This week’s episode of Gossip Girl, "Woman on the Verge," had me on the verge, as well – on the verge of slapping Dan upside his head and kicking Georgina’s behind all the way back to the gates of Hell from which she apparently escaped.

Serena’s "I killed someone" revelation last week left us eagerly awaiting the who, the why, the how, and surprisingly, it was all answered. Not surprisingly it was a tad anticlimactic. Isn’t that the case sometimes in life—the anticipation is more fun than the reality?

The episode starts the day after Serena tells Blair her secret and Serena is nowhere to be found. Georgina calls her a trillion times (getting angrier with each new voice mail), Dan calls her (sounding more desperate with each new attempt), and Serena’s mother (Lily) is annoyed because she’s waiting for Serena to get home and be helpful as it’s the day of her wedding rehearsal dinner. (Recap: she’s marrying Bart Bass, Chuck’s father, even though she still has feelings for Dan’s father Rufus. It’s all so complicated.)

Blair asks her two exes, Chuck and Nate, (who now hate each other) to meet at her place and she arrives home with a horribly hung-over Serena. Blair’s housekeeper secretly calls Serena’s mother to tell her that Serena seems to have fallen off the Good Girl wagon and has been run over by it.

Dan arrives at Blair’s and, when confronted for the umpteenth time about why she’s being weird, Serena tells Dan that she slept with some guy the night before because lying about that is better than telling the truth about being a murderer. (She has a point.)

Heartbroken Dan announces that he’s "done" and walks away from Serena as their friends look on. I mourned the loss of their relationship for 4.3 seconds and then wondered when Serena would begin mulling over Blair’s "I love you," from the night before. Fine, Serena had other things on her mind but she’ll get around to mulling, I just know it!

Dan, feeling all rejected, agrees to meet "Sara" (AKA Georgina’s alter-ego) for some quality crying on the shoulder time. Poor Dan is getting played like a nickel slot machine at a Vegas mini-mart. An all day sucker, that Dan.

All photos by Patrick Harbron/The CW

After Dan leaves, Serena finally opens up about the details of the secret. We have been lead to believe that Serena left town because she couldn’t deal with the guilt of having slept with her BFF’s boyfriend, but we learn that the night drunken Serena had sex with Nate , she met up with Georgina afterward to get even drunker and more drugged out of guilt.

Uh-uh. Nope. Don't even pretend you knew all along that the big secret was that Serena thinks she killed somebody! Naw. I ain't hearing it! Heh.

Was that reveal fun or was that reveal fun? Goodness. Blackmailing with plain ol' sex tapes is so last year. The rage this year is sex tapes and suspicious deaths. But come on, she didn't really kill anyone, did she? Georgina has her believing she did, right? Right? Fingers crossed?

All photos by Patrick Harbron/The CW

This week's episode of Gossip Girl , "All About My Brother," was sort of about Serena's brother — her feelings for her brother and her guilt for leaving her brother as she fled town under mysterious circumstances. Oh, and also about her brother coming out as gay.

And it was sort of about Jenny's general assery toward her brother … and her father, too, for that matter. And who knows? Maybe he's somebody's brother, as well.

At last the infamous Georgina Sparks (Michelle Trachtenberg) has hit the Upper East Side, and frankly I'm anxiously waiting for the Upper East Side to hit her back! I knew that I was going to love to hate Georgina, but I haven't quite mustered the love just yet. OK, maybe a little.

All photos by Giovanni Rufino/The CW

In this week's Gossip Girl episode, "Desperately Seeking Serena," Dan spends his time looking for Serena, who is not showing up where she's supposed to (like her college exams). Once again, Serena has desperately been trying to find herself, and when all the dust clears, the SAT review board is going to be desperately searching for Serena, too. Heh.

In contrast, Georgina — who I thought might be the one desperately seeking Serena — seemed to spend no time in looking for her, and what little searching she did appeared to be more calculated than desperate. She just sort of supernaturally appeared out of nowhere at Serena's school as if this episode were a spinoff of Buffy.

See, that's just it: Evil just shows up. And evil is never desperate.

Gossip Girl, welcome back! This week's episode, "The Blair Bitch Project," was fun. Watching how Blair got back on that proverbial horse that had thrown her smug, conceited but oh-so-vulnerable ass to the turf was masterful. But wait — is that Jenny Humphrey wearing a princess tiara? Is it stolen? Heh.

