There was never even any question that Apple's new iMac has "star quality." Those colors, those curves, that come-hither look-- Hollywood was destined to hear the call. And so it came to pass that an iMac, scarcely two weeks after its runway debut, landed a brief cameo appearance in a commercial for "Spin City." Its impact was so dramatic that it pulled in a continuing role as "Mimi's Computer" on "Drew Carey." And since then, TV offers for the iMac have just been pouring in. Faithful viewer Matthew Guerrieri notes a ZDNet article which lists all of the shows on which the iMac is scheduled to make an appearance this fall.

In addition to the previously mentioned "Drew Carey," other ABC shows expected to include iMac roles include "Dharma and Greg," "Home Improvement," and "Boy Meets World." NBC will show off the iMac on three of its lesser hits, "Caroline in the City," "Working," and "Veronica's Closet." Who understands the mechanics of lurid sex appeal better than Fox, who is going to use iMacs in "Beverly Hills 90210" and "Melrose Place"? And the WB plans to showcase the iMac in its "Big Three Angstathon:" "Felicity," the new hit about a young woman's college angst; "Dawson's Creek," the continuing hit about high school hormonal angst; and our own personal favorite, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," the veteran smash about an ex-cheerleader and her "oops, I fell in love with a vampire but had to stab him with a big sword and send him to Hell" angst.

But iMacs aren't the only pieces of cool new Apple equipment making appearances on TV these days. Other cool spottings we've made in the past few days of casual viewing include a PowerBook G3 (complete with upside-down crystal Apple logo) on "Dharma and Greg," and a sleek, translucent blue Apple Studio Display shown prominently on "Veronica's Closet." Not that Apple's products haven't always been the premiere choice for product placement-- they pretty much have-- but we have to assume that Hollywood types are going especially nuts for Apple's newfound flair for distinctive and sexy industrial design. After all, would you want to stick a Power Mac 4400 in your TV show? 'Nuff said.

So you thought all the good Apple dirt comes out of Cupertino? Not so, my friends. Just witness the fireworks over in Merry Olde England, as Apple U.K. announced that it's pulling out of this year's Apple Expo '98. MacWEEK dishes the good stuff.

According to Apple U.K., they're withdrawing their support because Emap Trenton, the show's sponsor, is going to be running a second show alongside the Apple Expo. That second show, "Total Design Technology," is a cross-platform event, and apparently Apple U.K. feels that such a scenario would not "do justice to [their] vibrant market." It seems that Emap originally wanted to scrap Apple Expo completely and replace it with a cross-platform event; instead, they decided to run the two shows concurrently, and since Apple finds this unacceptable, they've pulled out. Emap, meanwhile, is both "surprised" and "dumbfounded" by Apple's withdrawal, claiming that, as far as they knew, Apple was happy with the arrangement, and noting that registration for both events was quite high. But now things are all higgledy-piggledy, Emap may have to change the name of Apple Expo to something else, and no one really knows what's going to happen between now and the show's scheduled November 25th opening in London.

An Apple Expo without Apple... now that's thinking differently. We admit we find it a little hard to understand why appearing at an Apple Expo that runs at the same time as a cross-platform design show would be so bad. Still, Apple U.K. claims that they are now planning their own Mac show for the United Kingdom some time next year, though details are sorely lacking at this stage. Guess we'll have to wait and see what kind of shindig Apple U.K. can throw down.

Following yesterday's brouhaha over the uncertain future of Motorola's PowerPC-making SPS division, it's only natural to expect some reassurance from the company's spin doctors. Thankfully, that's just what we got: a MacCentral article claims that, according to Motorola officials, the PowerPC is "alive and kicking butt."

In the words of Ken Phillips, Motorola's SPS director of communications, and Garth Nash, Motorola's networking and computing systems group's communications director, all PowerPC-unit spinoff rumors are "ludicrous" and contain "no truth at all." While it's true that Motorola is considering new "business models" for one or more of its systems groups, the PowerPC section is apparently not among them. It's the semiconductor components group that's under scrutiny right now, and the PowerPC apparently has "nothing to do with" that section.

Of course, if Motorola were entertaining thoughts of selling or spinning off SPS' PowerPC sector, do you suppose they'd actually tell us? Admitting to a bunch of Mac fans that you're considering killing the processor that powers their favorite computer is tantamount to stapling raw meat to your forehead and leaping naked into a pit of attack dogs. Still, no need to be overly paranoid about this stuff. After all, as faithful viewer Brad Farnsworth points out, there's always IBM. Sure, they don't have Altivec, but at least they have copper technology. And even if they don't care about Apple, they use the PowerPC chip in their own high-end servers, so there's little reason to suspect that they'd leave the market as well. Single source, shmingle source.