Pumped to be Above the Influence

For those of you who watch MTV (or appear on it, whatevs), you may have spotted Mask and Wig’s own Jonah Meyerson, who appears in a new Above the Influence commercial. It’s super-legit, especially because it comes on every five seconds.

We must admit that Jonah is pretty dreamy in it, and we’re a little jealous of the girl who plays his love interest. But then again, not everyone can be a WigWAG. Or, for that matter, a college-age male dressed in women’s clothing.

Ever wanted to be famous for whoring yourself out to television cameras? Your second chance has arrived!

A sorority listserv was informed that “a new documentary style series” is looking for “outgoing and adventurous women between the ages of 18-25 who are new to the Philadelphia area, are looking for work and trying to get to know the city better.” Sound like you or someone you know? Check the full email (and casting criteria), paragraphs in caps-lock included, after the jump.

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While this may look like a failure on Penn Video Network’s part, we think campus cable just wants you to go enjoy the sunshine. That’s why half of their channels are down right now.

Don’t try to watch 18, 29, 32, 34, 44, 50, 52,  or 56 (oh no! Not SCOLA). cuz they are not working. Go play.

Update: 34, 44, 50, 61 are back on while 18, 27, 32, 52 are still off according to PVN’s Twitter. Alas, still no word on SCOLA!

Proud of your second place Quizzo victory at Blarney last night? Nice try.

College freshman Robbie Berg faces off tonight on Jeopardy! College Championship, on which he’ll be wearing, of course, a Penn hoodie. Berg faces off against students from other colleges, including Columbia student and Ivy Gate editor Dan D’Addario. (Don’t let us down, Robbie!) We’ll be tuned in to ABC at 7 p.m. tonight.

Also, will you join our Quizzo team? Next Tuesday, Blarney, 10 p.m. See ya there.

For reasons we are incapable of understanding, Penn got its second shoutout of the week on Jay Leno last night. After Thursday evening’s nod to Basketball when Denzel Washington was on the show, Bill Cosby talked on Monday about going to “Camp Green Lane, sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania.” According to Bill, who grew up in Philly, the camp cost $10.50 for 9 days.

What a world we live in. One day, Life is calling our mascot creepy, and the very next, Jon Stewart is saying “Go Quakers” on The Daily Show. Twice! The second time, using an imitation straight out of Fiddler on the Roof. It’s the classic American tale.

Here’s the clip:

Josh Dorfman, C’94 just nabbed a second season of his award-winning reality TV series “The Lazy Environmentalist,” which features low-maintenance “eco-solutions” for aspiring environmentalists. It’s basically a pain-free guide to greening your everyday routine.

Directed by none other than Queer Eye for the Straight Guy Co-creator Dave Metzler, the show premiered this past June on the Sundance Channel—and seems to have gained quite the following.

In fact, the Penn grad’s eco-show just won the honor of best reality TV series from the folks over at the Environmental Media Association—beating out other contenders ranging from Bravo’s “Top Design” to “Whale Wars” on the Discovery Channel. No word yet on why some other great reality TV series didn’t make the cut.

Check out the season 2 promo after the jump, or head to the Sundance channel’s site to learn how to add a little eco-loving to your life. We like the quick tip of adding a Belkin energy-conserving power strip to spruce up your electronic arsenal, or you can go all out and learn a few spirits for a more sustainable Saturday night. Read the rest of this entry »

"Is it possible for me to sing with this on?"

Was “The Nightman Cometh”, last season’s finale of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, a success? It depends on your definition of success. If by “success” you mean “Charlie finally scored with the coffee shop waitress he’s been stalking all this time,” then you’d most likely consider the thirty minute musical a classic, epic failure, like that other Charlie’s futile attempt to kick a football. However, if you’re thinking that selling out the Troubador twice back in April with a live rendition of said episode is a success, then the Sunny cast is very, very successful. So successful, in fact, that they’re pulling a Kerouac and taking their musical on the road. The Times reports that the tour is set to kick off in Boston on September 15. The season premiere of Sunny is two days later, and by the end of the month the gang from Paddy’s will have entertained Philly, L.A., New York, San Francisco and Seattle. To get caught up on the singing, dancing, spandex-attired performance that inspired the traveling show, check out a video clip here.

This could be you!

