Oh God, Gretchen’s laugh is back. Why did I never realize how much she sounds like the pregnant Playmate before? But she wasn’t just laughing on last night’s season premiere. There were some tears as well, as she described her cycles of grief since her beloved fiance Jeff’s death six months ago. Clutching her exercise ball for comfort, counseling her mini-dogs through their own pain, she was a lost and broken woman. Garage sale, woot! And then there was Slade, sitting smugly atop the motorcycle Jeff gave her last season. “I truly think Jeff brought me Slade,” said Gretchen. This despite the fact that she’d earlier said that she’d met Slade, who well knows his way around the augmented O.C. population, eight years ago.
In other news: Simon and Tamra are possibly going broke. Lynne and whatever her husband’s name is are definitely going broke. Jeana is just broke broke. Vicki is still sitting on a pound of dough. Donn even bought her a pretty ring, which Vicki likes because it’s six carats. The two seem to have regained their marital footing which makes me genuinely happy. Donn has always struck me as a good egg. I dare say Vicki is my favorite Housewife, despite her ogre-like bossiness and constant smothering.
It’s easy to see why Nancy Meyers’ new comedy, It’s Complicated, appealed to Alec Baldwin. First there was the opportunity to work with Meryl Streep, who plays his ex-wife. But he was also drawn to the way Meyers explored the messy matter of divorce — and the way two well-adjusted ex-spouses try getting back together. “I don’t mean to be glib,” he told EW last week. “But the title really is perfect. It is complicated. I had a pretty tough divorce myself, so sometimes I sit there and I go, ‘Well, should I have worked it out? Maybe I should have tried harder.’ It’s also what you teach your children about their love lives. That’s a big thing for me, to teach my daughter: No risk, no reward. I want her to realize that it’s a roll of the dice. Not everybody gets so lucky, where they have a family and a marriage forever and ever.” (Here he gestured to Streep, who has been married to sculptor Don Gummer since 1978.) What’s more, the Emmy-winning actor doesn’t rule out walking down the aisle again, if he finds the right person. “People say, ‘Do I believe in getting married?’ Oh yeah, of course I do. I’d love to get married again,” he explained before adding with trademark deadpan: “I have to find a really rich woman so I can stay home and read books all day.”
Sure, The Vampire Diaries is a show about blood, stakes and endless fog in the forest, but lest we forget, the show is also about teen angst and last night (your regular recapper, Mandi, had the night off) we took a ride on the roller coaster of post-adolescent drama — best friends, unrequited love, loss, loneliness, the works. All you need to know is that meant tons of pensive, forlorn staring.
There are off nights, and then there is last night’s episode of Community. After being spoiled by two consecutive weeks of dynamite comedy, I sat there wondering whether I was watching the same show. Yesterday’s episode was the equivalent of a bologna sandwich that had been left outside in the scorching sun for two-and-a-half weeks and then still deemed suitable to consume. Even Homer Simpson would have turned it down. I have no doubt that Community will rebound from this, and that last night’s show, “Home Economics,” will be remembered as merely a peculiar gaffe in an otherwise consistently engaging series. But what a gaffe it was! 
So I’ve recovered from my Zyrtec cloud and yes I now realize that we promoted the merge. It was funny to be reminded of it by you guys. What can I say, I really was “loopy” when I wrote that blog. But yes I do see episodes and I do know what we promote, sometimes I just forget…
Ladies and gentleman! In this corner, we have Nicole Kidman — Oscar winner and mother of three — gracing the cover of 
