Fast track

The first nationwide commercial I've ever worked on will air this weekend on the "Teen Choice Awards." Ooooh, my! I wonder if Justin Timberlake will see it on the backstage monitor while he sips a brewski. Here's hoping. Not that I'm into Justin Timberlake. Not that I even understand why he's so popular. But I have to grudgingly admit to him having serious pop culture juice.

I saw Talladega Nights mid-week. There's something so ditching-school-cool about seeing a movie on a weeknight, but the movie was a disappointment. Too much race track action, not enough funny. Sacha Baron Cohen, who I love as Ali G. and co., was painfully off-target and stiff as Ricky Bobby's odd French-ish nemesis. Will Farrell felt scripted most of the time, which is bad news since his real magic comes in improvising outside the lines of predictable sit-com jokes. One nice surprise was John C. Reilly's comic chops. He was a pure delight throughout. The hilarious family dinner scene and the over-the-credits outtakes were brilliant. That leaves a couple of hours unaccounted for.

Speaking of improvising, I had an impromptu improv class this week and got to play a character who overuses acronyms in conversation. I surprised myself with how many I squeezed in: TGIF, VIP, DOA, TLC and AARP.

This weekend I plan to stare at my nephew and eat egg salad with mi compadre C-girl. A winning combo.

Pax out.