We’ve heard for months that someone on the show is going to die, and all indications have been that it’s going to be the brand new Mrs. Meade, Molly.  Not only that, but he is going to appear on “The View” for what should be a lighthearted interview, but apparently Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck turn it into Frost vs Nixon.

Eric Mabius is very, very good when his character Daniel is suddenly in an uncomfortable situation, so I expect this scene to be great.

"It really felt like a normal segment on our show," Hasselbeck tells TVGuide.com. "I felt we had a home-field advantage [at our studio]. It was [Eric Mabius'] character trying to fit in and feeling awkward — as I’m sure many guests do when we start grilling them!”

Behar says The View makes for a great inclusion in entertainment. "We’re part of the national lexicon now. People use The View as a jumping-off point — for better or for worse," she says.  [I make no secret that I can’t stand The View, but she’s right]

Apparently, the two were allowed to heavily improvise.  “The script merely served as a backbone for the tone of conversation," Hasselbeck says. "After we said our lines, we continued [talking] as we normally do here."

This is only one small part of what promises to be an exciting season finale.  Wilhelmina will play tennis with Billie Jean King, and sing with Victoria!  Of course, there’s the return of Henry.  Please join us here tonight at 8/7c for the live blog!

Image: Newscom

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The “latest” issue of Mode Online is up, reflecting all the recent changes in Ugly Betty.  There’s a whole, very beautiful cover story with Adriana Lima and the Tico Berry.  I love it!  It follows the storyline of episode 3.06 (Ugly Berry) almost exactly:

Supermodel Adriana Lima has been in on this trendy tropical treasure from the beginning, devouring the delish Tico berry on her grandfather’s farm as a young girl. The Brazilian beauty insists that this rare fruit, indigenous to her home country and known primarily by locals, is the sweet secret behind her sexy success.

There is a great photo gallery from the Mode shoot. My goodness, that woman is beautiful.

Daniel Meade wrote the “Letter From the Editor” this month, and it is poignant and philosophical.  The first part feels like it was written by Betty:

With the Wall St. meltdown, two wars, and the gas price rollercoaster affecting the nation, you might be asking yourself, what place does Fashion have in today’s society? If times are tough, isn’t Fashion a superfluous luxury?

However, later, this is vintage Daniel:

As troubling as these days are, now is not the time to settle for baggy, drab clothing…When things are looking down, we can’t give up. We can’t allow America to put on a collective pair of sweats.

I like that.

Amanda’s blog has an hilarious take on the US presidential election.  Her “cons” on each of the candidates are great reading:

So let’s see – the first con for McCain is that he has a hot wife. I know I said it was a pro, but I’m thinking now that having a really good looking first lady might make me jealous…

The cons for Obama? Other than his hot wife also making me jealous, I’d have to start with the ears. I mean, it’s like Will Smith and Spock had a kid. But I guess if you’re president you can get those pinned.

Of course, she ended up voting for Lance Bass.

Image Credit: Newscom

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OMG!

SpoilerTV has, somehow, obtained a script snippet from episode 3.06, and it’s a doozy. If you are not spoiler-averse, I’ve embedded the file after the jump.

The snippet raises lots of questions, and we’ll get to those after the jump. However, looking over the script (it is in Scribd format, so not everyone can see it), I have an interesting (maybe only to me) question:

Why, in 2008, do scripts still look like they were typrewritten? Are any of you screenwriters? Tell me, is this some kind of style rule in the business?

Anyway, enough of my font-geekery. Since this is about as spoilerish as they get, read on to see the file and the discussion!

Here’s the snippet:

The script concerns the introduction of a new character, Connor Aubrey. We first see him introducing himself to Wilhelmina, yet later in the script, he’s telling how he was the mastermind of the 1984 Apple Super Bowl commercial.

Then, there’s a scratched-out scene where Daniel gives Betty a gift. Later, Daniel and Connor are congratulating each other for making some plan of theirs come to fruition.

The order of events makes you wonder: who is scamming who? Are Connor and Daniel really plotting asgainst Wilhelmina, or is Connor executing one of Wilhelmina’s schemes against Daniel?

THIS is going to be interesting!

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This one is neither.  Yesterday, Eric Mabius filmed scenes with child actor Julian De La Celle, who is playing Daniel Jr.  Of all the story arcs featured in Ugly Betty, this is the one that I have no idea where the producers will take it.

