Paging Tenzing Norkay

      Did anyone see Christina Ricci on Jay Leno tonight? Normally I can't abide Leno more than a second, but Ricci's such a little cutie, and, hell, we know Doctor J has a soft spot for such cuties. I should say, I've never seen Ricci in an interview scenario before, so I had very little idea what to expect; that said, it's hard to tell whether Ricci was just lit tonight, or if she is in fact simply one of the dopiest young ladies I've ever seen. (I think I'm slightly more inclined to the former than the rather.) I can't remember specific quotes, but the wee thing was spouting some of the densest things without even a hint of irony or self-awareness, to the point that I'm watching the screen with a facial expression I'm sure roughly comparable to that of man who's just had his jaw tied down with an anvil. She was singing the praises of Dr. Phil. She's been a relative shut-in of late watching television shows because, she claims, that's what people who are uneducated do in America. She was, in short, bewilderingly clueless. Let's put it this way: she seemed far more intelligent as Wednesday Adams than she did tonight. This surprised me a bit with this, because she's always seem rather intelligent with her performances, so either the lass is an acting savant, or she was in Happy Land. Watching her, though, I was struck by the amount of innate charm she has; despite seeming migraine-inducingly dippy, something in her giddiness and openness with her own silliness suggested a kind of childish innocence that was somehow disarming. She just seemed to be having so much fun, especially craning over enthusiastically in the next segment to watching in amazement the inventions of a triplet of preteens. The strange thing is, she made dopeyness cute, probably in much the same way that my late cat Blake did. She couldn't have found pretense with directions and a sherpa. Yes, I'm shaking my own head in disbelief probably as much as any of you are now. Yes, it was absolutely goofy, but it was also absolutely disarming. Okay, so I have probably given this young lady too much credit in the past (gee, as if that's never happened before....), but dear oh dear please don't say I'm in progressing years becoming one of those chaps that starts falling for adorable airheads. Oh well. I guess I'll have to hope she was just lit tonight, but if not, that's no biggie either; instead, I will love her and I will pet her and I will feed her and I will call her George....

(And if any of you don't understand that last reference, you're probably not goofy enough yourself.)