Too much time has passed since Heidi Montag's latest assault on music, and luckily for us the "singer" decided to release a new single just in time for tonight's season premiere of The Hills. The new song is called "Overdosin" and makes us want to follow the title's lead.
The upcoming NBC reality show Celebrity Come Dine with Me is an American spin-off of a popular British show where a celebrity host has four of his celebrity friends over for dinner, and then gets judged on criteria ranging from food (edible? Macro-biotic?) to entertainment (karoke? charades?). Somehow this will produce a "winner" from the range of hosts, although it seems like there is only one host/hostess per show, and implies the same guest "judges" travel from house to house, which would mean there are four celebrities in Hollywood that have nothing else to but run around town visiting go around and visit their other celebrity friends. This is different from what celebrities normally do, because there will be cameras following them here.
That all four of these celebrities are friends with all these other, ostensibly more famous people whose home they are going to judge means exactly zero of this people are actually really famous.
So who might be on the guest list for dinner theatre? Let us imagine: CONTINUED »
Oh. Goodie. First came L.A.'s The Hills. Next will come its New York spin-off. And this fall, we'll also be treated to a D.C. version of white girls of privilege. From something called PB&J Television (they produced Sports Illustrated's model reality show) comes Washington's attempt at "unscripted" reality, with an as-yet-untitled show that's set to start filming in September and rushed to air by November. And how do we know it's a sure thing? Well, you never really know, but Lifetime did pick it up and supposedly plans to air it immediately following Project Runway, which it's stealing from Bravo to create quite the perfect lead-in. "Casting hasn't been finalized, according to one source, but the primary characters — local socialites/hotties/20-somethings Katherine Kennedy, Krista Johnson and Sophie Pyle — remain on board. Johnson’s younger sister, Alexa Johnson, will also play a role in the show, most likely, although she and the show are still working out specifics. The Johnson sisters are alumnae of South Carolina’s College of Charleston, Kennedy graduated from Loyola Marymount and Pyle is taking a semester off from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill." Also, they plan on being "more realistic": CONTINUED »
Cougars:NYC, a new reality show that would make Hunter Parrish blush, is looking for two final 40+ women to join its cast, so they're throwing a party to find them. Men are welcome too, but only those under 35. [Cougar and the Club]
While Steppin' Out may battle Our Town for the least-read NYC-area publications, it does get its name in the news thanks to Chaunce Hayden, the magazine's editor and one-time Page Six item planter (before a nasty little libel suit put an end to that). The magazine is a place for mini-somebodies to make names for themselves.
Enter this as-yet-unpublished cover of Steppin' Out, featuring a one Shallon Lester. Who? She's the Rush & Molloy gossip stringer who speaks with a slight lisp, and whose "single girl" videos for DoubleAgent.com are actually funny. (She's also only been to the Hamptons, like, once, so she's insta-likable.)
Lester is also the star of an upcoming reality show, which means this cover may be only the beginning! CONTINUED »
Speaking of things we can’t believe, human minstrel show Tiffany “New York” Pollard has once again been granted license to stymie the progress of civil rights with a crappy reality show, New York Goes to Hollywood.
This latest installment in the televised downfall of a human being follows Pollard on her quest for “legitimate, Hollywood fame.”
The Matt Grant edition of The Bachelor wasn’t any more entertaining than every other season, but the breakup is proving otherwise. Former fiance (and constant famewhore) Shayne Lamas told People magazine about her plans for the engagement ring, purchased by ABC: She’s keeping it “safe and clean and in a glass box — like a glass slipper.” Also? Matt is totally on board with the idea and even “wants to come over and look at it.”
Naturally, the magazine then got a response from Matt, because this is middle school and two adults can’t just decide what to do with a piece of jewelry without using the media as a go-between. And, of course, Matt says he never spoke with Shayne about the subject.
ABC's hit reality show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is notable not just for keeping drunk Ty Pennington employed, but also for changing people's lives. Down and out poor folks, who broke off the short end of the wishbone in life, get tossed the bigger end of the turkey carcass — and given a completely new home, gratis.
