Reality Roundup – 6/12/09
-Apparently I ruffled some feathers yet again. The media attention from Tuesday’s column is a hell of a lot more than I ever expected. Especially since some of the reporting of what I said is flat out wrong. Nice journalism. I’ve been informed by a Canadian reader that on the Canadian version of “Entertainment Tonight”, the reporter actually quoted my website by saying “Reality Steve says Kiptyn was paid $50,000 to appear on the show”. I challenge anyone to find the part of Tuesday’s column where I said that. I said this in a Reality Roundup column on 3/27/09 (check the archives) and I brought it up again Tuesday. What I said was I know two guys who were offered $50,000 to come on the show and TURNED IT DOWN. I then speculated that MAYBE ABC decided to offer money to other people, but I didn’t know. All I knew for sure was two people were offered money and turned it down. So once again, selective reading by people. Never ceases to amaze me. Would I be surprised if one or two guys on this season were paid to come on? Of course not. But if it happened, I would have no idea who were the guys who accepted money, and neither will anyone else since the guys in question and ABC would never admit to it. So it’s a moot point.
-Then we get some website called BuddyTV.com that runs the most misleading headline of a column I’ve ever seen. Check out this link:
“Reality Steve Claims Men Paid to Act Single”
See how one headline can be so misleading. Saying that “men are paid to act single” implies that the guys that were paid, if there were any, all had girlfriends. If they said, “Reality Steve Claims Men Paid to Come on Show”, well, even that wouldn’t be 100% accurate because that would imply that I know some of the men this season were paid to come on. Is it possible? Yes. Do I know it for a fact? No. I just know that two were offered and rejected it. So the bottom line is, the headline of this column should’ve been, “Reality Steve Claims Men MIGHT’VE Been Paid to Come on Show”. The funny thing about this column is the whole column is just ripping quotes from what I wrote Tuesday. There’s nothing in it that’s their own original material. So thank you for the exposure BuddyTV.com, whoever you are.
-I haven’t picked up my copy yet, but I was also interviewed over email by “Star” magazine this week, so pick that up this weekend if you get a chance. I really hope that one didn’t misquote me since I have email proof of everything I answered. “Star” did a good job last time when they interviewed me, so I can’t imagine I can be misquoted on something I answered back in an email. And if I am, well, maybe I’ll just bust out the email and print it for all those to see. But I haven’t read the article yet, so I don’t know what it says. Basically just asked about the guys this season, who might be on to advance their career, were some of the guys paid, and so on. And my answer was no different than what I’ve said on my blog for the last couple months. I told them exactly what I know is fact, and then what I know to be rumored. I clearly distinguished between the two.
-Enough about the bad press, here is someone who deserves credit for what they wrote in regards to my column on Tuesday. Lindsay Connor, who writes for the “Examiner.com”, completely took what I said and didn’t jump to conclusions like the others. Here’s the link to what she wrote, and honestly, she probably wrote it better than I did:
“Bachelorette Scripted By Producers?”
A job well done by Lindsay and I figured she should get recognized for it. That’s how you take what I said and write a column. Not jump to conclusions and put your own spin on it.
-I want to make one thing clear. What happened last season on the “Bachelor” was probably a once in a lifetime event. I happened to get lucky and the information fell into my lap. Do I have sources this season? Yes. But when nothing really crazy is happening, there’s really nothing to report. Yes, a bachelor goes home on Monday and there’s a mini-story there, but it’s nothing of the magnitude of the Jason/Molly/Melissa fiasco. Nothing will ever come close to that. I’m not making stuff up just to get attention. Didn’t do it last season (as you all realized once the finale aired) and am not doing it this season. All I’m doing is reporting what I hear from my sources. In addition, I specify exactly what I know to be 100% true, and I specify what is still speculation. This season, what is 100% true is Dave was told to act nervous during the meet-and-greet and that “silence” was re-shot three times (more on Dave in a second), that there were two men offered money to be on the show this year that turned it down, and the storyline of a bachelor leaving the show in Monday’s episode. Whether you choose to believe me when I say those things is up to you, but I think I’ve built up enough credibility based on what I told you last season.
