Good news, bad news

Good News (unless you believe an artist who claims they'll never tour again should live up to that promise): Billboard.com reports that Tina Turner is headed out on a tour starting October 1st.

Bad (Ugly) News: living train wreck Lindsay Lohan is signed up for six episodes of Ugly Betty, starting with this year's season finale. Ew. I sense a shark-jumping may be near.

Speaking of 80's videos

I have to confess something. Many, many years ago, when I was but an innocent college student, I tuned into MTV one night and saw the video for Rockwell's "Somebody's Watching Me."

Yes, it's lame yet oddly catchy. Yes, Rockwell wore boxer shorts in the shower. Yes, it never would've gone anywhere if Michael Jackson hadn't been talked into crooning the chorus, "I always feel like -- somebody's waaaaaaaatching meeeeee!" But that's not what haunts me.

What haunts me is, who the hell played the zombie mailman?

Because for a zombie mailman, he was pretty damn hot. I never thought necrophilia would interest me, but in this case I'd make an exception.

Are awards shows dying?

Preliminary ratings indicate that last night's Oscar show was the lowest-rated ever -- down 21 percent from last year and down 14 percent from the previous lowest-rated show in 2003.

The Golden Globes and People's Choice were basically wiped out by the writers' strike, but the Grammys and Oscars both had writers and no picket lines to keep stars from showing up, and both tanked in the ratings. Are people tired of awards shows? Are there too many awards shows? It is just that the nominated movies, songs, etc. weren't that popular this year? Was this just a bad year?

As much as I love music I never watch the Grammys or American Music Awards any more. Other than the occasional Emmy telecast I have basically never watched any other awards shows -- Golden Globes, SAG awards, Tonys, People's Choice, etc. So maybe I'm not the viewer they need to talk to if they want to figure out why the ratings are dropping.

I still watch the Oscars, although this year I saw for the first time the Independent Spirit awards on IFC, and that show was much more fun (even though Jon Stewart did a good job last night). If other shows were more like the indie awards show, I might watch them.