The DYAO4 Rogue's Gallery!

Somebody famous once said that "there is nothing new under the sun," so apparently all of today's artists are up a creek. Why bother creating something new if somebody else is just going to call you a copycat, and then call you "liar liar pants on fire" as well? And since you can't patent your artistic vision or kick mouthy critics in the neck there's no recourse for today's suffering artists. Let's add "slings and arrows" to the list of crappy stuff that artists put up with every day, along with "Kraft Dinner," "no health benefits" and "smelly."

The latest "plagiary poo-storm" involves the second picture of season five's world-famous "Daily Muffy." In this masterpiece Muffy is gazing pensively at her childhood farmhouse and thinking inscrutable thoughts about life, love and cattle. People often cry when they see this picture because it's so goddamn beautiful, thanks to a fabulous Delirium outfit and the extraordinary talent of photographer Vanilla.

But it wasn't long before Morgan James, art historian and overall pushy bitch, revealed startling similarities between Vanilla's photograph and "Christina's World," the 1948 painting by Andrew Wyeth. "Where did Vanilla's inspiration come from?" asked Ms. James in a public forum. "An art textbook? A special on A&E? I dunno about this one."


"Christina's World"	"Muffy's Front Lawn"

Vanilla responded with a few choice comments about Morgan James' own photographic talents, and Morgan retorted with thinly-veiled references to Vanilla's debilitating power-drink addiction. This lead to a full-scale public brawl and a riot at the Art Gallery Of Ontario, where pro-Wyeth hooligans vandalized Vanilla's priceless masterpiece, "Muffy Picks Up A Dry Worm And Then Drops It Again."

"Can't we all just get along?" whined Muffy, standing in the gallery's rubble and doing a patently transparent lovey-dovey routine. "Can't Vanilla and Andrew Wyeth stand side-by-side, hand-in-hand? And it sucks that I picked up a dead worm and I can't even prove it." Mr. Wyeth, busy painting yet another piece of rural sentimental schlock, refused to comment.

There are certainly eerie similarities between the two pictures -- especially when they are manipulated in Photoshop to look more like each other -- but the jury is still out regarding Vanilla's inspiration. There are only so many ways that you can represent a sad person looking at a farmhouse, and maybe WYETH ripped VANILLA off in a "gee, that's totally impossible" sort of way.

But there is one thing that we DO know: the collective art world is on the edge of its enormous collective seat wondering what "The Daily Muffy" will bring next.