Last week, the wife and I were vacationing in Vegas, and we had a terrific time. Sadly, the same could not be said for the Red Team, who lost their third straight weigh-in simply because Daphne won a razor-thin victory over (ana)Conda, a victory I was whooping and hollering over in my hotel room. Sadly, it resulted in the ousting of Roy (aka Santa), whose teammates felt he had reached the end of his rope at the Ranch. Twelve now remain, and Bobs Black Team holds a 7-5 personnel lead.

This weeks excuse du jour: I lack self control. And with an excuse like that, you just know that a temptation challenge is in store. Immediately after Alison brings Buddy a birthday cake that he can blow the candles out on but cant partake in, the group is led into the room reserved for temptations, and lo, theres a spinning wheel covered with goodies like donuts, pizza, pasta, chocolates, even venison, that represent every contestants favorite food. The challenge was simple whoever downed the most calories would win. The prize? Monumental namely, whoever won would get to reshuffle the teams to his/her liking. And not only that, they would get to do so anonymously.

Several seasons ago, a guy named Mike took a big risk by winning this exact challenge. He stacked the teams to his favor, and ended up winning the whole thing. And with anonymity, I expected some major shenanigans. Mark downed two plates of venison (which is really not all that bad for you), and Christine follows by gorging herself on over 1,000 calories. Kim eats a couple of chocolates, and so does Cassandra (along with a slice of pizza). Daphne, however, goes to town on the peanut butter cups, slapping plateful after plateful into her mouth, and ends up winning, downing nearly 2,000 calories.

As it turns out, Daphne only elected to make one switch, and I have hurt my brain trying to figure out the logic behind it. She actually chooses to send Jeremy, one of the biggest potential weight-losers on the Black Team, over to Dolvetts group, and brings Jeremys sister Conda her nemesis, who has made her life hell since she arrived and who is single-handedly responsible for sending her brother Adrian home over to her own team. I am shocked. It brings to mind the saying, keep your friends close, and your enemies closer, but Im sorry, this makes zero sense to me. Pretty much everyone else was baffled by the decision, as Im sure most of America was.

I have been on Daphnes side during this whole Conda brouhaha, but now Im wondering if I overestimated her. All she did was increase the potential for drama tenfold, which will weaken the Black Team considerably and strengthen the Red Team. Last week, Daphne got her revenge on Conda by winning the head-to-head weigh-in against her despite having a two-pound disadvantage.

She compounded her mistake by not revealing it was her, a fact that everyone else had surmised anyway, since no one else claimed responsibility. And it is now official: The Biggest Loser has just turned into the Jerry Springer Show, where drama reigns supreme. Why did you have to go to that place, show? Why?!? Bob has always preached that strategy is a part of the game, but making this personal gets you nowhere. And now Daphne, who was just starting to earn her teammates respect, has alienated everybody.

Bob and Dolvett have no choice but to take it all in stride, and seem to be less upset with Daphnes actions than with losing Jeremy and Conda respectively, as both of them had started to make significant breakthroughs only to have to learn a new system with a new trainer. I have found that over the last few weeks, I am starting to like Jeremy less and Conda more actually, thats an overstatement. Ill just say that I understand Conda a little better than before, and I loathe her a little less, and leave it at that.

I will try to sum up the events between the switcheroo and the weigh-in as briefly as I can. There was a challenge that was largely strength-based, and with most of the men on the Red Team, it was a fairly lopsided contest, but the prize wasnt significant to the weigh-in. There were some minor emotional breakthroughs with Cassandra and Kim, but other than that, it was all about the drama. Bob eventually convinces Daphne to come clean and confess, but the bomb has already gone off, and theres no undoing it.

Intersting Chism is now the only guy on Bobs team, along with six girls. And with most of the high-percentage losers now on Dolvetts team (who went into this episode having lost three straight weigh-ins), a momentum swing was inevitable. Heres how the weigh-in went:

Black Team (Bob)
Christine – lost 5 pounds (-44 total), -2.48%, now stands at 196.
Chism – lost 5 pounds (-68 total), -1.68%, now stands at 293.
Emily – lost 2 pounds (-48 total), -0.91%, now stands at 216.
Megan – lost 2 pounds (-42 total), -0.91%, now stands at 217.
Cassandra – lost 1 pound (-51 total), -0.53%, now stands at 188.
Conda – gained 1 pound (-48 total), +0.41%, now stands at 246.
Daphne – gained 2 pounds (-45 total), +0.89%, now stands at 226.
Total – 12 pounds lost (-0.75%).

