Bobby Banhart Leaks Shot At Love 2 Winner. Take that, Tila!

June 30, 2008 by Faith W  
Filed under A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila

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They say that love has no fury like a woman scorned, or a guy from a reality show who gets kicked to the curb. Such is the case with Bobby Banhart, the winner of the first season of MTV’s A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila, who revealed Kristy Morgan to be this season’s winner of Tila’s fake love and slightly greasy affection.

Last season Banhart was chosen by Tequila as the person she wanted to build a relationship with, and after the show he was played out like FUBU and unceremoniously kicked to the curb by Tila, though she claims otherwise.

Bobby clearly stands behind his assessment of the situation, because he seemed to enjoy spoiling the ending of this season’s show by posting the winner on his MySpace page. The page has since been removed, but TMZ.com confirms that Kristy is, in fact, the winner of A Shot At Love 2.

But, if you need to see for yourself, Tuesday July 1 at 10pm on MTV.

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Madonna’s Brother is Shopping a Reality Show

June 30, 2008 by Faith W  
Filed under Reality TV

According to Contact Music, Christopher Ciccone, brother of pop icon (and Guy Ritchie’s future ex) Madonna, is shopping a reality show based on growing up as her brother.

Ciccone, who is also allegedly writing an unauthorized memoir about Madonna’s life, says that the reality show will focus on the fact that he is her brother.

Ok, so you’re Madonna’s brother, and right now you two aren’t on the best of terms. So what? That is not the stuff of a reality show. No one cares about Madonna’s brother’s life. We haven’t given that much of a crap about Madonna in a decade, to tell you the truth.

…Looks like somebody needs some money.

Update: Sources say that Ciccone’s reality show will not be about life with his sister. It will be a design show.

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Bunim-Murray May Produce Project Runway

June 30, 2008 by Faith W  
Filed under Project Runway

Project Runway is looking for a new producer, and reality show producer Bunim-Murray is at the top of a short list of prospects.

The fashion reality show, which will be moving from Bravo to Lifetime, has lost their current producer. Magical Elves will not be making the move to Lifetime due to project commitments stemming from a recently signed deal with NBC Universal.

Bunim-Murray, best known as the producers of the MTV reality dinosaur, The Real World, is also the producer of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, the dull Living Lohan, and the rediculously drama-filled Bad Girls Club, and America’s Psychic Challenge (no comment). On a much more commendable note, they also produced the groundbreaking Autism: The Musical for HBO.

I’m getting the feeling that lovers of the old, New York-based Runway should be very, very afraid.

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Translating Mary Murphy Speak

June 30, 2008 by Faith W  
Filed under So You Think You Can Dance

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How many times have you been watching an episode of So You Think You Can Dance, listened to Mary Murphy give a judgment like this and said to yourself, “What the hell?”

It seems like Mary Murphy is as crazy as a bedbug snacking on a coffee addict, but she is making total sense. What we all didn’t realize is that there are specific definitions of phrases like “the hot tamale train”, and “tra la la”, and once you learn what they are you can use the phrases too in your everyday life.

Click here to find out what the excitable judge who wears her heart (and lungs) on her sleeve is talking about.

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Episode 6:Fear and Loathing in “Living Lohan”

June 29, 2008 by Mary Jones  
Filed under Living Lohan

This week’s episode of “Living Lohan” starts pretty typically: Ali falls and hurts her ankle, and Dina is annoyed they might miss their plane. Man, this woman is so full of maternal sympathy I tear up sometimes as I remember my own childhood.

Dina, Ali, and Cody fly in to Vegas (staying at the Plams, natch), where they almost immediately go to a party with a whole slew of music executives. Everything from Dina’s poor-man’s Farrah Fawcett hair to her minidress screams of a sort of predatory sexual competition with her daughters that seems terribly disturbing.

Ali is recording at the Palms recording studio (who knew they even had one?) in her white booty shorts and whore eyemakeup. I wanted her to have a good voice, I really did, because I don’t want to have to rip on a young girls looks AND her “talent.” But despite her good intentions, Ali is terrible. Flat and awkward and trying way too hard to be sexy at an age where I doubt she even knows what sexy is.

