Desperate times lead to desperate measures

Here're a couple of disturbing things that will give you pause before trolling the Internets (or watching CNN) ever again:

Yes, this is Scarlett Johansson, er, plugging, um, her new Woody Allen movie. You probably can't read the small print, but it completely disavows what you had on your smutty, smutty mind when you read the headline in the first place. It seems a bit of an extreme measure to try to coax young people into blowing off "Tropic Thunder" and "Pineapple Express" in favor of seeing a Woody Allen movie.

OK, let's recap: CNN couldn't be bothered to investigate the John Edwards sex-scandal rumors even though they turned out to be true, but they're devoting quality time to this tripe. You might expect this from Fox News, which throws lunacy like this out there in the hopes of it maybe having traction long after it has been roundly debunked (some folks still think Obama's a Muslim, after all; wouldn't that make him the Anti-Mohammad?), but you'd expect - what? discretion? common decency? - from CNN. What'll they cook up next about Obama for CNN to "debate?"

No idea what to make of this, a trailer for a movie, "An American Carol," which looks like a lame YouTube parody except that it has actual stars in it and is introduced by Bill O'Reilly. It's hard to tell if it's what it presents itself as being - a parody of the American Left - or if it's a meta-parody of the Red-State stereotype of the American Left, or if it's a meta-meta-parody of what the Blue States think the Red States think of the American Left, or ... well, you get the idea. What it isn't, by any measure, is funny.

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Geez, what a depressing way to wrap up the week. How can we salvage this? Oh, wait, I know - remember yesterday, when I complained that Fox still hadn't sent out a screener of "Fringe?" Well, guess what landed on my doorstop today!

("Fringe's" Phillip Broyles: good guy or bad guy? Discuss. You don't have to have seen the show to form an opinion; those who have seen it can't say for sure.)

Along with a note from series creators J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci that begins, "We're so thrilled that you liked the pilot of FRINGE, which you more than likely downloaded illegally." Ooops: Busted.

No, wait - the letter begins: "Dear Attractive, Intelligent, Funny TV Journalist," ... So they've mixed me up with someone else.

I would've groused about not getting a "My Own Worst Enemy" screener yet, but I'm not sure how much I want one.