Dueling Divas & an Entourage

Last night I checked out Lindsay Lohan's latest effort "Labor Pains" on ABC Family and caught the second ep of Lifetime's "Drop Dead Diva." I'd already caught the pilot of Drop Dead (courtesy of my handy DVR) earlier that day and enjoyed the initial run. It was lighthearted, sweet and sappy but also full of personality and punch. To be sure that it wasn't a fluke, I thought I'd give it a second look before actually commenting to the reading audience.

Of course the premise in this one was nothing new to behold (two women die at the same time, one's soul enters the other's body and returns to earth as a "fish out of water" blah, blah, blah). The difference in this telling, however, is the appeal of the show's lead (Brooke Elliott) who does a great job at convincing us that she's someone else who just happens to inhabit the stranger Jane's body. She's both shallow and sensitive and despite a physical appearance that some might label less attractive (i.e. she's overweight, barely over 5 feet and not blonde), you begin to buy that she was once an up and coming model as she struts around with as much sass and sex appeal as the Size 4 version of her alter ego Deb (portrayed by Brooke D'Orsay). I'm happy to say that on a second pass this show didn't disappoint. Be sure to add this to your list of summer's guilty pleasures.

With LiLo returning to the small screen (and the family friendly programming of ABC where she began her climb to stardom), I thought I'd check out her flick as well. I wish I could say that Labor was as enjoyable as Diva and that while it also had a formulaic (if not trite) plot that it still delivered. But unfortunately I can't. This pic was lacking in any pizzazz. Which is a shame considering what a plethora of magnificent talent appeared in the flick. Aside from LiLo, the pic starred a charming Cheryl Hines, the always funny Chris Parnell and cameos by some fine comedic personalities including Janeane Garofalo ("Truth about Cats & Dogs"), Willie Garson ("Sex and the City") Creed Bratton ("The Office"), Jay Thomas ("Murphy Brown"), Ana Ortiz ("Ugly Betty") and Tracee Ellis Ross ("Girlfriends"). But at the end of the day it was just another story about an ill-hatched plan (an employee lies about being pregnant to keep from being fired) that must be kept secret yet somehow goes on longer than intended and thus (ideally) hilarity ensues. Aside from not being plausible (In this job market can anyone really afford to come to work late every day when there are people lined up to take your job? And in what universe do landlords let you continually pay your rent late?), it just wasn't very funny. This was supposed to be a comedy and I honestly never found myself even remotely amused. Which is a shame when you consider what could have been accomplished by this cast if the material given to them had been worth a hill of beans.

So when both programs rerun this week (as they inevitably do with these cable channels as they like to get their $$'s worth) – skip the Pains and check out the Diva instead.

One last note about last night's programming is about HBO's "Entourage." Last week I wagged my finger at the fellas and suggested that the season opener was a bit of a snore. After last night's ep I wish all the more that they had chosen to kick off the season with Vinnie's movie premiere instead of the ep they chose. Last night's ep was everything the fans love about this show – sexy, funny, sweet and full of movements that made us go "Man, what's happening next week?!" I'll forgive last week's fumble because I know if history teaches us anything, it's that the boys are only going to get better. Til' later…

Drop Dead Diva airs Sundays at 9p ET/PT on Lifetime.
Entourage airs Sundays at 10:30p ET/PT on HBO.