ON THE NEXT 90210 S1 E8

THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOMECOMING

Annie (Shenae Grimes) prepares for her driver's test and works out a plan with Ethan (Dustin Milligan) so they can attend the Homecoming dance without officially making it a date. Adrianna (Jessica Lowndes) confesses about her drug use, effectively clearing Naomi's (AnnaLynne McCord) name, and is forced to check into rehab for her addiction. With no one left to turn to, Adrianna finds Navid (Michael Steger) by her side, determined to help her through her pain. At the dance, Ryan (Ryan Eggold) catches Kimberly (guest star Jessica Lucas) buying drugs from a student but is even more surprised to learn that she is an undercover cop. After a conversation with Tabitha (Jessica Walter), Debbie (Lori Loughlin) confronts Tracy (guest star Christina Moore) about her inappropriate behavior towards Harry (Rob Estes), and despite her root canal pain, Silver (Jessica Stroup) and Dixon (Tristan Wilds) dance the night away. Tony Wharmby directed the episode written by Darlene Hunt.

Adrianna is dead

...but hopefully not for good!

Last night's episode ended with shots of the drugged out drama queen splayed on the floor, eyes unblinking, paramedics shoving a needle into her chest, accompanied by Naomi's oh-so-ironic words: "You are dead to me!"

Let's rewind. Naomi had taken the fall for her friend, snatching Adrianna's lipstick locket of coke at the very moment the school was hit with a drug bust. (Yes, cops, drug-sniffing dogs, locker searches -- the works.) Talk about your bad timing, huh? So Naomi goes down expecting Daddy, a rich lawyer, to bail her out. Of course, he bursts that bubble and Naomi tells Adrianna to be a good friend and fess up. She did give Adrianna her lucky necklace earlier. And it did help her score that role in the horror movie. (Also a big help: Annie's painful audition. Does Annie really have to stick with the whole aspiring actress thing? It doesn't do Shanae Grimes any favors.) But Adrianna's mama hits her with a little too many thanks -- thanks for landing a job that saved their house -- and boom! She's back on the stuff, going into arrest and leaving Naomi no choice but to leave that ill-timed message.

That was the good part. Sure, I need to see Naomi do a lot more than get screwed over week after week -- crying isn't her best look -- but that portion of last night's episode proved that maybe, just maybe, the new "90210" class can carry the show. And without resting on the old familiar faces. It was just the right amount of over-the-top craziness I'd expect from "Gossip Girl's" network neighbor. Make Adrianna (Jessica Lowndes) a regular already!

THE STAR OF THE SHOW

Shenae Grimes (born October 24, 1989) is a Gemini Award winning Canadian actress. She currently plays the role of Darcy Edwards on Degrassi: The Next Generation. Grimes will be staring as Annie Wilson in the new 90210 spin off. She acted in a 2006 Coffee Crisp commercial. She was a recurring guest star on the Disney Channel series Naturally, Sadie as Arden Allcott. She is half Irish on her mother's side. She currently resides in Los Angles CA.

Other: Shenae's favourite bands are The Killers, Jet and Hot Hot Heat. Her favourite TV show is Viva La Bam, and her favourite movie is Napolean Dynamite. Shenae would love to meet Bam Margera and the CKY crew, and Jim Morrison. Shenae loves to act and sing and if she wasn't an actress she would love to be in the music business. Prior to Degrassi, she appeared in numerous commercial spots and appeared in a Whoopi Goldberg-produced television pilot for Nickelodeon. Her favourite Degrassi episode to shoot was Foolin'. Besides Degrassi: The Next Generation, Shenae has guest starred as Arden on Naturally Sadie.

Degrassi: TNG
Role: Darcy Edwards
Status: Filming
Coming Back: October 10, 2008

Dead Like Me
Role: Unknown
Status: released in 2009?


Toronto Fashion Television
Role: Shenae Grimes (intern)
Release:In Production Now
Status: Working

Find Out How Dylan & Brandon Return!

