Happy Mardi Gras!

Talk about a die-hard city that never stops partying, no matter what! Despite the brutal wreckage of Hurricane Katrina, the Big Easy rocks on. Scaling down the usual two weeks of festivities, Mardi Gras will be going off for eight days of fun drunken-ness. However, come Fat Tuesday, it will all be over and time for everyone to go home.

Although the turn out of out-of-towners has shrunk a bit, there is still a whole slew of people collecting beads, drinking beers and having a great ole' time. Man, the thought of it brings me back to my college days. As a professional party girl by the age of seventeen, when mom told me I had to straighten up and go to college, after extensive research, I chose Tulane for obvious reasons - Mardi Gras, baby!

Party-man Howard Stern is still rocking the house with new ideas that always reiterate our freedom of speech. Teaming up with his new TV home, Demand Networks, Stern will launch the Howard Stern Festival, which will display the films that Stern loves and respects.

According to Demand Networks President Robert D. Jacobsen, "the festival gives the next generation of weird but brilliant filmmakers a festival they can call their own. It's part of Stern's ongoing commitment to democratize entertainment," per the Associated Press.

Hey, I don't always agree with what Stern has to say but I love the fact that he never holds back, despite all the many blockades that people have tried to build up against him. He remains true to himself, thus, is well deserving of the title, "King of all Media." We love you, Stern!

Argentina, Colombia, Brazil and Ecuador love "Desperate Housewives" so much that ABC is planning to launch four local Latin American editions of the series, per Hollywood Reporter.

Also in TV world, actress Calista Flockhart and Rachel Griffiths are teaming up to costar in ABC's pilot, "Brothers & Sisters," about grown-up siblings, which will be full of drama - that I can guarantee from my own experience with my never-ending drama-based relationship with my "grown-up" sis.

Finally, Ms. Elizabeth Taylor is celebrating her 74th b-day by donating a mobile medical unit to the New Orleans AIDS Task Force. Being that it is Mardi Gras season, I'd recommend donating more drunk tanks for people to go and chill for a while before their next round of parties & parades.

Cheers to everyone in New Orleans!