Scores

Sorry--A.J. Simon is right. I had a little bit of a brain freeze and counted Kidman as the cover subject initially instead of Spelling (I had been expecting Kidman, so I guess my shock was too much).

So in light of that, I have changed the scores!

Tori Tori Tori

Although she was in maybe the best movie ever that fell completely off the radar in The House of Yes, not sure that really warrants a cover -- congratulations to everybody that picked her. And unless Snarf is hiding a 2nd team someplace (and at this point, I'm not ruling anything out ;) ) how does her team add to 22?

Us Weekly cover, week 2

I guess I was wrong in thinking that Nicole and Keith would have the large cover photo. Here are the points for each celebrity, based on cover only:

Tori Spelling: 13 (10 for cover, 3 for inset)
Aaron Spelling: 3 (inset)
Nicole Kidman: 3 (inset)
Keith Urban: 3 (inset)
Britney Spears: 3 (inset)
K-Fed: 3 (inset)
Sean Preston: 3 (inset)
Nicole Richie: 3 (inset)
Matt Dillon (!!!!): 3 (inset)

The standings thus far (again, based on cover only):
Red Fraggle: 28 (Tori, Aaron, Kidman, Urban, Britney, K-Fed)
Rudy Huxtable: 28 (Tori, Aaron, Kidman, Urban, Britney, K-Fed)
Isaac: 28 (Tori, Aaron, Kidman, Urban, Britney, K-Fed)
Moogie: 25 (Tori, Kidman, Britney, K-Fed, Urban)
Willis: 22 (Tori, Kidman, K-Fed, Urban)
Mrs. King: 22 (Tori, Kidman, K-Fed, Urban)
Carol Seaver:15 (Kidman, Urban, K-Fed, Richie)
Colt Seavers: 12 (Kidman, Urban, Sean Preston, Britney)
Laura Holt: 12 (Kidman, Urban, K-Fed, Britney)
Snarf: 12 (Kidman, Urban, K-Fed, Britney)
A.J. Simon: 9 (Britney, K-Fed, Sean Preston)
Wilder: 9 (Britney, Kidman, Aaron)
Ponch: 9 (Urban, K-Fed, Kidman)
Spellbound: 9 (Kidman, Urban, K-Fed)
Ferris: 9 (Kidman, Urban, K-Fed)
Blair Warner: 6 (K-Fed, Richie)

A-List changes

As you all know, I created the current A-List based on a website that tracked how often celebrities appeared last year in a number of different magazines. I would like to alter the A-list a bit so that it more accurately reflects our league.

To that end, after week 5 of this season and again after week 10 of this season I want to reconfigure the A-list. Who is on the A-list will be based solely on how many points that celebrity has racked up in our league. So if, after the first five weeks of play, we find that Britney, Aniston, Angelina, Nicole and Lindsay have garnered the most points, they will be the new women's A-list. I will post the new list in ample time for everyone to determine who they want to choose.

However, I have noticed that in the last two weeks a lot of teams have looked pretty similar--not surprising, since everyone is picking the most popular celebrities and we all make the same assumptions based on the same information. I think that one way to alleviate this problem is to make the A-list bigger. What does everyone think about this? There are a few approaches we could take:
Expand both the men's and the women's A-list to some larger number (seven men and seven women, ten men and ten women, whatever)
Expand both lists, but make the women's list larger than the men's list (it seems there is a bit more choice among which women to pick than men)
Keep the A-list the size that it is, but create a B list of some number (perhaps 10 women and 10 men), from which one can only pick two celebrities--so you would have one choice from the A-list of five people and two choices from the B-list of ten people. We could also decide to do a women's B-list but no men's B-list.

Does anyone have any thoughts on which approach might be best? Please respond in the comments!

Women
Nicole Kidman
Britney Spears
Kiera Knightly
Anne Hathaway
Kate Bosworth
Eva Longoria
Sienna Miller

Mens
Keith Urban
KFed
Johnny Depp
Orlando Bloom
Jude Law
Vince Vaugh
Tom Cruise

Wilder's Picks

Women
Britney Spears
Vanessa Minillo
Nicole Kidman
Cameron Diaz
Angelina Jolie
Kate Bosworth
Anne Hathaway

Men
Brad Pitt
Justin Timberlake
Nick Lachey
Aaron Spelling
Keith Urban
Orlando Bloom
Jude Law

Blogger time-stamp

Blogger's time stamp is totally off. As of this post it is past midnight. (12:01 am to be exact.)

