First of all, let's just take a second to celebrate the fact that Parks and Recreation is back in all its hilarity. And now, let's talk about the fact that Amy Poehler needs some serious style Rx from her TV persona*, and it occurred to me during the season 6 premiere. Amy Poehler has gone on record saying that Leslie Knope has been her favorite character to play, so it's not out of the question that she could gain some influence from more than just her fictional personality. Plus, Amy's the best, and her public appearance outfits should match. It's not asking a ton, it's not like Leslie Knope is Blair Waldorf or anything.

In the first episode of the season, Leslie attends an awards gala where she wears a form fitting short sleeved dress with figure flattering green detailing along the side, a la celeb fave Stella McCartney (editor's note: turns out the dress she wears on screen is also Stella. We'll suspend disbelief based on price and the fact that Leslie would not be able to afford this in Pawnee world.). You can see a more unflattering paparazzi shot of said dress above. Poehler looks great as Leslie in this episode wearing it with a small, long-strapped bag. After seeing herself in this success of an outfit, I wonder where she even got the idea that her Emmy dress this year (also above, right) was in any way okay. It was weird and ill fitting and it made me sad.

Amy doesn't always get it totally wrong when it comes to red carpets, though.

Okay, I know it's cheesy, but I love themed food and desserts. If I had unlimited budget and time, tonight's Breaking Bad finale watch party would be stocked with food and sweets that represent the many food-translatable events throughout the series. Because I only had the time to make one thing, I decided to go with the obvious: blue "meth" no-bake cake batter truffles, which I found here after much searching for something a little different. Normally such a niche item would seem weird to post, especially with the show ending, but sans food coloring (or with a different color), these truffles are a great traditional dessert alternative. Use chocolate cake or yellow cake (or funfetti!) and add nuts, chocolate chips--clearly, these are easy to alter. I had to make a few adjustments to the original recipe on these specific ones, but now I feel officially ready for a successful viewing. How bittersweet (get it?).

cake batter truffles
makes about 30 truffles

for the truffles
1 1/2 cups white flour
1 cup white cake mix (I used Betty Crocker)
½ cup unsalted butter, softened (do not melt)
1/2 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
3-4 Tablespoons whole milk
8 drops blue food coloring to start, more or less to desired blue-ness2 Tablespoons blue sugar crystal sprinkles, chocolate chips, nuts, or anything else you want to add to the dough (I did not use these)

for the coating
16 ounces (8 squares) vanilla almond bark (if you want to use food coloring to dye coating, use white chocolate instead. Almond bark does not accept dye!)
4 Tablespoons white cake mix
A handful of blue sprinkles or sanding sugar* (or any other topping you want!)

Last week, new-ish lifestyle site Bustle.com published an article campaigning Fox to stop cluttering our favorite girl-centric comedies with guest stars, and let their female talent shine in its simplicity. While I appreciate article author Samantha Rullo's motivation for the article, when I saw the article's headline in passing, I felt very defensive of two of my must-watch shows from a production decision standpoint. After stewing on the headline and reading and re-reading the article, I felt that I needed to write my thoughts, as if my desperation to offer an opposing point of view on this "issue" would make the negative thoughts toward "my shows" no longer exist. 

