Is it just me, or is pop culture even more derivative than usual this summer?
There's the new crop of reality TV shows like "The Next Food Network Star" and "I Want to be a Hilton," which pretty well finishes saturating the "Apprentice" knockoff market. And if that isn't enough, there's also "Hogan Knows Best," featuring washed-up pro wrestler Hulk Hogan, and "Being Bobby Brown," featuring washed-up singer Bobby Brown. (I thought reality celebrities were the D-list, but apparently the D-list sees reality celebrity-dom as a step up.)
And then there's the top ten movies at the box office last week. The top five, and seven of the top ten, are sequels, remakes, or TV tie-ins:
"Batman Begins"
"Bewitched"
"Mr. & Mrs. Smith"
"Herbie: Fully Loaded"
"Land of the Dead"
"Madagascar"
"Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith"
"The Longest Yard"
"Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D"
"Cinderella Man"
And what are the big summer movies being hyped right now? "War of the Worlds" comes out this weekend; "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" opens July 15; and "Dukes of Hazzard" is out August 5.
It's almost enough to make me excited about "Wedding Crashers." Almost.
From Dick Cheney's interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN last night:
[Cheney] also defended the treatment of prisoners by the U.S. military at Guantanamo, telling Blitzer, "There isn't any other nation in the world that would treat people who were determined to kill Americans the way we're treating these people."
"They're living in the tropics. They're well fed. They've got everything they could possibly want," the vice president said.
See? They're just wastin' away in Margaritaville!
By popular demand, my blogging hiatus is over.
Here's a fun little tidbit from my neighborhood police files: Christian Slater allegedly molesting a 52-year-old woman.
Slater staggered out of a taxi and groped the 52-year-old woman's buttocks on Second Ave. at 93rd St. shortly after 2 a.m., cops said.
His victim -- who had no idea that the hand on her bottom belonged to a Broadway star -- wasn't flattered and called 911, police said.
Minutes later, Slater, 35, who isappearing in "The Glass Menagerie," was arrested a block away.
"This is bull----!" Slater whined to cops as they handcuffed him, a police source said.
"I didn't do anything," he fumed. "I'm suing you! I'm suing the Police Department! I'm suing everybody!"
Obviously, Slater isn't a local. Anyone who's been around here for more than a couple of weeks knows that 50-something women on the Upper East Side are the last people in the world you want to mess with -- likely as not, they're packing heat in their Birkin bags.