Team Red Fraggle, Week 2

Women
Cameron Diaz
Marcia Cross
Nicole Kidman
Tori Spelling
Naomi Watts
Eva Longoria
Britney Spears

Men
Justin Timberlake
Keith Urban
Aaron Spelling
Tom Cruise
Kevin Federline
Nick Lachey
Vince Vaughn

Isaac, Your Bartenders, Week 2

Britney Spears
Cameron Diaz
Anna Nicole Smith
Tori Spelling
Marcia Cross
JonBenet Ramsey
Nicole Kidman

Keith Urban
Brandon Routh
Aaron Spelling
Orlando Bloom
Brad Pitt
KFed
Justin Timberlake

A note on scoring

When Holt and I were scoring this week, we had two difficult decisions to make:

There was a photo of Janet Jackson, and in the background was a blow-up of the Us Weekly magazine on which she was on the cover, which also featured an inset of Jennifer Aniston. We weren't sure whether this should count as an Aniston photo.

There was also a photo of Paul McCartney, with an inset of a blow-up of his hand from the original photo. We weren't sure whether this should count as one photo of McCartney or two.

In both the Aniston and the McCartney example, I decided to count both of these as photos. I think it is easier to have a simple bright-line rule for future scoring. So if it is a photo of someone, it counts. (No one had chosen Janet, but had they, it would have counted as two photos of Janet, not just one.)

However, for anyone scoring in the future: advertisements do NOT count. I think that goes without saying, but wanted to make sure everyone knows.

Some thoughts after our first week

Both Holt and I scored this week and there were very few instances in which we got different results--when we did, we went back and triple-checked.

Because this is a head-to-head league you will see instances in which someone does better than almost everyone else, but happens to play someone who does even better and ends up with a loss. This happened to Wilder this week (and has happened to me countless times in fantasy football). She tied me for fourth place with the most points, but still took a loss because she played against the totally dominant Rudy Huxtable.

Rudy and Carol Seaver totally ran away with this week, with 83 and 79 points, respectively. No one else was even close.

If you picked Britney this week, you're so lucky (she's our star). She came in with 29 points. The next highest point-getters were Sean Preston (17), K-Fed and Aniston (each with 13). Everyone who picked Britney won this week (Rudy, Carol Seaver, Spellbound, Isaac, Colt Seavers).

There was no celebrity chosen by every team, although two were chosen by all but one team: K-Fed and Nick Lachey. The same team failed to choose both: Isaac, Your Bartender. In fact, Isaac also was the player to choose the most celebrities who scored zero points this week. But he still managed to win--in a one point match (our only this week). Why? He picked Brit! Poor Willis Jackson was the unlucky one-point loser.

Ferris Bueller might be the luckiest player this week. (Of course, when is Ferris not lucky?) He only got 32 points--way lower than anyone else who participated--but he managed to play the one person who didn't submit a team (internet went out, couldn't access it in time). So he still gets a win.

Good luck in week 2!

Overall Standings after Week 1

Standings:
1. Rudy Huxtable: 1-0-0, 84 points
2. Carol Seaver: 1-0-0, 80 points
3. Colt Seavers: 1-0-0, 63 points
4. Red Fraggle: 1-0-0, 59 points
5. Isaac, Your Bartender: 1-0-0, 58 points
6. Spellbound, 1-0-0, 56 points
7. Ponch, 1-0-0, 50 points
8. Ferris Bueller: 1-0-0, 32 points
9. Laura Ingalls Wilder, 0-1-0, 59 points
10. Willis Jackson, 0-1-0, 56 points
11. Mrs. King, 0-1-0, 51 points
12. Moogie, 0-1-0, 43 points
13. Blair Warner, 0-1-0, 40 points
14. Laura Holt, 0-1-0, 36 points
15. A.J. Simon, 0-1-0, 36 points
16. Snarf, 0-1-0, 0 points

Week 1: Head-to-Head results

Week One, Head to Head (winner in bold):
Laura Holt (36 points) vs. Red Fraggle (59 points)
Laura Ingalls Wilder (59 points) vs. Rudy Huxtable (84 points)
Isaac, Your Bartender (58 points) vs. Willis Jackson (56 points)
Moogie (43 points) vs. Ponch (50 points)
Carol Seaver (80 points) vs. Blair Warner (40 points)
Colt Seavers (63 points) vs. A.J. Simon (36 points)
Snarf (0 points) vs. Ferris Bueller (32 points)
Spellbound (56 points) vs. Mrs. King (51 points)

AJ SIMON WEEK 2:

I've only looked at the cover and Fashion Police, but I don't think it's a good sign when my A-Lister wears bad clothes and Colt's A-Lister(who, according to Pulitzer Prize-winner (!?!?!?) Robin Givhan, also isn't the snappiest dresser) gets on the cover and has about a million inside pictures as well.

