This American Life. Tonight I have my choice of programming on network TV: A sitcom about a gay man and a straight woman who are having a baby together; a drama featuring fictionalized, glamorous forensic investigators in Las Vegas; a standard family-oriented sitcom starring Damon Wayans; a show pitting an alaskan bear and a Japanese man in a timed contest to eat the most hot dogs, and a “reality show” featuring, among others, Webster, the uptight chick from 90120, one of the Coreys (does it really matter which?) and Vince Neil, who comes off as a pudgy, sleeve-tattooed version of your uncle Bob. Vince Neil. Mr. “Shout At The Devil.”

(What did I do? I’ll tell you. I turned it off.)

Has anybody noticed that it’s now a wiser (and in some ways, more respectable) decision to do a layout in Playboy than to appear on a “reality show” to Boost A Flagging Career? Somebody should really start calling around to the PR people in Hollywood and pass that memo along. (Tootie, Baldwin Brothers, Coolio- this means you.)