COME ON! This week's EW is the annual "Must List Issue," which, sadly, indicates that the worst issue of the year, the "Photo Issue," is in the near future. One of the more interesting tidbits in the issue comes in the profile of Rainn Wilson, which reveals that he was a finalist for the role of GOB on Arrested Development. That's one of those casting concepts that's so close to being right that it's painfully wrong. Wilson's GOB would have probably been creepy and leering without the endearing overgrown manchild edge that Will Arnett brought to the part.

In other Office news, Jenna Fischer played on Celebrity Poker Showdown this week, and the most interesting tidbit is even though their on-screen characters are less than the best of friends, Angela Kinsey is a good friend off-screen and came down to New Orleans to provide support. (Also, bring back Phil Gordon. Phil Hellmuth may be a better poker player, but his rapport with Dave is lacking.)

ALWAYS A BABY TO ME... Sorry that Mrs. Earthling, the Little Earthling and I missed this. But now you are on notice: Baby Loves Disco - coming to an urban hot-spot near you.

IF YOU'RE GOING TO BUILD A TIME MACHINE INTO A CAR, WHY NOT DO IT IN SOME STYLE? Something spurred by seeing the trailer for Monster House for the umpteenth time last night. Is there another filmmaker currently working who's been more of a disappointment in recent years than Robert Zemeckis? The 1984-1997 filmography is pretty darn excellent (Romancing The Stone, three Back To The Future movies, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump (which can certainly be criticized, but could have, in lesser hands, been completely intolerable--cf. I Am Sam), and Contact), with only one big miss (Death Becomes Her). Since then, we've had "give me an Oscar again!" (Cast Away), an incomprehensible ghost story (What Lies Beneath), and pretty without plot (The Polar Express). So, what went wrong and can Zemeckis fix it with his upcoming credits (a "performance capture" version of Beowulf and a film version of Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections)?

SOMEONE'S GOT IT IN FOR ME, THEY'RE PLANTING STORIES IN THE PRESS: If we're going to reference Jacko once this week, ma nishtana ha'laila hazeh, apparently we're going to have to do it twice. He's apparently going to be appearing with Bob Dylan at a concert in Ireland this weekend, which begs the question: and what should they be singing?

IT'S THOSE GOSH-DARNED PROVINCIAL NEW YORKERS AGAIN: I find it funny that Robert Duvall is being cited as an authority on the authenticity of Deadwood and The Sopranos, apparently based on the facts that he (a) summered in Montana as a child and (b) appeared in the Godfather movies. This strikes me as remarkably similar to the "Are you a doctor? No, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night!" line of commercials.

EULOGY BY REV. CAMDEN: Aaron Spelling has died. There is much to be said about his lengthy filmography, which includes TV classics like The Mod Squad, SWAT, Starsky & Hutch, Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat, Dynasty, Melrose Place, 90210, and 7th Heaven. How will you remember Spelling, who, for better or for worse, has left an indelible stamp on television?

IT'S A FINE LINE BETWEEN CLEVER AND STUPID: In our recent discussions about turnoffs in online personal ads there appeared to be a consensus that listing a book or film that was "mawkishly sentimental" in an online personal was a major negative. I suppose that at the various ends of the spectrum we can all agree about what is and isn't mawkishly sentimental. But where do you draw the line? For me, the easiest way to express the difference is to compare pre-1980 Stevie Wonder to his songs since then. The former are almost without exception sublime. The latter are, well, mawkish. So where do you draw the line?