Recently in The City Category

Ever wonder what Whitney Port's favorite movies of all time are? Well, good news! She just posted a comprehensible list of flicks on her blog, and needless to say, it's exactly what one would expect from a fledgling designer in New York City's gritty and hip fashion scene. Teen Witch is practically a prerequisite to gain entry to Bryant Park, right?

For those dying of curiosity, check out the full list -- as well as an astute preamble by Whitney herself -- here.

I am crying right now. CRYING. Not literally. Just on the inside. That's because the last episode of The City aired last night, and while I hope it was merely a season finale, a part of me fears it could be a series finale. Why? Well, first off -- Kelly Cutrone is getting her own reality show on Bravo, and that certainly doesn't bode well. Not sure NBC Universal and Viacom will be willing to share her. Second, I seem to remember hearing that the ratings for The City haven't been stellar. I may be wrong on that front, and since I'm chronically lazy, I'm not going to look it up. Nevertheless, I certainly hope MTV gives us another installment of this wonderful show (with Kelly Cutrone) because it is a gem. A GEM I tell you.

Kelly Cutrone was on a morning show today to talk about The City when a certain four letter word that rhymes with DUCK tumbled out of her mouth. Needless to say, the anchors were somewhat dismayed -- even if the rest of America is probably giggling with glee. Check it out in the video above.

Found via:

The Dish Rag: 'Kell on Earth' Kelly Cutrone drops the F bomb on live TV. Hosts are not amused

We have a stalker report. One of this blog's readers sent in this email today:

Subject: Erin Kaplan sighting!

Tiny, tan, very blond (looks bottle), cell phone, 4 inch heels and really pretty in person. I'd recognize that voice anywhere.

She was getting coffee at Illy on 49th and 8th avenue. :)

I wanted to tell her how sorry I was she had to work with Olivia and take a picture but I let her be in peace.

(like a good New Yorker)

So there you have it. Well stalked!

It's Wednesday afternoon, which means it's time for me to once again praise the TV gods for delivering me yet another delightful episode of The City. This show is fast becoming one of my favorites of the year, and I'm not ashamed to say so. The mix of simmering female tensions, career ambitions, and late night socializing makes for great TV. If I sound like I'm overhyping the show (or perhaps giving it more credit than it deserves), then, well, YOU'RE WRONG. Don't judge a book by its cover, and don't judge a spinoff by its originator (in this case, The Hills).

This week's episode found Whitney and Roxy engaging in a bit more boy drama than usual. Normally I'd be loathe to watch such silliness as the meat and potatoes of this series is the workplace, but I must credit the producers who have wisely kept the romantic high jinks at a palatable level; thus allowing such diversions as the Fackelmeyer fracas to come and go without wearing out their welcome. Nevertheless, the bulk of last night's episode pertained to Roxy and Whitney's boy adventures, and no, that does not include the intrusive squirrel that apparently has overtaken their apartment. How a squirrel got into their abode is a whole other question, and I loved how both girls started off the show discussing their unwanted pest before making a conversational 180 and chirping about boyz. It would be the equivalent of me saying "So I saw a dead corpse decomposing in the street. It was really nasty. All smelly and stuff. Hey, how's your mom doing?"

Well, we never did find out if the girls caught their bushy-tailed squatter, but I guess that's because they had more pressing issues to deal with. W-w-w-Whitney had a big blind date coming up, courtesy of Sammy at Bergdorf Goodman, and Roxy had drinks planned with Zac, a guy who's popped up here and there this season, clearly ready to knock boots, as they say. Both situations seemed promising, but alas, both fizzled out triumphantly.

In case you haven't noticed, there have been no updates on this site for the past week. That's because I had to go back to New York for a family thing. Now I'm en route back to Los Angeles, and what better way to return to blogging than by turning to last night's episode of The City. It was a Kelly Cutrone masterclass -- full of angry rants about pens, boys, and hotel bills. While last week's Fackelmayer frenzy was highly enjoyable stuff, nothing compares to Lady Cutrone when she's seething like a cornered snake.

