OK, who saw this last night?

One word: yes!

As you might have remembered, just hearing Diddy's voice makes me want to make a Pepto-Bismol-tini. He is obnoxious and I might add that his role in pop culture has been really over-inflated. (Peak 1994-1997?) But this show is addictive. How annoying is 'Po-prah,' the 200 plus pound witch? How fun is it to watch Diddy's "stylist," who will assuredly become incrementally more queeny with each episode? And how fascinating is the black tranny? (Tranny! Fierce!) It's all way TOO MUCH...in a bad-is-good way!

Back in 2003, I actually interviewed to be Diddy's assistant. I am not kidding. In what was probably one of the shortest over-the-phone job interviews in history, a brash, impatient woman asked me about my education and career. Even after I'd significantly dumbed down my resume before we spoke, while I talked to her about my accomplishments and goals, it became clear to both of us in a matter of minutes that a future of me scrubbing rim wheels and going round trip from Midtown to the Bronx in a half-hour for a special type of breath mints was just not in the cards. I remember going to parties and seeing his old assistant, Akil, and thinking how glamorous it must have been. Thank God I didn't get or take that job. It wouldn't have worked: I have an extremely low tolerance for stupid **** and a general disregard for other people's (minute) problems. You'd never sleep, or even get a moment to enjoy the money you're earning; those people are basically indentured servants. You might be saying to yourself, 'Wouldn't that position open a lot of doors?' I guess. But of the 400 assistants that man has had, you've heard of, what, one of them?

If becoming Fonzworth Bently is the desired result of being Diddy's assistant, I respectfully decline. 

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After that, I watched "New York Goes to Hollywood." Brilliant. It is so clearly scripted, down to the "people" appear on the show and the mishaps. You know what though? It's a hoot. I give it three episodes, however, before the tide turns. Same with Luke's show, which came on after, at which point I was sufficiently cracked out enough to go to bed.

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Meanwhile, did you see that new trailer for "Tropic Thunder?" Some of the black entertainment blogs immediately had a hissy fit when the premise of Robert Downey Jr.'s character -- a white man playing a black man -- came out. I reserved judgment, and I'm glad I did; as everyone knows now, the character is a white man playing a black man in a deeply ironic and satiric film. And in the trailer I saw last night, Downey is electric. I never really got all the fuss about him as an actor, yet in those few seconds, he seemed magically possessed. Can't wait to see this film...

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