Video Runway

Have you heard of the New York Reality TV School? According to their website:

Every week thousands of people audition for Reality TV shows, the competition is fierce and the odds of making it past the first round of submissions are very slim. Do you  know what it takes to get noticed? And if you are fortunate enough to be called in, will you be able handle the pressure of this once in a lifetime opportunity?

Well if you don’t think you can handle the pressure of “this once in a lifetime opportunity” the NYRTS swears they can help you.  They have one time workshops and get this, five week workshops.  Does someone really need a five week workshop to know how to audition for a show where you’ll be required to sit in a hot tub and spout phrases like, “I didn’t come here to make friends?”

The NYRTS evidently thinks so because they’re willing to charge you $300 for the five week privilege.

Does anyone else find this as weird as I do?  I seriously think it’s now time to stop calling Reality TV, Reality TV.  How about calling it Unreal TV?  Or Fake TV?  Or TV For Aspiring Actors and Actresses Pretending To Be Real People?

Personally I prefer my reality show contestants to be as naive as possible.  I want to watch people who are totally ignorant to the wicked, wicked ways of the reality TV world.  I want contestants who will be shocked and stunned when they watch the show and discover the producer’s have edited them to look like the reality show equivalent of Attila the Hun.  Now that’s television.

Via TV Tattle

The 60th Annual Emmy Awards will be held on September 21st at 8pm on ABC, but before then, we have to have some nominees.

Those won’t be announced until July 17th, but the Academy did announce the top ten drama and comedy finalists.

The top ten comedies are:  “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Entourage,” “Family Guy,” “The Office,” “Pushing Daisies,” “30 Rock,” “Flight of the Conchords,” “Two and a Half Men,” “Ugly Betty” and “Weeds.”

The top ten dramas are:  “Boston Legal,” “Damages,” “Dexter,” “House,” “Lost,” “Friday Night Lights,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “The Tudors,” “The Wire,” and “Mad Men.”

According to the Academy announcement:

Step two in the process will be the Blue Ribbon Panel screenings, which will be conducted throughout this weekend of June 28-29.

The results of those panels, who will watch and judge the work of each finalist, represent 50 percent of the vote. Both results will be averaged together to come up with our five nominees in each category.

Now I have to admit, the only show I watch on the comedy list is “Ugly Betty.”  So my final five comedies would be “Ugly Betty,” “Ugly Betty,” “Ugly Betty,” “Ugly Betty,” and “Ugly Betty.”  I would have included “Desperate Housewives,” but it seems the Academy didn’t find “DH” worthy this year.  Boo on them.

My top five dramas are much more interesting because I watch everything on that list except, “The Wire,” “Boston Legal,” and “Friday Night Lights.”  So my drama nominees would be “Dexter,” “House,” “Lost,” “Damages,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” and “The Tudors.”

Oh wait…that’s six.  Too bad.  I can’t choose just five.

I’ll leave that to the Academy and then rip them apart when they get it wrong.

You guys know I’m in love with Hulu and Veoh and that some classic TV shows that haven’t seen the light of day in years, can be found there.  Well, one of my favorite TV critics, Robert Bianco of USA Today has an article worth reading, “A Web Dozen For Your Viewing Leisure.” In it he suggests twelve shows worth watching online.

I have a couple of more shows I would add to that list.   First off, “Angel” on Hulu.  Though it’s only the first season and not the best by far, it’s still worth watching to see David Boreanaz as the tortured vampire, Angel.  Next up, “Remington Steele,” also on Hulu. Starring Stephanie Zimbalist and a very young Pierce Brosnan, this show about a female private investigator (Zimbalist) who hires a front man for her firm (Brosnan) was classy, witty and a fluffy good time.

Over at Veoh, get yourself ready for this fall’s remake of “Beverly Hills 90210″ by checking out the original.  And of course as Bianco points out, if you’re looking to view videos of a current show, take a look at the show’s network’s website.  It’s becoming a welcome standard that if you miss a show when it airs, you can catch up online.