I don't think the New Girl and The Mindy Project showrunners are undermining their permanent talent, that's like accusing them of not being confident in their product. I think they're actually doing a lot right by hiring exciting guests; they're pleasant additions to something that's already good.
Guest stars are rarely female: And if they are, they are on very few episodes, sometimes not even consecutively. I imagine they do this in an effort to keep female focus on the leading lady of the shows. So basically, guests are chosen thoughtfully so as not to take any of the shine off of the genius acting and comedy of the real star.
Guest stars are very temporary: Guest star arcs, especially the very famous appearances, usually last one or two episodes (unless they serve a plot point and are important for story development, like Casey on Mindy or Elizabeth on New Girl (she has nothing to do with the Jess character anyway)). To me, this sends a message to the viewers that they get an exciting treat every once in a while, but not for long because, duh, the show belongs to the main cast! They're just keeping things interesting!
Guest stars are created and written to complement the main female and ensemble: Guest spots are carefully planned and written around the plot and permanent characters. The writing staff is not going to do anything to jeopardize the show's dynamic. In my opinion, the presence of an "outside" character brings freshness to the "situations" that is part of the genre of comedy. It also brings in a new angle for the core cast to play off of one another and sort of band together opposite this new presence and reiterate their chemistry. A guest character is just another plot point that lets the main ensemble get into their normal shenanigans, it just happens to be a new face rather than just an event.
Connections: Especially on Mindy, Mindy the real life human has lots of friends in very high places, so it makes sense for her to want to do her thing with them on the show that's named after her. It's like getting your best friends invited to your VIP party, only all of America is watching. Wouldn't you do that, too? I also imagine that celebrity publicists work very hard to get their clients in guest starring roles on popular shows that feature high profile talent, much like Friends did over its run. When the particular client is right, it seems like it would make sense for the people behind the shows to jump at the opportunity.
Finally, boring business and publicity reasons: I can't say this for sure because I'm just a lowly outsider, but people use celebrity presence to gain traction in an endeavor. Touting James Franco, Seth Meyers, Ellie Kemper, BJ Novak, Taylor Swift, etc etc etc on your show for an episode or two adds momentum to marketing and gains interest in tuning in and (hopefully) getting you hooked for good. Network television's business model and ratings system is floundering in this new age of cable TV success and internet binge-watching vehicles. They compete in time slots against a lot of TV noise, so any tactic they can use to get people to watch their show during their time slot should be employed. It might not be anti-feminist and undermining the permanent talent after all! It might just be about the money. Or at least partly about the money.
ALSO, let's not forget the New Girl beginnings which had Zooey Deschanel in the spotlight and the roommates as inconsequential supporters. This show was not nearly as good. Ensembles are great! It lets the viewer choose a favorite character instead of the show runners choosing for you. Change can be good!

what it is: Essie "Matte About You" matte-maker top coat
why I love it: If you couldn't tell, I really like to have a lot of nail painting options. Matte nails are really a come and go trend, but it's a good way to mix up nail looks. I'm not a big fan of investing in actual matte nail polish, but this top coat gives the look to any normal nail polish for an instant nail update. The matte effect looks especially cool on darker polishes, where you can really notice it and can tell anti-shine is the desired result, and now that it's fall, this is the perfect time for those colors and any variations you might want to add to them.
where to get it: Ulta.com, $10
-E

what it is: J.Crew Matte Crepe Drawstring Pant
why I love it: It's no secret that I love some good irony in my fashion choices, and it's easy to write these off as "too casual" or "not worth the money," but once I saw them in person, I knew that was not the case. The J.Crew-ification of these athletic-inspired pants amps up the quality of the look of these, making them fancy sweats, the best of fashion irony. I saw them in the "vintage mahogany" color, which is the perfect feminine neutral-ish that offsets the sporty influence of the pants. I love these with pumps, as seen in J.Crew's photo, with a blazer and a statement necklace. Like this, they're convincing enough as trousers to take you to work. With some cool sneakers and a feminine top and long necklace, they would be great for evening. Throw them on with smoking slippers and a fancy sweatshirt or cool baseball jacket with a scarf and you've got an easy fall brunch outfit. I mean, winter is coming, so who wouldn't want to live in these in as many situations as possible? They're passable sweats, which makes them officially a must-have.
where to get it: J.Crew, $138
-E

Milan has been my favorite city of fashion week so far. The deep traditions and old fashion houses really showed why they hold the reputations they do, and the beautiful shows filled with so many looks were a lot of fun to look through. So many designers in Milan really struck a balance between fun, originality and sophistication, it was really brilliant. What we saw was very different from what walked in London and New York, making Milan-unique trends while showing red-carpet bait dresses and gowns and mastering ready to wear. As in, I would like them for my closet now. Check out Style.com, TheCut.com and Vogue.com for in-depth analyses of the week. Meanwhile, I had a lot of favorite collections to note from this week.

Onto Paris!
-E

Thank goodness there are other award shows that recognize TV during the year, because this year's Emmys were a giant cringe-inducing disappointment. From the production and direction of the show to the winners, everybody involved lost. It grew painful, and I kept watching hoping that skipping a live viewing of Breaking Bad was the right choice. I can just watch it later, right? Well, I wish I had switched over because the filler hour was painful and unnecessary and I'm sad I have to wait a year for the next one because I want a do-over (or as the 30 Rock writers would call it, a respawn). I guess that's what I get for going in with expectations.
 