-I’m not making stuff up so I can appear in magazines or other internet sites. If that’s what people find interesting and they want to run it, great. Just get your facts straight. My main objective with my blog has always been to entertain first, and to point out how ridiculously fake the show is second. That’s it. It’s what I do. If you don’t want to hear about how contestants are told to do certain things, and you don’t want to hear how manipulating the show is, then this probably isn’t the site for you. I write a recap in my own sophomoric, slanted, skewed view of how I see it, and I try to include moments either that I think are fake, or know are fake. I think my ultimate goal in life is to convince every single person who watches this show to watch it for pure entertainment value and nothing else. If you really get attached to these people, and really think people are on this show to find love and ABC is creating a love story themselves, then you are watching for the wrong reasons and will ultimately be disappointed. This isn’t real. This isn’t reality. These people are put in situations and essentially told what to do and say. So calling it “reality” is BS. I could go on and on with examples, but I think you get the point. It’s my job to just enlighten you about the farce this show is once I come into some information.
-As for Dave and Juan, they had their conference call yesterday with the media that I got a chance to listen to and take notes. I was going to post what I had taken down, but another site did it much more thoroughly, so I’ll just link to them. I’ve read both of these columns and basically this is what was said. RealityTVworld.com and RealityWanted.com do these interview recaps every week with the booted bachelor/s, so it’s always a good read. They obviously record it and transcribe it, so it’s much more thorough than the chicken scratch I came up with. Here are the links if you want to hear what both guys had to say:
I think I’m going to start having the links to these conference call interviews up every Friday from now on. If either of these sites haven’t posted anything by the time my column is up, I’ll just recap what I had from my notes. Essentially, Dave’s point about his behavior was that we saw 1% of what he’s really like, and ABC knew they had good material so they ran with it. I fully expected him to say that. Once again, I can’t feel sorry for him because that’s what this show does. If he didn’t know that, or doesn’t like it, then he shouldn’t have gone on the show.
The one thing I want to point out from this interview was the thing I pointed out in my column this week about his “nervousness” being something he was told to do. He got asked that in the interview (not specifically about what I said, but about was he really “tongue tied” that night), and be sure to read his answer. I will say this. I was listening to this conference call. I heard how he answered the question, and let me just say, you could tell that he was hiding the fact it was something he was put up to. When he first started to answer the question, he laughed, then paused, then hesitated before giving the answer. Here’s what I was able to transcribe from his answer. This is directly from my notes.
“No, I wasn’t really. They wanted us to have a plan, an idea. Stand out from everyone else. I’m confident, borderline cocky person. That would turn her off. I thought the best idea for me was to act nervous and star struck. It worked. She called me out on it. That was my idea.”
Sure it was his idea. An idea that was put into his head by producers. I mean, the guy basically just admitted it was all an act. If he would’ve said, “No, I really found it hard to speak to her. I was star struck”, then you can question the validity to what I said. But he basically confirms it was something he came up with, which is an easy way to answer the question without giving away that someone else told him to do it. Man I love being proven right.
“Jon & Kate Plus 8″
-I want to congratulate “US Weekly” for now having a “Jon and Kate” story on the cover for seven consecutive weeks. Seven!!!! Holy crap. There’s actually a small part inside me that wants to leave these people alone. Well, not really. Especially after seeing this clip. Kate and the kids were set to go live in an on air interview recently and one of them was thirsty and wanted some water. Kate, being Mega Bitch Mom of the Year, basically withheld water from her daughter. But hell if she didn’t take a sip herself. Unbelievable. No wonder the kid thinks she’s mean. She really does this. You know what, I’m glad Jon is boinking some 23 year old. Good for him. How he could put up with this woman is beyond me. Check this out:
Really? It’s asking that much to let your kid have a sip of water before you go live? Now if you say, “Well, if she would’ve given her a sip, then the other seven would’ve wanted one and there wasn’t enough time”, well, then Kate shouldn’t have basically taunted a dehydrated kid by drinking water herself. I would’ve walked off the interview if I were the little one. Just be like, “That’s it. I’m gone. I can’t deal with her.” How great would that have been? I don’t think I will ever get enough stories of infidelity and horrible parenting with these two. Keep it comin’ “US Weekly”!
Back at it on Tuesday with your “Bachelorette” recap. I will have more details on the exiting bachelor and his status with the show. Still working on a photo banner up that links directly to the RealitySteve.com merchandise store, but for the time being, visit it at: www.RealitySteve.com/store. Any questions, comments, praises, criticisms, stories, feedback on the store, email me at steve@realitysteve.com. See you Tuesday.