If you’re interested in submitting a film for Lifetime Movie Network’s Every Woman’s Film Competition, you better get cracking because the deadline is July 8, 2008.  The grand prize is $5,000 in cash and valuable exposure for a talented woman filmmaker.

According to the Lifetime website:

If you win this competition, your movie will not only be viewed by celebrity judges but will also be shown at the Hamptons Film Festival and the Hollywood Reporter Women in Entertainment Breakfast — and you’ll be attending both events as the special guest.

After quoting the disgraceful statistic that “women made up only 15% of all directors, executive producers, writers, cinematographers and editors working on the top 250 domestic grossing films,” the website had this to say:

Lifetime Movie Network — the only movie channel dedicated to women and the #2 network for women, second only to Lifetime — is working to change those statistics by offering you, the next generation of female filmmakers, the chance to be discovered.

Now if they can just get some of the males in Hollywood to hire some of that female talent they’d really be doing something.

I’ve seen the first two episodes of Showtime’s “Secret Diary Of A Call Girl,” starring Billie Piper and for something that was touted as a sexy romp in the call girl trade, it doesn’t deliver.   Piper plays “Belle” an expensive escort who loves sex, money and the power of having her customers at her mercy.  “Escort, hooker, prostitute, whore.  I don’t care what you call me,” she says.  “That’s just semantics.”

Though it’s supposed to be a comedy, it didn’t make me laugh.  Though it’s supposed to be an exclusive look into the “glamorous” life of the sex trade, it didn’t feel very exclusive, or for that matter very exciting.  Sure, Belle gives us tips of the trade like she uses men’s deodorant because, “a professional never lets her client leave smelling of woman.”

Why does she do it?  “I love sex and I love money.  And what I really like is being my own boss.  Or pretty much my own boss.”  Her boss is an “agent” who vets all her clients and takes a cut for the privilege.

Belle’s normal life is as Hannah, a supposed legal secretary, with a clueless boyfriend and family.  And Belle is very careful to keep pure, sweet Hannah from her impure alter ego.

The show is only half an hour and it’s shot in a kind of washed out haze.  Belle’s oh, so knowing asides to the camera are too smug for words and they only make me want to see her slapped down a peg.  Or Two.  Or three.

Maybe by the end of the series run, the clueless boyfriend and family might catch on to Belle’s act and things may then really heat up.

Your choices for online TV viewing just got wider.  As of today, ABC shows like “Lost,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” and “Ugly Betty” will be available at the online video site Veoh.

According to the ABC Press Release:

Veoh will also offer select short-form programming from ABC via an embedded short-form player, which will launch on the site later this year. In addition, Veoh now features highlights from major sporting events through a multi-sport embedded ESPN video player, as well as original ESPN programming, including “SportsCenter Right Now” — a twice-daily capsule of top sports stories, highlights and breaking news — and clips from ESPN programs such as “Mike and Mike in the Morning,” “Pardon the Interruption” and “Around the Horn.”

After I told a friend of mine about this news he said he’s seriously considering dropping his cable service, since there’s so much he can watch online for free.

I’m not ready to go that far.  After all, as much as I hate writing out that monthly check to the cable company, it’s a little premature to be pulling the plug altogether.  But since my friend is getting most of his sports from ESPN360 and now a lot more of his primetime programming online, I envy him the money he’s going to save by cutting out cable all together.

There were three fabulous moments from last Friday’s Daytime Emmys. The first was Tyra Banks’ win for Best Informative Talk Show and her strident acceptance speech.

Her Emmy clip was about that famous, very unflattering tabloid bathing suit photo from last year.

And though the YouTube clip omits the end—the part where she tells the tabloids to “kiss her big fat ass!”—this clip was what led up to it.

Then when she won her Emmy, she got up on stage, thanked Oprah and her Momma—in that order—and then said when someone tries to belittle your dreams:

“I want you to tell them to kiss your dimply, flat, juicy, bootylicious, skinny, jiggly, saggy…FAT ASS!”

