For reasons I can't quite explain, I've become a regular reader of Gawker, the web's most popular celebrity gossip blog. What drew me in was this post about Alessandra Stanley, the "wrongest of all NYT culture critics."

Not necessarily because her opinions are lousy, though I'm sure they often are, but because so many of her embarrassing mistakes make it past the Times' notoriously keen-eyed copy editors. This is the woman who called a certain long-running sitcom "All About Raymond."

And it's her job to watch t.v. As is also the case with NYT language columnist William Safire, I'm torn between envy that she's getting paid for a job I'd love and disgust that she's doing that job so poorly.

Reading an Alessandra column about a show you know well is just like reading a Wikipedia article on a topic you know well, except that on Wikipedia you can waste an hour or two trying to fix the mistakes.

And so I give you: the Alessandra's Arrested Development post-mortem, "A Quick End to the Cult Series That Lived Up to Its Name".

As I loved the series and watched the two-hour finale this Friday, I'm one of only several million people capable of spotting errors in her NYT article.

I'll point out a few errors, but first, here's her summary of the series, for anyone curious:

The satire revolves around the Bluths, a family of narcissists and lunatics (a misalliance between "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "The Simpsons") whose real estate company is forever under government investigation. The Bluths are deliciously self-centered and absurd, the dialogue is quick and corrosively funny, and yet "Arrested Development" is not addictive. It is possible to fully enjoy one episode and not feel compelled to see what happens next.

And now, some (other) errors.

Warning: the rest of this post contains SPOILERS.

Michael (Jason Bateman) is the show's center, the sanest in the bunch, always seeking to put some order in the family chaos. He gets no help from his sister Lindsay (Portia De Rossi) or her husband, Tobias (David Cross), a homely would-be actor who is sexually confusing.

"Sexually confusing"? Didn't want to take a chance with "sexually confused," or "a closeted homosexual"? It's a rare viewer that is confused by Tobias' sexuality, as, especially this season, it's crystal clear that he likes men.

Compounding the error, and proving that TiVo is a terrible thing to waste, we have this quotation:

This season, the estranged couple try to rekindle their marriage, but bedroom sparks don't fly. After yet another failed attempt, Tobias tells Lindsay that he just wants her to feel satisfied. "You are always thinking of others," she replies consolingly. "I tried that," Tobias says. "It doesn't work."

This was the paragraph that made me wonder if Alessandra bothered (re-)watching any other episodes before writing her review. Because it looks like she's trying to make it look like she's quoting an episode from earlier in the season, instead of one of the final four episodes.

And she's misquoted both characters. It's "You're always thinking of others" (yes, my quibble, she seems to like changing "you're" to "you are") and "I tried that, it didn't work either" (less excusable: she's paraphrased and passed it off as a direct quote).

But those little mistakes pale in comparison to the mother lode, a paragraph near the end of her review:

In its final episodes, "Arrested Development" tries hard to push red-state buttons. Michael's other idiot brother, Gob (Will Arnett), a failed magician who insists on being called an illusionist, travels to Iraq to practice his craft. Recently converted to Christianity, Gob devises a magic act that includes re-enacting biblical miracles. In Baghdad, Gob delights a crowd by conjuring a burning bush. The Iraqis assume it is an effigy of President Bush and riot, and Gob is arrested by American forces as an insurgency sympathizer.

First of all, his name is G.O.B., it's an acronym for George Oscar Bluth.

And G.O.B. doesn't insist on being called an illusionist (in "Sword of Destiny," for example, he shouts "I'm the real magician"), he just doesn't like it when people call his "illusions" mere "tricks."

Also, when did he convert to Christianity? It's possible that I'm just not remembering on this one, but the fact that G.O.B. is dating a Christian in these episodes doesn't make him a Christian. He did think the "holy trinity" was a sex act, after all.

Lastly, though G.O.B. sets a bush on fire and says "burning bush," I think Alessandra is the only person who knows just the right amount of English to think that the bush is an "effigy." The Iraqis bring out their own effigies, presumably to burn in the fire G.O.B. has started.

All this probably does "push red-state buttons," but I thought her choice of time-frame for that generalization was telling. Perhaps she didn't want to include episodes before the last four because, not having watched them, she couldn't be sure of the veracity of a broader claim.

That's it for corrections. I'm sure there are more, probably some actor's name spelled wrong or another misquotation, but these were the most glaring. Sorry if I came off as a bit of a crank, I'm just a little frustrated that there's copy out there in desperate need of editing and no one willing to pay me to do it.

As for the episodes, they were good albeit below-average for the series. Best moments: the pimp in the hotel, Homefill in Iraq, Franklin on the stand, and best of all: G.O.B.'s girlfriend and how he met her.

END SPOILERS.

After browsing the stories on TV.com, I think we can be optimistic about Showtime getting Arrested Development. They're very interested, but they want the show's creator to stay on and he's been unwilling to commit just yet. It's fairly certain that ABC and FX won't be picking up the series.

Update: Gawker now has a story on the article, and I'm claiming partial credit for tipping them off. Will my email to NYT corrections have similar success?