And this week’s Book of Job award for suffering on soaps goes to Billy Mitchell (Eastenders, BBC1, Monday).
Seconds move on, don’t they. Soon be tomorrow. A day later. A day further away.
Watching TV so you don’t have to!
Monthly Archive for September, 2006
Page 3 of 5
The advertising watchdog has criticised the way Nestlé, Channel 4 and Endemol ran a lottery for a member of the public to enter the Big Brother house – but ultimately found that the controversial “golden ticket” promotion was not fixed.
The Advertising Standards Authority investigated the lottery, in which 34 members of the public entered a draw to go on the reality show after finding golden tickets in KitKat bars, following 11 complaints that the draw was rigged in favour of winner Suzie Verrico.The housemates also got the impression that the arrival of Verrico was engineered.
The ASA investigated complaints questioning whether the draw was made in accordance with the laws of chance and if it had been made under the supervision of an independent observer.
Nestlé, Channel 4 and Endemol provided a combined response to the complaints.
The companies said that an independent observer from Electoral Reform Services had checked the number on each of the 34 balls before they were placed in the lottery machine.
They sent film footage of the Big Brother garden, and slow-motion footage of the draw, to show that witnesses were present and that no balls were tampered with.
However, the independent observer had not been allowed by the show’s makers to attend the draw – although a different observer watched on TV from home – as no outsiders are allowed to come into contact with the housemates.
The firms argued that this fulfilled the requirement of an independent observer monitoring the draw.
The ASA ruled that the footage and testimonials provided sufficient evidence that that the draw had been conducted in accordance with the laws of chance.
However, the watchdog ruled that the full draw was not conducted under the supervision of an independent observer and warned that future promotions must not break the regulatory code.
[source: mediaguardian.co.uk]
Yes! He! Has! In his new live forum/debate show, Russell Brand’s Got Issues (E4, 10:30pm), Russell asked his audience the following questions:
- Is our love of beauty making us ugly?
- Is our desire to be beautiful ultimately killing us?
- Are men suffering the same body pressures that women have always felt subjected to?
- Do you think plastic surgery is a good thing?
I’m not sure he got any satisfactory answers to any of them but he did manage to get about twenty five members of his audience to dance about naked during the end credits. So that’s alright then?
At least 10 stingrays have been found dead in Queensland waters in what maybe revenge attacks for the death of Steve Irwin, the popular Aussie Crocodile Hunter.
Could these be the first ever recorded cases of Sting Rage?
The natural injustice of the death of Steve Irwin, the daredevil conservationist who wrestled with crocodiles and dangled cobras but was killed by a relatively docile fish, has apparently motivated some of his most ardent supporters to wreak revenge. Eight days after the documentary maker was killed in a freak encounter with a stingray while snorkelling off the north Queensland coast, and while his native Australians continue to mourn him, the authorities are investigating the possibility that the species that took Irwin’s life is being targeted in acts of retribution.
Up to 10 apparently mutilated stingrays have washed up in coastal waters since his death, prompting Queensland state officials to call on fans of the self-styled “wildlife warrior Australian bloke” not to retaliate against the species that killed their hero.
[source: Guardian read more]
Proving that he’s no angel, Big Brother winner Pete has reportedly dumped his glam rock band Daddy Fantastic and decided to sign with Guy Chambers to launch a solo career. The Baron, Nimbus and Wobbly Bob (Wobbly Bob!?!) – his ex-bandmates have tried to contact him but Pete “My dead friend came down from Heaven and told me God wanted me to win Big Brother” Bennett has refused to answer their calls.
Guy Chambers has worked with Robbie Williams and is responsible for crimes against pop such as Angels and Millennium. He apparently wants to launch Pete as the next Billy Idol because of the striking similarities between the him and the punk rocker.
GAH! As if one Billy Idol wasn’t bad enough already!
Just saw a trailer for a documentary called The 9/11 Liars (Channel 4, 10pm, Wednesday).
Journey into the abysmal maw of human amorality, examining those who, as the rest of the world was mesmerised by al-Qaida’s massacres, saw opportunity.