Kelly had good reason to be annoyed this episode. Not only did Roxy forget to bring a pen to the meeting, but she also rang up a $200 room service bill. Her biggest offense, however, was arguing with Whitney backstage at a fashion show. Major no-no. Even worse was that Whit Whit got stuck sharing the blame for the unprofessional spat. It makes sense; after all, it does take two to tango. But we all know Roxy is the problem here. Bitch will get hers soon enough. And when the HELL is she landing her own apartment?

Meanwhile, in Elle world, Olivia once again messed up, and yet again, Erin bore the brunt of Joe Zee's smiley, singsongy wrath when he accused her of not teaching Olivia the ropes. Truth is both girls are at fault: Olivia is spoiled, Erin vindictive. Not a healthy work environment. But great TV! Damn, I love this show.

After the jump, a photocap!

Shocking things happened on this week's episode of The City. The previously isolated worlds of People's Revolution and Elle magazine came together for an event so fraught with drama, I could barely lift my jaw off the ground. Okay, there really wasn't much drama at all. Kelly didn't yell at anyone. Roxy didn't undermine anything (well, a little — but that's in her nature), and Olivia didn't act totally awful. Just about the only thing that did happen was Freddy showing up (entirely underdressed too — major WASP no no). The lack of excitement, however, did not mean it wasn't totally fun to watch because honestly, it was. Then again, EVERYTHING about this season of The City is totally fun to watch. Even Jay, who made a grimy, annoying return, wasn't as insufferable as I thought he'd be. The producers wisely pushed his cameo scene off to the end of the episode, which meant if we wanted to turn the show off early, we could.

Of course, I would never do such a thing, even if Jay was yammering on about class warfare once again. Just as he always does, Jay warned Whitney about the "uptown" crowd -- because, you know, Jay and his circle have certainly proven to be quite the upstanding alternative. Nevertheless, his whole anti-wealth tirade felt unpleasantly like an artifact from last season, and in a show that has grown so magnificently, it felt jarringly out of place. We don't care about the bohemians anymore. Let us never see Jay again! (But please bring back Nevin)

It's ridiculous how fun The City is. In its second season, the producers have found the right mix and balance of characters, focusing instead on the cutthroat careerist side of Manhattan, not the dingy bohemian crap that Jay and his posse represented last year (more on that in a bit, regrettably). Olivia and Erin continue to butt heads at Elle, and while their story line this episode wasn't as compelling as previous ones (basically, it involved both girls going to a party, Olivia mingling effectively, and Erin leaving early), it still had some choice moments — specifically when Erin snapped at Olivia and told her to drop the attitude. I actually felt slightly bad for Olivia, who looked like a humble puppy that had just been reprimanded for pooping in the living room. She sort of hunched over and nodded before slinking off to some corner of the office to undoubtedly call cousin Nevin and complain.

Speaking of Nevin, his absence this season has been totally unforgivable. His banter with Olivia last season was tremendous, and given the show's new focus on the elite, you'd think their badinage would be front and center. Alas, it seems as though Jay will be making a comeback first, which is the biggest crime of all. The previews for next week's episode show him and Whitney having what will surely be an annoying and boring meal together. Memo to MTV: no one cares about Jay. He dirty and smelly and totally uninteresting. He belongs on the douche parade that is The Hills, not this fine show.

Once again, Kelly Cutrone has totally stolen another episode of The City. Who would have thought a woman of a certain age with a few lines on her face and certainly no makeup could be a standout star on MTV? Well, hell has frozen over because season two of The City is all about Kelly. Sure, Whitney's travails are blandly entertaining, and Roxy's sly undermining is delicious fun, and the rivalry between Olivia and Erin is pure gold, but ultimately, what gets the adrenaline pumping is watching Kelly simply LAY INTO these aspiring working girls. Just as it was last week, it felt like Monday's episode was merely a long, suspenseful build-up to Kelly's inevitable and appropriate tongue-lashing, and boy was it worth it.