Red Team (Dolvett)
Buddy – lost 12 pounds (-86 total), -3.65%, now stands at 317.
Kim – lost 7 pounds (-59 total), -3.50%, now stands at 193.
Jeremy – lost 11 pounds (-80 total), -3.44%, now stands at 309.
Mark – lost 8 pounds (-65 total), -3.42%, now stands at 226.
Kimmy – lost 5 pounds (-40 total), -2.71%, now stands at 179.
Total – 43 pounds lost (-3.06%).

Bear witness, people: this is one of the soundest thrashings in Biggest Loser history. I dont remember ever seeing a weigh-in where every person on one team lost a greater percentage than every person on the opposing team. I would not want to be the Black Team next week.

Kudos. To Dolvett and Jeremy, who built a strong rapport very quickly. Jeremy was rather down about leaving Bob, but Dolvett made it work, and Jeremy put up an 11-spot. To Buddy, for regaining his early-season form. And to Kim and Christine, for both dropping below 200 pounds.

Elimination. Christine voted for Chism (??) because she apparently once promised Daphne that she wouldnt vote for her, but everyone else cast their vote, unsurprisingly, for Daphne. And that is now three people so far this season to fall under Condas axe. Everyone else is under her spell, and Im talking on both teams. Which makes this season pretty much unsalvagable, and it will definitely be my last one recapping.

Standings. Cassandras awful week dropped her from first place into a tie for third with Buddy (who are both at -21.34%). Kim raced to the front with a percentage of 3.41%, followed by Mark at -22.34%. Jeremy rounds out the top five with -20.57%.

Update. Daphne picked up where she left off at home, where she already proved she could. Since returning home, she has dropped an additional 26 pounds and stands perched at the milestone weight of 200 exactly. Shes down from three medications for atrial fibrillation to one. Her family has also moved into a new house, and all seems to be going right for all concerned. Thats terrific.

Next week: The contestants go home for the week, and a major scare involving Christine.

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David Beckham is pretty comfortable with his body. Over the years, he has modeled and worked in commercials as a handsome dude with a great smile who is often absent a shirt. Now that his boys are getting older, he hopes they are coming to appreciate their famous parents the career choices each has made.

If you have seen the latest Beckham ad for H&M, you have seen the type of shirtless advertisement I previously referred to. If you havent, it’s truly one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen an athlete do, maybe second to Sean Averys Gap advertisement where he stares off with pent up frustration into the distance.

Although Beckham does admit his boys, twelve year-old Brooklyn, eight year-old Romeo, and six year-old Cruz did give him a little bit of flack for the H&M ad, the L.A. Galaxy player also told US Weekly, his kids have learned to appreciate all that their father has worked for.

“They’re very proud of it. There’s daddy in underpants on big billboards.”

I guess it would be pretty cool for a kid to have his dad on all kinds of billboards, but while Beckham might appreciate the support from his kids, I doubt he will have the same feelings if his 7 month-old daughter gets into the same type of modeling 17 years from now.

Shannon Woodward, who has brought some serious snark and sassiness to television’s The Riches and Raising Hope, has just signed on to star opposite Emma Roberts in the coming-of-age comedy Adult World. Penned by Andy Cochran, this female-fronted feature is meant to satirize the contemporary post-graduate delirium that afflicts so many twenty-somethings with existential crisis and ennui. Woodward and Roberts will portray a pair of jaded roommates who bond over their shared disgust of the world at large. Early reports suggest the film will center on Robert’s role, an aspiring poet named Amy, who believes she is destined for greatness yet ends up getting a day job at an adult book storehence the movie’s title. Meanwhile, Woodward will play her surely surly gal pal Candace, who Deadline describes as “a punk/goth anarchist sporting a nose ring and a Ramones shirt.”

