Reality Ravings

Bravo TV is the factory that pumps out high quality reality TV like Project Runway, Top Chef, Shear Genius and the Real Housewives. In Australia Arena TV content is a majority of shows from Bravo.

The person behind the success of Bravo is Lauren Zalaznick. She not only continues to commission highly entertaining TV, but is also targeting the right demographic.

Among women ages 18 to 49, Bravo is the fastest growing of the top 20 entertainment cable networks, and its viewers are the most educated and upscale (about a quarter of them make more than $100,000 a year), a demographic that advertisers are desperate to try to reach.

The New York Times here has an indepth interview on Lauren examining her career and how she operates. I found it very interesting.

Fashion designer Wayne Cooper and occasional guest judge on Australia's Next Top Model has been found guilty and been placed on a two year good behaviour bond for pushing his wife in a domestic dispute.

The police were called to their Tamarama house earlier this year and the couple now estranged. Sarah Marsh has also been talking to A Current Affair and said that in the now famous dispute he threaten her with a knife.

It is possible Sarah is talking to A Current Affair for cash as the highly successful designer is only paying her $500 a week in maintenance.

Full story on the Daily Tele site.

The teams are in Brazil but is the surrounding poverty the big issue no it is about a sports bra being "pushed" off a window ledge.

Christy accuses Starr of pushing it off? I tend to tend to agree with Starr what was the point of that it is not like the bra will give them an advantage in the race. Now if you could spike someones drink with laxatives that might get you ahead.

Ken and Tina, the estranged married couple are first to leave the pit stop at 12.51am. They have to fly to La Paz, Boliva, and must get to a statue and look through a newspaper to find their next clue.

The geeks are second to go. I love these guys.

Everyone got on flights to Boliva and were trying to cope with the altitude as well as sleeping on concrete on a freezing cold night.

The frat boys were the first to discover the clue hidden in the newspaper. The blondes were the last to find it - but did run a strong rest of the leg.

After getting to the hat store to buy a traditional Bolivian hat it was time for the detour.

The choices were Musical March - where you must collect musicians to form a band
or
Bumpy Ride where you must get on some dodgy bike and travel on some bumpy ride. At the end of this detour they have a U-Turn where they can make another team do both detours.

Terence and Sarah and the geeks stuffed up and hopped into cabs when the clue specifically said you had to travel on foot. Do you go back or just cop the time penalty at the pit stop?

Points to Tina who overtook Terence and Sarah on the bumpy bike ride. Terence nearly had a breakdown and made a crack at Sarah.

Nick and Starr flew past Kelly and Christy on the bikes this humiliation was compounded by a huge stack, which meant Nick and Starr got to the U-Turn first. Starr really wanted to U-Turn the girls but then strategy wise decided not to.

Next was to get to Los Titines and the Geeks were in first place - they had not realised their mistake at this stage.

Tina and Ken made it to the Roadblock first. Where they had to wrestling a cholita (a woman). And were off to the pit stop first for the second week in a row.

Terence and Sarah hopped out at the wrong spot when they spotted a red and yellow flag, and Aja and Ty had taxi issues with no petrol and overheating.

The geeks had trouble with the wrestling due to lack of coordination and fitness resulted in sucking on oxygen. It was getting ugly for him.

Aja took the time at the roadblock to make mischief by telling Kelly and Christy that Starr had wanted Aja and Ty to U-Turn them. There is going to be a scrag fight at the pitstop tonight.

Toni and Dallas overtook a few teams to go for the pit stop second, and the blondes came in fourth after Terence and Sarah who had a great cab driver.

At this point the geeks realised they had fucked up and their necks were on the chopping block, and they copped a 30 minute penalty. The divorcees were now saved from elimination and the geeks were going home, even Phil looked disappointed as was I.

Buddy TV here has an interview with Mark and Bill about their time on the amazing race.

Australian Idol Competition - You Could Sing With One Of The Idols.
To coincide with Xbox 360 launching a new title calle Lips there will be competition starting this Sunday on Australian Idol (well in the ad breaks) where the prize is singing with one of the Idol's.

Lips is a singing game, it measures both your performance and vocal ability, with wireless motion-sensitive microphones so you can jump around the room as you belt out your favourite songs.

I would advise not mixing this with a drinking game as things could get veeeerrrrrryyyyy ugly. I won't be entering this comp, I will just concentrate on winning the MacDonald's $50,000 Top 10 song comp.