From Botox parties to charity galas to fake bubbies, we love watching rich 40-somethings act crazy. Thus, Bravo has truly captivated us with its Real Housewives series. We’ve seen housewives from wealthy communities across the country, but what about our beloved Philly? The Real Housewives of the Main Line perhaps?

Well, Philadelphia, our day has come… kind of.

Earlier this week Oceanfront Media Productions issued a press release announcing the casting of its new series: The Women of Rittenhouse Square. Likening Walnut Street to Fifth Avenue, the new show will immerse you in a “fantastic wonderland of opulence” sure to “change the way Philadelphia is perceived.” Sounds accurate. Okay, fine. It’s not exactly Bravo’s Housewives brilliance, but we’ll take what we can get. Read the full press release after the jump.

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We love college, but we hate school. That is, we love Smoke’s and Fling and the Quad and living as quasi-adults sans any real responsibility, but we hate exams and term papers and idiot TAs and sleep-deprivation. Summer is the time when we relish in the lack of schoolwork (though some of us are getting a taste of that whole 9-5 thing…which is another story), but miss that late night trip to FroGro after Kweder. Fear not! There are not one but two ways you can get your college-not-school fix during these long summer months.

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The gayest prince since Richard the Lionhearted?

We tend to look at mid-season replacements with a bit of skepticism. After all, if ABC really loves In The Motherhood so much (please cancel this already so we can get our Ugly Betty fix), why weren’t they shoving it down our throats back in September instead of Opportunity Knocks? (If you haven’t heard of that one, by the way, you’re not alone.)

That being said, some of this year’s midseason replacements excite us so much that we’re already dying to buy on DVD. And one of those, of course, is NBC’s Kings. The show’s concept left me skeptical at first: brought to us by the folks behind Heroes, the show is set in a modern-day metropolis-kingdom that is torn by war. A young soldier, David, rescues the Prince from behind enemy lines. Suddenly David’s thrust into the limelight and must deal with power struggles and people who would love to see him fall back to his lowly origins. Sure, the show had Deadwood‘s Ian McShane, but Penn students have such limited time for TV, so if we’re going to watch metropolitan elite fight for power and prestige, we’ll just stick with Gossip Girl.

But a recent development has caught our interest. It seems in this modern-day rags-to-riches tale, the Prince is the biggest fairy.

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Emerson Barth, he of campus lore, has (to, ok, no one’s surprise) popped up on reality television.  The most fabulous Ego of the Week in recent memory can be seen briefly in a season 2 episode of Bravo’s The Real Housewives of New York City.  We are having trouble embedding the video, but check it out here (Emerson appears about two minutes in), and check out our screencap below.  Congrats, Emerson, we’re sure this is the first of many, many Bravo appearances to come in your future.  For now, though, we have a few questions:  How does he know so many famous people?  Who’s that guy he’s leaning on?  And does he mind being reduced to an illustration to go along with housewife Kelly’s ridiculous voiceover (“I’m exposed to so many men all the time. Businessmen, gay men…”)?

That’s Emerson with the drink in his hand.  Any more tips?  Send ‘em here.

30 Rock, Thurs. at 9:30 on NBC

Tonight is the union of two TV souls: Liz Lemon and Don Draper.

Jon Hamm from Mad Men joins the show for three episodes. He plays the perfect man, a doctor with pretty hair who’s nice to the weird guy in the apartment building and loves to bake. The question is: will this episode be funnier than Jon Hamm’s appearance on SNL?

We like our reality television with as little reality as possible. MTV has heard our reality prayers and done the virtually impossible: created a show even less believable than its predecessor. Not convinced that a spin-off of the spin-off of that show that was the “real” Orange County could possibly be at all worth your time? (Oh, Kristin and Stephen, it feels like only yesterday that we cared at all about your non-lives!) Read on as we count the ways we love Whitney and her new, carefully edited and softly-lit adventures as she navigates the dangerous divide between uptown and downtown.

1. Audrina and Justin are boring, and so we are ready for the latest incarnation of the scruffy non-boyfriend. We have met the new Justin Bobby, and his name is Jay. He has an Australian accent and thus is far superior to the original JB. However, he is not better than James-Franco-as-Justin-Bobby, seen here at funnyordie.com. Read the rest of this entry »