All photos by Giovanni Rufino/THE CW

The episode picks up three weeks after Serena convinced Blair to stay in New York to fight for her reputation and status as queen bee. I'm glad Blair decided to stay, because we got to see the fight! Oh, and we got to see Serena and Blair be all cute and cuddly together.

The battle is clearly shaping up to be between Blair and Jenny Humphrey. I know, Jenny Humphrey, right? That can't even be a fair fight, but, uh yeah, turns out it is.

Some TV shows you love. Some TV shows you hate. It's pretty simple. But then there are those shows you love to hate, and others you hate to love! Well, dang it, I hate to love Gossip Girl. But I do. I have fallen for it.

Photo credit: The CW/Andrew Eccles

I'm sure it'll break my heart, though. I know that Gossip Girl could so easily slip and slide into the trite and predictable vortex of suck that has swallowed up many of its teen drama predecessors. But the show, in its first year, is still trying to find its way, and it's actually doing it with much more skill and poise than I would have ever imagined after watching the pilot.

But rather than be concerned about the future, I will live in the now and simply say Yay! to the return of the show tonight on the CW on a new night (Monday) and at a new time (8:00 p.m. ET). Yes, I have a show crush!

There are five new episodes in store, and I'm as joyful about this as a 14-year-old who's been given an iPhone with a free unlimited text plan! The show stars Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Taylor Momsen, Penn Badgley, Chace Crawford, Ed Westwick and the voice of Kristen Bell as Gossip Girl. Oh, and for Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans, you may like to know that Michelle Trachtenberg is hitting the Upper East Side of Manhattan soon for a few episodes, and it should be fun to see what damage she may cause.

Do you make a mental note, "Yeah, I've got to see that!" when you first lay eyes on a billboard for a new movie? No? Oh. I would think that's the intended purpose of movie posters. You know, publicizing, promoting, giving a hint about the genre, evoking fear, depicting humanity, causing smiles or winks of romance — there has to be a reason the studios and distributors go through all the bother, right?

It's fun to try to figure out what the movie marketing types are selling. With that in mind, I'm taking a look at a few new posters that have just been released. No, unfortunately, none are lesbian films … sigh … but I'm including the few that have women of interest in the cast. But be forewarned: I can't help looking for lesbian subtext in these things! Hmm, maybe it's the titles that do it?

Battle in Seattle

Now, this movie poster tells me one very important thing: There's not a damn thing funny about this movie! This poster screams serious drama, doesn't it? It also seems to be screaming Charlize Theron is hot even when she looks like your next-door neighbor! Fine, maybe it's just me that heard that scream.

Admittedly, when I first read the title I really wanted this movie to be a romantic comedy. I dreamed of an adorably contrived little battle between two lesbians from Seattle. One, a cute barista in a café that serves Seattle's Best coffee, versus another barista that serves Starbucks. The two press and pull and pour themselves into finding true love through lattes and the perfect espresso.

When I first heard that Christina Aguilera was going to be singing a duet with Mick Jagger in Shine a Light, the new Martin Scorsese documentary about the Rolling Stones that premieres on Friday, I immediately wondered, "Why Christina?"

I felt a little better about my own confusion when I read that Stones guitarist Keith Richards was confused as well. At the live performance when the footage for the documentary was filmed, Richards apparently thought Christina was just some young female fan that had gotten through security and onto the stage!

But I imagine that with Keith Richards' youthful and not so youthful indulgences, many things in life are now rather confusing for him. So learning of his confusion didn't help me justify my own.

I'm one of those women who try her best to remain female positive. I really do. I root for talented women to seek their bigger and better slices of the corporate and entertainment pie. High-fiving female successes is one of my favorite past times. Come on, now…up high, come on, don't leave me hangin'! You know that old saying: Behind every strong and successful woman…is a long line of other women being snide and catty about her hair and shoes! Well, nah, that's not me. So, it's with a heavy heart that I must confess to actually cringing when I read that Mariah Carey has a new movie set to debut. Tennessee will have its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 26. Hmmm…

Tennessee, is the journey of two brothers, Ethan Peck and Adam Rothenberg, to find their estranged father after learning that one brother is diagnosed with terminal leukemia. Carey plays, Krystal, an aspiring singer who flees from her controlling and somewhat abusive husband and joins two brothers on their journey. OK, that doesn't sound all that bad, does it? A little? Sort of? So, is Mariah using a southern accent for the role?

