Posts Tagged ‘reality tv’

When it comes to my television watching habits, I proudly fashion myself a sports, news, and of course, music junkie. But occasionally – and I do mean, almost never – I succumb to doing to my mind what eating empty calories does to my diet.

I watch reality television.

And at the top of that guilty pleasures list are Keeping Up With The Kardashians and Kourtney and Khloe’ Take Miami. Kourtney and Kim Take New York and the rumored Khloe’ and Lamar Odom spinoff are pending additions.

Kudos to Kris Jenner for being an over zealous stage mom a marketing genius.

Yes. I’m slightly obsessed with the Kardashians. Yes. 90% of Kris Jenner’s ideas are brilliant. But the idea to have Kim Kardashian embark on the path of a singing career?

Hmmmmm…

The rumors of an upcoming, Kim K. music project have been floating around for several weeks. The buzz has been supported by paparazzo snapshots of Kim and Kanye West leaving a Culver City, CA recording studio and by twitpics and hints from Kimmy herself. At the NYE party the celebutante hosted at TAO nightclub in Vegas, she revealed one of her songs, “Turn It Up.”

Reality star turned songstress. That story sounds familiar.

Remember Paris Hilton’s brief singing encounter?  Apparently, the heiress decided that starring in “The Simple Life” wasn’t “hot” enough and recorded her first album named – what else – Paris.

Lead single,  “Stars Are Blind,” ranks high on the cheese meter, but in Paris’s defense, the single actually reached #1 on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Songs chart back in 2006.

And if this was Rihanna rolling around in the sand in a skimpy bikini and singing the exact same song, I guarantee it would spend 52 weeks at #1.

Attention: All “Real Housewives of Atlanta” addicts (I’m included in this group but am excluded from judgment because I’m from Georgia). You have abhorred and adored Kim Zolciak’s flirtation with the music industry, but unfortunately, ”Tardy For The Party,” never made it to the Billboard charts party.

However, all the comedy surrounding the beginnings of Zolciak’s singing debut made the reality star one of the most recognized Housewives.

Okay. So maybe “Jersey Shore’s” Pauly D dreamt of conquering the music industry as a DJ long before any of us knew what GTL meant. I’m just not convinced that being a “guido” will be as cool in 2011 as it was in 2010.

From the sounds of Pauly D’s ”Beat dat Beat,”  David Guetta need not lose any sleep worrying about the competition.

Judging from other reality stars’ experiences with dabbling in music, it doesn’t seem that a chart-topping music career is in Kim K’s future.

Then again, maybe Kim Kardashian has some trick tucked away in one of her cinch-waist belts that has thus far gone unused by her reality star cohorts. Afterall, everything the Kardashians do – except for their fraudulent holiday debit card and their Bebe clothing line – results in big bucks.

I cannot wait to get a good listen to her first single and to the album when it arrives.

But whether or not we appreciate Kim’s musical abilities, I promise that we all will be watching closely as she transitions from reality tv to MTV.

On Thursday, it became official that Ellen DeGeneres would not be returning to American Idol to judge for another season.  Ellen has long been known as one of the nicest people in comedy, so this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone.  More surprising perhaps, is that she took the job in the first place.  Crushing people’s dreams just isn’t in her skill set.

As one of the most successful working comedians of the last decade, Ellen has made her way to the top without being vulgar or putting people down.  She has lived a life most comedians dream of.  Her list of credits includes The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, an HBO special, her own sitcom, host of both The Emmys and The Academy Awards, host of Saturday Night Live, the voice of a Disney character and now host of her Emmy Award-winning talk show Ellen: The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Ellen began doing stand up in the early 80s, at a time when very few women braved the stage alone.  Her material has always been gender-neutral, and it wasn’t until several years into her career that she would officially announce that she was gay, which she did so in a sketch that mocked the very idea of having a grand coming-out-of-the-closet broadcast.  Producers weren’t at all happy with the idea of having an openly gay woman as the star of a sitcom, and after her announcement on the show Ellen in 1997, ratings dropped and the show was canceled shortly thereafter.

Critics may be quick to blame the show’s cancellation on Ellen, but doing so is just too easy and, quite honestly, false.  After the success of her talk show, you can hardly say that she can’t relate to audiences.  Ellen: The Ellen Degeneres Show premiered in 2003 and has been going strong ever since, earning several Emmy nominations and wins.  She even confronted Republican Presidential nominee John McCain on her show about his hard stance against gay marriage.  Always polite and respectful, Ellen calmly argued her point and ended the interview with warmth and laughter.  Now, 30 years into her career, she continues to be brave and family-friendly while remaining brilliantly funny.