Dina is always talking, refusing to shut her mouth in order to keep the focus on her, rather than the daughter she ostensibly represents. This includes talking over her children. While Ali is in the recording studio, Dina takes Cody into Vegas. Dina promises it’s all about what Cody wants, and he sees the New York rollercoaster and excitedly says he’d like to do that. But Dina makes an executive decision that they will instead go have lunch with a magician.

Meanwhile, back in the studio, the scene is cringe-worthy. Poor Ali is dreadful, and facing a room full of eight or so guys in their early-thirties. The producer and her vocal coach are trying to tell Ali that her problem is lack of confidence, but it isn’t. Despite the fact that the producer is sucking up like a hoover, everyone else looks bored or embarrassed. Ali isn’t suffering from lack of confidence so much as she is aware she is average, she knows everyone else knows it.

After lunch with the magician, there is a genuine moment of mothering where Dina takes Cody to Madame Tussaud’s. But when they get home and Ali hears about the fun day they had without her, she starts crying. Dude, singing is so hard, and she hasn’t been out all day. Part of the breakdown is inevitable, as Ali is a brat, but a good part of it is that she’s a kid, and she doesn’t want to be working, she wants to be having fun. After a good brow-beating from her mother, Ali decides this is totally what she wants to do. Uh-huh. To drive the point home, Dina takes Ali to The Pearl concert hall, where she makes Ali sing her new song on stage. If you watching at home noticed how Ali’s voice improved, it wasn’t because of Ali’s “newfound confidence,” but rather the result of E! producers having her sing along to the pre-recorded, ProTools-enhanced track. And thank heavens for ProTools and vocoder technology, or how would Ali ever live her dream?

And of course, the episode ends on a high note, with Ali triumphing with her new, confident voice, blushing as her final cut is played for everyone in the studio. It’s a sad state on the formulaic nature of pop music when a girl with a weak, average, and overly-breathy voice can turn out a passable dance track in a day and a half.

The most painful-yet psychologically interesting-part of this episode is watching the awkward “conversations” between Dina and whomever she can find, where she justifies her mothering and her lifestyle. These “moments” are so transparently setup after the episode has been stitched together in order to make Dina more likable, that they have the opposite effect: instead, they make her look cloying and desperate. But you know, so is this whole show.

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How to Have a Successful American Idol Audition

June 29, 2008 by Faith W  
Filed under American Idol, Reality show casting

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A few words of advice: if you’re going to audition for A.I., please don’t sing the hits of Beyonce, Alicia Keyes or Whitney Houston if you are a male. I don’t care if they are your favorite divas, there’s something inherently weird about a guy singing diva songs.

But if you insist on going down the Dreamgirls path, dress the part, so that even if you don’t make it to Hollywood, you make it to television.

That is advice that you can take to the bank, but if you’d like the advice of people who actually know something, get a few hints from Jordan Sparks, Jon Peter Lewis, Ace Young and other past Idol contestants.

To read what they have to say, click here. See you in Hollywood…or back at home.

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What Really Goes on In The New York Reality TV School

June 29, 2008 by Faith W  
Filed under Reality show casting

Remember a while back when I wrote about The New York Reality TV School that is supposed to help you to learn to do the things to land you your long awaited shot at reality tv fame? Now you can find out what really goes on in the classes and if it is worth your time and money.

Jay Black, one of my favorite contributors at TV Squad wrote an in-depth piece on his experience as a New York Reality TV School student. Thank goodness someone wrote about it, because there was no way I was going to pay $139.00 to find out.

Read about it here…

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What Up KAAAYSAAAR?

June 27, 2008 by Chris  
Filed under Big Brother 8, Big Brother AllStars, Reality TV

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Its been a pretty long time since we heard from Big Brother All Stars fan favorite Kaysar Ridha, but there has been a very good reason. He’s been working on getting his website up and running. You can post videos, create blogs and join a pretty nice community. Kaysar chats with members in the chat box on the site, which I think is a really nice touch. I’m not sure if he’ll continue to do it when the new site smell dissipates, but its a nice bonus for the time being. You can check out his website at www.Kaysar.org.

