by Kurt Soller

MTV's reality TV juggernaut—in which young pretty things become terrible human beings—has become a meta genre: we know they're acting, so those questions about whether it's scripted are older than the Juicy Couture they wore on Laguna Beach. Viewers have given abandoned the idea that the lives presented on The City and The Hills are anything close to the lives of Whitney Port or Heidi Montag—they just want to believe that the plot lines are close to anything they could be going through.

First there was the news that the "Jon" and (sad!) the ampersand in the title of the TLC reality show were dropped.  Now it looks like the show part of the show has been dropped.  What's left? The e-mail from TLC:

We are aware of Jon Gosselin's recent statements, and remain deeply disappointed at his continued erratic behavior. He and the family were shooting as recently as last Friday, without incident, and his latest comments are grossly inaccurate, without merit, and are clearly opportunistic. Despite Jon Gosselin's repeated self-destructive and unprofessional actions, he remains under an exclusive contract with TLC. Direct filming of the children has been currently suspended, pending further conversations between both parents.

Photo: Henry Spencer / Getty Images

by Jennie Yabroff

Cupcakes inspire a surprising amount of animosity for what would seem an innocuous dessert item. Ask most anti-cupcakists about the bases of their objections, and you’ll hear the same thing: cupcakes are dry, flavorless sugar bombs. But according to Pam Nelson, owner of Butter Lane Bakery in Manhattan, there’s no reason a cupcake can’t be moist, delicious, and not-too-sweet. “Our mantra in developing our recipes was less sugar, more flavor,” she says. A few secrets to perfect cupcakes, after the jump.

by Anne Becker

Last night's finale of NYC Prep on Bravo was full of so much drama, snark and petty intrigue it was practically a real-life episode of Gossip Girl.That's no coincidence. Bravo can now legitimately lay claim to beingthe network that mints that ever-elusive "buzz" (whatever that is) byturning proven scripted shows into solid, low-brow reality TV. Witness The Real Housewives of Orange County—essentially Desperate Housewives gone SoCal. Miami Social? Friends in Florida.

But NYC Prep actually trumps its scripted predecessor, Gossip Girl,on the quality, guilty viewing pleasure front. Despite its floggingratings, the thing's actually more entertaining than the show fromwhence it was born. Below we present seven reasons why:

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Photo, Chris Pizzello/AP (left); AL Grillo/AP 

Gaggle contributor Daniel Stone has a fun think-piece comparing The Recent Resignations That Have Rocked The Earth to Its Core: Paula Abdul's American Idol departure, and the Palin family's Alaskan exeunt. Check it out here!

Read on for a juicy excerpt from socialite Gloria Vanderbilt’s new erotic novel, “Obsession"—only, we left a few spots blank for Madlib-style reader participation.  Put your answers in the comments, but please keep it in good taste! (And if you don't, our filters will catch you—so there's no point in trying). The scene: Priscilla, a young, sexually-repressed widow, has just discovered a stack of letters uncovering her late husband’s secret kinky sex life. She decides to confront his mistress. (For our Q&A with Vanderbilt, click here).

She leads me into a room looking out over the (body of water). The first thing I spot is the (piece of furniture). It is exactly like the one in our (place), one that (man’s name) designed, covered in (noun), with rounded padded arms, the upholstery soft as (noun). A (the same piece of furniture) I love to sink into, (verb ending in -ing), and often (same man’s name as before) had tried to distract me, taking (object) from me, lifting up my (piece of clothing), skimming over my (body part), continuing until it (verb, past tense) to his satisfaction, then (verb ending in -ing) down, spreading my (body part), and, with great (adjective), (action ending in -ing) my (body part) with his (another body part), and as it (verb, past tense) I begged for more, knowing in time he would (verb) it with his (body part)—and (exclamation!)—what better way of (verb ending in -ing) an afternoon.

We would say that Stephanie Pratt is eating her words, but that just seems... wrong, no? The star is on the cover of Us Weekly today, with this headline: "The Hills Made Me Bulimic." Now, Pratt is denying the statement to (who else) her boss, MTV.  The refute:

This was never actually going to be a cover story. I never approached [the magazine] to do a cover story.... The Hills did not make me bulimic. It was my own issues with self-esteem, and if anything, my life on The Hills has only helped me get healthy, 'cause I know how lucky I am to have this job and to have the chance to be a role model. And if it weren't for The Hills, I don't know how long I would have had those dark stages in my life.

 That was fast.  We wonder if MTV threatened to yank her from the upcoming, Lauren-less Season Six?  It certainly sounds that desperate.

So now we know what crosses the line.  If you eviscerate Gov. Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live, and compare her speechifying to beauty-pageant stumping, you can expect her to take it in stride. But call her a "slutty flight attendant" while making untoward remarks about her brood, and expect her full wrath.

The background:

After David Letterman made some crude jokes about Bristol Palin in Monday's Late Show monologue—specifically, joking that the 18-year-old abstinence crusader had been knocked up by Yankees third baseman (and Kate Hudson squeeze) Alex Rodriguez—Sarah Palin fired back with this -- check out our Gaggle post on it, as well:

Laughter incited by sexually perverted comments made by 62-year-old male celebrity aimed at a 14-year-old girl is not only disgusting, but it reminds us that some Hollywood/NY entertainers have a long way to go in understanding what the rest of America understands.

