Skins

• Hey, it's the new cast of Skins! — PopSugarUK
• Check out videos and images from the Michael Cera/Fred Armisen/Charlyne Yi project Paper Hearts. — Cinematical
• This post about the season premiere of Damages is full of love for Glenn Close, so of course I think it's great. — Popwatch
• The classic series The Prisoner is online for free now before AMC remakes it. — Clique Clack TV
• Some thoughts on the Writers Guild nominations. — FilmExperience
• Ooh, I think I'll go stream the new Bon Iver EP. — Stereogum
• Kiefer Sutherland talks about season seven of 24. — The TV Addict
• Brittany Murphy is in a film titled The Ramen Girl. — YumSugar

Photos courtesy and copyright of Channel 4.

I love my laptop (but not in a creepy way), but sometimes I wish I could spruce up the exterior as much as the interior (colorful wallpaper, fun icons, and so on). Rather than spend money I don't have on a fashionable laptop like the Vivienne Tam Notebook, I've decided to get more creative with the laptop I already have.

For $28, I can get one of these special limited-edition Artist Series Laptop Skins, which measure 15.4 inches — making it the perfect fit for my MacBook Pro. Made from vinyl, each skin is not only reusable, but removable as well. So if you get sick of it, you can easily take it off. Designs are entitled "Shore," "Cable Cranes," "Jealousy," and "Underworld."

I go in and out of liking laptop skins; sometimes they can look cheap and dumb, and sometimes they're done right and end up looking so adorable that I want to buy a whole series. Making a good case for the latter scenario is this Tree Laptop Skin ($19).

It would make your laptop so cute and distinctive that no one would mistake your MacBook for theirs while you were up getting your third coffee at Starbucks. That makes it valuable and beautiful. Like you.

The New York Times recently ran a story comparing the portrayals of teenage life in Gossip Girl, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and the British show Skins. As I read through the reporter's description of each show, I wondered which teens, if any, see themselves represented in these three seriously different shows. Though they're fun to watch, none of these three shows quite captures my own teen years.

For example, the Times describes Secret Life as "steeped in moralizing" (my teen years weren't as pious), Gossip Girl as a place "where jetting to Aspen from Teterboro" is normal (yeah, not my experience either), and Skins as "nihilistic in its mood" (my hormones were raging, but I wouldn't say I was a nihilist).

So what teen drama did come closest to my own youth? Strange to admit it, but Saved by the Bell comes pretty close (sometimes I related to Jessie Spano. There, I said it. Except during this scene). Or maybe My So-Called Life (because of this scene, I did my fair share of bed dancing) — but even that still isn't quite right. What about you? What teen show — past or present — best sums up your own teenage years?

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• Meet the new Dancing With the Stars contestants and pros — including So You Think You Can Dance's Lacey Schwimmer as the newest pro! — The Futon Critic
• Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel in Disney's The Little Mermaid, will be voicing Barbie in Toy Story 3 with Michael Keaton voicing Ken. In related news, Kristen Bell will voice the female lead in Astro Boy. — ComingSoon
• Fox will stream the Fringe and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles premieres for college students. — Zap2it
• Makeup artists will compete on Lifetime's show Blush, a companion to Project Runway. — Variety
• Sean Astin, Celia Weston, and Sara Foster are joining Michael Vartan and David Cross in the indie comedy Demoted. — Hollywood Reporter
• Barenaked Ladies singer Ed Robertson survived a plane crash in Ontario. — E! Online
• Michael Phelps already has a book deal; his memoir is due out around the holidays. — Variety
• The creator of Skins wants to do a show about 10- to 15-year-olds next. — The Guardian

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Gossip Girl encountered its fair share of criticism about its sex, drugs, and other vaguely inappropriate content when it premiered last Fall. But frankly, the Upper East Siders have nothing on the cast of Skins, the British show that premieres Sunday on BBC America. This show takes the limits of American TV and stomps all over them — and that's even without the edited-out language and nudity.

Skins, which just wrapped up its second season in the UK, is the rare show about teenagers that's actually written by people who remember well enough what it was like to be one: The show's writing staff has an average age of 22. The main character is Tony (played by Nicholas Hoult, aka the little kid from About a Boy — just try to get your mind around that one), the hottest and most popular guy in town; he, of course, has a gorgeous girlfriend, Michelle, to go along with his status. And then there's Sid, Tony's nerdy friend, who enlists Tony's help in losing his virginity in the first episode and somehow ends up buying a large quantity of weed. Sid's maybe the most relatable character of the bunch, but the one I loved the most in the first episode was Cassie, a spacey, anorexic, drug-addled beauty who thinks everything in the world is beautiful — except, possibly, for herself.

My UK friends told me the show builds slowly but deserves all its buzz (and acclaim, including a prize at this year's Rose d'Or festival) by the end. The first episode left me wanting another, so it's a good thing that Sunday's BBC America premiere will have two episodes back to back starting at 9 p.m. EDT and PDT. To watch the US preview — and then the original UK preview, which looks oddly like an Abercrombie ad with more drugs and puking and is probably NSFW — just read more

As much as I love silicone gel cases for my phones, I'm kind of stubborn about them when it comes to the iPhone. I'll happily wrap my BlackBerry in brightly-colored silicone skins, but the design of the iPhone is something I don't want to cover up — especially in the striking new colors.

I can stop being stubborn because I've found these Ultra-Slim Silicone iPhone Cases ($12)! Being available in 11 bright colors and at such a low price point makes those Juicy iPhone covers I showed you yesterday look pretty weak.

Their thinness is a dual benefit — you can still see the Apple logo on the back, and they almost look like they're Colorwared, right? Only without the exorbitant price tag!

Since gel cases seem to be the preferred cell phone case of me, you, and your neighborhood pop star, it appears that celeb-accessory fave Juicy Couture has thrown their iPhone gel cases into the ring.

The three sherbet hues — lime green, strawberry, and white come as a set for $55, and are not different from other gel cases, except for the stamp on the back that reads "iChoose Juicy."

Looks like Steve's reach is further than we thought; should we expect to see the Apple logo on the butts of overpriced velour sweatsuits soon?