One thing we know for sure – Daniel and Daniel Jr. have a common love for beautiful women, and baseball.

There is another question about Daniel, and his place at Meade publications, along with his relationship with Betty, that are raised in another set of photos.  I will be posting those shortly, so stay tuned.

Image: Newscom

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This one highlights all three of the Ugly Betty ’ships’:

• Benry (some people call it Hetty): Betty and Henry
• Detty: Betty and Daniel (their relationship is strictly platonic right now)
• Getty: Betty and Gio.

The video uses the song by Natasha Bedingfield, “I Wanna Have Your Babies”, which is hilarious, IMHO.  The video is edited in a way that shows romantic possibilities with all three men (although Henry had a head start on the other two).

Betty will be going in a new direction next year, but looking back, it was fun while it lasted!

This post is part of a 24-hour marathon being held on June 20th called The Blog Off. I’ll be posting one post per hour all day for charity. You can help contribute, by offering posts (which enters you in a contest) or donating to The Actors Fund charity.

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Some lines just sound funnier when America Ferrera delivers them. I love when the writers have Betty declare that something “sucks”. It just sounds funny coming from Betty’s high-pitched voice. “There’s just not a pooper scooper big enough” is another one of those lines.

I also love the “reliable internet sources” line. If you’ve discussed things on the internet for any period of time, you’ve heard the definition of insanity, along with Godwin’s Law and other cliches.

The interaction between Eric Mabius and America Ferrera could not be more perfect. I do agree with some critics that the whole “Daniel hitting rock bottom” story line is a little over used, but Ugly Betty needs that element where Betty “takes care” of Daniel. They are just too good together in that capacity.

All in all, Betty’s Baby Bump was one of my favorite episodes of Betty this year.

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I was worried that this particular story line (Daniel/Renee/Wilhelmina) would bog down the flow of the show, but from the looks of this video, it’s going to be pretty fun to watch. Basically, Wilhelmina shows up at Daniel’s door to warn him about Renee and how she “gets” with men. Daniel doesn’t want to listen to her, but she plants a seed in his head about “Stonybrook“.

I’ll guarantee he’ll ask about it.

I love how Wilhelmina says “I know we’ve had our issues”, then Daniel lists her many sins, and she adds “…some bigger than others”. Too funny.

It’s almost here!

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 First of all, I want to make clear that last night’s Ugly Betty, episode 2.12, Odor In the Court, was one of my favorite episodes, ever.  Seeing Betty go berzerk was side-splitting funny.  I loved how, for this one episode, Micheal Urie, Marc Indelicato, Ana  Ortiz, and Eric Mabius all got to play the “straight man” to Betty’s craziness.  America Ferrera is one great comedic actress.  As EOnline’s Kristin (actually, Korbi) said: “These are the moments that Emmys are made of…”

Having said that, there were a few moments that made me say, “Yeah, but what about…?”  I’m not the type that demands realism out of my entertainment, mind you.  Especially shows like Ugly Betty.  But there were a couple of times where it was obvious the writers did not come in to help with tidying things up in the post-filming stage.  Let me list a couple, and you can tell me if I’m just being nit-picky.  Warning, these are major spoilers if you haven’t seen the episode:

• What happened to the charges against Claire for escaping prison? Maybe that’ll come up in a future episode, but only the murder charges were dropped, as far as I could tell.  I guess I’ve had too many years of watching Law and Order, but it bugged me a little.
• Why did it take Henry so long to call?  He called her while she was in the doctor’s office, and Betty seemed to drop being angry at him (granted, she was down from her high).  But, what was the reason he waited till the next day to call?  Did I miss something?
• How did Gio afford such a nice sandwich shop?  Maybe this was explained earlier in the year, but I expected his shop to be little more than a closet (like many of the office-based sandwich shops I’ve seen).  It just seemed a little nicer than I expected.
• Why didn’t Marc and Wilhelmina just keep the Jackie Kennedy dress?  Of course, the way it played out in the show was funnier, but it seemed strange that they had it in their hands and only needed to hide it, but didn’t.

One other thing I notice that wasn’t a nitpick, but was kind of a neat discovery: they’ve never shown Fey’s Sommer’s whole face.  She’s always had on huge sunglasses, or is obscured like in this picture:

I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong. But I’m pretty sure I’m not. 