I don’t know about you, but that string of descriptors makes me cringe. That’s not really a character description as much as a verbal sketch that applies to most Hot Topic employees. And as much as I like Roberts and Woodward, neither has had a solid track record when it comes to picking movie projects, so I’m not terribly enthusiastic about the prospects of Adult World. Plus, the plot seems eerily familiar to that of the main character of the web comic Girls With Slingshots, who is an aspiring writer who struggles to make ends meet until she gets a job at you guessed it!her local sex shop. For the record, that comic is incrediblethough sometimes NSFWbut this similarity doesn’t suggest Adult World has anything fresh or intriguing going for it. At this point this project just sounds to me like a mash-up of half a dozen other twentysomething stories.

Also on board for Adult World is Evan Peters (Kick-Ass) and John Cusack. Peters is slated to play a character named Manny, who with no others details offered, I am assuming has a crush on Robert’s character to which she is either oblivious or uninterested. Cusack, on the other hand, will play Rat Billings, a poet who Amy counts as her personal idol. As this is to be a coming-of-age tale and his name is Rat, I’m willing to bet Cusack will be playing a dastardly cad who offers a rude awakening of some sort to its arrogant heroine. Maybe in the vein of the Rex Manning seduction scene in Empire Records?

Adult World is now shooting in upstate New York and is expected to score a release date later this year.

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The second season premiere of Game of Thrones can’t come fast enough. After an amazing debut, people’s expectations are obviously high for the fantasy series’ return and to the creators’ credit, everything we’ve seen so far suggests that it won’t disappoint. To describe the HBO adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s “Song of Ice and Fire” novels as cinematic is a serious understatement and as this invitation to the set featurette highlights, the series is committed to creating the most expansive and detailed world possible.

The preview offers fans a chance to catch up with our series’ favorites – like Tyrion (Emmy and Golden Globe winner Peter Dinklage), Daenerys (Emilia Clarke), Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) and Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) – as well as listen to co-creators D.B. Weiss and David Benioff talk about the importance of filming on location. And when the vistas look that good, especially after you factor in the amazing production design, it’s not hard to see why they prefer real shooting on locations whenever possible. Even if that means travelling to Iceland.

Another thing I immediately noticed with this behind the scenes video is that not one of the new cast members utters a single word. They are teasing us by revealing as little as possible but, even though they were kept silent, it was still great to get our first live action looks at Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer) Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie), Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane), the Red Priestess Melisandre (Carice van Houten) and Davos Seaworth (Liam Cunningham). And again, I can’t stress just how perfect the casting seems. We’ll find out for sure in just over a month’s time.

Game of Thrones returns to Sunday nights on HBO starting April 1, 2012. It stars Kit Harrington, Emelia Clarke, Lena Headey, Peter Dinklage, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. The show was created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, based on the novels by George R.R. Martin.

It being Presidents Day, tonights episode of Conan is unfortunately, a rerun. But those watching tonights new episode of How I Met Your Mother (No Pressure) did glimpse the TBS late night talk show host Conan OBrien on their TV screens, whether they noticed him or not.

Ill admit, I didnt catch this myself, though I did watch the episode. I was too busy laughing at the continued revelation that Lily and Marshall had a box of unresolved bets about their friends, which Barney came upon when searching for their sex tape. TV Squad caught the cameo and posted the snippet, which includes Barney bolting from the table and running right by a very tall, high-haired redhead whose back is to us for most of his brief scene. Check it out below.

We get to see his face just for a moment, before the attention is brought back to the table, and more important matters. Its quick and random and completely Cocorific. Almost enough to make up for the lack of new Conan tonight!

The random appearance sort of reminds me of last fall when O’Brien visited New York and crashed the Today show. He’s sneaky (and hilarious) like that.

Barneys on a mission during tonights episode of How I Met Your Mother, but as youll see in the clip we have to show you, hes torn between his own desperate curiosity to see something, and the risk of seeing (and hearing) something he might not be able to un-see (and un-hear).

Spoilers ahead!

Based on the video below, No Pressure will have something to do with a home video that may or may not be of the naughty variety and may star Marshall and Lily. Regardless of whats on the tape, if Slap Bet was any indication, mystery-videos have proven to yield laughs-a-plenty for this show. And from the way Marshall and Lily are disagreeing about the situation, it seems a bet may be involved in this episode…

Those are some weird faces and noises. Will Barney watch the tape? And the bigger question, why does Ted still have a VCR hooked up to his TV?

How I Met Your Mother airs Mondays at 8:00 p.m. ET on CBS.