Britney Spears
Angelina Jolie
Scar Jo
Jennifer Garner
Kirsten Dunst
Jenny McCarthy
Katherine McPhee

Brad Pitt
Vince Vaughan
Kevin Federline
Sean Preston Spears-Federline
Nick Lachey
Taylor Hicks
Brandon Routh

Celebrity points, week one

Here is how the celebrities scored this week. If a celebrity isn't listed, s/he had zero points (I only listed celebrities chosen by someone in this league--I am not crazy enough to count points for people no one has picked).

Cristina Aguilera: (-2)
Jessica Alba: 2
Jennifer Aniston: 13
Mischa Barton: 3
Kate Beckinsdale: 3
Kate Bosworth: 3
Sandra Bullock: 4
Jim Carrey: 5
Tom Cruise: 1
Clare Danes: 3
Kevin Federline: 13
Sean Preston Spears Federline: 17
Nellie Furtado: 1
Adrian Grenier: 3
Ann Hathaway: 7
Taylor Hicks: 1
Katie (Kate) Holmes: 1
Jay-Z: 1
Scarlett Johannsen: 2
Angelina Jolie: 3
Nicole Kidman: 10
Beyonce Knowles: 2
Nick Lachey: 4
Heath Ledger: 1
Jared Leto: 2
Lindsay Lohan: 6
Eva Longoria: 2
Jenny McCarthy: 2
Paul McCartney: 2
Vanessa Minillo: 2
Mary-Kate Olsen: 1
Brad Pitt: 2
Jeremy Piven: 1
Keanu Reeves: 1
Denise Richards: 2
Nicole Richie: 3
Gavin Rossdale: 1
Adam Sandler: 2
Charlie Sheen: 2
Ashlee Simpson: (-3)
Britney Spears: 29
Gewn Stefani: 2
Meryl Streep: 2
Keith Urban: 3
Vince Vaughn: 6
Reese Witherspoon: 2

Week 2 match-ups; week 1 results coming soon

The match-ups for Week 2:
Laura Holt v. Laura Ingalls Wilder
Red Fraggle v. Mrs. King
Issac, Your Bartender v. Rudy Huxtable
Moogie v. Willis Jackson
Carol Seaver v. Ponch
Blair Warner v. Colt Seavers
A.J. Simon v. Snarf
Ferris Bueller v. Spellbound

We are tabulating the results from this week and will post them as soon as they are done. FYI--we have decided that we need two scorers a week. Otherwise, there is no way to know if the first scorer made any mistakes. Holt and I are scoring this week. Holt has offered to score next week. We need a back-up scorer for her (I will be away and unable to help). Volunteers?

Week 1 cover and interim standings; Week 2 accessory

This week's cover:
Based only on the cover, (13 points for Britney, because of photo on cover AND an inset; 10 points each for K-Fed and Sean Preston; 3 points each for Aniston and Kidman), here are our current standings:
Rudy Huxtable: 26 points (Britney, K-Fed, Kidman)
Carol Seaver: 26 points (Britney, K-Fed, Kidman)
Colt Seavers: 23 points (Britney, K-Fed)
Spellbound: 23 points (Britney, K-Fed)
Willis Jackson: 20 points (K-Fed, Sean Preston)
Laura Ingalls Wilder: 16 points (K-Fed, Aniston, Kidman)
Isaac, Your Bartender: 16 points (Britney, Kidman)
Red Fraggle: 16 points (K-Fed, Aniston, Kidman)
Ponch: 13 points (K-Fed, Aniston)
Mrs. King: 13 points (K-Fed, Aniston)
A.J. Simon: 10 points (K-Fed)
Ferris Bueller: 10 points (K-Fed)
Laura Holt: 10 points (K-Fed)
Moogie: 10 points (K-Fed)
Blair Warner: 10 points (K-Fed)
Snarf: 0 points

Accessory of the Week
Next week (week 2) the accessory of the week will be:
Pigtails. Not ponytails, but pigtails. As in Red Fraggle's best hairstyle.

If anyone wants to volunteer to take on week 2's scoring (you can then pick week 3's accessory), just post or let me know.

Matt Damon
Kevin Federline
Brad Pitt
Vince Vaughan
Paul McCartney
Nick Lachey
Gavin Rossdale
Jessica Simpson
Vanessa Minnillo
Kirsten Dunst
Jennifer Garner
Scarlet Johannsen
Heather Mills
Angelina Jolie

Wilder's Picks

Women:
Jennifer Aniston
Angelina Jolie
Nicole Richie
Denise Richards
Ashlee Simpson
Jessica Alba
Nicole Kidman

Men:
Brad Pitt
Nick Lachey
Charlie Sheen
Heath Ledger
Orlando Bloom
Vince Vaughan
K-Fed

-Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Isaac, Your Bartenders, Week 1