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• Wilhemina’s “welcome mat”.  Ahem.  Took me a couple of days to figure it out, when Marc mentioned something about Wilhelmina having a “welcome mat” and she said, ”I haven’t had a welcome mat since the 90’s”.   Or something like that.  Naughty, naughty.  But hi-larious!
• Marc “comforting” Christina.  Christina, upset about being turned down by the insurance company for her husband’s treatment, rips an arm off a mannequin, and throws it.  It hits a hidden Marc.  They speak of Christina’s predicament, and Marc attempts to “comfort” her by stroking her face with the plastic arm.
• Bring It On – At the video store, Cliff suggests serious and art films, and Marc suggests each of the “Bring It On” movies.  This one was so funny because David Blue and Michael Urie had wonderful comedic timing.
•  12 year old Betty – This was such a touching moment; it was interesting that this week, Betty didn’t have a vision, Daniel did.  I hope they bring the little girl back, it was a nice touch.
• “You matter to me, Betty Gonzalez”.  Amanda, trying to befriend Betty, says a chain of statements to Betty that make it obvious she knows nothing about her.  Getting her last name wrong was the funniest.
• Amanda saluting Gene Simmons. Upon “discovering” that Gene Simmons is her father, Amanda sticks her tongue out at a photo of the Kiss rocker.  Based on spoiler photos from episode 2.12, we’re going to see more of this behavior.
• Secret Code Names. When planning the renegade fashion show, Henry and Betty adapt code names, and Daniel, although he says it’s silly, takes one himself.  Betty was “Princess Daisey”, Henry was “Black Dragon”, and Daniel was “Falcon”.

There were so many honorable mentions: Linda (Annie Potts) sensing that her daughter had a boy at home, Bow Wow liking “freaky” Betty, Daniel explaining why he’s win a “pissing contest” with Alexis, “Mr Wow”, Amanda saving a “black dawg”, “Inennendo”, Ignacio telling Hilda how he likes “junk in the trunk”.

So now is your turn  what was your favorite part of this past week’s episode?

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This episode was one of my favorites so far; Betty shined as the moral center (thank God she’s back!), and this was by far Daniel’s most sympathetic episode, but the night belonged to Marc.  He had more one liners than ever, and they were all funny!

Spoiler-filled recap after the jump.

At ModeThe elevator opens to reveal that it is full of very skinny supermodels.  One more model gets in, followed by Betty.  This causes the “Maximum Load Exceeded” alarm to go off.  All of the models look at Betty, and she says, “You don’t know it’s me!”  She says, “And I heard you snickering. Very mature.” (At which point she presses the button for every floor on her way out).

She runs into Christina, who is frantically running around; they discuss how skinny this year’s models are.  Christina says she “just fitted a spinal column with a tuft of hair”.  Betty runs into a succession of people who need her to do something for the big fashion show.  Then Henry comes in.  He gives her a bag that he had stuffed with things she will need for the show, then dips and kisses her.

Daniel shows Betty his new, fancy chair given to him by Alexis as a peace offering.    She shows him the graphic for the runway at the show, he is not impressed.  Daniel is very worried that the show will be too ordinary; it is the first fashion week show he is handling on his own.  Betty gives him a couple of ideas, but he shoots him down.  Betty excuses herself to give Justin’s class an educational tour of the magazine. 

Justin is walking in with his class, trying to impress the Alpha Girl, Lindsay.   Betty shows them the conference room; all are bored except for one girl (Hillary).  Justin is mortified at how “uncool” Betty is.  The teacher (Betty’s former teacher) tells her how impressed she is with her.  But, the teacher assumed that Betty was a writer, and living in the city.  She then asks if anybody has any questions.

The girls ask about Paris Hilton and how skinny she was.  Betty said she didn’t get into that side of things.  She asks if anyone has non-celebrity questions.  Hillary asks one about an article about fur, but her classmates give her that “you are so uncool” look.  She tells Betty “never mind”.

Betty tells them that Mode is about more than fashion, but they aren’t listening.  They ask about Gisele and what she ate for lunch.  Betty is disappointed, but from behind them, Amanda answers with all the scoop about Gisele.  The girls then fawn over Amanda, saying that being at Mode reminds them that they need to “so go on a diet”.  Betty has lost control, and seems devastated.

Christina is in The Closet, and Stuart surprises her and hugs her from behind.  He tells her he’s tired of being poked and prodded, that he won’t go to the doctor.  Christina insists.  As they are kissing, Marc sneaks in.  He is attracted to Stuart, until he finds out he’s Christina’s husband.  He sneaks into Fey’s love dungeon.