Denise Richard's: It's Complicated Has Been Picked Up For A Second Season.
Charlie Sheen's won't be very happy that his ex-wife will be pimping her kids on TV for another season of her hit show Denise Richards: It's Complicated. Prior to the first season Charlie went to court to stop her from putting the two girls on the show, however he lost.

The show is a staged reality show shown on E.

More information about the show can be found on Reality Heaven./

Interview With So You Think You Can Dance Mary Murphy.
Canada is currently screening their first season of SYTYCD. Mary Murphy is guest judging on the show. Here on Dose is an interview where she gives her thoughts on the Canadian version plus other SYTYCD background information. Apparently Nigel Lythgoe has the final say in who goes home in the US Version.

Tonight on Make Me A Supermodel Gail Elliot will be a guest judge. She will be judging the models on their budget buys for the Melbourne Cup.

Up for elimination is Hannah, Courtney and Rhys.

Make Me A Supermodel is on Channel 7 at 7.30pm.

The Amazing Race also looks like another cracker of an episode with the episode being titled Who Pushed The Sports Bra Off The Ledge? Starr apparently is the suspected culprit. What I want to know is how did divorcee Christy bra get there in the first place.

The Amazing Race is on Channel 7 at 8.30pm.

Channel 9 has some observational reality TV on tonight with RPA at 9.30pm and Amazing Medical Stories at 10.30pm.

Some might think Are You Smarter Then a Fifth Grader a reality TV show, I don't I classify it as game show, but if you do it is on Channel 10 at 7.30pm.

On Pay TV tonight Arena has the Janice Dickinson Modelling Agency at 8.30pm, followed by The Bachelorette at 9.30pm.

E has Pam: Girl on the Loose at 6.30pm, Girls at The Playboy Mansion at 8.30pm followed by Victoria Silvstedt: My Perfect life.

Elite Modelling Agency Is Downsizing But Alice Burdeau Has Survived.

Who knew but even the economic crisis is affecting modelling agencies. Fashionindie reports Elite had cut 60 girls from their books, but Australia's Next Top Model winner Alice Burdeau is still there.

However no news on whether season 11 American Next Top Model contestants Katarjyna and Anya made the cut.

Big Brother Runner Up Facing Assault Charges.

Rory Ammon a runner up from Big Brother is facing criminal charges because of an alleged assault on a cyclist. The full story can be found here.

Christian Sirano - Project Runway Season 4 Winner Update
Christian Sirano the young whipper snapper who took out the previous season's title appears to be the most successful winner with a post Project Runway career. This article on WSJ outlines what he has been doing. Because of the tough economic times some of the places that were going to buy his collection have cancelled, however he is still making a living out of endorsements.

Oh and anyone who thought going on a reality TV show was stupid, prior to Project Runway Christian was working on a make up counter at Bloomingdales.

Another Reality TV Couple
American Idol winner Carrie Underwood is apparently dating The Bachelor's Dr Travis Stork. For full details on this hook up go to Buddy TV.

Is another Australian Idol voting scandal emerging? Roshani Priddis fans are saying they had difficulty getting through on the voting lines on Monday night.

The Tamworth Leader was inundated with calls from people concerned their inability to get through on the busy phone lines either by text or to the 1902 5555 phone number may have resulted in Roshani’s departure.

A disgruntled viewer who sent a “Roshani” text at 7.41pm told The Leader a minute later, at 7.42pm, he received a text back from the 191010 number which said: “The service you have requested is not currently available. Please try again later. You have not been charged.”

The issue of voting anomalies has previously be raised by Brook Adamo's father. See previous post here.

Fremantle media say everything is above board.

Today Tonight has already tried to beat this story up - it will be interesting to see if they do so again.

Why are some owners of restaurants complete and utter morons? It appears that people think you can just open a restaurant with no experience and expect them to work.

The two owners tonight were both dumb. Terry the co-owner of Anacapri did not show any enthusiasm and looked confused most of the episode.

If Gordon Ramsey had been in the kitchen of La De Da's with Kim the Chef she would have had a complete nervous breakdown and been carted away in a strait jacket.

All Matt Moran asked her to do was cook a chicken dish and she had a meltdown. This resulted in the other cook Kelly becoming head chef.

Kim was not the only meltdown in this episode.

Both Anacapri's and La De Da's are in Swansea an area which most recently acquired notoriety when their local State Member, Milton Orkopolous was thrown in the slammer for young boy and drug charges.

