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The Day Clay Aiken Came Out of the Closet

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…and the day the entire English-speaking world said, “Yea? And?”

The tale is as old as the concept of quasi-celebrities themselves. Boy (or girl) is gay, boy or girl gets famous, boy or girl keeps his or her homosexuality a secret and boy or girl comes out of the closet. And time after time, the world is unsurprised and unmoved and yawns at the announcement

[img_assist|nid=32138|title=Aiken holds a “secret.”|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=|height=0]Aiken reports that he decided to come out to the world because he simply cannot raise his newborn son with a lie, the way he has done for so many years. The now 29-year-old father decided last year that he would conceive a child with his friend Jayme Foster.

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The Timely Death of Total Request Live

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MTV has recently announced that it will put Total Request Live (TRL) on indefinite hiatus this November. As sad as I am to say goodbye to a show I haven’t watched since I was about 14, it’s 2008, and the program deserves to be put to sleep.

TRL has been the stage for not only budding celebrities and “buzzworthy” videos, but also for movie promos and falling stars’ meltdowns. In 2001, Mariah Carey scared the pants off of host, Carson Daly, when she ran, completely unannounced, across the TRL stage in her pajamas. Just days later, the singer checked herself into rehab for extreme exhaustion.

Backstreet Boys perform on TRL on Spring Break

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Beverly Hills 902-Oh-No

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Every summer I try to start a project. It keeps me focused, goal-oriented and attentive during the somewhat lagging months between May and August. Before you give me too much credit though, I should admit that Summer Task 2008 was watching the entire series of Beverly Hills 90210.

Suffice it to say I failed. My roommates and I couldn’t get through the enormous box sets – but not because the show isn’t good.

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The British Are Coming!

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Despite the fact today is July 4th, our Independence Day, it seems impossible these days to delve into entertainment media without seeing our friends from across the pond. No, it’s not Beatle Mania, but it is certainly some kind of invasion.
First there is Amy Winehouse’s struggle with substance abuse and, well, let’s just say “overall wellness.” While Winehouse is not a summer 2008 phenomenon, she got our minds revved up for the bombs Buckingham Palace was about to drop on us.
So let’s talk music.
The Ting Tings, an English indie pop band, released their debut album this past May, and their single Shut Up and Let Me Go has graced all modes of exposure, ranging from posters glued to New York City construction fences to the rolling Real World end credits on MTV.
The band, composed of only two members, packs more heat with each bass drum kick than most Americans have done thus far this summer.

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LoHo Got Me Hooked: Living Lohan

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As the weather is stabilizing around the 70s, I’m simultaneously stabilizing my summer television schedule. Gossip Girl and Grey’s Anatomy (the Double G’s) are over, and I have found myself in desperate need of a new summer staple. But dare I say, I may have found it in the most surprising place – E!’s Living Lohan.

The show focuses on Lindsay Lohan’s 14-year-old sister, Ali, and her mother, Dina. Ali aspires to follow in her older sister’s footsteps, and it seems she’s taken a page out of Ashlee Simpson’s book. Just like the younger Simpson, Ali went to the small screen to draw some media attention to her potential career.

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What’s MC Backwards? CM: ChimesMaster

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‘Tis the season of tour groups, and Cornell’s team of guides are swarming McGraw Tower in the usual fashion. Those prospective pre-frosh lucky enough to be on tours at 1:10 p.m. are in for an extra special treat – the chimes concert. But there’s just no way these high school students can appreciate the chimes the way Cornell students do, and after all, how could they?

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Summer Music Guide: Student Tested, Hartzband Approved

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It’s official – summer, as far as college students are concerned, is finally here. That means it’s time to store away all our winter iTunes playlists and tune into our favorite summer anthems. I can see no better time to pay homage to a few of the songs that have defined my summers for as long as I can remember. Here goes:

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When Normalcy Dies

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How many seasons does it take for a show to die? Well, that kind of depends on your definition of dying. To me, a show dies once it loses its hook. In showbiz, that’s what makes a show different from the hundreds of other programs on at any given time. Clearly, American Idol executive producer, Simon Fuller, never got the memo.

The show is in the middle of its seventh season, and I really thought Fuller was smarter than Idol’s longevity suggests. In my humble opinion, production should have ended after season 4, when Carrie Underwood managed to narrowly escape the clutches of celebrity pigeonholing.

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Why TV Might Put Me in Cardiac Arrest

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The writers’ strike has been over for some time now, but its aftermath is stronger than ever. All of America’s favorite shows have announced their dates of return, and many of these are much later than anticipated. This sucks, I agree; but perhaps this brief hiatus from the television’s warm glow can give us some time to analyze what we love and hate about the programs we watch religiously. I’ve given this some thought and realized that there are some characters I truly despise and that they all have one thing in common-– they’re just no fun.

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Whatchutalkinbout, Kid Stars?

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On April 20th, Tia Mowry will marry longtime boyfriend, Corey Hardrict, in Santa Barbara. Hardrict isn’t very well known for his acting talents, but Mowry is a household name for her breakout role as Tia Landry on Sister, Sister with twin Tamera Mowry, who played Tamera Campbell, her long-lost sister. Upon reading the headline reporting her upcoming nuptials, though, I could not for the life of me picture Tia walking down the aisle.