Once a year the U.S. pauses and takes stock of the important role that the administrative assistant holds in our businesses. Their tireless and often thankless efforts are what really gets things done in this capitalist world. So in honor of them, I thought I'd take a moment to recognize this day by looking at a few of our favorite paper-pushing women in television and film:

Pam Beesly, The Office

Photo credit: Mitchell Haaseth/NBC

Who wouldn't want to have someone like Pam Beesley (Jenna Fischer) working in his or her office? Pam is an adorable, cute-as-a-button receptionist with a high tolerance for her boss's awkward comments. I can only imagine all the work that I wouldn't get done trying to impress her with my office prank suggestions. … continue reading

Who you calling unfunny? Vanity Fair took its sweet time, but after more than a year of letting the anvil of an essay “Why Women Aren’t Funny” weigh down the discourse, the magazine finally issued its own rebuttal with its April cover story, “Who Says Women Aren't Funny?” And to prove that point, it assembled some of the most sparkling female wits for a photoshoot with famed photographer Annie Leibovitz.

Yes, Amy Poehler appears to be grabbing Tina Fey’s boob. You really can’t argue with comedy genius like that. Answering the call to funny alongside them were Sandra Bernhard, Susie Essman, Jenna Fischer, Chelsea Handler, Leslie Mann, Maya Rudolph, Amy Sedaris, Sarah Silverman, Wanda Sykes and Kristen Wiig. I’m going to need a moment to soak in all this concentrated hilarious. Seriously, my sides are starting to hurt from phantom laughter just looking at them.

In response to (resisting the urge to use a profane adjective) columnist Christopher Hitchens’ decidedly unfunny article about why women are the unfunnier sex, New York Times TV critic Alessandra Stanley has penned a footnote-worthy essay that touches on everything from English novelist George Meredith to Virginia Woolf to tribes in Papua New Guinea. To which I say, sure, but where do the rubber chickens fit in? … continue reading

I'm a geek worshipper. It's really a form of positive self-esteem, since I am kind of a geek myself. I always love to find women in entertainment who seem to be geeks, not only in the characters they play, but also in real life. GeekSugar.com shares that sentiment and has kicked off a poll of the most popular female geeks of 2007.

First candidate: Mary Lynn Rajskub, Chloe O'Brian on 24.

The pictures are from her spread in Geek Monthly earlier this year. Although Chloe is an übergeek on 24, always able to hack into secret data just in time to save Jack's life, Rajskub herself is not too technically savvy. But in my opinion, she has geek cred because she does things like appear as a troubadour on Gilmore Girls and volunteer for the Young Storytellers Program. I do have one geekish issue with Chloe & company, though. Are we really supposed to believe that a government agency is smart enough to use Macs? … continue reading

Alyssa Milano blogs about baseball.

Margaret Cho vlogs her Sensuous Woman tour and photo blogs getting tattoos.

Pamela Anderson uses her blog to assure us that she's a good mom.

Those are just three of the big-name bloggers on Celebrity Cowboy's list, "66 Celebrities that Blog." Why would people who hire publicists to manage their messages take up blogging? Well, let's see. … continue reading

by scribegrrrl

The new issues of Wired and Geek are rather eye-popping, in different yet equally great and geeky ways.

Geek features Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chloe on 24), holding a bomb and serving up a killer stare.

And there are more yummy pictures inside. There's also a "24 hours with Mary Lynn" sidebar that describes her average day. It includes these choice time slots:

9:02-10:02 [After Work Activities]: I hang out. Maybe go to Subway.
2:06-2:40 a.m. [Wake with Night Terrors] You know those foam mattresses? They don't tell you when you buy them, but they can make you really sweaty so I'll sometimes wake up with night terrors.

Hee.

Wired features Jenna Fischer naked. Well, not quite. There's an overlay (like a sheet of plastic film with clothes printed on it), and when you lift that, she's "naked" but holding a strategically placed sign that describes the new concept of "radical transparency."

Just Jared has the mind-numbing details. Is it really her body? Is the "bad photoshopping" intentional? I just think she looks sort of uncomfortable, but I'm happy to see Jenna Fischer anywhere, anytime.

One other interesting point: Both covers are pink. I'm not sure geeky girls wear pink all that often, really, but it makes for a nice study in contrasts. Maybe pink is the new geek.