Well, hell, I could have told you that!

MSNBC reports that today's college students are impossibly narcissistic. Well, shee-it, we who have encountered them from this side of the podium know it only too well.

To quote: [Writer] Twenge, the author of Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled — and More Miserable Than Ever Before, said narcissists tend to lack empathy, react aggressively to criticism and favor self-promotion over helping others.

The researchers traced the phenomenon back to what they called the "self-esteem movement" that emerged in the 1980s, asserting that the effort to build self-confidence had gone too far.

Conclusion: You're NOT that special, so stop acting like you are.

Feeding the kitty

I got paid to live-blog the Oscarcast last night. Not paid nearly enough to devote more than three hours to the most stultifying telecast in Oscar history. But it was lesbian-friendly to the max! Here's my column at Mediavillage, if you'uns are interested.

Wiki whacked, plus Jessica Simpson, ideal sorority recruit

The blog and I have been angry at each other. We weren't speaking. Now we're trying to make up.

Just read about the trend of universities banning citations from Wikipedia on research papers. The NY Times has this story.

Look, Wikipedia is handy but unreliable. The entries are compiled sort of like info passed around in a game of telephone. One source adds something, then someone else edits, then more info comes in. Then it all ends up as a mishmash of inaccurate factoids. Don't trust it. Primary sources only.

Also ran across a little ditty about the Delta Zeta sorority at DePauw University in Indiana. To boost recruiting and change the image, all the fat, homely, smart or ethnic girls were kicked out. Twenty-three of them. Out. A dozen pretty ones with good wardrobes were invited to stay. Six of those told DZ to go fuck themselves for being superficial.

Welcome to the Greek system, ladies of DePauw! And...scene.

At this very minute, I'm sitting in Starbucks because the scary windstorm has knocked out power to my entire neighborhood. The wind has blown in orange dust from Oklahoma, making the air the color of a rusty pipe.

Sitting next to me in a puffy purple chair is one of my favorite Dallas actors. I run into him from time to time. Today I have spent a good hour listening to him dish out some primo gossip about the Dallas theater community.

His best story, however, is about a Big Star: This actor, a handsome guy, just did a few days' work on the film Blonde Ambition, which was shooting in Shreveport. Stars of the comedy are Jessica Simpson and Luke Wilson. It's produced by Joe Simpson, Jessica's dad. So you get the picture.

Dallas actor had scenes with Jessica. "She's very pretty," he says, raising an eyebrow to indicate subtext. In one of the scenes, Jessica was supposed to walk up to the Dallas actor and say, "What are you doing?" Simple enough, right? But the day they were shooting was the day after Jessica's debacle at the Kennedy Center Honors. She forgot the words to "Nine to Five" (with honoree Dolly Parton looking on), dissolved in tears and later begged CBS not to air her breakdown, which they agreed to.

So anyway, Dallas actor is doing this scene. Jessica, still perhaps a bit upset from the Kennedy Center thing, is supposed to say the one line, "What are you doing?" But instead, when the director, Scott Marshall, says "Action," she gets flustered and says, "What am I supposed to say?" And...scene.

What are you doing, Jessica?

Don't you think they'd love her up at Delta Zeta!

Poor little rich girl

Daughter of one of America's richest families says her massive trust fund won't cover too-ish and expenses at our favorite university. Had to drop out. Here's what happened next.

Cracking the code

Follow me here. The half-nekkid lady is Kim Kardashian. She's the daughter of the late Robert Kardashian, the O.J. Simpson defense team member with silver-streaked hair who looked completely aghast in the famous "Not guilty" verdict footage.

Kim's mom is the ex-wife of Bruce Jenner, the Olympic decathlete who got one too many nosejobs and last year made us all embarrassed with his appearance on ice skates on Fox's frozen rip-off of Dancing with the Stars.

Bruce has many children, one of which is son Brody, who has no career but somehow ranks a swank pad in L.A. He's dated some of my favorite reality show Twinkies, including Kristin Cavallari of Laguna Beach and Nicole Richie of "Help Me, I'm Smaller Than a Weeble!" or whatever her latest series of paparazzi photos is captioned.

Brody now is TV-fake-dating Lauren Conrad, who spun off from Laguna and currently occupies space between other skinny blondes on MTV's The Hills.

Bruce Jenner has a lot of kids. Like, dozens. They're all very pretty. If he got a whistle and taught his kids to sing, they would look like the So-Cal version of the Von Trapps.

One of Kim (above) and Brody's half-siblings is Kourtney Kardashian. She appeared on the reality show on E! that sent rich kids like her and greasy Fabian Basabe to the Rocky Mountains for a fake trail drive. She also attended our favorite university for two years, (before transferring to the University of Arizona).

But it just goes to show you...if you're a blogger who hasn't posted anything in a week, you can come up with the lamest connections to relevance in order to put a half-assed ho pic on the page.