I dig Mariah Carey as a singer. Yes, she's a diva, I know, but I will shout from the mountaintop my adoration of Mimi! I was so glad she was emancipated and put it down on her previous album.

The girl can sing. When she poured out "We Belong Together", I believed her! And even back in the day when she said "I Don't Wanna Cry," hell I didn't want to cry either but that was such a good break up song and her voice and lyrics made me verklempt. I'm actually looking forward to Mariah's new album release due out in a couple of weeks and yes, that's a blog for another day, but this acting thing? Well, I'm worried. Why? One word. Glitter.

Oscar- and Emmy-winning actress Helen Hunt has emerged from the where-the-hell-have-you-been cold case files! Phew. It's dark and moldy in those little boxes in which Hollywood tosses its female stars of yesteryear. Hunt will soon be seen in Then She Found Me, a comedy with drama and a little romance, also starring Matthew Broderick, Colin Firth and the Divine Ms. M, Bette Midler. But what's even nicer than seeing Hunt in front of the camera is that this new film features Hunt behind the camera, as well. Then She Found Me is Helen Hunt's feature film directorial debut, and it is has received its fair share of positive press from earlier film festivals. The film is at last winding its way to a general release in April.

The movie has been adapted from a novel by Elinor Lipman of the same name, and Hunt helped to pen the screenplay. Writer, director, and star? Is that the new Hollywood version of the triple threat?

In Then She Found Me, Hunt plays an unassuming schoolteacher who finds out that she is the biological daughter of an abrasive talk show host (played by Midler) who placed her baby for adoption at birth. The pairing of Hunt with Midler as the unlikely mother-and-daughter combo is enough of a draw for me to buy a movie ticket for this one, but the story also seems interesting in that modern-day complicated twist sort of way. You see, Hunt's character is ending a relationship with a pretty annoying guy (Broderick) and beginning a relationship with a flawed but nice enough guy (Firth) who has a daughter enrolled at the school where Hunt's character teaches. Hunt's character learns that she is pregnant with her ex's baby, though she is still trying to see where her relationship will go with the new guy. Talk about dyke drama! Oh, wait — I don't think there are any lesbian characters in this; just lesbian icons. Well, anyway, here's the latest trailer:

Although Janet Jackson is suffering from the flu this week (get well soon, Janet!), she has to feel pretty dang good about her rise back to the top of the pop class. Yep, Janet Jackson is No. 1 again! Jackson's new album, Discipline, hit the shelves late last month and debuted at Billboard's top spot. Will it stay there? Who knows, maybe not, but what a nice turn of events for Jackson.

Though the reviews have been rather mixed, there is no question, based on the record sales alone, that the album holds some quality tracks, and the ones that have gotten airplay so far have been well received. Obviously, she has very loyal fans, as well, but she's always had those fans, and that fact alone didn't drive her last two releases to the top of the charts. Those two, Damita Jo and 20 Y.O., debuted at Billboard No. 2 but slid very quickly in the following weeks. This time around, the label pre-released several tracks. So, I'm going to give the album tracks some credit here.

Several of the more positive critical reviews have compared the feel of the CD to such Jackson classics as Control and The Velvet Rope, though I've read no review that suggest that this CD is as good as either of those. But, hey, the comparison is nice anyway, right? I've been rolling around listening to the CD on the Harman/Kardon, and I have found the album to be sexy, with the right blend of pop rhythms on some tracks, trance/dance rhythms on other tracks, fun lyrics when the music calls for it, and some lyrics much too sexual to blast from open car windows while sitting at a red light next to a car of church-going ladies. Oops ...

What's interesting is that this isn't simply an innocent little pop album. There are a few very provocative tracks on the album. Having said that, there are also several tracks that stand out as being what I enjoy most about pop music in general (the simplicity with nice beats) and Janet Jackson in particular (sexy with her blend of naughty and sweet).

Here's the thing: I'm just as likely to laugh at the clever brilliance of Oscar Wilde as I am at someone slipping on a banana peel. Of course, for the latter, there are caveats, like who is the someone, where is the banana peel and under what circumstance has that certain someone slipped. I'm admitting to my range of humor because this Sunday night, Rashida Jones' new show Unhitched, debuts on Fox. If all the caveats align with the appropriate constellations, I might even find the show funny. What I do know is that the show was not written by Oscar Wilde, but rather by the Farrelly brothers, of Something About Mary and Dumb and Dumber fame. See, there is the rub. Caveats may abound for this show.