The shenanigans began when Whitney brought some sketches into work to show Kelly. She made the egregious mistake of showing them to Roxy first, who smiled insincerely and told her that she really loved them all! Well, all of them except for one, which she insisted reminded her too much of a couch. This was then followed by the two girls saying "Couch" back and forth to each other for what felt like ten minutes. Literally, it was bordering on some sort of strange neo-Dadaist performance art. Couch. Couch. Couch. Couch. Nevertheless, once Whitney had wrapped her mind around the concept of her pseudo-sofa dress, she took the sketches into Kelly's office where the mama hen trained her eyes on them to give her official opinion. Turns out her thoughts weren't that different from Roxy's — the only difference was that when Kelly dismissed an item, it was about ten times more entertaining. Her casual rejection of the couch dress — something along the lines of "Can we say goodbye to this one?" — caused me to cackle for really no other reason than the fact that I'm endlessly amused by Lady Cutrone. Ah, but the best was yet to come.

The best part about this season of The Hills? It just makes The City all that more fun to watch. And people, you should be watching. The City trails The Hills in ratings, and that's just not right. The show is awesome! Finally, a series with REAL professionals (albeit in fake situations) with ambition and life goals and a pre-MTV history of competence that makes me giddy. Front and center is Kelly Cutrone, who when she first burst onto The Hills scene a few seasons ago was kind of like the worst ever. Funny how things change. Now she's the BEST ever, mostly because she almost always puts the girls in their place the way we so desperately want to. But even more than that, she actually is (gasp) loving and nurturing and totally on top of her shit — a rarity in reality TV. Yes, she may look like death half the time, but damn I love the sight of Kelly. It always means fun times await.

Take a wild guess who this is from. Sadly, it appears to be our last message from her... until the next one.

OK ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!! I'VE HAD IT UP TO HERE WITH THIS SHIT!!! THESE RE"CRAPS" SUCK!!! Look I've tried to be patient with you and stick by you through good recaps and bad re"craps" but this is it!!! I JUST CAN'T STAND THIS ANYMORE!!! How can someone with so much talent be so bad at writing recaps??? I just don't know what went so wrong with you??? I mean really!!! Really!!! REALLY!!! Is this what you do now??? This is what you call writing??? Is this suppose to satisfy me??? Well let me tell you something, it doesn't ok!!! First off, The Hills was AMAZING!!! Kristin is the BEST thing that MTV could've done with The Hills!!! The whole entire time I was watching I was like Lauren who??? It was like watching a brand new show!!! Kristin brought it like a champ unlike you with this re"crap"!!! This is going to be the BEST with her on it!!! Also, you kept misspelling Kristin's name a few times throughout your re"crap"!!! Yeah, you might want to watch that!!! The Hills is the BEST SHOW EVER!!! The City was alright!!! It was so boring!!! The Hills was so good it set the bar high and when The City came on I was like whatever!!! I could barely watch it!!! It had some good moments, but for the most part boring!!! Kelly is awesome as usual!!! Roxy is from The Hills!!! She was on season three!!! She is actually Stephanie's best friend in real life!!! So the fact that Whitney didn't even say anything about Roxy on The Hills is stupid!!! It makes no sense that her and Roxy are friends now!!! I know Whitney grew up in LA and she was actually friends with a lot of the cast members of The Hills before the show but still!!! The best parts were when Olivia went off on her boss and the end when her boss made her look stupid!!! I'm still going to watch because I love The City, maybe it will get better!!! Season 1 was better!!! Also, Alli was at the party at Whitney's house!!! Also, I want to let you know that I'm done with you!!! DONE!!! Done with this website and done with you re"craps"!!! Until you recap like you used to then I'm done!!! I'm going to find somebody who takes The Hills and The City and all my shows seriously!!! Someone who appreciates them!!! Someone who does their job right!!! Someone who loves Spencer and Heidi like I do!!! For all of you that comment on this site who say I'm joking and playing games I'm not!!! I'm just a true fan of these shows and I'm a real person with real feelings and you guys don't know much you hurt them!!! Please don't hate me!!! I will never send emails again!!! I promise this will be my last one ever!!!