In "Model Behavior," the episode of 90210 airing Sept. 30, we learn that Brenda (Shannen Doherty) has been keeping in close contact with twin brother Brandon and ex-boyfriend Dylan. In this ep, Brenda reveals some heretofore unknown details about Brandon's current whereabouts. (When I get his exact latitude and longitude coordinates, I will be sure to share.)

But that's not all. Next week, that wayward Dylan finally phones home again. (He could learn a thing or two from E.T.) Apparently the call is to Brenda's phone, but both Brenda and Kelly end up talking to him, and after the fact, the two girls get into a "tense" convo (most likely because he calls Brenda's phone). Eek!

Any chance this all might be leading up to a catfight? If so, I'd like to place an early and hefty bet on Brenda to come out victorious. (Doherty's 4-inch Christian Louboutins look deadly.)

So what do you think Brandon and Dylan are up to now? And are you still holding out hope that Luke and Jason will appear?

Two of the stars of the new 90210 take the latest cover of Us Weekly.

The mag claims that two of the show’s lead actresses, Shenae Grimes (left) and Jessica Stroup (right), are too thin for TV. Shenae (est. 90 lbs) and Jessica (est. 100 lbs) have reportedly been ordered to gain weight and their costars are planning an intervention since some of them have “never seen them eat”.

Entertainment Weekly also poses a very, very similar question in one of their latest articles: “Are the skinny starlets of 90210 setting a bad example?”

One casting agent who works frequently with The CW reveals to the mag, “I know in discussions at ABC and CBS that ‘too skinny’ is no good. They talk about it as a minus point. But at The CW it’s a different story. They’re trying to pull in the Gossip Girl audience and that’s the image: hyper-skinny models.”

Adrianna Shakes Up the After-School Special

90210 was in desperate need of a bitch injection, and last night I got my wish. Much of this week's episode revolved around the high school musical and a very PG-rated sex storyline, but all of that was rather dull compared to the Gossip Girl-esque bitch maneuver that Adrianna pulled. Near the end of the episode, Annie went to a hotel room with the intention of sleeping with Tom Welling's clone, aka Ty, only to find Adrianna waiting there in a towel. With the bed freshly mussed, Adrianna told Annie that Ty was in the shower, implying that he was cleaning up after a wild sexual rendezvous. Annie ran off to have an emotional breakdown, and that's when Adrianna revealed that no one was in the shower and the entire story was a lie. She even let out a maniacal laugh as she pulled back the shower curtain! Blair Waldorf would be proud.

"What's an After-School Special?" Silver asked earlier in the episode when Annie name-dropped the ABC tradition of yore. To answer that question, all Silver needs to do is look around at the plot lines 90210 has dealt with in its first few episodes. We've seen an alcoholic mother, a teen turning to drugs to escape parental pressures, a mother-daughter sex talk, and a girl dealing with her father's infidelity. It's all seemed very wholesome and, despite the flashy filmmaking and high production values of the series, kind of dated. I'm sure that tone works for some viewers, but I require a bit more scandal with my teen dramas.

Enter Adrianna, who really didn't make much of an impression on me until last night's episode. I expected her storyline to conclude in predictable 90210 fashion, perhaps with a touching mother-daughter conversation and a vow to never again take drugs. I didn't expect her to concoct a scheme to ruin Annie's life, which is infinitely more interesting. 90210 needs someone like Adrianna. It needs a drugged-out mega-bitch who wants nothing more than to destroy the lives of the nice people from Kansas. Such villains make any soap opera more interesting.

The bad news is that the actress who plays Adrianna, Jessica Lowndes, isn't listed as a series regular. This means that her character will likely be shipped off to rehab in the near future, only to return cleaned up and boring. I can feel the After-School Special preparing to take over once again. Personally, I'd rather see Adrianna hang out with the drunken Tabitha and dream up clever ways to make this zip code more entertaining.

90210 Party Jessica Lowndes