Lucy Truce-y

As a lifelong "I Love Lucy" fan, I can remember being disgustingly fascinated watching "Here's Lucy" as a kid, as well as reruns of "The Lucy Show." Gone was the glamorous-if-past-her-prime Hollywood beauty, replaced by a chain-smoking broad who looked the mother of your fifth-grade friend whose mom had him waaaay later in life. I've always felt somewhat guilty about my repulsion -- and don't get me started on "Stone Pillow" -- only now I feel even worse knowing that Lucy feared we didn't like her anymore, either. (I take it all back, I love Lucy!) Read HERE.

I Love (Scary) Lucy

Lucille Ball’s hometown had a problem: Its ‘scary’ first statue of the comedy legend became a massive tourist attraction. Will changing it to a "good" one play out like a situation comedy all its own? My pal Tim Teeman finds out HERE.

Here's Mammy

!

Mother Knows Best

This old photo someone posted on Facebook of Lucille Ball with her children, Lucie and Desi Arnaz Jr., made me smile. 

'Stone Pillow 2'

Seen on my friend Scott's Facebook wall.

UPDATE: Sorry I didn't make this clear. The word "cheap" is an inside joke between my friend Mark and me, so I posted it because it was used in the headline and I thought he would laugh, not because I thought this was new news. Lucy's remains have been lovingly moved to her hometown of Jamestown, N.Y., which you can read about HERE.

Here's Madonna

No legs to stand on

When it comes to her homage to Marlene at the "MDNA" premiere tonight at the Paris Theatre, Madonna came up a tad short. It was more like:

In fairness, though, I should note that it could have been much worse: Madge could have pulled a "Stone Pillow."

Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds

  Interesting reel of how the media covered the death of Lucille Ball, 24 years ago today. "I Love Lucy" is undoubtedly one of the best sitcoms of all time -- Bob Hope got it right when he told Lucy that people would remember her long after they were gone -- even if those idiots who responded to the Vanity Fair/"60 Minutes" poll in December didn't. With that kind of short-sightedness, I guess it shouldn't really surprise me that the so-called TV critic at Salon.com is now claiming that "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" wasn't actually funny. Trust me: It is, it was and it will always be. They don't write shows like that anymore, even if the Twitterverse is too simple to appreciate them.

And speaking of funny redheads ...

Carol Burnett -- aka Lucy's heir-apparent -- turned 80 today!