This week I found myself announcing to anyone who would listen my love of two things: Channel 9's new drama series The Alice and a film clip featuring a cucumber wearing a wig. The Alice is Nine's new drama series about the lives of a group of people who, for different reasons, have gone to live in Alice Springs. It's a quirky drama about fate and finding out who you really are. It's full of engaging characters, fresh storylines and the occasional appearance by Deborah Mailman.

So what's not to love? Initially a telemovie - it was the highest-rating telemovie of 2004 - Nine decided to commission a series. As a series, The Alice is a bold move away from the traditional Australian scripted dramas of the past, which have tended to feature cops, doctors, lawyers and good-looking single people having lots of sex.

But this departure from the norm is possibly a good thing, considering that no Australian network drama series has worked since the debut of McLeod's Daughters in 2001. Let's bow our heads and have a minute's silence for Young Lions, Marshall Law, Fireflies and Stooged. (Okay, so Stooged wasn't a drama series but surely it gets a Golden Duck for being axed after one episode?)

It's interesting to try to figure out why Australians have become so reluctant to watch Australian series drama. Perhaps we prefer the aspirational-style escapism of American drama like Desperate Housewives or the glossy, expensive seductiveness of Lost? These are two shows with huge audiences and huge weekly budgets that eclipse anything spent in Australia.

Perhaps Australian drama in the past has just been too lazy. Clever, but not clever enough. Funny, but not funny enough. Or perhaps we're all lamenting the lack of good roles for vegetables. Which brings me back to my fondness for a certain wig-toting cucumber.

Welcome to storewars.org - Grocery Store Wars, the ultimate homage to both Star Wars and the notion of playing with your food. The folks at the Organic Trade Association in the US must have a lot of time on their hands because in their bid to convince people to eat more organic food, they have filmed a homage to Star Wars (aptly renamed Store Wars) and are encouraging visitors to "join the organic rebellion".

From Tofu D2 to Obi Wan Cannoli, all the characters in Store Wars are - as the website claims - played by organic fruit, vegetables, pastries and a couple of canned goods. So you get to watch a cucumber in a wig (Cuke Skywalker) and a cocky slice of ham wearing low-slung pants (Ham Solo) take on "the dark side of the farm".

But Grocery Store Wars is not the only unusual website. I've stumbled across in recent weeks. As the TomKat media circus rolls on, crushing people and couches in its wake, someone has created freekatie.com - a website devoted to "rescuing sweet Katie Holmes from the clutches of mad scientologist Tom Cruise". (Their words, not mine. Who am I to call anyone else mad? I have, after all, just written about a cucumber wearing a wig.) Anyway, for $US17.99 you too could be sporting a Free Katie badge, bumper sticker or T-shirt and decide if Tom Cruise is actually better suited to Tonya Harding than Holmes.

Not your thing? More interested in signing petitions and making a stand? Then visit stopashlee.com and join the 396,354 other people who are attempting to stop teen singer Ashlee Simpson from recording another CD. The petition says: "We, the undersigned, are disgusted with Ashlee Simpson's horrible singing and hereby ask her to stop. Stop recording, touring, modelling and performing. We do not wish to see her again. She cannot match the sound of her voice that can be found on her CD, when she sings live. She simply yells the words (sometimes the wrong ones) into the mic. We are so sickened by her 'performing' that we are taking this opportunity to demand that she stop. Sincerely, The Undersigned."

Despite the on-line Ash-Bashing, Simpson (to her credit) is refusing to take the site seriously and is focusing on her true fans. Clearly not the guy who says on the site he feels Simpson would sing better if she had 200 leeches attached to her throat. Yeouch!