Matt Moran said that Anacapri was one of the worst meals he had ever eaten, and he had a hissy fit over the chicken schnitzel which he played up to the cameras by throwing them into the water.

Terry the co-owner of Anacapri was a bit of a dolt. He appeared to be not that motivated to change. And was gobsmacked that anyone could not like chicken schnitzel.

The pregnant waitress who had previously sobbed to the Sunday tabloids that she had been chased down the street by the camera crew, was shown to have stormed out of the resturant under her own volition.

Both business's had issues on the night of the reviewers, Alan Saunders, visited for the second time. Anacapri had service issues, and La De Da's had a complete kitchen meltdown. Both owners were not really that much help.

Terry turned up to the verdict scene alone clearly his staff did not give a stuff by this stage or he had not paid them. Predictably La De Da won. Personally I would not eat at either establishment.

Here is an article from today's Newcastle Herald where Terry states the chicken schnitzel's are back and their biggest seller. He did not say whether his business was making a profit yet.

Also it implies in the article that Kim is now back as head chef, she had been demoted by Matt Moran to second chef in the series.

It appears Jennifer Hudson's $100,000 reward for the safe return of her nephew will come to nothing as his body was found in Chicago.

Julian King's body was found in a SUV in West Side Chicago. It appears as if this was all for naught, as the FBI found the body in question early this morning in a parked SUV in the west side of Chicago. The license plate number matched the description given in Julian's Amber Alert.

This compounds the tragedies of deaths over the weekend of Jennifer's mother and brother. William Balfour has been arrested in relation to those murders, and he is Julian King's step father.

More news on Buddy TV Website.

In an article in Woman's Day Ricki-Lee reveals why she left her husband. She said she fell out of love with him and they wanted different things.

"I started to fall out of love with him and I wasn't happy in the end," she says, fighting back tears. "But it was still hard for us to end it."

It is easy to forget how young she is - as she is only 22. Far too young to be hooked into marriage.

After the Aria's there was speculation that Ricki-Lee and Teale Jakubenko, a contestant from this year's Idol had something going on. Previous post on that story here.

UPDATE: In the full article in Woman's Day Ricki-Lee denies any romance with Teale. She said it would be wrong as she mentors the Idol contestants.

The Biggest Loser Host, Ajay Rochester In Court Next Month.

Ajay Rochester will face court next month after pleading not guilty last week to 23 welfare charges. The single mum has been accused of receiving Centrelink benefits when she was not eligible for them.

Ajay is a single mum with an autistic son. She allegedly received welfare payments between December 2001 and December 2005.

Jennifer Hudson Is Offering A $100,000 Reward.

Ex American Idol alumni Jennifer Hudson is offering $100,000 for the safe return of her seven year old nephew. Jennifer whose mother and brother were murdered over the weekend by her brother in law is now back in Chicago with her family.

The brother in law has been arrested however the whereabouts of the seven year old is unknown. The brother in law is being uncooperative with Police. What a prick.

Australia's Next Top Model Auditions Completed.
Australia's Next Top Model auditions have finished, with the last one held in Newcastle on the weekend. Alex Perry and Priscilla Leighton-Clark were the two judges that fronted that audition.

Now all the girls who applied have to wait until December to find out if they are one of the 13 to make it onto the show. In Australia we don't have the in between show where forty girls will turn up and talk to the judges and then their top 13 is decided.

Here are some photos of some of the girls who turned out at Westfields Kotara on the weekend.

The Monday night hour long Idol show is just a lot of filler.

Do I really want to hear the bottom three songs again, why don't they get the person who wins the Cadbury star moment to sing again.

Also Chris Brown why is he so big and why does he need an entourage of 36? I know some teeny bopper will make a voodoo doll of me but thought he was very overrated.

The bottom three was inevitably Luke Dicken, Teale Jakubenko and Roshani Priddis, with Roshani deservedly going as she was the weakest link last night.

Next week Michael Jackson night, now that is going to be interesting. I predict Luke's performance will be a train wreck.

Speaking of trainwreck's Ricki-Lee mentioned her Idol train wreck to Roshani Priddis. It was Beatles night and she sang We Can Work It Out. She was eliminated after it. For those who have forgotten here it is below.

You wonder what the king of cool Mick Jagger would think about Australian Idol contestant's mauling his songs. But then again Mick who is a notorious tightwad might just be glad to get the royalties.