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So You Think You Can Dance Week 3 Recap and Elimation

June 26, 2008 by Faith W  
Filed under So You Think You Can Dance

By Lakiya Emerson

I looked back at some RSS feeds of comments about SYTCD when it was first coming on the air, and it’s amazing how this American Idol spinoff has become an institution in its own right. And as the show gets bigger, Nigel Lythgoe becomes weirder and weirder. Last week he demonstrated proper ball grabbing technique and this week he continued his randy old man routine with the verbal sexual assault of Joshua and his father.

But before we get into that, can I point out that Mary looked like she either did a leap into a chandelier or was attacked by a bedazzler, or maybe both? I’d like to see the choreography for that story line. And Cat is wearing a cream colored doily. Adam (a.k.a the annoying judge) Shankman filled out the last judges spot with his usual verbal diarrhea, though, his comments were nothing compared to the Mia’s smiling argument of last week.

This week, all the dancers must clue America in on things about their partners that the general public would not know.

Kherington, though she doesn’t know what bears sound like, says Twitch sounds like a bear when he laughs. Twitch reveals that he actually has some common sense under all his humor. The two do a hip hop routine choreographed by Napoleon and Tabitha Duma. Twitch says he realizes that expectations will be high since hip hop is his style, and that Kheringon has to come up to his level. She does just that, and at times dances a little harder than Twitch. The routine, danced to Don’t Touch Me, by Busta Rhymes, is about inmates who break out of jail. The dance is fantastic and included binoculars on the bottom of Kherington’s shoes. Nigel tells them they’re brilliant dancers with enormous spirit and energy beyond their dancing and that he could think of no negatives. Mary, after telling Twitch that he killed it, does one of her rebel yells. Adam says they were awesome, and spends another ten minutes telling them how to improve. After everyone wakes up, the producers go to commercial break.

Courtney G and Gev danced a spectacular rumba to Wishing on a Star. But before they did that, Gev found himself in even murkier friend zone territory. Apparently, according to Courtney, he looked like a girl when he was a child. I was really starting to pity this dude until I saw the performance, which included gratuitous butt grabbing. The choreographers pointed out that Gev blushed every time he did it. No matter how embarrassed he seemed about doing it, he sure did grab a handful. Her boyfriend was probably somewhere grinding his teeth, especially after seeing her costume, which was not only see through but left one entire side of her body naked. She literally looked naked, depending on which side of her body was facing the camera. Nigel saluted wardrobe, saying “I’m so pleased that the wardrobe budget could only afford half a dress.” But the two danced beautifully. Gev was complimented many times over for being able to be more than a hip hop dancer and Mary pointed out that they had great chemistry.

What don’t we know about Chris and Comfort? Chris is a food moocher and Comfort was in a beauty pageant as a kid—they even show creepy pictures of her wearing too much make-up. I’m sorry but anytime I see small girls in pageants, I invariably think of Jon Benet Ramsey, but Comfort seemed to made it out of the beauty pageant mill okay. She comments on their Krumping choreography from the week before, saying that it wasn’t what she expected, which was just a nice way of saying that it sucked. Luckily, they get Tyce this week who creates an African jazz routine set to The Beautiful People by Marilyn Manson. He tells them it should be earthy and grounded and gives them brown sheets to represent mud. The dance is hot, but somehow they don’t manage to fill it out. Whereas last week they had bad choreography, this week they don’t live up to the routine’s potential. Nigel says the performance should have been stronger, bigger and more animalistic, and that their energy fell short. Mary says that Comfort is no longer on the train and Chris is holding on to the caboose. Adam says they were good, but not off the chain.

Jessica apparently had red hair as a child, so her mother called her Ariel, which explains a lot about her habit of randomly dissolving into tears. She wants so much to dance with the humans and her fear that some monstrous octopus-like creature is going to snatch her back to the sea. It’s either that, or the doctors need to raise her Xanax prescription. Meanwhile, Jessica says that Will is an absolute gentleman. Doriana Sanchez choreographs a disco for them, but she isn’t happy with Jessica’s commitment and in the performance Will out-dances her as usual. The performance opens with Will doing the iconic Saturday Night Fever, move with one finger in the air and one hand on his hip. They do an awesome drop spin that looks like it belongs on the ice, and at the end Will very obviously loses his balance and must put his hand on the ground. Jessica, very coolly, put her hand on the ground as well. Despite their mistakes, the judges love their performance. The sea monster won’t be coming for Jessica just yet.