Amanda is staring at the wall of her “Dads”.  Marc tells her that he will help her out by “turning to a higher power.   Cut to a psychic’s office, Linda (Annie Potts).  She is on the phone, arguing with her daughter.  She then gets a “feeling over Amanda’s stomach and tells her she won’t be able to have children.  Marc says that’s not what they are there for.

They sit and Linda concentrates.    She says she’s “getting something”, and she hits speed dial on her cell and yells at her daughter to “get that boy out of the house!”.  She goes back to concentrating, but she’s obviously trying to get Marc and Amanda to give her clues about what they are looking for.  Linda tells her she’s going to rescue a dog.  A black dog.  She says that’s all she sees.

Back at Mode, Betty is finishing up with Justin’s class.  A group of skinny models pass, and Lindsay says “Oh my God, look at them!  I am such a cow!”  She then throws her lunch in the garbage.  All the other girls join her but Hillary.  After some heavy peer pressure stares, Hillary also discards her lunch.  Betty is mortified.

She storms into Daniel’s office and says “We need to totally change this magazine”.  Betty asks why they only show starving women in designer gowns.  Marc asks her why she’s surprised.  Betty recalls when she was 12 at Lesley Levine’s pool party.  She remembers how all the girls had bikinis, but she was in an oversized NKLB T-Shirt, eating chips with Lesley’s parents.  Daniel looks interested.  She pitches the idea of having regular sized models at the Fashion Week fashion show.  Daniel is very interested for publicity reasons.  He agrees to talk to Alexis about it.

Alexis has called a meeting of all the editors (Daniel didn’t know about this).  She has him sit on a very small table, and ignores him while she talks to the others about their ideas.   All the other editors thank Alexis for their new chairs.  Player Magazine’s editor says that this month, they have, “boobs, boobs, and meat” (too funny).  Alexis then goes to someone else, but Daniel insists he present his idea.  He does, and Alexis shoots it down.

After everyone leaves, Daniel argues with Alexis, she still says no, but he says he might just ignore her.

Daniel tells Betty that he has decided to go against Alexis’ wishes, and he will do the ‘normal’ fashion show.  He tells her that Alexis and he had gotten into “a little pissing contest, and we know who has the better aim these days”. J 

Betty is in the elevator, and Now Wow gets in.  She very uncomfortably talk to him about how he isn’t “L’il” any more.  The elevator comes to a stop; they are stuck.  She says “Don’t worry, Mr Wow, someone will come right away”, and she presses the alarm.  Amanda hears it, but ignores it.  Betty and Bow Wow get comfortable; Bow Wow performs his new song for her as they sit on the floor.  The elevator starts up, when they get to the top (after Bow Wow flirts with Betty), Amanda is there, congratulating herself for saving the day.  Then Amanda sees that Bow Wow was in the elevator, and convinces herself that he was the “black dog” and that she had rescued him.

Henry finds Christina; he has to tell her that the insurance will not pay for her husband’s experimental treatment.  She grabs an arm from a mannequin, and throws it.  It hits Marc, who was hiding behind a rack of clothes.  He tries to console her (hilariously using the arm instead of his own).  Christina tells him about the $100K she needs.

Daniel and Alexis are holding a press conference to announce their new healthier model fashion show.  They have a scale, and have the models each come and weigh.  As the models come in, Betty notices that the models are still ultra-skinny.  Justin, who has a gift for guessing weight, tells Betty that each is weighing in at 20 lbs over her real weight.

Amanda has gone back to see Linda.  Linda tells her the price has gone up.  Linda concentrates, and says she has to find a “B” that will lead her to a kiss that will lead her to her father.

In the ladies’ room, Betty leaves a voice mail for Daniel telling him he wouldn’t believe what Alexis did.  Alexis walks in and says “what did Alexis do?”  Betty then confronts her about the models.  Alexis tells Betty that rigging the scales was Daniel’s idea.

Betty walks by Amanda’s desk, looking for Daniel.  Amanda notices her “B” necklace, and realizes that Betty is her “B”.  She begs Betty for help, but Betty is desperately trying to find Daniel.

Betty confronts Daniel about rigging the scales.  He tells her that Alexis wan’t going to change the show, so rigging the scales was a compromise.  Daniel hangs his head while Betty gives him the “I’m disappointed” speech.  When he looks up, 12 year old Betty is staring at him.  She says “I guess I was wrong” [about Daniel], and walks away.  Daniel is almost in tears.

