Tuesday Links

1. It seriously sucked that the U.S. Women's National Team lost the World Cup. Seriously. But I'm happy to see that the game took over Twitter and dominated TV ratings. Yay women's sports and soccer! 2. Netflix pissed off a bunch of their subscribers this week by jacking up the price 60%. Here are some alternatives. This story offers alternatives, too.

3. Law & Order: SVU takes another hit. I'm not sure I'm going to recognize a show I was once obsessed with.

4. Rashard Mendenhall is suing a company for ending his endorsement deal after his controversial tweets about Osama Bin Laden and 9/11. Based on these tweets and some of his others, he sounds like a real winner.  Sarcasm intended.

5. Virginia Tech researched football helmet safety. The results are scary.

Childhood favorites, please take center stage.

6. Captain Planet is being made into a live-action movie. Now this is a superhero movie I can get behind! Just please keep the theme song. Captain Planet, he's our hero. Gonna take pollution down to zero.

7. Hey, Dude hits DVD today. I freaking loved this show. I thought the kids were so cool.

8. Even better, Teen Nick will start airing old Nickelodeon shows next Monday.

Wednesday Links

Hello to anyone reading this. I'm back from my trip to New York for the Romance Writers of America Conference. I'll have a full report on the conference later, but I thought I needed to get back into the blogging game before I got too rusty, so here are some links. 1. ESPN acquires all rights to Wimbledon starting next year. This is fabulous news for me. I'll never forget being pissed off last year when NBC aired a match that had already been played instead of one that was being played right then because the network was too afraid to go over its time slot. In 2010, when all it took was a few clicks of the mouse to know the score was unacceptable. Tape delayed matches in the 1980s worked because the public had no other choice. Today? It just makes you look ridiculous.

2. Two ADAs return to Law & Order: SVU. As a long-time viewer of the show, I'm happy because I loved both of them. It's a good step, but the show still won't be the same with Mariska Hargitay's reduced role and with no Christopher Meloni at all. I still haven't decided if I'm watching or not.

3. Yesterday, Casey Anthony was found not guilty of murdering her daughter. Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker breaks down last night's ridiculous media coverage.

4. Wanna know where the 2018 Winter Olympics are going to be held? Of course, you do. And as of this morning, we have an answer.

5. Hollywood executives are so desperate for movies stars that they do the everything in their power to convince us that certain people are stars and therefore can carry movies based on their name alone. I've thought this for years. The most recent example: Ryan Reynolds. The truth is there are very few movie stars who people will line up to see just because he or she is in the movie. The Tom Cruise of the 80s and 90s is gone. So are Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks.

I think the only true movie stars today are Adam Sandler and Kevin James. Oh, and I guess Johnny Depp, but that last movie with Angelina Jolie (who is NOT a movie star) tanked. Will Smith was one, but not any longer because his last few movies haven't done well. Reese Witherspoon built up some goodwill with Legally Blonde, but it's gone now.

Am I forgetting someone?