- Meet Mr Gavett, who reported his entirely alive wife missing for the insurance; the pair got ten years each, and have the nerve to complain.
- Meet Ron Davis, who told his co-workers he’d lost his sister in the Twin Towers, and trousered the money they collected to help him raise his non-existent orphaned niece.
- And meet Stephen Laskowski, who also reported a live spouse missing, but got off when a trial found him insane rather than just plain horrible.
[Source: Weekend Guardian Guide]
The trailer didn’t mention whether or not Tony Blair, George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld would be featured in the program for lying about al-Qaida links to Iraq or weapons of mass destruction though.
The blog awards nomination period has now officially opened. So send in those nominations for the best of Manchester’s blogs in the following four categories:
- Best Arts and Culture Blog ( incl. music, photo, art, film, lit, fiction blogs, etc.)
- Best Political Blog
- Best Personal Blog
- Blog of the Year (Open to any kind of blog)
One set of nominations per person, please. And yes, you can nominate your own blog, or someone else’s. Only blogs written by someone who lives or works within reasonable commuting distance of Manchester are eligible.
Please email your nominations to: mancblogawards@googlemail.com
The nominating period closes on October 1.
For more information, visit Manchizzle.
There’s been a lot of speculation on the blog-o-web about Suri Cruise. Some people have commented that she doesn’t look like either Tom Cruise or Katie Holmes and others have said that she maybe adopted. Well, if she’s not their child then whose child is she? Well, through extensive examination of the Vanity Fair cover pixel by pixel and even more extensive research which involved … uhm … extensively watching The Boys from Brazil, I think I’ve worked it out! Look closely at the image and you may be able to see it too. Chilling!
Jeremy Paxman on University Challenge:
Which Roman emperor oversaw the completion of the Colosseum and was responsible for introducing fighting between women and dwarves? No? The answer is Domitian … He should really have been in charge of the ITV daytime schedule, shouldn’t he?
Thursday night’s controversial new reality tv show Intervention: We’re Coming to Get You was a mixture of documentary and reality tv but seemed most of all like an updated version of This is your life. In both, guests are ambushed with a presentation of their past lives as remembered by family, friends and old acquaintances. The main difference being that in Intervention rather then receiving a big red scrap book of their achievements from a jovial Eamon Andrews, the contestants/guests/victims (delete as applicable) are given the ultimatum “Go into rehab now and get clean or get out of your friends and familes lives forever” from the scary Tracey Towner, an American addiction specialist.
The show started by introducing us to a young couple from Huddersfield, Anna and Richard who seemed pretty normal except that they had been heroin addicts for eight years and were between them spending a £1000 a week on drugs. Richard was filmed fishing by a canal telling us that they needed to shoot up every few hours.
Richard and Anna were led to believe that they were being filmed for a documentary about addiction, unknown to them, their families were preparing to do some lying, conspiring and kidnapping with the help of psychologist Tracey Towner who was presented as very ”in charge” and “in control”. She’d make a believable character in CSI. She claims that her tough love approach has a 90% success rate of people accepting treatment when confronted.
The parents’ stories were heart breaking, Richard’s mother talked about how she was already mentally prepared for his funeral.
With the arrangements made, Richard and Anna were taken to a hotel where they had the shock realisation of what was actually happening. Their friends and family were all there with the same message: we love you and care about you but you’ve hurt us enough – except our offer of help and treatment now or we will never see you again. Hearing these pleas Anna, Richard, their families and friends were all reduced to tears. Richard and Anna, heads in their hands, were then repeatedly asked by Tracey Towner: “Do you want to take the treatment?” They both agreed.
After six weeks of rehab, Anna and Richard both emerged looking healthier and happier. They have also managed to stay of drugs for the four months since the show was filmed.
The show had been described as “unethical gimmick” by some, while others said it was “doomed to failure“. However, the mothers of heroin addicts Richard and Anna, the young couple involved, have said that they had tried everything else to help them and taking part in the programme and seeking Towner’s help was “a last and desperate attempt to stop their children killing themselves”. In the end, it was their choice and it seems to have worked for them.
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