OFFICIAL RESPONSE: I think you have the right idea. Time to move on. Specifically, go away.

It was a big premiere night for MTV last night as both The City and The Hills kicked off their respective seasons in a one hour block of furtive glares and pretty, petty drama. I suppose it's The Hills that's garnered all the hype with the arrival of Kristin Cavallari, but honestly, after watching both, it's The City that truly shines as worthwhile TV. Don't worry -- there'll be a Hills photocap, but I figure why not start with the superior show?

The problem with The Hills is that the overall cast has become sort of... awful. I love Kristin Cavallari as much as anyone else, but the vapidity of the entire crew has become impossible to ignore. Lauren Conrad's departure has meant a greater emphasis on the likes of Brody, Frankie, and Justin Bobby -- three gentlemen who bring nothing but douchiness and a faint trace of body odor to the table. These people don't DO anything, which isn't a problem in and of itself, but unfortunately, they also don't bring anything interesting to the table. Instead they just bounce from one Hollywood hotspot to another, chronically underdressed and reeking from a sense of entitlement (and the aforementioned body odor). Of course, slobs and privilege do not a bad show make... but in this case it does. It's evident that the group has become self-aware of their MTV fame -- the girls are all shinier and augmented (nice new lips and nose, Stephanie "Mrs. Potatohead" Pratt), and the guys are all deliberately unkempt. We've created monsters, and while it's still amusing to follow their awful antics, one can't help but wonder when any of them will do something noteworthy with their lives.

This feels especially true after watching the season premiere of The City, which has smartly refocused away from the tiresome love-life of Whitney and onto the career ambitions of her and her pals. And by pals, I mean the treacherous she-dragons she surrounds herself with. Gone are the ever annoying Jay and Adam and Erin. In their place is a brazen troublemaker named Roxy, who already has shown more personality than any of the axed cast members combined. While the scenarios and situations of The City are just as contrived as those on The Hills, at least there seems to be a certain element of realism involved. These cast members actually interface with "adults" and real working professionals, rather than existing in some strange bubble of Los Angeles awfulness. Unlike Brody, Stephanie, Kristin, Spencer, and Audrina, who all maintain some sort of illusion that they run Hollywood, the girls of The City -- even Olivia -- are at least somewhat aware that they're just cogs in the massive machine that is New York. And that socially aspirant element (mixed with the presence of more than a handful of brain cells) is simply way more entertaining to watch.

"I want B-Side to write the recaps the way he used to!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The Hills and The City premiere tomorrow on MTV, and in case the (sort of nonexistent) PR machine hadn't informed you already, we here at B-Side Blog have the luxury of having our very own psycho reader to remind us of all the details. Yes, it's the one and only Dumb Bitch — née Michelle Coleman — back to harass us again about recapping the shows. Even though she swore she'd never write another email ever again, we knew she couldn't hold to that promise because, well, she's a dumb bitch. Here's the latest!

Listen up!!! You better be gearing up for The Hills and The City tomorrow night!!! The new night is Tuesdays at 10 & 10:30pm!!! I want full recaps of the shows this time around!!! Please don't pull that shit you did last time of putting up half ass recaps!!! You know how I like it!!! I want the recaps from back in the day!!! You've had all summer to prepare for battle so I want some funny shit!!! You better write the best recaps of all time!!! Your fans are waiting!!! You can't disappoint me this time!!! I LOVE THE HILLS & THE CITY!!! They're my fav and Spencer looks SO HOT this season!!! Let me repeat SO FUCKING HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I now must pose the question: do we think this girl is just Spencer or Heidi fucking with me? Is it a shrewd MTV employee getting free publicity for the show? Or should I be concerned for my safety? If I wind up with my neck slit... well, I suppose that won't answer anything — it really could be all of the above. But at least we'll have the memories of these emails. Nevertheless, my full response to Dumb Bitch is after the jump.

