Sunday, July 29, 2007

Big Brother 8: Will Evel Prevail?

I admit, I didn't have high hopes for this season's Big Brother. But I'm happy to report it's turning out to be quite entertaining. The "twist,"  which involved three houseguests coming face to face with their worst enemies, is fizzling. The first two houseguests voted out were Carol and Joe, leaving their mortal "enemies" still in the house. So most of the friction is gone. But the remaining "enemies," a father and daughter named Dick and Danielle Donato, are still in there.

Dick (or Evel Dick, E.D. etc. ) is quickly turning into one of the most entertaining players ever on Big Brother. He's loud and obnoxious. He calls everyone out on their game play. He lets the power of being HOH go to his head, barking orders out at everyone. He smokes like a fiend. He uses the F-word every other sentence. He breaks wind in the middle of important veto meetings. Still, watching him try to rekindle a relationship with his estranged daughter has given the show a heart that I have never seen before.

Meanwhile Danielle, Dick's super skinny daughter, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Anna Nicole Smith, is fending off feelings for hunky housemate Nick, who flirts shamelessly with her even though he knows she has a live-in boyfriend. Who knows if Nick's affections for Danielle are for real or if he is just doing it as part of his strategy? It's causing enough conflict for Danielle that she went crying to her daddy Dick over it.

The Evel Dick and Danielle storyline is by far the most interesting ever on Big Brother. CBS should be praying that neither of them get voted out.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Tommy Lee, Bret Michaels and Scott Baio have two things in commons: Pam Anderson and...?


Why is it that all of Pamela Anderson's exes go out and sign up for a reality TV series? I find it to be interesting. Maybe it's therapy!

First there was her ex-husband, rocker Tommy Lee. He starred in not one but two reality shows. First was the somewhat unforgettable Tommy Lee Goes to College. Kind of a silly premise and fairly unreal as far as reality TV goes. For this show, Lee went through the motions and supposedly really took some classes at the University of Nebraska. He also joined the school's marching band. I don't think college was for him though. The series was only a few episodes long and I don't think he had much of a GPA.

And then last summer Lee co-starred in Rock Star: Supenova, an American Idol type show for the heavy metal set. I kind of found him charming on that show; he was the Paula Abdul of the judges, never really criticizing the contestants and not really giving any feedback either.

Another Anderson ex, Poison frontman Bret Michaels, is currently starring on a very different kind of reality show. On VH1's Rock of Love, Michaels plays The Bachelor so to speak, albeit a leather-clad one with a headband. But there are no roses at this ceremony. Just plenty of siliconed strippers, drunken trash talk and tattoos. I guess Michaels likes the tough type of woman -- these are some hard looking chicks. Not sure I can watch any more of this after the drawn-out 90 minute premiere episode.

Also on VH1 is another Anderson ex, former teen star Scott Baio. His show has the worst title of the bunch: Scott Baio is 45 and Single. That unfortunate title, coupled with the silly opening credits featuring a cartooned Baio, had me with my remote in hand, completely ready to change the channel. But I got sucked in. And after watching the entire first episode, I came to find that this was the most real reality show I had seen in a quite some time.

Baio seems sincere- he wants to get to the root of why he always screws up his relationships (in addition to Anderson, he's dated Heather Locklear, Nicolette Sheridan, and Baywatch babe Nicole Eggert, just to name a few). He seems to be regretful of how he treated women on the past and truly wants to fix things, settle down, and marry his current girlfriend, Renee.

Sure, some of the stuff on this show seems really staged, like his lunch date reunion with Happy Days co-star Erin Moran. And the voice-overs that accompany the show are certainly scripted. But I don't know, I kind of like the feel of this show. It's the best reality show that one of Pam Anderson's exes have done, anyway.

Which gets me to thinking... will we be seeing a Kid Rock reality show any time soon? I sure hope not!