With the exception of the Iron Chef shows, I readily admit that I do not watch a lot of reality cooking programs. I’m just not sure what I’m supposed to be getting from these shows that pit big city chefs against each other and force them to concoct 12-course meals without using flour, sugar, water and milk and instead focusing all their food on lavender-infused soy milk. And I supposed I’ve worked in to many kitchens to care about the heightened drama TV tries to lend to those places.

That said, I am addicted to $12 Challenge. It’s a dating and food competition all rolled into one. The tag line for the Web-based series on Food2.com is: “2 Love-Hungry Cooks. 1 Hot Date. 1 Ticking Clock and $12. Oh, and the City is their only kitchen.”

The competitors are regular people — not real chefs — and they have $12 and two hours to buy and cook a meal of the datee’s choice. And they have to use their creativity to figure out how to cook these meals. In the most recent Webisode, for example, Chanell and Athena are competing for a date with Larry who wants steak and eggs (and is, “Hungry for everything — love, food…” Such a player!). Chanell cooks her meal at a dry cleaners using an iron (it turns out that you CAN cook eggs with an iron if you have to) and Athena uses a blowtorch at a body shop for hers. Other wannabe lovers have talked their way into deli’s and restaurants and used real kitchens, but it’s much more entertaining to watch the girls wielding their improvised searing implements to get their food done.

Best of all, the episodes are about five minutes long. Perfect for procrastinating work without demanding too much of a commitment.

Have you ever been tempted to pick up the phone and say hi to him?
I do, of course, think about our time together, and there are times when I think about doing that. But listen, I know that he has his life to live. I’ve got challenges and my life to live as well.

Pop quiz: Who’s that answering the question? Someone who took BG’s advice about moving on, or…?

Click here for the answer! (Note: When it comes to that relationship, BG is still trying to move on.)

“Trying to impress that hottie at the bar? Money talks. Hand out your number on the back of one of our fake ATM receipts. They’re a players [sic] dream come true.”

Where to begin (other than with a warning against the risks of fake-identity theft)?

Let me just say this, and not for the first time: You know how people hesitate to meet people online, for fear that they’ll, you know, lie? And how I always say hey, people lie in bars?

Well.

One more thing: if there’s not a romantic comedy about a guy who uses one of these on a girl who (inexplicably) turns out to like him and then he has to maintain the lie through all sorts of highjinks that make him look like he’s rich, which totally works until it doesn’t and then she hates him but then comes back, and he learns something about life, love, and himself, then I have $782,012 in my bank account. Hey, wait.

Ever marvel at the power of make-believe to bring about real-life happiness? Plus, who doesn’t love four-part harmonies? Well, BG is delighted to offer New York-area (or visiting) BreakupGirl.net readers special discount tickets to THE MARVELOUS WONDERETTES, a cotton-candy colored, non-stop jukebox-musical blast from the past, where you’ll meet four sweet-voiced girls with hopes and dreams as big as their crinolines!  The New York Times called WONDERETTES “effervescent and irresistible…an utter charm!”

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday: $45; Saturday & Sunday: $55. (Regular price $79!) For the discount:

1. Visit BroadwayOffers.com and mention code MAINT01, or
2. Call 212.947.8844 and mention code MAINT01

Westside Theatre,  407 West 43rd Street (between 9th & 10th Avenues)

Trust us, you’ve never had this much fun at prom.

She slays us! Back in 2000, Marti Noxon — then supervising producer for Buffy and consulting producer for Angel — graced BreakupGirl.net with her presence, answering reader questions as part of our You & A Guest series, which also featured Kevin Bacon, Dan Savage, Martha Quinn, and even the boys of O-Town! (And significantly scooped other online pubs who wouldn’t do that for years. W00t!)

She’s been plenty bizzy since, but we’re extra-super-excited about her next gig. (In fact, she’s one of the few people we’d trust with something so tricky-yet-potentially-excellent.) Via Variety:

Diane Keaton is attached to star in a series project in development at HBO revolving around a feminist icon who launches a sex mag for women.

