4th Quadrant 10/08 '07

The Approval Matrix: Week of October 8, 2007

"The Hills"

"The Hills" is an MTV scripted drama documenting the life of Lauren Conrad and several of her affluent friends in Los Angeles, California after leaving home in Laguna Beach, California. There she spends her days balancing school and work while maintaining a steady social life. It is MTV's highest-rated television show to date. (Wikipedia)

Cast:

Lauren Conrad

Lauren spends her days in LA living with new best friend, Audrina, interning at Teen Vogue, and attending FIDM. Ex-boyfriend, Jason Wahler, came back into her life for some time, but then the two broke it off.

Audrina Patridge

Audrina first appeared as good friend and neighbor to Lauren and Heidi with an aspiration to become an actress, but works steady jobs between auditions. She now lives with Lauren and is in a steady relationship with Justin Berscia.

Whitney Port

Whitney began as Lauren's fellow intern at Teen Vogue, and much of her camera time takes place either around the office. She is older than Lauren and often lends an ear about growing up and dating, despite adjusting to life as a newly single socialite.

Heidi Montag

Heidi spends her days in LA working for the event-planning firm Bolthouse Productions. She once shared an apartment with Lauren, but eventually moved out to live with her boyfriend, Spencer Pratt, who later proposed to her.

Mystery

Mystery is considered by many to be the world’s greatest pick-up artist. He is an innovator in the seduction community, a main character in the non-fiction book "The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists" by [former New York Times reporter] Neil Strauss, and is featured in the VH1 reality television series "The Pick-up Artist." Mystery's contributions to the seduction community are collected and taught as the Venusian Arts by the company of the same name. (Wikipedia)

Mystery has been featured in the New York Times, The London Times, The Los Angeles Times, Marie Claire, Elle Magazine, and a variety of other publications and television shows.

"The Pick-up Artist" Preview

Milton Bradley

Milton Bradley will miss the rest of the year with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. He was injured when his own manager spun him to the ground while trying to keep him from going after umpire Mike Winters during an eighth-inning confrontation in Sunday's 7-3 loss to Colorado at Petco Park.

The commissioner's office said Monday it is investigating whether the volatile Bradley was baited by Winters. The Padres said Winters directed profanities at Bradley right before the blowup. (Sports Illustrated)

Bill O'Reilly (Racist)
Restaurant Reviewer?

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly says his review of famed Harlem restaurant Sylvia's is being taken out of context and was not racist.

On his September 19 radio show, O'Reilly said he took civil rights leader Al Sharpton to the Lenox Avenue fixture and "couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's Restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City." "I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship," he told listeners. "It was the same, and that's really what this society's all about now here in the U.S.A. There's no difference."

And later, speaking with National Public Radio correspondent and Fox analyst Juan Williams, O'Reilly said there "wasn't any kind of craziness at all" during his dinner with Sharpton: "There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, 'M.F.-er, I want more iced tea.' " "It was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense that people were sitting there and they were ordering and just having fun," he continued. (CNN)

Missy Elliot
Dorito's Spokeswoman