Blog Posts by Tara Ariano

You need to watch this ad, and then we need to talk about it. Because someone is...Cashin' a Check.

Fred Armisen, co-creator of IFC's "Portlandia," appears with Emma Stone in the promos for her second "Saturday Night Live" guest-hosting appearance this weekend. So it just can't be a coincidence that the humor in these bits reminds me so much of Armisen's OTHER sketch show. I mean, the wizard cutaway? The "What?" "What?" exchange? The goopy romcom staredown? Watch and see if you agree.

When Pat Collins of Washington, DC NBC affiliate WRC was assigned a story on a local student who'd been suspended from school for running on the field, during a football game, while wearing a banana costume, he probably had a pretty good idea that it wasn't going to end with him winning any Peabody Awards. So when the time came for him to interview the kid in question, Collins treated the situation with the gravity it merited, and came correct. (In a costume made to look like a bunch of grapes.)

[The Daily What]

Guess who's condemning them now? (Fox)A musical teen drama's plan to air an episode revolving around two couples — one gay, one straight — and their possible engagement in sexual intercourse has led conservative groups to publicly declare their disapprobation.

The series in question has always met with horror and disgust by the sorts of right-wing watchdogs so arrogant that they claim to speak for all parents. Nevertheless, the groups' announcement that they did not support the episode's depiction of teen sex was treated as though it were news.

Even Marc Maron couldn't wipe this smile off Rainn Wilson's face. (Jason Merritt/Getty Images)Rainn Wilson, star of "The Office," was comic Marc Maron's guest on the podcast "WTF" yesterday, and while the interview was, as usual, somewhat marred by Maron's apparent refusal to research anyone he ever talks to (he follows Wilson on Twitter yet didn't know he grew up Bahá'í?) and passive-aggressiveness (Maron on "The Office," on which Wilson plays Dwight: "People love 'The Office' and they love the character"), it did actually teach me a few things about Wilson that I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either!

1. Maron and Wilson were both attached to a failed sitcom pilot. In 2002, Janeane Garofalo was attached to a sitcom, "Slice O'Life," which would have found her playing a producer of cheery human-interest stories on a TV newsmagazine. (Presumably, much of the humor would derive from the incongruity of someone with Garofalo's demeanor consigned to a job devoted to soft news segments.) Maron and Wilson were both members of the supporting cast — Wilson as a wacky sound guy, and Maron as Garofalo's character's assistant.

Stars of guesting. (Todd Williamson/WireImage.com; Tiffany Rose/WireImage.com; Steve Granitz/WireImage.com)Actors have day jobs, but with an eye on a paycheck, a fun day's work, or an Outstanding Guest Actor Emmy, they moonlight in TV guest roles, too. Here are a few performers (and one non-performer) who will soon provide their Guest Services.

Actor: Mimi Rogers
Day Job: Occasional movie actor, and sometime producer (most recently of the Denzel Washington/Chris Pine vehicle "Unstoppable")
Guest-Starring On: "Two and a Half Men"
Role: Famous primatologist/mother to Walden Schmidt (Ashton Kutcher)
Pros: Her small role in the first "Austin Powers" movie demonstrated her ease and comfort with very broad comedy.
Cons: She really looks a lot like Kutcher's wife. A LOT.

No, this isn't a violation at all. (YouTube)As promised, kicky teen Courtney Stodden and her middle-aged husband, Doug Hutchison, appeared today on "Dr. Drew's Lifechangers," a syndicated daytime talk show hosted by Dr. Drew Pinsky. And while I thought I was pretty well-versed in all things Stoddison, I learned a lot from the episode.

Stodden first made contact with Hutchison this January, when she expressed an interest in studying acting with him — because who better to teach the craft than the seventh lead from "The Green Mile"? Hutchison says that he and Stodden corresponded for a while before he got in contact with her mother about the possibility of Stodden's coming to Los Angeles, from her home in Washington, to take his course in person. Though he also said he thought at the time that Stodden was in her "late twenties," so why would her mother need to be involved? Fishy. (Dr. Drew did not pursue this incongruity.)

You need to watch this ad, and then we need to talk about it. Because someone is...Cashin' a Check.