OMG you guys have to read this article in the New York Times interviewing a bunch of the old 90210 cast and crew about their experiences with the show. The whole interview’s phenomenal, but I’m including some of my faves here:

DARREN STAR It was the first TV show I had done, so every casting session was a big deal for me. I specifically remember Jennie Garth. She just lit up the room when she came in and read. Shannen [Doherty] was terrific and also came with, of all of the actors, a little bit of a résumé.

We weren’t the only high school show being made that year, and we kept thinking we were losing all the quote good actors to the other high school shows.

JENNIE GARTH I heard a rumor that Aaron Spelling was going to be doing a show, and I thought, “Oh my God, if I could work with Aaron Spelling, that would be the best thing ever.” I went in and met with Aaron and read in his giant office with the shaggy carpet, and there were cigarettes sitting out on the table for anyone that wanted them. I was very impressed by that. I was like: “Wow, you can smoke in here? That’s crazy.”

I remember I was walking away from the building, and he opened the window and said something like, “Good job, kid!”

For me I was like: “Are you sure? Because I’m nobody.”

SHANNEN DOHERTY My audition was horrible. I actually remember walking out and saying: “I lost that job. I blew it.” And the casting director came out and sort of winked at me and said, “I wouldn’t count yourself out yet, kiddo.” And I was like, “O.K., whatever.”

JASON PRIESTLEY I remember meeting Aaron for the first time. He was walking across the four-inch-deep shag carpeting in his office with a cocktail in his hand. And the second that happened, there were no more nerves for me. I thought: “Well, you know, Aaron’s already drinking. I’m cool. I got this.”

Everybody had been cast except for Brandon. I read for Aaron on Thursday. I got the job Friday afternoon, and on Monday we started production.

CHARLES ROSIN One thing I should also mention is that Mr. Spelling had no shows on the air at the time. Mr. Spelling’s deal with ABC had ended, and there was kind of a nasty glee in this town that Aaron was not the dominant producer anymore.

GARTH I can remember my first story line where I got to actually act: the slumber party scene where I had to tell a deep, dark secret to all my girlfriends. And I had to describe a situation where my character had been raped. I hadn’t had any formal acting training or anything, I was just working off my instincts, and I tapped into something for me that was like, “Oh, my God, maybe I am an actress. Maybe I can do this.”

GARTH I started to develop whatever it is when you won’t leave the house. That kind of phobia. I just started to really get a little freaked out by it all. I felt like everyone was always looking at me. I was alone in an environment where I didn’t know how to swim. And I wasn’t able to do it on my own. Subsequently my parents moved back to be with me here. I’m a family girl, and I need my family with to keep me grounded.

GARTH There were times when it was worse than high school. The environment there was like: Are you kidding me? There was a lot of tension and unnecessary drama on the set, a certain amount of competition, and a certain — probably — anger about different salaries as the years progressed. People would find out how much someone was making, and then they’d be angry and want that, or if you got days off in your contract, they’d want that. Nobody was brave enough to step in and set us straight, and have a serious talk with us about it. There was a lot of tension directed from one specific person, and that one specific person had to reap the consequences from that.

DOHERTY Nobody likes to read bad things written about themselves, and a vast majority of them were exaggerated or completely false. But to be completely honest, I don’t even think about that anymore. At some point you have to move on.

Does everybody get along at work 100 percent of the time? Nobody ever does. You may have your arguments here or there, and ultimately you make up and you move on and you’re fine. Or you don’t. But nobody gets along with everybody in this world. It’s absolutely impossible.

GARTH The lesbian stalker was really ridiculous for me. And then the one where I got burned in the fire. I had to wear burn makeup on my neck and my face, and then it just magically went away one day. No scars whatsoever. I healed.

ROSIN To do “Beverly Hills 90210” required me to work six and a half days a week, 50 weeks a year, 12 to 16 hours a day. I didn’t have a big staff, I didn’t have that much support. I had three young children, and I’m smoking cigarettes and sneaking around because I’m not supposed to do that anymore, and I’m out there saying, “This show is going to kill me.” I left in May 1995, and by July 4th weekend, at 43 years old, one of my arteries shut down. The show did its best to try to kill me.