Fox's synopsis of the show follows:

"Dating in your 20s is like going to the farmers' market — if you get there early, there's plenty of fruit, all ripe, juicy and yours for the taking. But dating in your 30s is like getting there at closing time. The remaining fruit has been sitting in the sun all day. It's been dropped, squeezed and handled by a thousand different people."

Well, OK, then. Now that we're clear on that, let's move on to the pilot, which airs Sunday at 9:30. We are encouraged to watch the four thirtysomething friends as they try to find love once again. One goes on a blind date. Kate starts dating an NBA player, and apparently another guy goes out on a date with the woman of his dreams. See, none of that sounds so bad, does it? But as they say, it's all in the execution.

Jones plays Kate, an attorney who has handled the various divorces of the other characters. Kate is supposedly the voice of reason on the show, so I may be spared from cringing into a ball of embarrassment or from watching the show through the thin openings in my fingers, which of course will be covering my eyes if the humor drops below middle-school level.

The roles seem to be piling up for Rashida Jones lately, and personally, I think the pile-up is a darn good thing. Since ending her stint on the popular American version of The Office, Jones has been hired for several parts in both film and television. The most recent job announcement came just this week. Jones is set to play opposite Paul Rudd in a romantic comedy from DreamWorks entitled I Love You, Man. Although it's billed as a romantic comedy, and in the film Jones and Rudd are engaged to be married, I was still a little thrown off by the "man" at the end of that title. But what the heck, it's from DreamWorks, and that's not chump change, right?

But it sounds like one of those male bonding movies. The early synopsis says it's about "a soon-to-be-married man who goes on a search to find a buddy to fill his empty best man spot." Hmm, yeah, OK. Whatever. I get it; it's another platonicomedy or platonomy (yes, I just made those up) between two straight men. They're all the rage these days. But forget about that at the moment and concentrate on Rashida Jones. I am.

Jones, the Harvard graduate and daughter of music guru Quincy Jones and actress Peggy Lipton, seems to be making steady headway in an on-screen career that poses barriers she has found difficult to break through. She has discussed more than once the challenges of being biracial in Hollywood: She is judged "too fair" for some roles and "too exotic" for others, and naturally, she finds it frustrating and irritating.

I've already confessed my love for dance movies, as well as the primary reason why I love them. It's the choreographed dance sequences. Ya dig? Well, surprise, surprise: I also enjoy videos featuring women doing their damn thing. Missy Elliott has been doing her damn thing for over 10 years, and her videos are almost always unique in one way or another.

Her latest is in 3-D. Girls? Bounce? Missy style? All that in 3-D? My, my, my. Two songs are given the 3-D treatment: "Ching-a-Ling" and "Shake Your Pom-Pom."

Take a look — here's the video, first in 2-D and then in 3-D for those of you who have a pair of specs handy.

I've always taken Sheryl Crow for granted. When I stumble across a song of hers while switching radio stations in my car, I always let the radio rest there on her voice. I sing along and enjoy her singles until either a commercial interrupts or some other song I don't like nearly as much comes on, prompting me to start the channel-changing game again. But that's it. I know all the lyrics to most of her more popular songs, but I've never owned a Sheryl Crow album. But that will change soon: Crow's new album, Detours, debuts on February 5, and with its release, I intend to change my ways.

Crow has the kind of voice and musical spirit that are homespun. You feel what she feels, and when it's good, it's good, and when she's down and blue, you're down and blue too, yet you listen anyway because the music draws you in. When she left Las Vegas, you did too, and when she says that every day is a winding road, you don't doubt her.

The first official single from Detours is "Love Is Free." The song is inspired by both the natural catastrophe and the human catastrophe of the lack of immediate federal response to Hurricane Katrina. "Love Is Free" sounds ready for radio, even though the subject matter may not be so top 40. Here's the video:

Not many of us even have idols anymore. And for those of us who do still respect our elders and their accomplishments and try to emulate all that is positive about our idols, we don't always get to meet them. And even if we do meet them, we don't usually get to honor them in any public way. And even if we do get to honor them in a public way, they don't come out of retirement to express their appreciation of our worship. So that's why the announcement that Beyoncé Knowles and Tina Turner will duet at the upcoming Grammy Awards presentation made me one "Proud Mary." Well, my name is not Mary, but I am proud. OK, not proud, but excited!

Beyoncé has made it clear that she grew up adoring Tina Turner. Here's her 2005 Kennedy Center tribute performance (please, feel free to ignore all political figures seated next to Tina):