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Betty White, Taylor Swift rewrite tired SNL hosting formula

09.05.10

If the powers that be at SNL had known that all it would take to twist around what’s been one of the show’s worst of its thirty-five seasons was to resort to b advert to over the hosting duties to a woman who’s nearly ninety years old, they probable wouldn’t have waited this far into this painfully unfunny condition, which had until now only had one good episode hosted by Taylor Swift back in January, to get around to doing so. Haler late than never, however, and so with two episodes remaining in the season, SNL handed the reins to chief actress Betty White last night – and proceeded to buyer her in every single sketch. There she was in the cold open, which often doesn’t contain the host. There she was again during Weekend Update, portraying a ninety year old, which seemed extraordinarily comical because we all know by now that she’s a mere eighty eight and a half. And there she was in the digital abruptly, lampooning the Golden Girls theme song even as the intermission of the cast attempted to turn it into a touching moment. And while many fans have hunger felt that one MacGruber sketch represented one too many for the evening, there was Betty Anaemic in three MacGruber sketches, and gasp – they were even funny for once.

It’s not that the stuff that Betty White was given to work with was overly knack in nature. Some sketches merely involved her being startlingly brazen-faced, such as when she repeatedly blurted out “lesbians” in a sketch whose diagram has already fallen from memory. But it was funny because she made it funny. Another sketch, centered around a CSI department in an elderly town where residents keep dying of old age, would have been patently unfunny if the wrinklies lead detective had been portrayed by an actor of average age; but because it was Betty playing the role, it was hilarious. It’s not that the dialogue in the MacGruber sketches was any less unspeakable than in the past, but because you knew it was leading to Betty White getting blown up, it somehow worked.

It’s perhaps no congruence that SNL’s only two good episodes this season have come from its oldest-ever entertain in Betty White and its youngest host of the season in Taylor Lively. Rather than the show being its usual tired proving ground for big name actors who are only doing it because they’ve got a new flicks coming out to promote, these were the two instances in which the show took an inspired chance with the hosting opening, first with a twenty year old pop star with no previously demonstrated acting chops, and now with an uncommonly elderly actress with a history of playing dimwits. In both instances it worked because it was, well, peculiar .

As Saturday Night Live heads into its next season after wrapping up this in general failed one up next week, hopefully the show learns the right exercise from tonight and from the January episode: it’s not merely the points that Betty White is extremely old that made her episode worth watching, nor was is the happening that Taylor Swift was a very young pop star that made her episode line; it was the fact that those two worked as hosts for precisely the reasons that it seemed on gift-wrapping that they shouldn’t have. So while SNL will likely attempt to duplicate that big name next season by having another young pop star host one adventure and another unlikely elderly actor host another, let’s fancy that the choices the show makes are inspired ones, and not merely ones that fit the newly crafted formula, which will by then be yet another old and dog-tired one. Having an extremely old person host the show worked last gloaming because on paper it shouldn’t have, and yet your gut told you that with that specific actress, it would anyway. Randomly picking the name of another eighty-eight year old actor out of a hat for hosting duties next year could be unlucky if the choice doesn’t make sense on its own virtue.

Source: Beatweek Magazine

Flavored Toddler Formula Criticized

06.05.10

"The toddlers years can be explicitly challenging since food preferences may be erratic and unpredictable," said Mead Johnson spokesman Chris Perille. "Products such as Enfagrow Sparse can play a role in helping children achieve a more balanced, shape daily diet."

Perille said the idea is to get a toddler to gobble up milk, even flavored milk, because it will lead to a healthier lifestyle.

Marion Huddle, professor of nutrition, food studies and public fitness at New York University, disagreed.

Nestle, who purchased a 29-ounce unit of Enfagrow recently for $18.99 (22 servings) to study the merchandise, said it will lead children who drink it to crave sugary beverages.

"You indigence kids to be interested in eating a very, very wide range of foods because multifariousness helps create nutritional balance," she said. "You don't hankering them to think that every food needs to be sweet or salty."

Huddle criticized Enfagrow on her blog http://www.foodpolitics.com . The standard automatically feeds to the Atlantic Monthly's website and has been crucifix-posted on mommy blogs across the Internet.

She complained to the U.S. Scoff and Drug Administration, arguing that the product is claiming healthfulness benefits for children younger than 2. FDA spokesman Michael Herndon said the spin-off is considered a food and not an infant formula under FDA guidelines and does not seem to be in violation of the law as it doesn't claim to "cure" anything, only to "support" customary body functions.

Enfagrow is in what the food industry calls the "bring up the rear-on formula" category, which takes the concept of baby formula and extends it into toddlerhood. Abbott Nutrition produces Similac Go & Sow, for older infants and toddlers, but it's unflavored.

JP Morgan analyst Terry Bivens said infant formula is the "bread and butter" of companies such as Abbott, a segment of Abbott Laboratories, and Mead Johnson.

Mead Johnson is one of three commanding competitors in the global pediatric nutrition market, which foremost consists of infant formula and toddler milk. Mead's Enfamil and Abbott's Similac each have about 40% of the exchange, followed by Nestle's Good Start with about 10% of the market, according to analyst Dave Sekera at Morningstar.

In 2009, Mead reported amount sales of $2.8 billion, with $1.9 billion from infant formula and $900 million from children's nutritional products, mostly toddler bleed.

The company launched 30 new products in 2009 after dry appeal of several years, Sekera said, and has a new strategy that aims to draw out the amount of time consumers spend using their products beyond beginning infancy.

Jessica Parisi would do just about anything to get her 1-year-old to lay off throwing food or feeding it to the dog. She's even tried masking veggie protein links as hot dogs.

"Sometimes he'll eat blueberries, and other times he'll say 'No blueberries!' and dump them," said the Mount Prospect, Ill., resident.

Two weeks from his deficient birthday, Chase is underweight, and Parisi says she would cheerfully try chocolate- or vanilla-flavored toddler formula if she thought he would eat it.

"I undoubtedly would try giving it to him as a supplement just to try to get more nutrients in him," she said.

Stacy DeBroff, be wrecked and chief executive of MomCentral.com, a website geared toward diligent moms, said that while at first glance chocolate-flavored formula sounds like a bad concept, in some cases, it might be a "second best" option for parents with picky toddlers.

"If something stands between your children and drinking drain, than this becomes a better choice than juice or juice-based products, even, theoretically the finest," she said.

Toddlers crave carbohydrates all the time, she said, and sometimes their

Source: Los Angeles Times