Dream a dream of this lovely lass...

It's the new Internet sensation, but if you live under a rock and haven't seen it yet, please watch this clip from Britain's Got Talent. I find it hard not to weep, and I promise you it's not over the way this woman looks...

[watch Susan Boyle sing "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables]

I couldn't embed the video for copyright reasons, but Susan Boyle, 47, certainly made her mark this week with her appearance on the original "American Idol"/"America's Got Talent" show. 

She's no looker -- and she probably turned a few stomachs with her sexy hip swivel in Simon Cowell's direction -- but Boyle sure can sing. Pretty amazing.

Olympics peacing out

I should probably mention that the Olympics are over, with the United States earning the greatest number of medals, but China earning the most gold.

This year's Olympics are being heralded as "truly exceptional Games," and even for an apathetic Olympic watcher such as myself, I thought a lot of it was pretty exciting.

To read some interesting stats, click here, and for medal counts, photos, news stories and more, click here.

More Olympic fun

I know I said I wasn't too into the Olympics this year -- and that's still true. But my boyfriend and I did happen to catch Michael Phelps winning his first gold medal last night; Pretty exciting stuff, I must say.

Sometimes it almost doesn't seem fair how good Phelps is, and last night, it was almost like he was just competing against himself and his own world record. But check out the video below from the 2000 Olympics --this guy actually was only competing against himself after his two competitors disqualified themselves. Sorry to say it, but I think even I could have beaten this guy. He manages to almost double the record for this event, while still setting a personal best.

Still, you gotta love his -- and the announcers'-- enthusiasm... and the constant giggling that takes place in the background.

His ass is grass

I should have posted this Sunday, but I was distracted by work and bad reality television. Are you surprised?

Thanks to my boyfriend, I dove headfirst into the Wimbledon match this weekend--something that I haven't been interested in since I was 10 years old, sitting at home during my summer vacation from school--but thank the Lord I did. This was one for the record books, in more ways than one.

Nadal won the match 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (8), 9-7.

Until that match, Federer had won 65 straight matches on grass. Federer didn't capitalize on break points and Nadal couldn't handle 16 ace serves from the five-time Wimbledon champ. Two rain interruptions--one arguably helping Federer and one helping Nadal-- kept the match going until 9 p.m., and any longer it would have been held til Monday. Federer had the opportunity to become the first man since the 1880s to win six Wimbledon titles in a row. Nadal had the opportunity to--and ultimately did--become the first man since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to win titles at Wimbledon and at the clay-court French Open in the same year.

This match is being called the greatest in Wimbledon history, and certainly I --a relative tennis novice-- can do it no justice. I'll just say that every point, every set and every minute of the nearly 5-hour match was a roller coaster, with no one knowing what would come next...and it was totally worth my entire Sunday.

To read a comprehensive description of the match, click here.

How do you spell 'hilarity'?

Ahh, the Scripps National Spelling Bee never ceases to provide comedy year after year. And of course, the 2008 round is no exception.

Check out this video. This kid-- Sameer Mishra--handles this moment with style and grace, especially when he realizes that the facilitator is not actually calling him a 'numb nut.'

Sameer, who obviously became a crowd favorite, would go on to win the whole shabang, racking up $40,000

Update: Reality TV brilliance, if there is such a thing...

As previously reported, VH1 is taking their reality television programming to another level with "I Love Money," which pits former "Flavor of Love," "I Love New York" and "Rock of Love" contestants against each other in the quest for money--what they were actually on those shows for in the first place.

Now, the entire cast list has been announced, including:

Flavor of Love: Hoopz, Nibblz, Pumkin, Toasteee,
Rock of Love: Brandi C, Destiney, Heather, Megan, Rodeo,
I Love New York: 12-Pack, Chance, The Entertainer, Heat, Midget Mac, Mr. Boston, Real, Whiteboy


And a long "supertease" trailer has been released. These challenges are off the wall (a spitting contest inspired by Pumkin and some sort of chicken catapult??), the hook-ups look extremely underhanded and entertaining (Heather and 12-Pack, Real and Hoopz) and the 40-year-old Rodeo looks awkwardly out of place amongst the scantily clad youngsters.


video.vh1.com

More mindless television for me to get sucked into. God, I love it. "I Love Money" is set to premiere July 13 (with a casting special slated for July 6).


