Reality Ravings

In an article in the Herald Sun Mark Holden said this year's Idol's contestants needed to capitalise on their current opportunities.

Holden singled out a former Idol contestant the enigmatic Bobby Flynn as on person who had failed to do this.

Holden said:
Holden told Confidential that through poor choices, quirky crooner Flynn had failed to capitalise on the show and the enormous goodwill towards him in the industry.
"He is such a beautiful guy, but he needs strong management to be led in the most positive way," Holden said.
"In a lot of ways, he is his own worst enemy as he had a lot of people that wanted to work with him after last year but he wasn't able to make decisions.
"He needs strong advice."

Whereas he praised the lovely Ricki-Lee for continuing to work hard for what she wanted.

"I just love what Ricki-Lee has done," he said.
"She didn't waste her time in the Young Divas and always worked to do what she wanted to do, and that was to work on her own material.
"I just love her and am stoked it's going well."

Here is a nice brief interview with Cat Deeley. Cat is the fabulous host of America's So You Think You Can Dance, she also has quite a few fans in Australia as well.

Maybe they should bring her out as a guest judge for Australia's So You Think You Can Dance, give her a chance to get on the other side of the table, and visit her brother.

Natalie gets to do the "The Winners Journey" tour around Australia over January and February as one of the prizes/obligations of being this years Australian Idol.

A list of the gigs are here For Sydney fans Matt Corby will be also be playing at the two Sydney gigs on the 4 and 5 of January at the Star City Casino.

Just an aside - Natalie may be pleased that she achieved some international blogging attention, however it was for all the wrong reasons. She made it onto the very popular and addictive Go Fug Yourself.

Link here if you want a laugh

This season's winner of Dancing With The Stars, Bridie Carter, decided Channel 7 is going to be her new home, after burning bridges with Channel 9 with bitchy comments about McLeod's Daughters the show she starred on for five years.

She said:
The dancing diva yesterday launched a stinging attack on McLeod's Daughters - saying she "wasn't at all surprised" by the recent axing of the outback drama series which catapulted her to national fame.
Despite her status as one of McLeod's longest serving members, Carter trod all over cast and crew on the eve of the series demise, saying she won't even watch it. "I would look at it and think 'Who are these people in my loungeroom?", said Carter.

Not knowing when to shut up she continued with:
"I don't want to mar McLeod's, but not everything was as it appears. I find it strange that not one of the original cast members is left.
"Perhaps they should have tried harder to keep people. Blue Heelers lasted 11 years and there were people on it for the whole series."

Channel 9 and McLeod's Daughters were not going to take this lying down when they responded:
"Bridie is completely up herself and everyone was thrilled to see the back of her when she left the show," a source close to the McLeod's production team told Confidential.
"But I can't believe she's bagging the program that made her famous - there's no way she would have even been on Dancing without it."
"Good luck to her, she's an absolute nightmare."

Should we lock Bridie and Matt Corby in a room together until their ego's deflate?

Full copy of the article here

Ok so maybe I am exaggerating however, tonight Jacob Butler will be playing at the Sandringham Hotel on King St, Newtown which could be interesting if you like Brit Pop.

Apparently he is going back to his job at JB Hi Fi, no wonder he was so desperate to win.

Tomorrow night, Thursday last years winner Damien Leith will be making an appearance down at Marrickville Metro (my spiritual homeland) from 5.00pm.

It was a battle between technique (Bridie) v personality (Anh Do) last night on the Dancing With the Stars Finale. It was over for another season thank god.

The show opened with David Campbell singing cabaret, but it quickly turned to burlesque once a troupe of female dancers came out onto the stage.

By the time Darryl Somers skipped down the stairs they were wearing black suspenders and red feather boas.

Sonia Kruger then came tripping down the stairs clearly feeling nostalgic for her Strictly Ballroom character Tina Sparkles by carrying a sparkler.

Again the repartee between her and Darryl was riveting - not. Darryl thought she looked a bit like Kim Basinger from LA Confidential, which she did. Whilst she said she had been channelling Nicole Kidman, which by the lack of wrinkles on Sonia's forehead would appear to be correct.

The clear favourites Bridie and Craig did the Cha Cha to Arethra Franklins Respect. It was a disco type cha cha, and the scene seemed to be set in some nightclub.

It was pretty good, except for a wayward jacket which landed over Bridies head. As Todd McKenny said "Never work with animals, children or jackets,". But this incident did not hinder their score as the judges loved the routines. They got a high 35 points.

Next up was Anh (I cannot believe I made it this far) Do and Luda doing the Pase Doble. They did a Bruce Lee type twist to it. With Anh Do opening being wired down to the floor, and both had swords to spar with.

It was a typical Anh Do routine which was fun, the dancing technique however was not up there. The judges did not like the fusion of the pase doble from spanish to chinese, and they scored a low 26.

I had to fast forward through the flashbacks of other contestants as this show really goes on for far to long.

Darryl then announced that one of the judges will be on It Takes Two, this is going to be Mark, the most boring judge, so clearly It Takes Two are having difficulty getting celebs for that production as well.

Hopefully some sort of personality will emerge during that show otherwise he won't last long.

Bridie and Craig then did a repeat of the Samba which they did a few episodes ago. At time I said:

Even though the judges adored her Samba where she was channelling the jungle
queen, the way she moved and look reminded me of one of those people who had
been raised by wolfs (or some other animal) for years in isolation.

The judges loved it again and gave it the Nadia Comenici perfect score of all tens, so a total of 40.