Loved it!

The second best moment of the night was when Kristoff St. John won as Outstanding Supporting Actor for his role of Neil Winters on “The Young and the Restless.”  He’s one of those actors that’s a backbone of the show and it was nice to see him recognized for the second time after all these years.

And speaking of being recognized after all these years, the third high point of the night was when Jeanne Cooper—that’s right the fabulous, older than fire veteran—won as Outstanding Lead Actress.

What a shocker!

It was her first win and she looked sincerely stunned. The first thing she said? “I bet you thought I had died.”  Then she facetiously railed against High Def—the bane of actors and actresses with more than one wrinkle.  She concluded with, “I love you all.  What a great profession.  God bless.  Stay alive, stay well.”

Talk about another “Young and the Restless” backbone.  Congratulations!

You can see all the Daytime Emmy results on the Daytime Emmy website.

Fox is going to rerun the entire first season of “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chornicles” in August over four consecutive nights.

Starring Lena Headey as Sarah Connor, the show did well during its freshman season and though I wasn’t able to keep up with every episode, the ones I saw, I liked.  I’ll be able to fill in the gaps starting August 10th-13th and then when the season ending finale airs Sunday August 24th.

“The Sarah Connor Chronicles” follows Sarah Connor and her son John (Thomas Dekker) as they try to prevent the rise of the precursors of the terminators.  Throw in another terminator (Summer Glau) disguised as a teen sent to protect John and the series is action packed.

The second season of “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” starts Monday September 8th.

After three of fall’s high profile TV pilots were leaked this week, there’s now some speculation in the blogosphere that these “leaks” were deliberate publicity stunts by Fox, ABC and HBO to stir up some pre-fall buzz.

The shows in question are J.J. Abrams’ “Fringe,”  David E. Kelley’s “Life On Mars,” and Alan Ball’s “True Blood.”

I’d say the networks aren’t above doing a little leaking for publicity’s sake. And I think the biggest clue is all three of these shows fall within the sci/fi-horror-metaphysical drama type of show that span fervent and loyal viewers who can be counted on to spread the word about something they like.  These are the same viewers who are still trying to save “Jericho” and “Twin Peaks.” Well, maybe not “Twin Peaks,” but you get the idea.

However, as someone who sometimes falls into that category myself, I resent being toyed with.  Being used as a pawn in the great TV conglomerate machine.  Being tempted and then tossed aside.  Being…I wonder if I can still get a glimpse of that “Fringe” episode?

Sigh…what can I say?  For the right price, I can be had.

I’m going to have to be very careful how I write this post, because if you know anything about the current battle going on between bloggers and the Associated Press, I could get into big trouble with the big AP if I don’t word this post just right.

That’s because this post is based on an AP article I read, via Yahoo, via TVTattle.  Last week the AP cracked down on a whole bunch of bloggers because they quoted their articles—with the appropriate links and credit—but they’re not part of the AP licensing network.  In other words, the AP doesn’t see any money from them.  The bloggers are fighting back and boycotting AP articles.

So to put quotes from an AP article right now in a blog post, you’re kind of taking your blogging life into your hands, but what the hell.  You only live once.

Anyway…back to the topic of this post.  According to an AP article “70 Sikh protesters” were arrested in Mumbai after they trashed an MTV office, breaking furniture and smashing windows.

The problem?  A poster promoting the MTV reality series, “On The Job2″ which showed a Sikh girl massaging a man.  In the Sikh culture that’s a no no and evidently highly offensive.  No one was hurt in the fracas and eventually the protesters were “released on bail” according to the AP article.

I’m not a Sikh and I haven’t seen the poster, so I don’t know if the protesters reactions were warranted or not.  But I will say, I’d like to take a baseball bat to the BET offices over some of their videos and the highly offensive images of black women they project.

If that poster in India was anything like those videos here, those 70 Sikhs and I are in total agreement.