Girls, it's assault. It's a sex crime. Guys who grab onto body parts of girls they've just met are not cute, cuddly and adorable. They're lecherous. They're criminals.

And you teenage boys who might be watching ought to keep that in mind. This is not the way to make girls like you. You could end up in trouble with the law. You could end up in jail. You could end up having to register as a sex offender.

Even if we assume that Billy is too dumb to know what he's doing is not only tawdry but criminal, and even if we assume that Diamond is too dumb to know she's being insulted, not complimented — what excuse do the show's producers and the WB have? None.

Network executives try to deny that programming influences behavior, but that's a patently ridiculous argument given that network television is built on the principal that advertising influences buying. What the WB and the producers of "BMOC" are doing with this show goes beyond insulting viewers' intelligence.

Reprehensible is the word that once again comes to mind.

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com