A Correction, and a Warning

by Gray on June 4th, 2008

Every once in a while it is the job of a blogger to grab the bull by the tail and face the situation, and this is one of those. I made a rather egregious error in a prior post, for which I apologize.

Haylie Duff, Not Hilary Duff

Yes, that’s right. Legally Blonde: The Search for Elle is not hosted by Hilary Duff, as I wrote, but by Haylie Duff, her sister and co-star for the movie Material Girls. Haylie has also appeared on Broadway in Hairspray, but her longest and most recognized role was on the long-running TV series 7th Heaven.

For Search she is more than just the front of the show; she also serves as executive producer. Her attitude about the show seems very straightforward: “I don’t do any of the eliminating or judging. I’m always auditioning for things so I see them as my peers. They’re wonderful, talented girls and they’re already professionals.”

“…one of the most realistic reality shows…”

Says Cari Kroop, of CommonSenseMedia.org, mentions that the show is better than most reality-based theatre shows because it “doesn’t waste any time airing footage of the untalented hopefuls who didn’t make the cut during open auditions…it’s a process that’s as ruthless and unemotional as a real-life Broadway casting…” And watching people’s hopes and dreams get crushed on the air is what reality TV is all about, right?

Longtime-absent and perennial-favorite TV blogger Beckylooo also commented on this particular phenomenon of the shows, but with the opposite point of view. “There’s an argument to be made,” she writes, “that offering a cross section of the folks who showed up is in fact more real that pretending the sh***y dancers never existed.”

While I would agree that showing the whole spectrum of hopeful dancers is perhaps realistic, that only really applies if they show them in the first round of auditions. My problem is with the policy of allowing the really awful people to get through the first round - something that is not realistic - and then parading them in front of the home viewers accompanied by the outrage of the judges who complain of wasted time when they invited the dancers back in the first place.

Then again, that’s holding the reality shows to a standard of reality that is…unrealistic. So I just sigh and say that’s entertainment, I guess.

Warning: Here Be Monsters

Under the category of “some things are just better off not existing,” apparently Warner Brother’s theme parks are coming up with their own answer to Disney’s long string of successful musicals with Creature from the Black Lagoon - the Musical! No, I’m not making this up, and neither is the L.A. Times

Why should we be scared? Well, the opening in 2009 promises, among other things, that audiences will be ““enveloped by the exotic sounds and scents of the jungle.” (emphasis added).

Smell-o-vision comes back to the floorboards…

b5media.com

Fame or Famine