PRIESTLEY I produced the show in Seasons 6 and 7 and executive-produced in Seasons 8 and 9. I didn’t want the show to become an over-the-top nighttime drama where Steve Sanders is in a coma, and all of a sudden his twin brother shows up.

Aaron was the best there ever was. He used to say: “Fun, sex and bonding. That’s all I care about. That’s all a show’s got to be.” I left the show to do a play in London, and I called Aaron. He said: “Yeah, just go. The show’ll be fine. I’ll take care of everything.” I miss him all the time.

I love how Shannen Doherty compares her constant diva behavior to two construction workers having an argument. Too funny.

Famke Janssen schleps two huge packages while walking her dog on the streets of Manhattan.

When I lived (briefly) in NYC, the UPS Store was about three blocks from my apartment. And, even still, whenever I had to get a large package there, I would seriously contemplate calling a cab before remembering that I lived on a tight budget and dragging the damn thing down there myself. And don’t even get me started on the laundromat, which was next door to the UPS Store. Don’t tell my roommates, but there was more than one time that I’d spill our damn laundry cart while trying to push it up the uneven, cobblestone sidewalks that make Park Slope so fucking adorable. And this one time, I fell down along with the cart, with the laundry and the cart piled on top of me, and this 10-year-old girl who was walking behind me started picking up my underwear and putting it back in the cart and I was like, “Uh, thanks, but I can do that.”

Not. At all. Mortifying.

If I were a movie star, I would totally be paying someone else to do this shit for me.

Holy freakin’ hell, let me get this straight: the first photos of Halle Berry’s daughter, Nahla Ariela Aubry, are not in the pages of People magazine. Halle has chosen not to profit off the birth of her child? Weird, weird, weird.

Instead, the first pics of baby Nahla come from a recent visit to the zoo.

Look at that child’s eyes! And her lips! Gorgeousness!

Now I know why Halle’s kept her hidden for so long. She doesn’t want to incur the wrath of Shiloh. Little Nahla’s giving that little Jolie-Pitt bitch a run for her money. Those two are sooo going to fight over Greek shipping heirs when they grow up.

Okay, I just feel the need to update you all on my diet and exercise progress.

I am now at five weeks smoke-free (woot woot!) and I’m still getting in about a half hour of cardio daily and doing weights two or three times a week. This is all very awesome, right? So why am I not losing any weight?

I seem to have figured it out.

Recently, I have taken myself off the all-green-foods diet — because it had a teeny tiny shortfall in that it made me want to die all day long — and have moved to Weight Watchers. Their Flex plan basically lets you eat whatever you want as long as you stay within a certain amount of points.

Weight Watchers recommends that, given my height, weight, age and weight-loss goals, I should stay within 21 points a day. So, yesterday, I began rigorously recording my food intake and points in their online system.

Do you wanna know how many points I consumed on Friday?

69.5.

And on Saturday?

70.

OMG.

I am eating over three times as much as I should be if I want to lose any weight at all.

Models are fucking crazy, yo. This shit’s not normal.

Michael Phelps helps promote swimming at a YMCA in New York City.

It’s cool to think about how many young people Michael Phelps will inspire to start swimming. Shit, after watching him in the Olympics, even I briefly considered going to the local Y and swimming some laps. But then, ya know, there’s parking to deal with, and I’d have to get a membership, and what if it’s cold, and would I be allowed to wear a bikini or would I have to buy a one-piece, and probably I’ll push myself too hard trying to impress some hot guy three lanes down and the end result of all of this can only be that I will drown in six feet of water at the YMCA wearing an outfit that makes my tummy look especially pudgy. Not good at all. But children don’t think things through that clearly, so hopefully their inspiration will actually result in them swimming.

Did I mention I think Michael Phelps is hot?

“I was just thinking, this Gustav is proof that there is a God in heaven. To just have it planned at the same time, that it would actually be on its way to New Orleans for Day One of the Republican convention, up in the Twin Cities, at the top of the Mississippi River.”

Controversial filmmaker Michael Moore, to MSNBC, on news that Hurricane Gustav may result in next week’s Republican National Convention being postponed.

Families in New Orleans are currently being evacuated.