A DAY IN "THE LIFE OF RILEY"

Speaking of time, my TIVO has been neglected of late. Though it continues to digitally record all of my selects (which I'll share with you comprehensively one day), my time is not allowing for me to be as captive an audience. Still, I made time this week to watch VH-1's debut of "THE WENDY WILLIAMS EXPERIENCE", which featured ICE T and his lady, LIONEL RICHIE, and FARNSWORTH BENTLEY -- all chatting it up candidly on The Queen of All Media's radio show within a TV show. The guilty pleasure added dimension and color to an already vibrant experience when just listening on the radio (and letting the imagination run wild). After a few years of spot specials here and there (with promises of a bigger presence), it seems that VH-1 and TEAM WENDY may have a good formula going and --- blinds shut --- I have placed her on my TIVO's SEASON PASS to ensure that I don't miss any of the classic Wendy moments ("How You Doin'?"). Speaking of "How You Doin'?", I am loving UGLY BETTY's nephew Justin Suarez ( as played by Mark Indelicato about whom I'm sure we'll be hearing more about very soon). The effeminate teen boy adores all things FASHION and POP, including his aunt's job at the hip, very "DEVIL-WEARS-PRADA" MODE Magazine (THINK: VOGUE). Indelicato plays the best "gal" (but he's a 12-year-old guy) that I've seen since the one I suppressed and repressed at that age (while I periodically turned out an uncontrollable high-kick throughout my childhood home as if I was Leroy from "Fame". Meanwhile, my mom would tell me to "...Stop flouncing around this house like a sissy and sit down!!!!", but I digress.... ). BREATHE, PATRICK! The Thursday night ABC dramedy "UGLY BETTY" is getting better and better each week... and more and more enticing to watch. (I LOVE "Brothers and Sisters" too, by the way. GO ABC!!!! And more on that another time.). So, you must watch "UGLY BETTY". One awesomely rich-in-racial-subtext moment occurred this week, when the antagonistically seductive Wilhemenia, played to a T by Vanessa L. Williams (Remember her "A Diva's Christmas Carol" on VH-1? That was another annual treat for me - like "The Wizard of Oz" for someone else). Well, Williams' character Wilhemenia, the Creative Director of MODE, is introduced a concept around a Christmas layout, after the intended shoot theme is leaked from within and lifted by a competing magazine. As the brainstorm oscillates between her boss, the Editor-in-Chief (white male) and the chosen layout photographer (white male), the Editor-in- Chief recommends a KWANZAA motif - looking at Wilhemenia, who exhaustively, but understatedly, retorts (eyes rolling) "Did you just gesture at me when you said Kwanzaa?" Nervously, he says "NO!". And they move on...and that, my friends, is my favorite TV moment of the week. Without being preachy, it acknowledged what a meeting in corporate America can look like when there's only one face of color in the room. Insensitivity can abound. But because it's so inevitable and ubiquitous... and diversity is a long way from being the reality, we just laugh and - like this scene - keep it moving. GENIUS!