Summer Media Madness! Speidi and the Gosselins, Perez vs. will.i.am
By Ed Martin TV / Video Download Archives
The best moment of television I have seen in weeks happened last Monday when veteran broadcaster and Today show weatherman Al Roker snarled at Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag, “You guys are the poster children for everything that’s wrong with celebrity in this country.”
Frankly, I would choose Jon and Kate Gosselin as the worst of the current “celebrity” offenders, since they have thrust their children into the media spotlight seemingly without regard for how that exposure might impact thm in the future. But I’m good with anyone or anything that slams Speidi.
Roker’s dust-up with Speidi was relatively tame: It didn’t have the throbbing emotional pulse of the fierce viral-video dramz playing out this week on the Internet between name-calling gossip Perez Hilton and will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas. But I won’t soon forget it, even if I’m unclear exactly what he was getting at with that withering statement.
Was Roker bemoaning the fact that any butt-head can become famous these days simply by appearing in a cheap reality series on E! or one of the MTV Networks – or on his very own NBC, which hopped aboard The Hills’ ho-train by casting Speidi on this summer’s mother of all broadcast-eroders, I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here? Or was he getting at a larger media disgrace: The way television news and entertainment programs and established entertainment magazines that once focused on top talent and significant newsmakers now devote so much time and so many resources to chronicling the every belch and burble of the bimbos, himbos, dullards and drips on parade in dozens of unscripted series?
Either way, Albert, you rock!
How cramp-inducing are Heidi and Spencer? Well, she’s a simple ditz who would disappear completely if major media outlets stopped fawning over her. But Spencer is something else entirely. He’s so uniquely awful that chronicling his offenses has become a sport in itself.
Here’s a typical Spencer moment: A few weeks ago, Access Hollywood ran footage in which Heidi and Spencer were asked by an empty-headed paparazzi if they had a plan to “eat” any of their fellow D-listers as they headed off to the Costa Rican jungle for I’m a Celebrity.
“Sanjaya,” Spencer replied. “I like Indian food.”
(Full disclosure: I missed this footage when it was first telecast but caught it last Friday on E!’s The Soup – for years an essential weekly recap of reality television’s lowest moments and still TV’s funniest show.)
When I walk by a newsstand and see one cover after another featuring Brad, Angelina, Jennifer, Oprah and the like I get it. They are huge stars who worked long and hard to get where they are, and like it or not they provide millions of people with thousands of hours of entertainment and, in most cases, use their fame and fortune to help people in need. I pass right by those magazines, my cash remaining safely in my wallet, but I understand why they are there and why people might be prompted to at least give them a check-out aisle power-read. But when I see cover after cover featuring Spencer and Heidi I wonder who might actually buy the tabloids underneath? Certainly not the young end of their fan base, which has been carefully taught since childhood to believe that all timely reading material should be consumed online, for free. And how is it that the Gosselins were comparatively absent from newsstands during the first four seasons of their TLC series Jon & Kate Plus 8, but have become inescapable now that their marriage has hit the skids? I have yet to hear anyone who does not work in the media express even a hint of interest in them, but it appears that they suddenly sell magazines, even during a recession when pocket money is at a premium.
No wonder everyone everywhere went wild for demure Susan Boyle, the summer season’s other big media sensation, at least so far. The Britain’s Got Talent runner-up became an overnight celebrity because of her beautiful voice -- not because she would do anything to get famous. She truly deserved special recognition, but it was too much, too soon, and Boyle reportedly suffered extreme emotional distress after a week or two as a major media magnet. She rather abruptly learned that fame ain’t so great after all. (Conversely, Speidi feeds on it.)
I like to think that Boyle will go the distance and entertain people for years to come because I believe she has something wonderful to offer. Meanwhile, I wonder how long it will be before Spencer, Heidi, Jon and Kate turn up in one of those shows about soggy washed up celebrities on VH1.
Ed Martin
Ed Martin is the chief television and content critic for MediaVillage. He has written about television and internet programming for several Myers publications since 2000, including The Myers Report, The Myers Programming Report, MediaBizBloggers a…