 We were, as we often do, making jokes about people in the news and we made some jokes about Sarah Palin and her daughter, the 18-year-old girl, who is—her name is Bristol, that’s right, and so, then, now they’re upset with me. These are not jokes made about her 14-year-old daughter. I would never, never make jokes about raping or having sex of any description with a 14-year-old girl. I mean, look at my record. It has never happened. I don’t think it’s funny. I would never think it was funny. I wouldn’t put it in a joke… Gov. Palin, if you’re watching, I would like you to consider coming to New York City—even Todd—as my guests, or leave Todd at home. I’d love to have you on the show. It’d be exciting. All right, so there, I hope I’ve cleared part of this up. Am I guilty of poor taste? Yes. Did I suggest that it was okay for her 14-year-old daughter to be having promiscuous sex? No.

And as of this morning, Palin issued an "exclusive" statement via her rep to FoxNews, along the lines of Letterman-can-shove it:

The Palins have no intention of providing a rating's boost for David Letterman by appearing on his show. Plus, it would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman.

What do you think? Is Letterman out of line?  Or is Palin, who keeps erroneously stating that Letterman's jokes targeted Willow, rather than Bristol, just being cranky?

Photo by F Micelotta/American Idol 2009/Getty Images.

By Joan Raymond

Let's talk images. A snake. A butterfly. A young man with his shirt unbuttoned to his waist, pouting at the camera. Lots of chest stubble. Alone, each image is rather boring. Put them together, and what you have is a hotter-than-Johnny Depp new Rolling Stone cover of American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert. The 27-year-old dude who made guyliner fashionable again gave an interview to the magazine confirming—big surprise—that he's gay. What's really surprising: I can't stop thinking about him. And neither can any of my cougar-aged friends. We love Adam, truly, madly, deeply, in a kind of weirdly Mrs. Robinson sexual way. And the reason doesn't just have to do with our past lives as professional groupies. It also has something to do with biology.

Just a few short months ago, most of my female friends and I were clueless about Adam Lambert. We're busy, professional women, some of us with demanding families and children, all of us with demanding jobs. We never spent our Tuesday nights in front of the TV. Yet this year, for slightly more than two months, phone calls went unanswered and any type of social or familial interactions were put on hold on so we could plop ourselves in front of our sets at 8 p.m. to watch American Idol, the No. 1 rated show on TV, which none of us had ever bothered with before. It started innocently enough: A friend, waylaid by a flu bug, was channel-surfing from the comfort of her couch one Tuesday evening and saw a bejeweled young thing singing a scorching rendition of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire." She left us phone messages and tweets, saying, and I quote, "ohmygawdyouhavetoseethisemoglambowielovechildonAmericanIdol." We went, "Huh," but we tuned in the following week. And then we were gone.

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Less than one month after Donald Trump deigned to let Miss California Carrie Prejean keep her crown, the blonde former model will now lose her title. Documents obtained by Fox News cite Prejean's unwillingness to fulfill her Miss California obligations—whatever those may be—and that Trump himself gave the final approval to fire her. It quotes him:

I told Carrie she needed to get back to work and honor her contract with the Miss California Organization and I gave her the opportunity to do so.... Unfortunately it just doesn’t look like it is going to happen and I offered [the organization] my full support in making this decision.

Gwyneth Paltrow was on Conan O'Brien's fourth Tonight Show last night, and typically, she showed off her toned stems (thanks, Iron Man 2 preparation) by wearing a scrap of wisp of a dress.  But while she attempted to dazzle the world with her wit and child-rearing tips (give 'em beer and Jay-Z -- really), bloggers and Twitter-ers were instead dazzled by her unnaturally shiny legs.  She was wearing sequins and her legs still had more sheen and blinding sparkle than her dress, for God's sake.  Was there baby oil involved?  Was she sweating?  Or is her skin just naturally as taut, pale and smooth as one of those windshield reflector thingies?

Taking the fall, of course, is GOOP -- Paltrow's holistic-lifestyle brand and blog, already a target for its soothingly PC vibes.  A sampling of this morning's headlines:

Gwyneth Paltrow Puts Too Much GOOP On Her Legs

What Was That GOOP All Over Gwyneth Paltrow's Legs on The Tonight Show?

Gwyneth Paltrow's Goopy Legs Shock Viewers

But seriously, what was that stuff?

Fox News and MTV are reporting that a California charity worker who organizes weekly bingo for the elderly is suing Borat and Brüno star Sacha Baron Cohen, alleging that he beat her up, "crippled" her and caused the demise of her marriage in a bingo melee.

Richelle Olson was organizing a bingo game for the elderly, one she says Cohen (in character as gay Austrian TV personality Brüno) offered to guest-call as a European celebrity.  When he showed up in his notoriously revealing costume and used offensive language, a violent struggle ensued over the bingo microphone.  Olson alleges that "defendants attacked [her] for a period of one to five minutes to intentionally create a dramatic emotional response ... while [they] recorded her humiliation and embarrassment."

She describes a subsequent emotional breakdown in the court documents; during her panic, she hit her head on a concrete slab and has since been confined to a wheelchair and walker due to "brain bleeding." 

And this is just the beginning, folks. Brüno hits theaters July 11.

by Elisa Mala

Prince Harry ventured stateside for his first official solo visit to the U.S. this past weekend, and for a good cause -- he played polo Saturday to benefit the American Friends of Sentebale, a charity he helped found to assist AIDS orphans and impoverished children in southern Africa.
 
"What we need is the opportunity to trade," said Prince Seeiso Bereng Seeiso of Lesotho, who also heads the charity. Acknowledging that handouts remedy problems in the short run, he said that in the long run, "it's not the best thing for Lesotho."

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