Well, the first season of The City came to a close this week, which means we'll have to wait quite a bit before we can see the likes of Whitney or Allie or Olivia on our screens again. I'm kind of bummed because after enjoying the perils of Manhattan, it might be hard to switch back to the less intriguing superficialities of The Hills. Nevertheless, I was quite contented with this final episode, if only because Whitney didn't take Jay back (as so many of the girls in this franchise tend to do). I was also happy because a (possibly drunk) Diane Von Furstenberg shared some lovely advice about love and absence and fire and wind. It was actually quite touching.

More importantly, however, Olivia was up to her old ways, stealing opportunities from Whitney such as a sweet gig in London (fake home of Alixe Boyer's fake accent). I must admit that I was a little sad that Nevan (a.k.a. Bevan) didn't make an appearance on the show. He's been MIA of late, and that's very not cool. There was also some middling drama with Allie and Adam, and long story short, they got back together (no surprise there). For her part, Allie looked more frail than usual as she seemed to prop herself up against any wall within a ten foot radius of her at any given moment. Nevertheless, the two models are back to boinking, which means we'll have plenty of "Honey..." "Baby..." interludes in the near future, I'm sure.

Anyway, onto the photocap...

Did it happen? Did it really happen? Did Jay and Whitney finally break up on The City? I sure hope so because their relationship has constituted one of the most tiresome storylines in the history of the City / Hills / Laguna franchise. Not since Jessica and J-Wahl — or really LC and J-Wahl — have I wanted to shake one of these girls so hard and tell them to snap out of it. He's no good! Jay is particularly annoying because unlike the unabashed (and reportedly reformed) douchebag that was Jason Wahler, Jay is more insidious and greasy. He's also incredibly manipulative. When he sprung the news on Whitney that he was going away for a few months on tour, she was understandably mad. He thought it was because she didn't trust him (not that he's given her any reason to), but the real reason was because he simply had refrained from telling her for so long. Jay tried to turn it around on her, Spencer style, by saying that he knew she'd react like this and blah blah blah, but he was firmly in the wrong, and Whitney knew that. Thank goodness she's not a Heidi pushover (at least for now. Looks like they'll get back together next episode).

Meanwhile, on the Olivia front, the uptown girl got her just desserts when she totally bombed in a major presentation in front of the whole company, including Diane Von Furstenberg herself. Yes, despite oozing with confidence about the task all episode, Olivia was chock full of stutters and stammers, with a few portmanteaus thrown in for good measure ("multipletude"). This was sweet justice after Olivia took credit for Whitney's ideas last week, and once again, their relationship proved to be the most interesting part of the show. Memo to producers: MORE OLIVIA.

Onto the photocap...

Scandal alert! Scandal alert! This week's episode of The City introduced Whitney to the bitch-eat-bitch world of fashion, and for the first time, Whit-Whit learned the hard way that you've always got to look out for numero uno. Yes, none other than Olivia Palermo took full credit for pulling Jessica Alba's cover look for Elle, even though it was W-w-w-whitney who was the brains behind the outfit. As you can imagine, this led to all sorts of googly eyes that seemed to pretty much convey one simple sentiment: "That BITCH!" You know, I've defended Olivia quite a bit, but these actions by her are fairly indefensible. That doesn't mean she's any less entertaining though. In fact, Olivia was really in her prime this week as she aggressively chirped over and over again, "That's my outfit!" (or something like that.) Sadly, the presence of Nevan (or BEVAN as Jay so cleverly calls him) was sorely missed as I could have only imagined the haughty discussion he and his cuz had in regards to this whole debacle.

Elsewhere in the wide world of The City, the terminally bored Allie moved into Erin's apartment, which seems to maintain a steady flow of boarders, despite its overabundance of picture frames and walls the color of fresh new tennis balls. Jay, meanwhile, reconnected with his supposed stalker ex, and the two went off into the night for what we can only imagine was some late night koala love. Of course, given that this group of friends is the biggest crew of tattlers on Manhattan, it didn't take long for the news to get back to Whit-Whit, who mournfully looked off into the distance, wiping an errant tear (or perhaps just a crumb) from her cheek. And the answer is no, I did not care.

