EnTEENtainment Weakly does it again

I've been a little down on Entertainment Weekly lately, what with its new unofficial motto ("More pics, less words!") and its increasingly shallow content. Could the mag recover from its recent embarrassment of hyping Harry Potter with its Fall Movie Preview cover? Well, this week's ish is out, and it spotlights...

An "exclusive interview" with Jennie Garth and Shannen Doherty from the new "90210."

First, let me say that I'm already sick of this series, and it hasn't even aired yet. It's practically September, there are dozens of new crappy TV series on the way, yet the only one I'm hearing anything about is this one. If a "90210" revival is the most interesting thing in the new TV season, well, then I guess I'll be catching up on my DVDs this fall.

As for "EW," I'll bet you a Peach Pit milkshake that a sizable chunk of the current staff grew up on the original "Beverly Hills 90210" and retains fond memories. Still, the magazine should ease up a bit. Its obsession with this show isn't quite as annoying as its love for "Gossip Girl" or its faux love-hate relationship with "The Hills," but that's only because we haven't seen "90210" yet and can therefore only guess how bad IT is.

I don't know if there's a connection between the attention to this show and the fact that the same parent company owns both "EW" and the CW network (such a connection apparently didn't prevent the mag from making a fool of itself with the Potter cover just as the movie was being pushed to next July), but you have to wonder. At a time when rumors are buzzing that the "network" is on its way out and stations like my own affiliate are rebranding themselves to remove the CW stigma, one outlet hasn't received the memo. "Entertainment Weekly" seems even more passionate about the CW's survival than the teenage female readership it's apparently cultivating.

I have yet to open the issue, and if the Doherty-Garth interview turns out to be a groundbreaking analysis of the show's prospects and those of the CW as a whole, then I might apologize. But I don't think it's going to amount to much more than a wasted cover and another bit of fluff promoting another "hip" show for the young demo.