Everybody's Linking for the Weekend

Okay, first I want to apologize a bit for the slacking off this week.  Work, real life, and stress that I wasn't expecting all reared their head, and while they all have put me in a better place than I was at the end of the week (raring to go now!), it also meant I got a bit distracted from the blog.  However, we will be finishing up a series, kicking off a new series, and doing our sixth OVP over the next two weeks, so get pumped (I'll also be back to our regular twelve-post weeks starting again on Monday).  In the meantime, I missed a crap-ton of stuff this week so let's get this thing going!

On Entertainment...

-The fifty biggest shows of the year were released this past week, posing a few questions for me.  First off, why the hell is it that Madam Secretary isn't considered a bigger hit?  I get that the show isn't high-ranking amongst the younger 18-34 year-olds, but seriously-it's the second-highest rated new show on network television after Empire.  If this was scoring the same exact ratings with younger viewers we'd be talking about Tea Leoni winning an Emmy.  I would also like to know who are all these people watching all four NCIS's?  And finally what does it say about the state of television that reruns of The Big Bang Theory get better ratings than the vast majority of new programming?

-Everyone was talking about shoes out of Cannes (and Gasper Noe's Love, the only film from the festival so far to create a sensation-can't wait to catch it), and the ridiculous rule that women can't wear flats on the red carpet at the French film fest.  Admittedly, it's not an official rule but multiple women have been stopped and questioned for their shoe choices and though I'm disappointed that Emily Blunt, who has been very vocal about the entire affair, didn't follow through with her plans to wear flats (perhaps because she's a threat for the Best Actress trophy?), it still seems quite silly to be regulating such things.  Perhaps they should focus more on hair height?

-Admittedly I'm a bit late to the party on this one, but the internet is big and I can't always hit everything that I was hoping for right away.  Natalie Portman apparently doesn't know where her Oscar is, and not because she lost it or anything-it's just that she doesn't really care about it and called it a "false idol."  The Black Swan-star annoyed me with this comment for myriad reasons, but mostly because she campaigned extremely hard for that trophy, a trophy that I'm sure Annette Bening, Michelle Williams, Nicole Kidman, and Jennifer Lawrence all really wanted.  To pretend after-the-fact that she doesn't care about it, particularly for someone as smart as Portman (who had read the story of Abraham long before she won that Oscar), is really fake and seems to be just catering to a "hip-style" mentality that she can now adopt because she has the Oscar.  It's a big moment in your career, you worked hard for it and gave a terrific performance to get it-if you're going to take a stand, maybe five years after the fact is the wrong time to do it.

-JK Rowling is scandalized by the Attitude photoshoot of Matthew Lewis (aka Neville Longbottom) and we get the week's cutest Twitter exchange.  Also, did you see that photo shoot, because hot damn, call the police and the firemen.

On Politics...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

-The biggest story coming out of last night was in regard to Sen. Mitch McConnell's failure to pass an extension of the Patriot Act, with most of his caucus bucking him while he relied almost completely on Democrats to get the extension.  McConnell has been in situations like this before, but is finding there are larger issues to address with a growing group of senators, led by presidential candidate and McConnell's fellow senator Rand Paul, turning up the Libertarian heat headed into next year's presidential elections.  The Democrats are eviscerating McConnell for "ineptitude" following this debacle, but probably are gleeful behind closed doors as Republicans can't afford this kind of press headed into 2016, particularly with a slew of competitive Senate races on-deck in traditionally blue states.

-New Hampshire Republicans continue to reel from the Frank Guinta scandal, where he illegally took $355k from his parents to help his chances in the 2010 Midterm elections, which he won.  Sen. Kelly Ayotte, facing what may well be a brutal reelection in 2016, has called on her fellow Republican to resign, but as of now it appears that Guinta isn't budging.  I'm interested to see where this turns-the Republicans have a decent bench in the district, but so do the Democrats, and it's very swing-y (it's exchanged hands five times in the past decade, only sticking with the incumbent in 2008).  If the seat were to open up in a special election, a different sort of question emerges-will Democrats stick with former Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter, who has won the seat three times but lost it twice, or will they go with someone new to take on a new Republican?  If Guinta doesn't resign, will Republican anger at the "man" keep him as the nominee in a similar way to Michael Grimm, in which case Shea-Porter's victory seems quite certain and the Republicans lose a seat in the Granite State since they won't have the poor campaigning skills that Grimm chanced upon in his opponent.

-Chris Christie seems to be unraveling every day now, this past week getting involved in an expletive-filled rant against the press and his treatment during Bridgegate.  There are multiple problems with this. For starters, the press was pretty even-handed and DID in fact uncover a scandal involving Christie, which means that they did their job despite constant mocking from the governor while it was unfolding.  Secondly, the last angry man thing is not going to wear well for Christie, particularly with his approval in the toilet and New Jersey having massive buyers' remorse about the 2013 elections.  Lastly, it particularly won't work in states that aren't New Jersey, like Iowa and South Carolina, who have a different sense of what they want to see from their politicians, and a bully is not one of those expectations.

Shameless Self-Promotion of the Week...

How I plan on celebrating gay marriage in Ireland.

YouTube Video of the Week...

I had to go with the final Top 10 from David Letterman, whom I watched all through college and was decidedly Team Dave in the wars against Jay Leno (also hats off to the very classy Jimmy Kimmel and Conan O'Brien for telling people to turn away from their shows to go watch Letterman).  My favorite is Number 4:

Just One More...

-Pulitzer Prize winner Herman Wouk is writing a memoir after 100 years of life.  My first reaction to hearing this was "wait...Herman Wouk is still alive?" which is a bit of an easy joke but it genuinely was my response.  However, how great that the author of The Caine Mutiny, War and Remembrance, and The Winds of War is still alive and telling his story.  Here's to 100 more!