In article >,
Pennyaline > wrote:

> Ubiquitous wrote:
>
> <snipped to get to the point>
>
> > When we return from commercial, we see a montage of SLop lighting candles,
> > setting up her table scapes, greeting guests, etc. It appears that she has
> > a
> > new family now, with the exception of Kimber. SLop enters stage left with
> > Rafael, a cute young Italian man who reminds me of Joey from "Friends" for
> > this week's "cocktail time!". Not surprisingly, she clumsily flirts with
> > him
> > the entire time. Shockingly, however, she dumps the liquor Rafael used to
> > rinse out their glasses into the sink. Her choice of choking hazard this
> > week
> > are frozen cranberries. SLop apparently looted the set where Land of the
> > Giants was filmed, judging by the size of the martini glasses she used.
> > Mayflower Martini in hand, SLop abandons Rafael to make drinks in the
> > kitchen
> > while she shows us her tablescape. SLop gushes about the usual crappy table
> > runners and stacks of plates, and shows us how she also put table runners
> > on
> > all the chairs and tied them off with ribbons. As usual, there is no room
> > on
> > table for the food, for which I am sure her guests are most thankful. She
> > took
> > the bundt cakes that Kimber took inside at the beginning of the show and
> > stuffed "nose gays" into them. She also used those jello shooters she made
> > earlier as place settings and put cards with everyone's name in them, and
> > of
> > course, she repeated the ol' "leaves wired to stemware" trick. SLop tells
> > us
> > she has to go get dressed before taking off and leaving us with a bucolic
> > montage of food, her guests sitting down, and a guy carving a turkey. SLop
> > introduces the man carving the turkey as Santos, who shoots her a withering
> > gaze. For those who watch Emeril's show, you will recognize Santos as one
> > of
> > his sous chefs. Gee, I wonder what he did to receive this as punishment?
> > SLop
> > and her poor guests begin to eat, but "strangely" enough, we never see
> > anyone
> > actually put any of her Food of Shame into their mouths. SLop exclaims
> > "This
> > turkey is GREAT!!", followed by a sudden cut to a man staring at her in
> > shock
> > and awe. Busted, Sandie!
>
> I was floored by Sandy's passel of Ina-esque generic Eurofriends. My
> word! Who would have thought they she knew them, and that they knew her.
> What on EARTH could they possibly have in common? Why, absolutely
> EVERYONE on Food Network is emulating the Big Fat Contessa, and I don't
> see any good coming of it.
>
> Ina and Michael Chiarello have always had their Rent-A-Friends, but now
> Sandra has them, Giada has them... next thing you know, Rachael will
> have them. They are also borrowing production techniques from BF and
> Chiarello. The background music and camera angles and close ups are pure
> Ina, and they are all just passing them around.
>
> I swear, if this starts happening to Good Eats, I'll boycott. I will!

Alton has had imaginary friends for a LONG time. :-)