Express Checkout: Slater, West and Retirement

• Well, as fellow pop culture blogger Jeremy Barker put it in a comment, "Turns out you didn't not watch hard enough". I had taken a vow to not watch My Own Worst Enemy on NBC on the off chance it would actually help the fledgling spy drama take off after my disastrous support of two previous occupants of the Monday 10PM slot. However, despite my best efforts to avoid the show so I didn't whammy it, it still failed... colossally. In fact, according to a few sources I've read, My Own Worst Enemy got worse ratings than both Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and Journeyman, two shows that were also cancelled after occupying that slot (which has replaced CBS's dreaded Tuesday at 10 for the distinction of being where new shows are scheduled to die). At least I saved myself some heartbreak.


• Kanye West, who has a reputation when it comes to award shows especially when he doesn't win, has done an about face and declared that he didn't deserve to win the Ultimate Urban award at the recent MTV Europe Music Awards over Lil Wayne and he has accused that the show is fixed (handing out awards to people who are actually present rather than on merit. Given some of Kanye's previous outbursts, it might be easy to dismiss his claim, but I do remember a particular comic moment from the 2001 MTV Movie awards involving a parody of "Don't Tell Me" by Madonna featuring Kirsten Dunst and Jimmy Fallon which included the following line: "if you show up, you'll probably win".... so maybe he is actually on to something.


• What is it with all these youngish celebrities deciding they are going to retire all of a sudden. I mean, there is Joaquin Phoenix, Angelina Jolie, Lupe Fiasco and a few others who have just decided out of the blue to announce that they would soon be retiring. I know that young celebrities announce their retirement sporadically, and for the most part, they rarely stick to it (Jay Z comes to mind), but I just think it is weird that there is this convergence of announcements at the moment. Do they know something I don't?

Tags: christian slater, my own worst enemy, studio 60, on the sunset strip, don't tell me, madonna, kanye west, joaquin phoenix, angelina jolie, lupe fiasco, mtv europe music awards, nbc, 10pm, cbs, heartbreak, pop culture, jeremy barker, popped culture