RELATED LINKS
Reality TV brilliance, if there is such a thing

'Give to me your paraphernalia, take from me my Lace'

You might not be pumped for NBC's reinvention of American Gladiators, perhaps because it's a WWE-ified version of its former self? Whatever happened to Zap, Diamond, Nitro...?

Well, I don't know about the rest of them, but Los Angeles PD busted former Gladiator babe Lace for possession of drug paraphernalia last week.

Lace? Drugs? Gosh, the joke is almost too easy. Maybe Blaze will get busted for marijuana next week.

Lace, also known as Marisa Pare, was held on $250 bail.

RELATED LINKS:
"Gladiators, are you ready?"

There's no crying in football!!

This weekend brought some upsets in the world of playoff football.

Unfortunately, the Patriots remained perfect, beating the Jacksonville Jaguars and advancing to next weekend's conference championship game.

But in better news... How 'bout them Giants?? Eli Manning, whom I thought was totally due for a catastrophic week after two impressive showings, somehow pulled it together and led the G-men to victory versus the favored Dallas Cowboys, 21-17.

The most buzzworthy news, however, came after the game when everyone's favorite a-hole wide receiver Terrell Owens cried like a baby over the inevitable media slaughtering of Tony Romo, saying with black glasses hiding his tear-filled eyes: "He's my teammate. He's my quarterback." Whaa, whaa. This is the same guy who blasted Eagles' quarterback Donovan Mcnabb every Sunday when he was in Philadelphia, fighting with Hugh Douglas in the locker room and doing sit-ups on his lawn? Suddenly, he's found God and decides to back his headcase of a QB?

Oh well, not like we'll be seeing him again this season, haaaahaaaaa. And for another good laugh, check out the clip.



So it's Giants v. Packers, Patriots v. San Diego (who upset the Colts 28-24 yesterday).\

Super Bowl predictions anyone?

"Gladiators, are you ready?"

Please, tell me you didn't miss the premiere of NBC's American Gladiators tonight.

The two-hour reinvention of the 90's classic aired tonight and introduced America to 14 new Gladiators ready to whoop on some short and comparatively scrawny contenders: Blast, Crush, Fury, Hellga, Siren, Stealth and Venom for the women, and Hammer, Justice, Mayhem, Militia, Titan, Toa and Wolf for the men.

A little fun fact: Titan is the only Gladiator to be on both the original and the remake of the series, and Toa is the cousin of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

I was stoked for this show to start and tonight's double showing was entertaining, but honestly...it was a little too WWE for my taste. The extremely terrible overacting and audience singing "Nananana, hey hey hey, goodbye" every time someone fell into the water, sprinkled with the occasional heartfelt testimonial and shout out to the loving family, I felt like it was like fake-o wrestling meets Oprah Winfrey.

Also, I was pretty disappointed by how nice the female Gladiators were being. Don't shake that bitches hand--kick her while she's down!!

The 2008 American Gladiators leaves 1991 loyalists with much to be desired, but I was pleased to see the return of Assault (where contenders aim arrows and rockets at Gladiators while dodging 100-mph tennis ball shots) and the ever-popular Eliminator, which destroyed and embarrassed several of tonight's contenders.

I'm predicting the show probably won't last longer than this season (or until the strike ends), but for a shot of old school, cheesy, barbaric entertainment, check out the second part NBC's 2008 American Gladiators premiere tomorrow night at 8 p.m.

UPDATE: Titan appeared on a local radio show this morning saying that tonight's episode features a nice bone breaking - whoo hoo!

RELATED LINKS:
Reinventing Lace, Zap, Blaze and Laser