The untitled series is among the first projects to come from Grady Twins Prods., the production company formed earlier this year by TV vets Marti Noxon (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) and Dawn Parouse Olmstead (“Prison Break”).

The duo is also working with helmer Guillermo del Toro and author Chuck Hogan on a smallscreen adaptation of their book trilogy “The Strain.”

The Keaton project stems from Noxon and Parouse Olmstead’s interest in exploring the legacy of the feminist movement of the 1970s. Keaton was taking meetings for a TV series project, and she responded to Noxon and Parouse Olmstead’s vision for a show featuring a Gloria Steinem-type character who tries to reignite interest in femme-centered activism by launching a porn mag for women.

Noxon is writing the script and will exec produce along with Parouse Olmstead. After Keaton signed on, the lead character was tailored to the thesp’s background and experiences.

“We really value her experience and outlook on the world,” Noxon said. “She’s incredibly frank and honest as an actress and as a person, yet she’s also extremely private. We really want to capture that in the show.”

The “Strain” book trilogy is a bioterror thriller with fangs, telling the story of an outbreak in the U.S. of a virus that either kills those who are exposed to it or turns them into vampires. The first of the series came out in June. The plan is to shop the TV project, envisioned as an event series unfolding over three seasons, early next year after the second book is released.

Noxon and Parouse Olmstead have long been friends and occasional collaborators on such projects as the 2004-05 season Fox mystery drama “Point Pleasant.”

With help from their reps at WME, the two decided to go it alone as partners in Grady Twins after years of working for large production entities. (The Grady Twins moniker is a nod to the murdered twin girls who haunt the Overlook Hotel in “The Shining.”)

The two put up their own coin for office space in L.A.’s Larchmont Village and got busy setting up projects. “We both felt like it was a good time to strike out and not be committed to any one place,” Parouse Olmstead said. “The business models for network TV and cable TV are changing. We see this as a moment of opportunity for a company like this.”

The duo’s first series to go into production is “Gigantic,” a drama set for debut in January on the Viacom-owned cabler TEENick (the new name for the N as of September). Show examines the world of celebrity culture by focusing on high-school age children of fictional celebs.

As evidenced by Grady Twins’ initial batch of projects, Noxon and Parouse Olmstead aim to cast a wide net as producers. And they’re committed to live by the maxim that “we don’t want to be doing anything that we don’t have a passion for,” Noxon said.

Noxon’s recent primetime credits include “Private Practice,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Mad Men.” Separate from her Grady Twins labors, she’s set to make her directing debut on the indie feature “Box City” for Mockingbird Pictures.

Cintra Wilson explores Tiffany & Co. with sharp ear, tart tongue:

I have always been mystified by Tiffany’s heart-shaped silver dog tags, worn on a choke chain, with the engraved instructions, “Please Return to Tiffany & Co.” This, I have always assumed, is precautionary: If your lady gets lost, someone will put her on a plane back to the jewelry store. In any case, they are hugely popular.

Read more…

Huh. Quoth our tipster:”Geez, I remember when the ‘Ms. Taken’ trend was going by its previous name, ‘The cubic zirconia from Dillard’s.'”

PS Video is NSFM*.

* Mood

From io9.com:

You’re dating a new girl and things are going great. Then one day she asks you to meet her ex…who just happens to be Superman. Can a mere mortal ever live up to the Boyfriend of Steel?

Jonathan Goldstein’s short story “Man Not Superman” (previously featured on This American Life) follows the man who dates Lois Lane after she breaks it off with Superman. Our comparatively ordinary narrator is head over heels for the famed reporter, and things go swimmingly at first; sick of superheroes, Lois just wants a guy who can make her laugh. But Lois and the big Kryptonian are still good chums, and the relationship hits a snag when Supes insists on taking his ex’s new beau as his sidekick.

The original text is an uproarious read, but the artwork (composed entirely on yellow sticky notes) from animator Arthur Jones perfectly captures the narrator’s insecurities and the humiliation involved in working for Superman.