As cameras rolled and the coach bus pulled away, the overjoyed family toured their new home, thanked Sears and Home Depot, and cried in all the right places. Then, after neighbors were done looking on in envy, the show's crew left town, and the family was left to enjoy the spoils of their good fortune. Right?
Actually, no. In this housing market, even the lucky receivers of freebies are getting screwed. And sometimes, it's totally their fault. [AP] CONTINUED »
Indeed, not a single celebrity died during yesterday's 5.8 earthquake in Los Angeles. But that's not the only (yes we're morbid) bad news: Mother Nature didn't hamper a single reality television show filming in the area. The jerkoffs on Big Brother, who aren't allowed any communication with the outside world, were told by producers that the reason the soundstage was shaking was not because Kirstie Alley had a new show filming next door, but because tectonic plates were moving about beneath them. But there is one minuscule bit of good news: On Sunset Tan, E!'s hopeless irrelevant show about skin cancer, "sales rep and cast member Holly Huddleston was stuck in a tanning booth when things started to vibrate during an FHM photo shoot."
Kudos to Ryan Seacrest brand extension the E! channel, which is making no secret of its programming mantra: Our stars must go to prison. At PaidContent's EconCeleb conference — where the paparazzi panel bitched at each other over celebrity rights and Harvey Levin explained his moral compass — E!'s CMO Suzanne Kolb weighed in on shows like Keeping Up With the Kardashians, The Simple Life, and Living Lohan*, where it's common practice for talent to spend some time behind bars. "A lot of our talent have gone to jail and we’ve been very clear on that." And that wasn't even the most amusing line of the whole panel. That award goes to Access Hollywood executive producer Rob Silverstein: "Access Hollywood follows the same guidelines that NBC News follows when it comes to reporting any news story." Wait, so that means checkbooks are kosher, right?
On Monday night's episode, 20-year old Bailey Hanks won MTV's Legally Blonde The Musical: The Search for Elle Woods competition. Tonight, at the Palace Theatre, just a number of weeks since the show started taping, she'll take the stage for the first time in Legally Blonde, replacing Laura Bell Bundy.
This is great news for every other singer-actress working the theatre circuit, for Ms. Hanks had never seen a Broadway show, nor auditioned to appear in one, before sending in a tape to MTV to become, in a single effort, both a reality television and Broadway stage star.
Congratulations on having the entire industry already hate you! Break a leg before they do it for you.
With Elle's reality show Stylista in the can, The CW screened the first episode on Saturday for critics at the Television Critics Association's event in L.A. If reports are to be believed, it's quite scathing! As we could tell back in May, the show's real appeal comes from fashion news director Anne Slowey, who's Miranda Priestly-d herself into an on-air diva.
Slowey claims to have carried 32 goldfish in 32 separate bowls to a woman's house, without killing them, as part of her duties on Day One at Vogue. She also claims that on Stylista, she's "just being myself." Heh. CONTINUED »
Despite the fact that Dina Lohan is an executive producer of Living Lohan, her influence over the editing process can't hide the fact that she is a famewhore first and mother second. During last night's episode, Dina was "surprised" by her son Cody and "forced" to perform at the Pearl in Las Vegas in a totally spur-of-the-moment routine with some So You Think You Can Dance hasbeen. It's all too much, and the sooner this show comes to an end, the better.
What's a post-Sex and the City Sarah Jessica Parker to do? Go behind the camera and produce! She's been shopping around the reality series American Artist for a few months and, in Bravo, has finally found herself a buyer.
This is good news for Parker. And bad news for Bravo. CONTINUED »
What magazine isn't getting into the reality TV business? Well, not Vogue! Except they are. They've got a new web series out next month — the annoyingly punctuated Model.Live — that'll track three models as they run from casting calls to runway shows in eight-minute webisodes. Naturally, because this is Vogue doing it, the project is the most expensive of its kind. With a budget of $3 million, the show costs about $31,000 a minute. But fret not! There is sponsorship attached. Express paid a low seven-figure fee to take part, somehow convinced that stocking its clothes in the closets of the models will produce a decent ROI. (It won't. At least not without additional integrations.)