Matt is the Where’s Waldo of Ninja’s. He wears a red and white striped Ninja mask throughout their montage. But the choreographer, Sonia, looks like an extra out of Mad Max: all tall Mohawk, with shaved sides and lip piercings. I was just waiting for her to flick her tongue at the screen and then bludgeon the cameraman. But her contemporary choreography is fun and very cool to say the least. It has a comic book theme, but made me think of a modern Raggedy Ann and Andy, especially since they were dressed in Urban Outfitters-like wear, and the dance is set to once of those annoying dance tracks that are played in downtown boutiques when store managers want to seem “cool.” Nigel asks, “Will the public understand the dance? No, but dancers will,” he says. Mary says there was something weird for sale and that she’s buying it. She called the performance quirky but said it showcased their talents—synchronized leaps, extended legs and all that. Unfortunately, their aren’t enough dancers in America to keep these two out of the bottom three, and once again they have to dance for their lives in the results show.

Chelsea and Thayne are doing a quick step. Thayne wants to be a fashion designer. But, you would have thought he would have spoken up during the wardrobe session last week before they put a cauliflower around Chelsea’s neck. Speaking of flowers, Chelsea has a tendency to steal flowers out of people’s gardens. Heather Smith choreographs a quick step for them and tells them they have to have chicken wings and a round back. I don’t know much about the quick step, but everything about their performance, from the choice of music, to their costumes to their dancing, seems off. They’re wearing ballroom wear, but dancing to Phil Collins’ You Can’t Hurry Love. The song choice made sense with the choreography, but the outfits, which were beautiful in their own right, just seemed all wrong—she wore a silver gown and he was wearing a suit. And then they were smiling so hard that you could practically see all of Thayne’s teeth. Nigel said they looked like they had Band-Aids on their cheeks, and that they had no personality. He predicts that they’ll have to get their solos ready, and sure enough, the two were in this week’s bottom three.

Chelsea says Mark is weird, and Mark calls Chelsea a closet tomboy. Napoleon and Tabitha choreograph a hip hop routine for them that was, hands down, the best routine of the night. The routine is about a workaholic and his love interest who wants a bit more of his time. Mark compares learning a dance to being a chalice—how often do people refer to themselves as a chalice? I’m sure when he’s not dancing, he’s writing bad poetry. But these two sell the daylights out of this dance. The judges love it, and Adam stands up and screams like a maniac. “You made me feel so, horrible I loved it,” he said before declaring them the couple to beat.

Joshua looks more than a bit scared when Courtney opens up their envelope to reveal that they’re doing a Samba choreographed by Kaci and Joshua. She’s playing a seductress, and he smiles as she raises her leg in the air. Their montage is about her sexiness or her lack thereof. But after all the hip thrusting and wiggling in their performance, everyone agrees that she has more than enough sexiness, especially considering she’s wearing the purple feathered version of Courtney G.’s dress. Meanwhile, Joshua is wearing a pair of pants that are so tight, they’re almost obscene. They inspire Nigel to ask Joshua if he gets his pop-a-nickel derriere bottom from his poppa. After Joshua’s dad stands up and wiggles his own bottom, everyone agrees that’s where he gets it from, though I think folks were just trying to be nice. Buns of steel aside, I was just mad to see a man over forty with cornrows. Braids are okay on men up until their mid 20s. After that, it’s just sad.

At the end of the night, clear front runners stand and during the results show it’s revealed that the usual suspects are in the bottom three: Chelsea and Thayne, Comfort and Chris, and Kourtni and Matt. They dance for their lives, but Chelsea and Chris don’t make it through.

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Fox Reality’s Solitary 3.0 Now Casting

June 25, 2008 by Chris  
Filed under Casting Calls, Reality TV

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Do You Want….

A totally new kind of adventure?

An incredibly tough challenge?

To stir up everyday life?

If you’re smart enough, and strong-willed enough, to take on the most unusual reality show eevr conceived, SOLITARY 3.0 wants YOU! Push yourself to the limit and compete to win $50,000!

If you think you’ve got what it takes to beat Val, and take the title for SOLITARY 3.0, please submit your name, contact info, recent/clear photos, and a brief bio to: casting@spicythermoscasting.com.

You MUST be 18 years of age or older.

All application will need to be available to shoot in the Los Angeles area in/around August 2008.

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