Cooking with Ramsay

Michael the tattooed guy won Hell's Kitchen. But what was that sudden reversal of prizes at the end? All along, we were told that the winner of Gordon Ramsay's become-a-chef-in-six-weeks contest would be awarded his own restaurant. Michael even had a name for his: Lola Pop. So when Michael was announced the top chef (over the creepy Ralph, who had scary Chiclet teeth), all of a sudden Gordon is heard in voiceover: "I couldn't let talent like this get away." So he offers Michael a job in London, cooking alongside him in one of the Ramsay restaurants. And Michael says yes, he'll go.

Own your own restaurant or move across the Atlantic to work in someone else's? Was there a bait and switch going on here? Just wonderin'. If I were Michael, I'd have said, "Stuff your job offer. I just proved on national TV that I'm a damn fine chef." And then waited for the job offers.

Seriously considered today canceling Comcast cable. Unplugging. Totally. Comcast just posted a 64 percent jump in profits from their digital cable sales. Sickening. Half the time I can't get all my digital channels. This morning all the local channels went to snow for a couple of hours. I've seen "This channel will return shortly" on the screen more than I've seen BBC-America or Bravo. Comcast blows. Don't need HBO till March 2006 when Sopranos returns. Till then I could bank about $700 that Comcast doesn't deserve.

Situation: Comedy was even better tonight than last week. The Sperm Donor script team outswam the Stephen's Life team in the rewrites and castings. The show is a good behind-the-scenes peek at how the gametes meet to become TV comedies.

And poor Danny of Real World: Austin. The cap-city of the Lone Star State hasn't been a happy place for him since the day he moved in. First he had his cheek broken by a drunken yeehaw on Sixth Street and then tonight's ep shows his dad calling to tell him his mom had died suddenly. On Valentine's Day. Slutty Mel hung on him like kudzu -- just what you want when you're plunged into inconsolable grief. And off he flew to the funeral in Boston. Sad for the kid.