LOSTapolooza to even skim the surface.

-- Loved "The Office" finale. How cute was Jim's reaction? Not so worried they "Jumped the Shark" with Michael quitting. The 3 getting back to Dunder-Mifflin was completely unbelievable, but with everyone back, it feels like home.

-- Surprisingly, I REALLY liked "Star Trek" and I didn't think I would. Much more "Star Wars" vibe with more character development. And Chris Pine is HOOOTTTT!

-- "Up" was amazing.

-- "Night at the Museum" was actually really funny. Hank Azaria stole the show.

-- Watching "Mad Men" season 1 and I'm conflicted. It's really good and I can't stop watching, but it also makes me really uncomfortable. The chauvinism especially. It's totally worth watching, but it's definitely not feel-good entertainment.

-- I HATE Jon and Kate! HATE, HATE, HATE! I'm so sick of all this coverage on their divorce. I wanted to throw up last night when I was watching Showbiz Tonight on CNN and the 3 people (the host and 2 guests) were saying "Oh, don't we all know what that feels like? Waking up to someone and realizing you don't want to be in bed with them anymore? You've moved in different directions and you just don't want to be married." KILL ME NOW! If you feel that way, suck it up. Go into counseling, work on your marriage, at least try! Jon and Kate need to go off the air and work on their family instead of just giving up after a few months of a rough patch.

-- Two other people I'm totally sick off: Speidi. I have to give E! props. They did an online voting to see if they should ban Speidi until they do something actually newsworthy. I tried to watch that "I'm a Celebrity" show and couldn't stomach it. Between that and the Al Roker thing, I've had it. There 15 minutes is way over and people need to move on!

-- That whole Letterman/Palin drama was so overblown.

-- I like Conan. I think people should give him a chance.

Well, I just "wasted" another hour online, but hey... it was fun! Happy to be back!!!!

That's it for this week!