Onto the photocap...

Pics courtesy of Yes More Drama

Anyone who saw last night's scandal-riffic episode of The City witnessed Olivia brazenly take full credit for pulling the outfit that ultimately landed on the cover of Elle Magazine's Spring fashion preview, despite the fact that it was our starlet, Whitney Port, who made the creative decision. Much drama and glaring ensued as Diane Von Furstenburg (fresh from the buffet) and Alixe Boyer (fresh from the fake British accent class) praised Olivia for what they thought were her fashion choices, and as the two women — as well as many others, including Elle bigwig Joe Zee (as seen on Stylista) — boasted about how simply divine Olivia's selections looked on the cover, we the audience naturally assumed the images we saw were what actually went to print. Not so much. Turns out the Elle cover we saw was nothing but lies. A lie cover — fresh from a printing press of LIES!

Thanks to the eagle eyed fashionistas over at Yes More Drama as well as my friend Jash, it turns out that the real Elle cover looked nothing like what we saw on The City. Wow. Big wow. We know there are many elements of these shows that are fabricated and staged, but this really has to be one of the more blatant stunts. I mean, did MTV really think no one would notice? Maybe there's an explanation for this — perhaps the cover was some sort of special edition for Elle Guam — but I can't help feeling like there are plenty of shenanigans flittering about. Someone needs to get Elle reality vet Anne Slowey on the phone and let her know what's going on. Then again, she's probably too busy cracking the whip on her interns and muttering "Shhhtylists... bring me my coffee and a bag for the Hamptonshh." Point is, this was one of those can't-really-deny-it moments, and I'm kind of surprised DVF and AlBoys (a.k.a Alixe Boyer) were willing to cluck away on camera about something totally fake. Color me perplexed.

UPDATE: Huzzah! My faith in MTV is restored. According to commenter Caitlin, one cover is for subscribers, one is for newsstands. There was no printing press of lies — only one of sweet, sweet truth! Carry on...

Ahhhh... At long last. MTV has put screen shots of The City on their site! I don't know when they started, but I think the last time I checked in about two weeks ago, there were none. Now, as some of you have read in the comments section, I absolutely love this show, but because of my other obligations, I really don't have time to write recap it. It kills me because every episode I have so many snarky comments running through my brain. Of course, I could just wing it, and do a general overview (like my 24 recaps), but for some reason, the way the show is shot and edited, it's hard to remember the sequence of events as all the scenes seem sort of to flow in and out of each other in a dreamlike quality. Anyway, the point is, I can finally do photocaps now, and I'm more than thrilled.

For those of you who haven't jumped on The City train, here's what you need to know: it's awesome. I don't know if I'll be able to go back to The Hills with the same love. Whereas the latter show seems to be running out of storylines, The City seems fresh with potential. Also, it's sort of exciting to see a cast that seems by and large a tad bit more sophisticated than what we get on The Hills. Lauren and Lo are fine, but Heidi? Spencer? Brody? Frankie? Audrina? Justin-Bobby? They're all a bit — how do I say it — nouveau riche? It's like comparing the Real Housewives of Orange County with New York City. I'm not saying that Adam, Erin and Jay are the second coming of the Algonquin Table, but there is a slightly less poseurish quality about them. Of course, they're still douchebags — let's get that straight. But at least they don't wear trucker caps.

2008 was a curious year for television, what with the writers strike and all. Seasons got messed up, late night shows went without comedy, and CBS aired a bonus edition of Big Brother â€" which sadly was universally loathed by pretty much everyone but me. That's okay though. I don't mind being a maverick when it comes to reality TV (hence my devotion to Greatest American Dog â€" one of the most underrated gems of the year).

Strike be damned, there was still plenty of great stuff to watch. My list of the best shows after the jump...