Woohoo! It’s Friday! I don’t know about you, but I am in a great mood! Beers tonight and no alarm clock tomorrow morning, baby. Sounds like perfection to me.

But there is something else adding a little swing in my step this morning (yes, I just said that and yes, I did have a venti Starbucks this morning): rumor has it the writer’s strike is o-v-e-r, OVER. At least everyone thinks it is.

According to Disney CEO Michael Eisner (who, I guess, is part of this whole thing), “a deal has been made, and [the writers will] be back to work very soon.” The deal still has to be presented to the writers, which will happen on Saturday, but Eisner is quite confident it will be accepted.

Which gives me the perfect excuse to get my drink on tomorrow night.

This is the best news I have heard since Britney got out of the hospital and started flaunting her panties all over town…again. I will finally have something to look forward to when I come home from work. I can finally stop watching the train wreck that is Real World/Road Rules Gauntlet #3,476. I can finally feel better about paying for my DVR since it will actually have something to record.

Think of all the glorious TV we will have back!

Grey’s Anatomy: I actually had to Wiki this since it has been so long, but last time we saw the staff at Seattle Grace Dr. Bailey was experiencing major marital problems, McDreamy was moving onto the nurse with the great smile, Izzie told O’Malley’s mom about the affair and Meredith was probably bitching about her “awful” upbringing. How excited are you to find out what happens next? Will Miranda’s husband leave her? Will Meredith finally realize what a sexy man she has and stop mucking it up with her non-existent-yet-she-thinks-they-are-huge issues?

The Office: A Thursday spent without Jim Halpert is not worth having. Even if the bar by my house has $1 pitchers. Just the idea that I can have Jim, Dwight and the entire Dunder Mifflin office back in my life is enough to make me want to get up on my desk and dance (something I usually reserve for Saturday tequila nights).

Gossip Girl: Blair and Nate. Nate and Chuck. Nate and Serena. I haven’t slept in weeks worrying about my friends on the Upper East Side. I considered taking some sleeping pills to get me through, but the Cirque Lodge is currently booked through ’09 and I didn’t want to risk the addiction. Thank God I can finally find out what is going on and sleep peacefully once again.

The Oscars: After the less than thrilling SAG awards and the rumors that the Grammy’s may be shot to hell as well, I started getting a bit nervous about the fate of the Academy Awards.

What the hell is Joan Rivers going to do?

What am I going to talk about for the entire month of March (besides my birthday, cough cough)?

Thank goodness I can stop stressing; with the strike ending the Oscars and all their fashion glory are a comin’.

The only bad news in this whole thing is that it might be up to two weeks until any of our shows return. After months, however, another two weeks is nothing. Just enough time to finish my book, clean my apartment and get my DVR ready for its 2008 comeback.

And that is that the stupid writer’s strike might go on for stupid four more months.

What to think about that strike? It’s tough. And the insides of me are dueling like one of those famous New York black and white cookies. Mmmm. I really could go for one of those right now.

There are two sides of me vis a vis the writer’s strike. Side one is in sympathy with the Writer’s Guild. This is the side that moved to New York City eight months ago expecting to “make it.” This is the one who self-righteously stays home Friday nights to perfect her “art” and ends up watching Bring It On Again on ABC Family.

Then there’s the rabid Lost fan side. The rabid Lost fan side just wants new episodes of Lost. And she doesn’t care if they’re written by a thousand monkeys at a thousand typewriters. She just wants to know who the Oceanic Six are (Yes, that was a Lost reference. Feel free to look it up).

The strike is tough on all of us. It’s tough that Celebrity Apprentice exists. It’s tough to see the People’s Choice Awards become more of a travesty than it already is. It’s tough that Tila Tequila chose Bobby. That has nothing to do with the writer’s strike, but it sucks.

So, yeah, maybe I just wrote this rather contentless article to fill the void of no television. But at least I’m not reading it.

Best. Easy. Nachos. EVAH.

Brooke Shields proves she’s still hotter than most of us will ever be.

You know how Bush is all confident that we’re totally kicking ass over there in Afghanistan? Well…

Sara Silverman is f*&cking Matt Damon. I’m giving her a virtual high-five.

Want your movie to flop? Cast Jessica Alba.

OMG. The writer’s strike may truly be over soon…and hopefully answering my prayers by making sure American Gladiators dies a quick, performance-enhanced death.

How to look at the female voter.

Ryan Gosling can do no wrong. Ever. Seriously.

In a complete anomaly of the writers’ strike, House was a new episode this Tuesday and will be new AGAIN (!) next week.

Aside from the weird feeling I got from watching a Christmas-themed episode when it wasn’t actually Christmastime, I thoroughly enjoyed watching House get his Scrooge on.

Since no one actually watches the episodes for the “medical mysteries” that make up the plotlines, I’m going to jump right in to making commentary about the new medical team.

Taub: It’s still kind of an enigma to me why this dude is on the show, to be honest. As an actor, he doesn’t impress me much, and as a character, he impresses me even less. I mean, what is his purpose? What is House going to do with a middle-aged plastic surgeon? My guess is he’ll develop some kind of illicit relationship with Thirteen.

