I finally watched Deal or No Deal for the first time, and the last time. I have heard friends and co-workers talk about this show for a year and decided I better check it out. I expected to see the contestants challenged with some "Millionaire" type questions but instead found out this game took about as much brain power as the "Find the word" games that an 8 year old could handle with ease. I thought the contestant made a good decision to take the $99,000 and run. Howie Mandel looks a little creepy with the bald head, but he is a likable guy. The models were for the most part pretty hot. The funniest part of the show was the bad acting by the models as they peeked in the case, and then overreacted with a sad look. Not great, not terrible, just your average show that somehow stays on the air, while brilliant shows like Arrested Development get canned.

Most of us first saw Katie Holmes playing the cute tomboy Joey Potter on Dawson's Creek. What strikes me about her is that she made some very good decisions early in her career. After the early success of Dawson's Creek, she starred in 2 typical high school films; Disturbing Behavior and Teaching Mrs. Tingle. These scripts were average at best, and Katie's performance was adequate. Instead of continuing down this road of mediocre films, Katie instead chose 3 slightly off-beat films. Go, Wonder Boys, and The Gift were all well written films with outstanding casts. Katie was excellent in all 3 of these films, holding her own on screen with the likes of Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Robert Downey Jr., Sarah Polley, and Timothy Olyphant. She has a strong presence on the big screen, and she always looks stunning. Her risky move in The Gift (outside by the truck) should also be commended as they did not appear to be gratuitous sex scenes. Her career has been very good, but I believe it could have been better had she continued to choose her roles wisely. I think she is a talented, beautiful actress. I've seen everything she has done, with the exception of First Daughter (even as a fan of her, I didn't think I could suffer through this film). Fast forward to today, I have no idea what is in store for her. I hope she is happy and I would like to see her on film and especially on television again.