My dashing friend Alex has finally succumbed to the siren song of “Shangri-Blog,” and, thus, THE CHEAP LUSH is born.

Look on its posts, ye haughty, and despair.

Perhaps best of all, he’s set up shop at a “something.blogspot.com” address — the people’s blog domain!

There’s a permanent link to Sasha’s site on my sidebar, below. So stop by sometime to grab a goblet full of his pithy wine judgments and witty pop culture asides.

Scott Baio, Ernst Lubitsch, Isaac Hayes, and Manimal have all made appearances there so far… so why not you?

I just wanted to crow that one of my former improv teachers, Ms. Jean Villepique, will have a small guest spot on THE OFFICE this Thursday night (in the episode called “Cocktails“). Apparently, my classmates and I drove her to flee New York City in horror just months after our final class performance.

So far, since landing in Hollywood, Jean’s booked small roles on THE OFFICE and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM (the CURB episode won’t air until later this fall). Not too shabby; those are two of the funniest shows on TV right now. I wish her well.

Another of my former improv teachers, Ms. Rachel Hamilton, recently joined the cast of 30 ROCK for it’s inaugural season. She plays one of the staff writers for the show within the show. Go Rachel! Make Aaron Sorkin your bitch!

From what little I’ve seen, 30 ROCK is pretty funny too, and it features the talents of two of our most hilarious Americans — Hall-of-Famer Alec Baldwin and improv upstart Jack McBrayer.