At this stage Anh Do and Luda knew they were up against and repeated a samba they do had previously done. I was surprised they did not do their salsa routine as that had been a cracker. Still this was ok with lifts, and Luda working it hard as usual to make up for Anh Do lack of skills. Judges gave them 32.

Then Kate Cerbrano came and sung a song to promote her new CD. She was wearing this ludicrous dress which looked like a black wedding dress. But all was revealed as it was taken off and she danced a routine with her former Dancing With the Stars Partner. I was really impressed when she did the splits at the end.

The Bridie and Craig did their freestyle dance with the story of lovers being at other sides of the mirror. It was a bit Mia Michaels, So You Think You Can Dance like. It was pretty good, and she is a great dancer considering she has not danced before. Again the judges gave it the perfect score of 40.

There was starting to be no suspense in this final. Then Anh Do and Luda did their final dance, where Anh was dressed as a donkey, and Luda as a european peasant farmer with a tail??? I think.

Anyway it was a fun routine again which lacked technique. The judges kindly scored it 35.

Sonia Kruger then came up with the most cutting line of the night, possibly aimed at Elka Graham. She said to Anh Do "Just be careful none of the retired swimmers offer you drugs at the after party".

It was time for announcement - half hearted pause to create suspense and the winner is Bridie Carter.

This season again rated highly for Channel 7 so expect to see it back on our screens next year.

The show started with a bang, Jay Manuel, the Director of Photographic Shoots, jumped out of a box, but unlike a girl jumping out of cake in a bikini, he thankfully remain fully clothed.

It was now down to the final 13 girls, so let the eliminations begin. This series has already been shown on pay tv but is now being show free to air on Channel 10 so a lot of viewers may not have seen this series before.

Jay Manuel announced there was a special guest and who should appear but that ageing slapper Janice Dickinson. Janice was one of the first 'supermodels' who has been trying to withstand the ageing process with a bucket load of plastic surgery. Sure she has a great body but her face looks like a android.

She also was Sly Stallones girlfriends for sometime eons ago. She reclaimed her celebrity with a reality tv show The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency, which is vaguely amusing.

Her persona is a wild lewd slapper which clearly is paying her bills.

She said personality as well as looks were important in what makes a top model.

Both Jay and Janice announce to the girls their first test would be to sit in a hypothetical press conference.

They then entered a room where two tiers of table and chairs faced a panel of American media identity's. With only two microphones between 13 girls it was always going to get ugly.

The press conference started out as a battle of the black chicks.
Dani a 20 year old black girl from Arkanas grabbed the microphone straight away. Then Furonda, and Jade wrestled over the microphone.

Jade appears to have a lot of self confidence, with her telling the media pack how she was the next undiscovered supermodel. That went down like a lead balloon with the other girls.

Furonda also thinks she is going to take out this season's title but is much more circumspect about it.

Gina the asian girl completely blew it by stuttering and stammering through her answer about why she wanted to be the Next Top Model.

Then Nnenna, the tall Nigerian girl with so much poise who won the press conference challenge with her answer, saying she was following her dream whilst also supporting her family back home.

By winning the challenge Nnenna was got to go into the Next Top Model house to get first choice of the bedrooms. She also got to get three girls to go with her.

And this is where she showed how savvy she is by picking outspoken Jade, quiet goofy Gina, and popular Sara to go with her.

The Next Top Model House was done up to look like a modelling agency. With each bedroom having a different model theme. There was a Twiggy room, Iman room, Janice room, and Christie Brinkley Room, and then a next top model room.

These rooms surrounded a plunge pool. The house is pretty cool.

Then the girls were out to dinner at an Italian restaurant called Allessi. Lots of salad eaten but very little pasta. It will be interesting to see which of the girls have eating disorders. The camera' should follow them into the bathrooms to see who is sticking their fingers down their throat.

Gina who was continuing her disastrous day by sculling(chugging) the champagne, and needed help getting back into the cars. She was not sighted in the plunge pool with the rest of the model wannabees at the end of the evening.

Not that she missed much but girls taking swimmers off. Why does pools + alcohol = nudity?

No one took up the offer of $100 bet for a model to get up and do the model walk around the pool.

In the morning there was TYRA MAIL which was going to outline their task for the day.

They were going to the Warren Tricomi salon for their make overs.

There was Jay with a special guest Eve Savail who had her big break when she shaved her head.

It was then announced for today's photoshoot the girls were going to have their heads shaved. Half of them swooned with shock.

After they picked themselves up off the floor, they were then told the truth that they would be made up in bald caps.

Since this was the first photoshoot for some girls it was understandable that some of them did not go as well as expected.

Jay had had high expectations of Furonda as she was practising in the mirror, however when it came to the shoot, she choked.

Kathy the hilly billy girl also froze before the camera, and the accident prone Gina was very average.

Jay also thought shooting Jade was quite difficult considering she did have some modelling experience. He said what others were thinking about the 26 year old " If she has not been discovered by now maybe there was a reason".

Then it was elimination time. The panel was Tyra Banks, Nigel Barker fashion photographer, Miss Jay Alexander, catwalk tutor, and Twiggy model icon.

They told Sara that her photograph was one of the best they had seen on Next Top Model, Nnenna was also excellent and she won the challenge what a great 2 days she was having.

Gina managed to avoid being bottom two. Jade got through but was told she was arrogant, her response was she "was humble on the inside".

The bottom two were a shocked Furonda, and hill billy Kathy. The judges had to decide between the worst photo but a girl with potential (Furonda) or the person who was just a pretty girl.

The night ended in tears for Kathy when she was eliminated.