Thirteen: Thirteen is obviously the new Cameron, but I’m not sure I like her as much. She seems to have less attitude (although I did do a little cheer for her in this episode when she slammed House’s laptop closed in his face). Maybe she just annoys me so much because she is both gorgeous and too smart for her own good.

Kutner: Aside from the fact that I think Kal Penn is smoking hot, Kutner is my favorite doctor of the new crew. He’s sassy, he’s intelligent in a really sexy way, and I can see him giving House some major trouble in the future, which always makes for good TV.

So, hopefully the season will begin to pick up again now that the Contest that Wouldn’t End has finally ended. I still prefer Chase (oh, that accent), Cameron, and Foreman to the new team, but…only time will tell.

• From the jetway to the runway: Celebrity Airport Fashion

• How many episodes remain before your favorite shows go dark?

• Adrian Grenier has quite a package.

• If you don’t know this band, you should.

• The Top 10 Celebrity Interview Disasters

• Wine tips with Dr. Steve Brule

• Britney’s Blender cover is an amazing photoshop achievement.

• The Top 5 things that shouldn’t be gummy

• Ellen Page and Sarah Jessica Parker are Smart People in this new trailer.

On to the drama.

So last night was all about Bailey, who we usually know nothing about. But it’s never been more clear that her marriage is in shambles because of her obsession with her job.

Now at first, when her baby boy Tucker rolled in on a stretcher, I was ready to blame the husband. I mean, was that some kind of desperate and sick attempt to get some attention? Thankfully not, but I wasn’t cool with him blaming Bailey for the whole incident. I mean, dude, sh!t happens. I’m hoping that the healer was able to calm down the marital conflict there.

And while we’re on the subject, the healer woman interested me. I know most people probably thought her energy, shakra mumbo-jumbo was total bull but I wouldn’t write the practice off. Just think about how therapeutic yoga and meditation are — both of which are based upon using the body to increase well-being. It’s deep stuff.

And something even more deep is the Merideth/Derek fiasco. Is it all really coming to an end? Does McDreamy really adore another woman? I seriously doubt that he’s done with Mer Mer; feelings do not just disappear. But I do think he needs to move on and knows it. Merideth is like a dead end. He wants to take their relationship to the next level and she’s too self-involved to go with him. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned how much I can’t stand her. McDreamy wants to marry you!!! Get over yourself. Maybe the healer will rid her of her stone of a heart.

I have a feeling this healing woman is going to be in the next few episodes, which I’m kind of excited about because I need to know what happened to Karev when he was growing up.

The plot thickens.

With the writer’s strike still going strong, the WGA has denied invitations to prepare material for the Golden Globes on January 13 and the Oscars in February. If both events didn’t seem crappy enough last time, they should be craptacular this time around.

(See what happens when you don’t get pros to make jokes for you?)

This situation raises a red flag for the Oscars in particular. With Jon Stewart returning as host it’s assumed that he will have to “wing it” without any writer’s assistance. Sure, Stewart can handle a fair share of improvisation – but an entire show? That’s a tall order.

The continuing battle between the WGA and bigwig execs is raising new issues every day the strike stands. Who’s to blame at this point: the execs for not giving in or the writer’s for holding out? Getting paid what you deserve is a fair enough reason to strike; when the average working WGA writer makes more than a family doctor, the reason becomes questionable. In the writer’s defense, the execs are making money hand-over-fist at their expense – but that’s not the biggest problem, here.

The biggest problem is the IATSE getting the shaft.

IATSE crews have lost approximately $210 million dollars from the strike – that’s close to double the amount the strike is costing writers. When a sacrifice for a good cause jeopardizes the other hard-workers in the industry, is it in fact a good cause by definition? Is the WGA any better than the big-money execs they’re against if their own crews lose out due to their irresponsible actions?

Whether it’s the network heads or the Union, somebody needs to listen to reason and put an end to this madness. End the strike and strike a bargain already.

The guys over at funnyordie.com have gotten James Franco and Mila Kunis in on their videos and had them play the parts of Justin Bobby and Audrina.

A commentary on the writer’s strike or just plain hilarious? What do you think?

Carson Daly has committed the ultimate crime: resuming production on Last Call with Carson Daly.Daly has also defied the ongoing writer’s strike – but that’s hardly his biggest offense.

Does anybody really watch Last Call with Carson Daly? It’s on at some ungodly hour next to weight-loss and fly-fishing gear infomercials…and since when did Daly become a source of comedy? The show has been on the air since 2002 and I still don’t know one soul who watches it.

Since his writing staff is M.I.A. Daly has solicited outside help from family and friends, asking them in an email to submit him jokes that will be used in an upcoming skit.

Call Carson Daly’s joke hotline (818-260-5107) and leave the stupidest knee-slapper you can muster – no matter how bad the joke is, it can’t be any worse of a joke than his career has become.