A couple of thoughts on tonights show:

• Yes we know Wes is hot but do we really need the lighting to make his hair and face red at the beginning of the song? and
• Roshani Priddis needs to ban the producers from playing the footage of her working in a call centre type situation, as it only reminds people of those annoying phone calls they get from India just as they are sitting down to dinner. Not something that is going to win her votes.
  
  Wes Carr - Jumping Jack Flash
  I really wanted Wes to put his gravelly tones to "You Can't Always Get What You Want" so I was disappointed. This disappointment was compounded when Teale butchered it later on in the show.
  
  Wes really sexed it up tonight and to think he has performance anxiety (not in that way) as you would not know it once he is on stage. Points should also be given to Wes for making me listen to a maraca and NOT think of Peter Allen.
  
  Roshani Priddis - Wild Horses
  Roshani appeared to have done a Hillsong rendition of this song, and I think she is in danger of going home this week. Her pitch was all over the place and only Rolling Stone aficionado's would have heard of it.
  
  Kyle was right when he said her outfit looked like "the dog had savaged the takeaway chicken container."
  
  Also she has to lose some of her intensity in her pre-performance interviews. Take a leaf out Luke Dicken's laid back approach as that is working for him. Grab a cow to milk or something.
  
  Luke Dickens - Honky Tonk Woman
  I cannot believe Luke is highly likely to make top 3. I cannot believe that he is one of the performances I look forward to watching each week.
  
  I didn't think this was his strongest performance, but he is smart with picking songs from the Triple M playlist. The judges gushed over him, but I think he will be bottom three this week.
  
  Teale Jakubenko - You Can't Always Get What You Want
  I cannot believe he is still here and even worse he is butchering my favourite Stone's song You Can't Always Get What You Want.
  
  He actually thinks he can make it to the Opera House. I am presuming he will fade into oblivion after Idol.
  
  The judges praised his rendition just because of the logistics of compressing a seven minute song into a minute and a half. It was all chorus and I did not like the acoustic version at all.
  
  He made it as bland as Kraft single when I like the song with a bit more bite like vintage cheddar.
  
  Chrislyn Hamilton - Get Off My Cloud
  The girl is sassy. She kept with the traditional Rolling Stone's melody and her voice had the husky blues tones. Chrislyn sings like Roshani would like to with those effortless high notes.
  
  Chrislyn does have to be careful with doing the crazy eyes into the camera - not a great way to connect with the audience at home.
  
  Mark Spano - Angie
  What is it with the judges this year and touchdowns? Can't they think of their own way to get the point across that they thought it was a standout performance? And really was this a standout performance?
  
  I thought it was good, and by playing the guitar it gave Mark a bit of muso cred but will I remember it by tomorrow night I don't think so.
  
  Bottom three predictions - Teale Jakubenko, Roshani Priddis, and Luke Dickens.

Jennifer Hudson who was made famous on American Idol and later winning a best supporting actress Oscar for Dreamgirls, mother and brother has been shot dead in domestic incident in their home in Chicago.

Her mother who still lives in the south side of Chicago was the person that encouraged Jennifer to audition for American Idol.

Jennifer after hearing of the sad news was making her way home from Los Angles to Chicago.

Full story here.

Now we all know Fox News is so Republican biased it is laughable, but are Fremantle Media also McCain fans?

Two employees from Fremantle Media's shows have been assisting the presidential campaign.

It has been revealed that Senator McCain spent $US8672.55 ($12,900) last month for the services of the American Idol make-up artist Tifanie White.

While Mrs Palin spent more, the Arizona senator, 72, who has prominent scars from battling cancer, requires more work than does the more naturally telegenic Mrs Palin, 44.

Her travelling make-up artist is Amy Strozzi, who was nominated for an Emmy Award for her work as head of make-up on So You Think You Can Dance. Ms Strozzi was paid $US13,200 by the McCain-Palin campaign last month alone, according to the campaign's latest financial disclosure report filed this week.

I am not sure what the executive producer and all round reality TV guru Simon Fuller's new wife would think of this, as she has donated money to the Democrats campaign.

Want to meet Wes, kiss Mark or give Chrislyn a hug of support. Well the six contestants left in this year's Australian Idol will be at the centre court at Westfield's Parramatta between 10.30am and 12.30pm. There will be the ususal performance and autograph session.

More details here.