Cut to the a very short scene at the Suarez house, when Ignacio says the models are too skinny, that he remembers when women were proud to show a little Trostos en su tronko (junk in their trunk).  Hilda is grossed out by hearing her dad say this J.  The doorbell rings, Betty goes to get it.  It is Daniel, telling her he’s decided to put on a renegade, “normal model” show.  He also had invitations for Justin and his friends.  He says, “Come on, let’s go put on a big, fat fashion show!”  he is embarrassed right after he says this.

Daniel gathers the staff of Mode and tells them that this is a renegade show, and they have to keep it a secret.  They come up with code names, and work up a plan on how to pull it off.  He sends them off to the street to find “real” women.

On the way out, Amanda grabs Betty and takes her to the love dungeon.  She tells her about the psychic, and the “B”, and the kiss.  There is a hilarious moment when Amanda’s trying to be nice to her (but she can’t even remember her real name).  Then they share a tearful moment about their mothers.  On the way out, Betty notices one of the pictures from the wall has fallen.  She picks it up, and hands it to Amanda  It’s Gene Simmons of Kiss, and Amanda realizes she has her answer.  She sticks her tongue out at the photo (in Gene Simmons’ style).

At Wilhelmina’s Apartment

Wilhelmina is frantically looking for something in her refrigerator.  She finally finds what she’s after: rocky road ice cream.  Marc is behind her, preparing a syringe.  Wilhelmina is very emotional and weepy.  Marc reminds her of her plan to get pregnant with Bradford’s heir.  He says “I never thought I’d say this to a woman before, but, turn around and bend over!”  Wilhelmina screams, then recovers and weepily tells Marc she’s going to be such good parents.

Later, Marc is on the phone with Wilhelmina while she is being examined by a doctor.  The doctor tells her they’ll be lucky to get one viable egg, because of her age.  He asks about her surrogate, Wilhelmina is aghast.  He explains she has a “hostile womb”.  Marc, overhearing this says “aren’t they all?”

Wilhelmina is getting a pedicure, while she talks to Marc about her hostile womb predicament.  They are brainstorming about finding someone with a proven, accommodating womb, who Wilhelmina can contol.  They look at the pedicurist, Brandy, and ask about her kids.  She says she has 5.  Marc tells Wilhelmina: “Looks like you just found yourself a 5-star womb”.

Wilhelmina offers Brandy her choice of her furs, and tells her all expenses will be paid.  Brandy is a little apprehensive, but agrees to carry Wilhelmina’s child.

Later, Marc and Cliff are out looking for a video (this is hilarious – Cliff keeps choosing serious movies, and Marc, keeps choosing variations of “Bring It On”).    Marc talks Daniel into going to the porn section of the video store.  There, they find a surprise on the cover of an S&M themed DVD: Brandy apparently is on the cover as a dominatrix.

Wilhelmina and Marc summon Brandy, and tell her she can’t carry the child because there can be only one dominatrix in the relationship.  They send her away.  Marc then tells Wilhelmina about Christina’s predicament.

Mode Fashion Week Fashion Show

The show is going on, with skinny models.  Suzuki St Pierre reports the disappointment.  However, the mode staff is readying everything to surprise everyone with their renegade show.  Daniel comes up to emcee, supposedly to finish the show.  He instead announces that the healthy show is now going to start.  Henry starts the music, and they begin a fashion show with real women.  Alexis is obviously upset by this.  Bow Wow and Omarion come onto the stage, followed by succession of women of all ages who are definitely above a size zero.  Justin’s teacher is one of them, and her class takes all of it in.  Then Betty comes out in a beautiful designer dress.

Later, Alexis takes credit before the press for the very successful fashion show.  Betty asks Justin’s classmates what they thought.  Lindsay says that the models were fat and disgusting.  Everyone looks a Hillary, who thinks about it, then echoes Lindsay’s words.  It’s very sad.  Betty is devastated.  Daniel comes by and says the press is saying it’s their best show ever.  Justin comes back in with the Lindsey’s sidekick, who hurriedly admits that she liked the real girl show.  She didn’t want Lindsay to know, though.

Betty thanks Daniel, and they walk out arm, while Betty continues to make suggestions to Daniel about improving the magazine.

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