Where the Girls Are on TV: Chelsea Handler, Eliza Dushku, Mariska Hargitay, Emily Blunt

I feel like this week I should really call this column, 'Where the Girls Aren’t on TV,' or 'Where the Girls Won’t Be on TV.' Because let’s face it, it was slim pickings for us ladies out there with all these reruns and lack of Sapphic sisters on the tube, and with all the talk of cancellations --cough Guiding Light --and promising shows won’t get picked up -- cough The Farm -- things are looking a little sparse lately.

So here’s where the girls weren’t on TV. They weren’t on Greys. Nope. Why? It was a rerun. As if Callie and Arizona could move any slower, we’ll have to wait and see if these ladies can do more than just get down. We all know we’re waiting to see them get down and dirty. Come on. Just a little. Alas, we’ll have to wait till next week.

Though Showtime has reportedly passed on a pilot of the Ilene Chaiken’s new show, there is still a chance that another network could pick up the show. I mean, who wouldn’t? Women. Prison. Think of all the hot inmate rendezvous! All the jumpsuits. Not turned on yet? Yeah, me neither. Though I was skeptical about the premise, I am a bit heart bruised that I won’t be able to see Famke Janssen possibly get it on with a lady. Ever since she played Jean-Grey for the X-men movie series, I have never been the same.

For now, we’ll just have to be content with the one interrogation tape of a character Sho.com has been releasing each. At least someone was smart and knew that shutting down The L Word cold turkey for its viewing population would ensue havoc, so think of them as nicotine patches to slowly pull yourself away from the addiction. I personally watch them with the hope that Lucy Lawless will somehow play bad cop, and really interrogate someone like I know she can. In my wildest dreams of course. Yours too. 

The only substantial amount of girls this week came on MTV’s Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Duel II premiered with 4 out lesbians, more than a challenge has ever seen. The challenge gathers old cast members from various seasons’ reality shows, The Real World and Road Rules and smashes them together to compete on a deserted island for lots and lots of money, but most importantly pride. Just kidding. It’s really all about the money. This season the challenge has sent 26 competitors to the island of New Zealand, and has thrown in one more twist. The usual team-based competitions have been eliminated, and this time, it’s everyone for themselves. 

Of the 13 women cast, four are lesbians. Ruthie, best known for her drinking habits on The Real World Hawaii, Rachel from Road Rules: Campus Crawl, a challenge veteran who had a hot thing going on with one of the straight girls last season, Aneesa, who liked to walk around naked on The Real World Chicago, and Brooke, from The Real World Denver who’s best known for having meltdowns period. I personally think she can have as many tantrums as she wants as long as she keeps talking in that southern drawl.

Though the first episode ended with Aneesa possibly facing elimination, I have high hopes that the loud-mouthed firecracker will make it out unscathed. Knowing their personalities, I doubt any romantic possibilities amongst these four ladies ahead, but then again, stranger things have happened on this island. My prediction is rather than keeping it to themselves, these ladies might be better off with a fling with a girl that might find herself curious one night. Cue Katy Perry. 

In other good news, Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Law and Order SVU will be renewed next season, with one possible hitch.

EW notes that while the show has been renewed, stars Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni haven't re-upped their contracts yet. Both actors are at the end of two-year deals that make them among the better-compensated stars on TV -- a reported $300,000 plus per episode. Negotiations are underway with both actors. Hargitay was recently written out of one episode due to a collapsed lung and subsequently sent multiple women to the hospital due to Olvia Benson withdrawal, so I have no doubt that NBC will do all it can to keep its stars. 

Although TV for ladies has been rather slow lately, there is still good news for girls elsewhere, like Allure magazine. The magazine asked five girls, including Dollhouse’s Eliza Dushku, Top Chef’s Padma Lakshmi, and Chelsea Lately’s Chelsea Handler to bare it all and see what they had to say about self esteem and body issues and yes, even the gorgeous ones have them. In her interview Dushku dishes that she likes stripping down to her skivvies and Ugg boots in her trailer when she eats lunch. Anyone else wanna take a visit to the set of Dollhouse later?

You can read and see the rest here. 

And following the trend this week, my favorite girls on TV this week, were in fact not on TV, but on the silver screen.

Slated to be this year’s Juno, minus the whole pregnant teenager thing, Sunshine Cleaning starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt is about two sisters, still dealing as adults with the aftermath of their mother’s death when they were children, are stuck in dead-end jobs. Then one of them gets the idea to stop cleaning rich people's houses for a living, and to start a business cleaning up crime scenes instead. Quite the heart-felt family business. And you think I’m being sarcastic.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the movie, but it turned out to be charming, and delightful. Adams does well at playing characters that are both somewhat tragic and yet full of promise and possibility. Blunt sold me on her ability to play an unreliable and wild younger sister in search of herself in all the wrong places.

I won’t spoil it for you all, but for a second I thought Blunt was going to relive her My Summer of Love days with one of the characters. Let’s just say, that in one particular scene, I wasn’t aware just how sexy biting someone’s candy necklace could ever be. It was enough to make two lesbians drop their jaws and squirm uncomfortably in their seats.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to buy some candy necklaces. 

Miss the last Where the Girls Are? Read it here!