It’s that time of year again! Get ready to say “Guten Tag” to Heidi Klum and the rest of the Project Runway family as the hit Lifetime reality competition is now officially in it’s eighth season tonight!

Klum kicked it with Regis and Kelly this week to let the world know that this time, the fashion series is getting supersized. PR is going to a whole 90 minutes from the hour-long program it used to be.

According to the German supermodel, we’re gonna love the extended time. This year’s contestants are a little nuts, and an hour and a half run time will give us all the insanity we need. “They’re crazy,” Heidi said concerning the competitors. “The ambulance has come three times!”

Fierce fashion and deranged designers?! Danke, Heidi, danke.

Breathe easy my sweet Guidos. MTV’s Jersey Shore will be back for a third season!

A rep for the cable network told Us Weekly, “MTV is pleased that the Jersey Shore cast are returning to Seaside Heights to continue production on Season 3.” Phew! That was a close call.

Speculation on whether the show would continue production began when rumors spread that the JS cast was going on strike. The reason? To up their pay.

As it turns out, those rumors were untrue. “You have to laugh at crazy reports like that,” cast member Jenni “JWOWW” Farley told Steppin’ Out magazine.

Even though the cast denies the strike, they’ll be rakin’ in the dough. It’s reported that some of the cast members will be making as much as $30,000 an episode in Season 3. That’s triple the ten grand they made in Season 2, and a huge step up from the $5,000 they made in the show’s initial season.

While the cast throws on their tanning lotion for filming Season 3, be sure to catch Season 2 when it premieres on July 29.

Talk about a “who knew?” moment. People revealed this morning that it was none other than Survivor host Jeff Probst who officiated The Office star Jenna Fischer’s wedding.

Probst and Fischer have known each other as far back as the 1990s, around the time Probst was ordained as a minister into the Universal Life Church. Fischer called on her friend’s officiating powers to perform the ceremony as she wed writer Lee Kirk on July 3.

The Survivor host even made a special visit to help his pal out. He’s currently in Nicaragua filming the CBS reality show’s 21st season, so he made a quick 24-hour jaunt up to Malibu to lend a hand at the nuptials.

This isn’t Probst’s first go around at a wedding either. People reports that not only has he performed the ceremonies at multiple friends’ weddings, but he also presided over his parents’ vow renewal for their 35th anniversary.

Models and mistresses and more, oh my! The roster for the next season of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew has been announced, and we are getting some doozies!

Who may be the most talked about celebrity for the upcoming season is one of Tiger Woods’ former mistresses, Rachel Uchitel. The exact reason for why Uchitel will be joining the show is unclear, but all will be revealed in the fourth season of Celebrity Rehab.

Joining Uchitel will be America’s Next Top Recovering Model, Janice Dickinson. It is speculated that Dickinson is making herself a part of the VH1 show for help with an alcohol addiction.

Rounding out the cast will be Jason Wahler of The Hills, musician Leif Garret, actor Jeremy London, socialite Jason Davis, and Keyshia Cole’s mom, Frankie Lons. These seven celebrities will undergo 21 days of treatment with the good doctor at the Pasadena Recovery Center. Look forward to eight episodes of their road to recovery when Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew premieres later this year.

Looks like one Pennsylvanian politician is worried that Kate Gosselin is shakin’ her moneymaker – all eight of them – a little too hard.

Republican congressman Thomas P. Murt has asked the Pennsylvania state Attorney General to check into the work permits that Kate’s 6 year-old sextuplets have to film their TLC reality show ‘Kate Plus 8.’ Murt is worried Gosselin received special treatment from government officials in getting the permits. If that’s the case, the Gosselin series may face cancellation.

As it stands, current law allows special permits for 7 to 18 year-olds to film movies, but not necessarily TV. Adding to the confusion is the fact that the sextuplets are under the age of 7. A spokesman for Murt, Sean Yeakle, says the congressman is only seeking “clarification” to make sure everything in filming the reality series is by the book.

Here’s hoping everything comes out a-ok! Who else can we turn to for a weekly dose of cute, if not the Gosselin clan?

After years of hooking up everyone else and leading endless couples to the altar (some, whom no doubt are also headed for divorce), noted matchmaker and star of the Bravo TV show Millionaire Matchmaker, Patti Stanger is officially engaged to boyfriend-of-five-years, Andy Friedman.

Sources say the real estate broker, Friedman, presented Stanger with a four-carat ring, via a black swan, as the two vacationed in Maui, Hawaii recently. (Isn’t that romantic?) The nuptials will take place in 2010 but the couple has some negotiating to do: he wants a large wedding, while the Matchmaker would prefer to elope.