Quote of the Week

“Whoa! Whoooooa! What time is it? Is this morning? Geeeez.”
—Actor Sean William Scott, sitting in as Kelly Ripa’s guest co-host on “Live With Regis and Kelly” Aug. 7, while watching a bikinied audience member shadow-dance behind the summer travel trivia game screen.

Boob Tubing

The Insider had much the same reaction to Oscar-winning “American Idol” alumna Jennifer Hudson’s low-cut frocks as she made the morning-show rounds recently to promote her first album.

She’s a stunning young woman with a goosebump-inducing voice. She has very full breasts. She tends to choose dresses that can barely contain them.

But on “Good Morning America” one day and on “Live” the next, Miss Hudson wore identically cut dresses that displayed more cleavage than Pamela Anderson did in a latex-tight white dress on her most recent visit to “Late Show With David Letterman.”

At the risk of sounding like an old fuddy-duddy or a dried-up prune, The Insider once again wishes aloud that folks appearing on TV would dress appropriately for the occasion, the setting, the hour, the audience, the assignment and their age.

End of discussion … until the next time Kathie Me Gifford does yoga in a skin-tight, loooow-cut black dress, loops of big pearls and high heels during the fourth hour of “Today.”

‘Dog’ Days and Big Balls

Friends who disdain The Insider’s addiction to “Big Brother”—one pal e-mailed that he no longer is embarrassed by his jones for boiled peanuts—are really scratching their heads over her faithful watching and proselytizing on behalf of ABC’s “Wipeout” and CBS’ “Greatest American Dog.”

It’s easy enough to explain the affection for “Dog,” which is a hilariously blatant homage to “Project Runway,” with host Jarod Miller ripping off “On my ‘go’!” from “Survivor’s” Jeff Probst. It has judges who rarely seem to have watched the same performances the audience has. It has owners who, of course, redefine “neurotic,” but the pleasantest surprise has been the number of very likable (as opposed to outrageous) humans.

But mostly, it has the dogs, who are pure love poppets on four feet, and producers who have done a great job of editing in the dogs’ faces and evocative expressions at the right moments.
“Wipeout” remains harder to explain.

It’s not The Insider’s kind of show. At least it wasn’t until she laughed out loud nonstop throughout the first installment and immediately set her DVR to record it every week. That instruction will remain on the DVR because ABC announced last week that it will be back next summer.

Perhaps The Insider might have laughed at the Three Stooges or Laurel & Hardy if their chaotic comedy were juxtaposed with the same sort of droll and dry running commentary delivered on “Wipeout” by ESPN’s John Anderson and “Talk Soup”er John Henson, who were enamored of the big red balls that produced some truly unpredictable, if inevitable, spills.

But perhaps in next summer’s finale, there could be one “Wipey” for the most impressive win of the season.

Those contestants certainly earned it.