Women
Britney Spears
Kate Bosworth
Anne Hathaway
Meryl Streep
Keira Knightley
Claire Danes
Nicole Kidman

Men
Orlando Bloom
Brandon Routh
Kevin Spacey
Adrien Grenier
Jay-Z
Ben Roethlisberger
Johnny Depp

Team Red Fraggle, Week One

Women
Jennifer Aniston
Angelina Jolie
Ashlee Simpson
Denise Richards
Nicole Kidman
Katie Holmes
Beyonce Knowles

Men
Brad Pitt
Kevin Federline
Nick Lachey
Keith Urban
Perry Taylor
Vince Vaughn
Jared Leto

Carol Seaver, Week One

Women
Britney Spears
Angelina Jolie
Nicole Richie
Denise Richards
Mischa Barton
Nicole Kidman
Eva Longoria

Men
Tom Cruise
Nick Lachey
Vince Vaughn
K-Fed
Ashton Kutcher
Keith Urban
Ben Affleck

Posted by Red Fraggle for Carol Seaver, who is away and unable to get to the internet.

Answers for Rudy

The magazine is released on Fridays. We decided teams had to be set by the previous Sunday to avoid any potential leaking of the cover star.

There won't be a special item this week. I will score this week, so I'll announce what the special item will be for next week when I announce the scores.

Week One Matches

Laura Holt vs. Red Fraggle
Laura Ingalls Wilder vs. Rudy Huxtable
Isaac, Your Bartender vs. Willis Jackson
Moogie vs. Ponch
Carol Seaver vs. Blair Warner
Colt Seavers vs. Eric Younger
Snarf vs. Ferris Bueller
Spellbound vs. Mrs. King

Our league: an introduction

Okay, I have finally gotten my act together enough to think about this league, discuss with some others, and send an e-mail out about it.

As you all know, we have been thinking about starting a fantasy league centered around Us Weekly magazine, inspired by a column by the Sports Guy. The rules will be pretty simple:

Everyone who wants to play will create a team of seven male and seven female celebrities. There won't be a draft, so if I want Jessica Simpson and five other people do too, we can all have her. (This is much like the Real World/Road Rules Challenge fantasy league in that way, for those of you who have played.)

However, there will be an "A-list" of celebrities. This list will consist of five male and five female celebrities. Each team can only have ONE male and ONE female celebrity from the A-list on their team. (If you don't want a celebrity from the A-list, you don't have to have one.) The remainder of your team can be made up of any celebrities not on the A-list.

A List
Lindsay Lohan
Paris Hilton
Jennifer Aniston
Britney Spears
Jessica Simpson
Brad Pitt
Tom Cruise
George Clooney
Jake Gyllenhaal
Matthew McConaughey

The scoring will be as follows--you will get a certain number of points for photos of your celebrity that appear in Us Weekly magazine.

Cover: 10 point
Cover inset: 3 points
Inside photo: 1 point
"Look of the week": 3 points
"Who wore it best" winner: 3 points
"Who wore it best" loser: -3 points
Fashion police: -3 points

We are also going to have something called "accessory of the week." Every week, the scorer for the week before (one person who will go through the magazine and tally everyone's scores--I'll do this for the first week, and no one is required to volunteer for this, although it is certainly welcome) will get to choose the accessory of the week. It can be anything the scorer wants--large white purse, sunglasses, something with the Louis Vuitton logo, anything. You get an extra point each time your celebrity sports that accessory.

The league will be head-to-head, so each week you will be pitted against a new rival (one-on-one). You will get points for that week, and whichever person has the most gets the win. We will keep track of cumulative points, but those will only matter in the case of a tie.

We will also have a playoff system, although we will determine how long that will run once we know the number of teams we have.

We would like the season to start on Monday, June 19. Teams will need to be set by Sunday night every week, so you would have to choose your initial team by Sunday, June 18. You can add or drop players as many times as you would like throughout the season, but those drops and adds must be done by Sunday, or else they won't count until the next week. If you don't make any adds or drops by Sunday, you will just have the same team as the week before.

We have set up a blog for the sole purpose of people posting their teams for the week. Don't be afraid of the blog! It is just as easy as sending an e-mail with your team out--the only difference is that this way we have a central place where everyone can look at everyone else's team. It is super-easy to use, and I can walk you through it if you need help. Once you e-mail me that you want to play, I will send you an invite to the blog (if you want me to use a different e-mail address, just let me know), and then you can post your team. The web address is http://www.celebweeklyfantasyleague.blogspot.com/ and this e-mail will be posted there.

So--who is in? I think this will be really simple (despite the length of this e-mail) and a lot of fun. To add to the fun, we would like to have a $20 buy-in.

Please let me know if you are going to be playing, and feel free to send this along to others I may have forgotten.