It’s Independence Day, and I’m celebrating in traditional American fashion by watching the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest on ESPN. Just a reminder that So You Think You Can Dance is taking the day off because of the holiday.

In the meantime, enjoy something international: Scottish Star Trek.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is in hot water again, over an episode that hasn’t even aired yet. Reality Blurred posted a pair of articles about the episode that will open the show’s fall season, in which a new house is built for a Hawaiian couple with a combined yearly salary of $225,000.

Additionally, the house was built on land worth $2.7 million, $2 million of which came from state grants. Part of the land was used to build a community center for the non-profit organization the family owns, but the private house sits on the same piece of property. Hawaiian tax payers’ dollars at work.

If you’d planned on watching the final two episodes of the short-lived series Drive on Wednesday night, think again. Fox has rescheduled the episodes to air on Friday, July 13, replacing them with the Adam Sandler movie Anger Management.

Finally, The Washington Post has suggestions for which shows to watch if you want to seem young and hip (Dancing with the Stars is out, since the median age of viewers is 54).

I entertained the notion of watching the Big Brother 8 season premiere on Thursday night at 8 ET, but the latest news about the season put that idea to rest. Big Brother is forcing some of the houseguests to live with their sworn enemies, including 20-year-old Daniele and her father, Dick.

Daniele hasn’t been on speaking terms with Dick for much of her life, because — among various reasons, I’m sure — he called her a "bitch" during a phone call and then wrote about it on his MySpace page. Making things worse is that cast members are kept secret from one another until premiere night, so Daniele’s going to be blindsided by this unwanted reunion with her dad.

I’m all for tormenting people with their consent (sleep deprivation on The Amazing Race, for example), but springing something like this on someone who’s not even old enough to buy alcohol is tacky and mean.

In other news,Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi is divorcing Salman Rushdie now that she’s famous enough to find a rich husband who does not look like Salman Rushdie.

Ballroom dancers in the Ottawa, Ontario area can try out for the Dancing with the Stars Local Dance Challenge on Friday, July 6. The top couples will compete in front of the audience at the DwtS Tour show in Ottawa on July 10.

And DwtS producer Conrad Green offers some showbiz advice for David & Victoria Beckham upon their move to Los Angeles. The article presents a look at Hollywood from a British perspective.