WHO INVITED MAYA RUDOLPH'S IMPERSONATION OF DONATELLA VERSACE INTO MY ENTOURAGE? Just a lousy episode from our four friends from Queens, and they sold the house why? Moreover, didn't the preview for the next episode just completely spoil the resolution of the non-cliffhanger?

IN WHICH KEITH MARS LEADS A LIFE OF QUIET DESPERATION: A thought spurred by tonight's season finale of Desperate Housewives and this week's cancellation of Veronica Mars. In spite of the two shows being polar opposites in terms of ratings success, don't they show one critical thing in common? Both had incredibly clear narrative arcs for their first seasons (in fact, Veronica was originally developed as a novel about Veronica investigating the murder of Lily Kane), and neither really seemed to expect getting renewed for subsequent seasons. In both cases, after a second season considered to be disappointing, the third season brought substantial creative changes (Veronica's change to mini-arcs and stand alone episodes rather than a season-long mystery, Housewives doing the same, with the Orson mystery resolving early and turning into mini-arcs and standalones later in the season). So, to fix Housewives, do we need to do something radical like bump everything ahead 4 or 5 years, or can it be fixed?

Edited: I hadn't finished watching the finale when I wrote this post. Given that one of my gripes about this season was how much prominence was given to one character (apparently in an effort to substitute/make up for the absence of Bree while Marcia Cross was on maternity leave), the season-ending cliffhanger certainly seemed to resolve that problem.

THE CAT CAME BACK THE VERY NEXT DAY: So You Think You Can Dance returns for its third lyrical hippity-hoppity Dan-Karaty-ridiculous-saying season on Thursday just in time to help America ease gently out of AI withdrawal.

Who's with me?

(Oh, and by the way, if ever there were a show that should feel a need to send me swag for my nonstop pimping, is there any question that SYTYCD would be that show?)

DON'T EXPECT HAPPINESS: And the Sopranos go about as full circle as a show can. Back to the pool. Back to Livia. Back to "poor you". There's a part of me that believes the series could have ended with this episode, and am intrigued whether they're going to push certain insights further.

I don't want to spoil things, and am v. interested to see what smarter scribes than I have to say.

e.t.a.: Sepinwall: "Meadow had her chance to get off the bus for good, but instead she's inching towards a lifetime bus pass. Carmela had two chances -- first when that elderly shrink told her to leave Tony, then when she actually threw him out -- and both times she couldn't do it. Vito drove home to his own death, so great was the pull of his old life. Adriana couldn't leave Christopher and died because of him. Chris in turn couldn't leave Tony, and now he's gone to Hell for him."

Selling out is so 20th century at Pandagon

AIN'T SINGIN' FOR PEPSI, AIN'T SINGIN' FOR COKE: Pandagon's Amanda ("No Relation") Marcotte has a wise post on why grunge-era qualms about bands "selling out" are totally L-Seven these days:

If you’ve ever bought through Ticketmaster, you’ll know that the fees are so out of control, they will double the ticket price for expensive shows and triple it for cheaper ones, causing me at least to vow that I’d sooner slit my wrists than buy through them again. So when file-sharing came onto the scene, it was contextualized as a blow by fans against a predatory music industry. The pushback from the industry that involved attempts to arrest 12-year-olds and old ladies and to interfere with college campuses to get them to spy on their students using internet, especially with the empty complaints about supporting artists (who barely see a fraction of the money earned through these out-of-control prices) only confirmed this opinion.

In this kind of environment, the idea that a musician who works at all with a major label or sells a CD through a store like Tower or had concerts with middleman ticket sellers who charge exorbiant fees could somehow remain pure from “selling out” by refusing money to have her music in commercials became utterly silly....

FWIW, I'm intrigued by the economics of Free Ozzfest this summer; could be a total disaster for the bands, but could be brilliant.

Culture Snob | Movies: Etc. | The Misunderstood Blog-a-thon: Now Through May 20

OCEAN'S TWELVE WAS JUST A SOUL WHOSE INTENTIONS WERE GOOD: The Culture Snob is hosting "The Misunderstood Blog-A-Thon" this week, featuring essays from around the cultural blogosphere on the missed brilliance of films like Gremlins and Albert Brooks' Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, to which I'd add my 2003 essay on how all Paul Verhoeven films are actual comedies.

DECIDEDLY NOT PALAVER: On Friday, ESPN's Dan Patrick interviewed five-time National Spelling Bee finalist Samir Patel on the radio. (ESPN Insider req'd?)

In other coverage of Shonda's favorites, Arizona's Jonathan Horton ("He whispers into his right clenched fist as if there may be a person in there who needs to hear the spelling of a word before anyone else. He's MAD, MAD, MAD SKILLED and I love him") is about to hit the NYC media circuit, and is talking the kind of smack that only a top-notch speller can:

“I think this is the best chance I’ve had so far,” Jonathan said. “I also have an extremely good chance that I won’t win.”

Four-timer Matthew C. Evans has already won the Reader's Digest Word Power Challenge, so the Bee is just icing on the gravy for him.

Also, an invitation: if you've competed in the National Spelling Bee or otherwise have a really good reason why you might be helpful to our live Bee blogging this year, email me and let me know.