It's Vogue's "at last" foray into the reality segment, because editor Anna Wintour, one who hates the word "blog," passed when Project Runway came calling (you know, in the days before it started charging magazines seven figures to take part). So why this web project? Because everything else that came their way was "not reality at all, just amateurs live," insists Vogue's Tom Florio.
Hah. CONTINUED »
The Peninsula Beverly Hills, which regularly picks up five diamonds from AAA and five stars from Mobil, has a new gimmick that should have it stripped of all of its awards: a reality TV package. If your stay in Los Angeles is not complete with merely shopping on Robertson at the SAME STORES LINDSAY SHOPS AT, the Peninsula will kick things up a notch with The Peninsula Academy — because even without the 200 reality shows on the air, you might still have a problem getting a camera to follow you around as you get sloshed at the par. The hotel's package will "pair you with an Emmy-nominated producer (and crew) who'll follow you around to film you doing…anything you like." Maybe this will include a visit to the new Larry King Square? Once your visit is a wrap and filming goes through post-production — you know, to cleverly edit a storyline into a hodgepodge of footage that includes one mini bar, two blondes, and at least three run ins with Tara Reid — you'll receive your very own DVD to remind you that staying at the Peninsula isn't just a chance to be overcharged for a hotel stay, but an opportunity to embrace all that is disgusting about Los Angeles. [Urban Daddy]
Former teen star Tori Spelling will never know the success of 90210 again, but her Oxygen reality show with husband Dean McDermott, Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood, is actually performing … well. Thanks to a careful manipulation of ratings numbers, Tori claims Oxygen's best Nielsens for the 18-49 female audience in the channel's history. In total, just under 1 million tuned in Tuesday night to see if blondes have more fun. [NYP]
You might not be aware, but the fifth season of Project Runway, and the last for Bravo, kicks off just one short week from today. Even we, usually so adept at knowing when these sorts of cultural phenomenon are making their return to the horizon, have been caught off guard. So too, television critics — because Bravo hasn't sent out any screeners of the upcoming season, nor do they plan to. And they haven't even unveiled the upcoming cast of contestants, and won't do so until Monday, just 48 hours before the season premieres, even though it's been the network's practice to tell all weeks in advance.
"A representative for the network said it was part of an effort to 'protect the secrecy' of the fifth season," blogs Maureen Ryan. HAHAHAHA, please. You know the reason. CONTINUED »
Having used the July 4 holiday weekend to quietly drop her lawsuit against Joe Francis, former Eliot Spitzer call girl Ashley Dupre is working on her next for-profit venture: reality TV show. She's supposedly in talks with MTV, among other networks, to launch her own dating show, with Dupre becoming the next Tila Tequila as contestants vie to penetrate the Jersey Shore's finest. No deal appears very far along however, and though she's said to be working with execs at Handprint Entertainment — responsible for turning Nicole Richie and Pamela Anderson into even more ridiculous pop culture icons — this news sounds more like a fishing expedition for a deal than an actual indication Dupre will be appearing in primetime by the fall. Either way, since taste doesn't appear to be a concern, the only real obstacle will be scheduling filming around that little public service she agreed to perform — testifying against New York's ex-governor in exchange for immunity.
As July wears on, the humidity is joined with a slate of terrible, no good, very bad television. Do not make us combine the words "celebrity" and "circus" to describe what we mean — you get it. You've watched it. But then there is the low-budget, kitschy alternative that is so simple, so mindless, and yet so adorable, it just makes sense to watch during the summer. We are talking about the Discovery Channel's Cash Cab, where Ben Bailey plays driver and host, asking passengers a slew of questions between pick up and their destination. A small cash prize and 11.2 seconds of fame is what's on offer — the most anybody has won is $4,100 — which makes Cab, which won the 2008 Daytime Emmy award for best game show, besting Drew Carrey's first time out as host of The Price Is Right, perhaps the most basic of all game shows. It's also the most brilliant. And it's also the best thing to happen inside the Taxi & Limousine Commission's boundaries since the "waive your ATM card and get a free ride" HSBC cab.
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