Thoroughly Thinspired

Eating disorders are making a comeback! Just when I thought the head cases of today relied on prescription pills, cocaine consumption and a steady stream of Ballerina Tee to stay thin, good ole’ anorexia and bulimia are popping up all over pop culture. How 90’s!

We were just talking about that Lifetime Original where the bulimic girl stores her vomit in Tupperware containers and stacks it in her closet. That visual is forever burned in our minds. Classic ’94 after-school special in the post-Tracey Gold days.

The 2007 resurgence started with last week’s episode of Nip/Tuck when Eden, the show’s newest Lolita, successfully convinces 12-year-old Annie that she has to become either anorexic or bulimic to gain the attention of her schoolboy crush.

They weighed their options—no pun intended—with a pro-eating disorder website and tried to decide which of their “good friends” to side with, “Ana or Emi.” Sadly, we came to discover that such websites actually do exist. But then again, of course they do.

But Nip/Tuck is always sick and twisted, so this didn’t surprise us much. But when Blair Waldorf had a bulimia montage on last night’s Thanksgiving episode of Gossip Girl we knew that eating disorder “it” status was solidified.

It comes as no surprise that Blair is, or was, a bulimic. Her fashion-designer/socialite mother is always saying things like “change into something enchanting” or “wear pearls with that,” her father is a fairy who ran off to Europe with a male model, and she has spent her life living in the shadows of her best friend S.

She’s a classic case. But controlling your weight does not add control to your life, B! Plus, no one ever got THAT thin using the binging and purging method anyway. Though I did enjoy watching her house that entire chicken potpie! That baby did not stand a chance.

In addition, I love that the word “thinspiration” has now been added to the lexicon.

Final Word: Thin is in! Confidence and perspective is so passé. Everyone knows that. Everyone does.

Something to Talk About: Gossip Girl

Yes, I may be 25-years-old. And yes, I do live in Manhattan and maintain a somewhat active social life. But that doesn’t mean I can’t long to live vicariously through scandalous Upper East Side prep school kids, does it?

I’m talking about Gossip Girl, the saucy new teenage drama that debuted last night on the CW. Brought to us by the people behind The O.C., creator Josh Schwartz has found another group of dreadfully good-looking, privileged, screwed-up teenagers to tap.

In the first episode alone we’ve already watched the main character getting busy with her best friend’s boyfriend, two 16-year-olds slamming martinis like a true addict at the Palace Hotel bar, pre-gaming with joints and champagne in the back of a limo, and as a cornerstone to televised teenage drama, a date-rape scene.

We especially love Blake Lively as main character Serena van der Woodsen, who has just returned from boarding school to reclaim her title as social queen bee and curb her hard partying ways (so far, not much luck with either). The actress achieves a perfect balance between the bitch you want to hate and the girl you want to be (well, if you were seventeen).

But we truly love the show because it’s real. Teenagers in this city are certainly like this, if not worse.

So now being in my mid (ouch!) twenties, we can posthumously thank Aaron Spelling for our addiction to all this adolescent angst-ridden glory. We’ve been hooked on this shit since we were ten, do you honest believe we’re going to give it up now? I would call it a guilty pleasure, but I don’t even feel guilty about it.

Final Word: Gossip Girl, every Wednesday at 9pm on the CW11.

It-Boy of The Week: Kanye West

We’ve been enormous Kanye West fans since basically the moment “College Dropout” dropped. It served as the soundtrack to our last semester of college and it will forever be synonymous with being complete f-ups and having a great time. We can easily recite every word of that album and pull it off without a hitch.

While we’ve personally approached his later albums with less devotional zeal, he continues to out-do himself and we continue to love it.

Now that his third album “Graduation” has debuted not only at #1, but is also the top selling album of the year thus far (take that, Fiddy), Kanye is riding high. Not to mention his debut single, “Stronger” just topped the singles charts for a double whammy. Bawler.

While we don’t necessarily agree with his September 11th marketing ploy (while promoting the album in New York), we still support our boy. And since we’re never officially endorsed him, now seems like a better time than ever.

Final Word: You may have been robbed at the VMAs, but look on the brightside. You’re a Blackberrie “It-Boy of The Week,” you can brag about that.

Moutains out of Mole Hills

The last time I wrote about The Hills I covered the series premier. I called Lauren Conrad "the Kelly Taylor to Kristin Cavallari's beautifully bitchy Brenda Walsh," and predicted that LC was far too boring to carry a spin-off of her own.

Clearly, I was dead wrong.

The Hills have swept the nation, myself included. And as the third season premiered earlier this evening, LC, Heidi, and even that pig Spencer have become household names (in large part to their self-driven media debacles, but that's beside the point).

In watching the first two episodes, several variables have changed:

Lauren has discovered booze, Heidi has discovered cocaine, and the entire cast have apparently discovered that there are cameras documenting their every move (we're not exactly sure what took them so long).

The result can be described in one word: awkward. In watching these episodes my feelings of discomfort nearly rivaled the overwhelming sense of physical disgust that I am subjected to each time I'm forced to look at Spencer.

Final Word: I hated it. But I'll still tune in every Monday at 10pm, or at least my TiVo will. My guilty pleasure just got slightly less pleasurable. But then again, was it ever?