Best...Swag...EVER!!!

I am seriously impressed with the good people in marketing and promotions at Fox. They always come up with the most creative swag to send journalists. (I'm still enjoying my "Glee" gym jacket with Jane Lynch's character's name on the back.) Sometimes swag makes no sense ("Fatal Attraction" paper clips?), sometimes you have to see the movie for it to make sense (the tiny drum from "The Visitor" is a favorite), and sometimes it's just lazy (please don't slap any more logos on crappy bags for me. Really.) But the Fox people have been coming up with some fun stuff that is both useful and clever. Case in point: today the DVD of the 2-hour season premiere of "House" (airing Sept. 21) arrived. Not only did it come in a prescription bag bearing the Princeton Plainsboro logo (the fictional hospital where "House" is set) but it contained a pencil holder--in the shape of a prescription bottle. The pencils are all personalized to "Dr. Gregory House" and under the label's "Warning" it reads: "May cause cynicism, irritability, snarkiness, offensiveness, disparagement, lying, bullying and uncontrollable urge to diagnose." But you know what's really nice? It's the little touches...not only is the prescription made out to one Jenelle Riley at Back Stage (Hey! That's me!), the prescribing doctor is one Gregory House. Oh, and in case there was any confusion, it also says in small lettering: "This is not a real prescription." Oh. Thanks. I could mock Fox for this but you just know that once upon a time, some jackass tried to swallow a pencil and now they have to put this warning on everything. Sigh.

--Jenelle Riley