After a day of letting Sunday night's events settle, I still get angry thinking about the whole ordeal. This year was arguably the most stacked Emmy awards in history, it was anyone's game because so many shows deserved the win, but instead we walked away feeling depressed and sorry for our favorite shows. In short, it was a disaster, starting with the "really?!" (with Seth and Amy) winners. Like I said, this year's awards could have gone to any number of nominees. TV is having a great moment, and the prospect of just one winner was so frustrating with so many deserving of the award(s). And I know there isn't technically a wrong winner, but so many important categories resulted in the award going to someone who seemed just subpar to many other nominees. The night is about the awards, so everything else bad aside, at least those should have gone right. Yelling at the TV happened. 
actor in a drama series: I think this might be my biggest gripe from the night. Did people just not vote on this category? Literally any other nominee besides Jeff Daniels deserved this one. Sure, Bryan Cranston has won three times (deservedly), but Jon Hamm has never won, and this season was one of his darkest, really any of the nominees are on shows that are almost universally acclaimed. The only way I can think this happened was that everyone was split between the four frontrunners and the votes reflected that. The worst.
outstanding comedy series: Modern Family. Really? Okay, at least it didn't go to Big Bang Theory, but Veep! 30 Rock! Louie! Genius in comedy writing seemed to go unrecognized in favor of the multi-time winner that has since gone rather stale.
supporting actor in a drama series: I kind of forgot about Boardwalk Empire before I saw the nominees for this category. I mean, come on, actors from arguably the four best dramas on TV were nominated in this category. Scary Mike! Paternal Saul! Lovable Jesse Pinkman! HOW did the Boardwalk Empire actor walk away with this one?
actor in a comedy: Sure, Jim Parsons is all endearing and such, but why does he keep winning? Talk about stale comedy, and the competitors? It was the last year for 30 Rock and all the rest are part of much more novel shows and writing.
writing for a drama series: Okay, so Homeland's "Q&A" had one of the best scenes in TV history, so it's not entirely undeserved. But when competing against two Breaking Bad episodes and THE episode of Game of Thrones, it seems that the writing award should have gone for consistency, no matter how good that scene was.
outstanding choreography: I might be the only one who cares about this, but based one the production values of the competing shows and the quality of the choreography and execution and the sheer ratio of nominees, it's extremely annoying that So You Think You Can Dance wasn't recognized for how good it is. Dancing With The Stars? Psh. Voters must be voting based on show popularity.

The lows of the night don't end there, though, and I guess there were some good parts of the night.

Everything feels right in the world now that awards season has finally officially begun. In keeping with recent years' trends, the carpet was honestly kind of a snoozefest, but that doesn't mean the looks can't be broken down into very specific categories and analyzed. What else are red carpets for, anyway? For all the looks at the 2013 Emmys, TheCut.com, People.com, EW.com, THR and the NYDN are just a few places that have great red carpet roundups. 

best

worst.

The Emmys are this weekend, and I've been excited since.....probably March. The awards season opener celebrates the best in TV. I've pretty much had to tell myself I can't write about them until today, so happy Friday! Not only do I watch pretty much every show nominated which makes the awards part actually interesting, the show signifies the start of red carpet season! I'm not going to pretend to know enough to predict who and what our favorite TV celebs will wear, nor will I pretend that I can separate who I want to win or think should win from who might actually win. Instead, due to the amount of beautiful gowns that have walked the runway at spring 2014 fashion week, I'll talk about what I think would be cool to see based on what we've been given so far this fashion month*. I'm not going to go through every nominee or TV favorite, but there were certain dresses that just screamed or hinted that some of the guaranteed attendees should probably take my advice. Sure, red carpet surprises are always exciting, but guessing never ceases to be fun.
-E

*Not nearly an exhaustive list, obviously. Too many dresses, too many actors...in a great way.

Tonight, the New York City ballet has its annual fall gala where all the fabulous people come out to celebrate and hobnob with other fabulouses in beautiful gowns and dashing tuxes and it's all very pretty and high society. This year's ballet celebrates Black Swan choreographer's (and Natalie Portman's husband) Benjamin Millepied and his unnamed ballet. As in recent years, the company went the collaboration route to dress the dancers, and this year they chose couturier Iris Van Herpen who created a plastic design that moves and reflects light differently at all angles. She worked with an architect to bring the unique and innovative look to life, resulting in what is surely one of the most fascinating fashion innovations in recent years. I'm not going to say I'm not extremely jealous of the chosen people who get to see these in movement on stage tonight.
-E

via: The Cut