Brotherly Love
CBS has tried lots of things to spicen up the flagging reality show Big Brother. Unfortunately for us, not much has worked. The houseguests didn’t accept a $50,000 bribe to leave and make room for a more “interesting” replacement. And according to USA Today, producers even tried to get Cassandra, the sole black person on the program, to incite racial conflict. To their dismay, she declined.
Unlike the cutthroat group on Survivor, the Big Brother cast can’t seem to get enough of each other. And they recently planned to stage a mass walkout on Wednesday’s live show. The group of six surmised that the exit would make television history, and would also allow them to split the $500,000 grand prize six ways.
But the only one who ended up leaving last night was banished contestant Cassandra. Apparently, as reported by the online edition of Electronic Media, a producer told one houseguest that the public would be disappointed if the cast left. So they were convinced to stay.
That basically means another month of America not watching.
Mickey’s Cleaning Up
Walt Disney said Tuesday that it plans on changing the way its movies are marketed.
According to Movieweb.com, Disney says that it will no longer run trailers for R-rated movies in theatres showing its films. The Mouse company also vows not to show television ads for R-rated films before 9 p.m.
There Had to Be at Least ONE Arrest …
A slew of conspicuous technical errors. The obviously unprepared Wayans brothers as hosts. Boos expelling from the audience when Napster opponent Lars Ulrich takes stage. Britney and Christina as close to naked as the law will allow. It’s all in a night’s work at MTV’s 2000 Video Music Awards.
But the most bizarre event of the night occurred when Rage Against the Machine bassist Timmy Commerford climbed a stage prop during Limp Bizkit’s acceptance speech, and started yelling shit. Commerford initially refused to come down and was later arrested and escorted out of Radio City Music Hall. His motives are anyone’s guess.
Top winners for the night included Eminem and ‘N Sync, each picking up three awards.
An Activist a Day Can’t Keep this Doctor Away
Despite months of protest from gay-rights groups, radio personality Dr. Laura Schlessinger began her stint as daytime TV talk show host Monday.
Activists have been angered by her comments about homosexuality, namely her belief that it is “deviant” and dangerous to society. The doc has also had much to say on issues such as abortion, divorce, and interfaith marriage. In essence, she’s pissed a lot of people off.
But her controversial convictions haven’t been brought to the tube just yet. Monday’s debut of the syndicated Dr. Laura featured the relatively innocuous topic “Teens and Drugs.” Yet with competition fierce in the talk show market, Schlessinger might soon equate controversy with ratings. Just wait and see what happens then.
Most Offensive Celebrity Quote of the Week
“… I can take any ridiculous point of view and run with it … Like fat people. Now that I’m no longer fat, I believe that fat people should be put in concentration camps and gassed if they can’t change. Republicans too.”
–Roseanne in the October issue of the men’s magazine Gear, where she also appears nude.
Archived article by David Kaplan