Next week's show will be interesting as Hannah who has had a bitchy side, especially when Kassandra was in the house is in the bottom three for the first time.

This will be the first time her popularity with the Australian audience will be tested. Courtney and Rhys were the other two nominated.

Darwin girl Sara was eliminated last night. She was used to being in the bottom three.

Who Magazine here has a interview with Sara after her elimination. She was not surprised to be gone.

Congratulations must go out to Project Runway Australia host Kristy Hinze on her engagement to 64 year billionaire Jim Clark. The 34 year age gap appears not to bother them.


Photo of Kristy and Jim from http://www.smh.com.au/

Just so we are clear that it is not his money she finds attractive she has said about him:

"I never thought I was going to date an older man when I first met him," she told The Australian Women's Weekly. "To me, it was different to hang out with someone with something to say that was so interesting and important and who was truly, incredibly intelligent. He's handsome and has so much charisma - and he's so funny."


Jim Clark is not on the record on their relationship so it is unclear whether it is her gorgeous long legs and stunning looks that were the attraction or her sparkling conversation.


Funny how only billionaires with the above mentioned qualities get to marry attractive women three decades their junior. Unless of course if the men get their brides from the Philippines. This is not something I advocate by the way. But of course both of these marriages have something in common and that is money.


If it is not the money for Kristy and she has some granddaddy complex I am very surprised as Russ Hinze was powerful but not very attractive nor suave. For those who are too young to know Russ, he is the one at the front.




Full story on the SMH Website.

It is only the second episode but Terence gets the award for the most neurotic person for the series. He bumped his head very slightly and you would have thought a serious brain injury had occurred.

Another highlight was the ageing Ken and Barbie, whoops I meant Tina thought she had talked the airline into using a bigger plane for the flight to allow her to get a seat. She kept on running around telling everyone she was owed.

What is it with these American's? The southern belles hand over two tiny pieces of candy to the ticketing dude like they are giving out caviar and say "here have some American candy" like they were bestowing him some great gift. He just cracked up at them, they of course did not realise.

Terence and Ken started arguing in the queue to get on the plane. I cannot believe Terence is an endurance athlete as he does not seem to have the mental steeliness. Unhinged would be the adjective I would use to describe him.

Normally teams have bad luck with cabs they break down or get lost, but this was the first episode in the squillions of seasons I have watched where I have actually seen a team push a cab before they have even got in it. They were at the airport for christsakes there were plenty of taxi's. And they wondered why they were last.

Once at their destination and getting their clue the teams had to find dune buggies.

Detour time - Beach It - Must travel to a beach and find the traditional boat and move it 140 yards

or

Docket - Find a container terminal in a dock yard.

Most of the teams did Beach It. Terence abused Sarah, Nick slutted out his sister Starr with kisses.

Terence and Sarah finished first, but totally stuffed up trying to find a taxi as they did not follow the arrows. They were at this point in 9th place.

The divorcees Kelly and Christy had some sort of brain explosion and after they finished their detour of Beach It in a timely fashion thought they had to get a container and then started digging around a flag much to the bemusement of the Brazillians.

The Geeks who had actually done the container challenge in the Docket Detour were now in first place.

Roadblock - One person must search for a clue one that is in plain site. They must supply the correct destination to the painter.

The geeks again applied brain power and just wrote down all the names and read them out to the guy. Tina copied their modus operandi. These two teams raced each other to the pit stop, with Ken and Tina making it first.

The divorcee's again stuffed up at the Roadblock by letting their taxi go.

There were a lot of dumbos at this challenge, Nick and frat boy just stood and stared at the wall for awhile.

Last team to arrive was Anthony and Stephanie, and yes they were the ones who pushed the taxi out of the airport.


Siblings Nick and Starr kick of the episode at 4.11am and take off to the airport to fly to another part of Brazil and head to a village.

The battle tonight was between two Sydney institutions Emad's a lebanese restaurant and Gloria's a Portuguese one.

I have in fact eaten at both. Most people in Sydney would have been through Emad's doors at one point clutching a cheap bottle of wine.

It was a place when I was younger I went to quite a lot, but like what must have happened to a lot of their clientele I have moved on.

Gloria's I have been to as well, but only once as the food was appalling.

Both are in need of a make-over. Just as well no health inspectors ever checked the dust on the parachute at Emads when they took down from the ceiling it was disgusting.

Matt Moran came in and spun his magic. However I thought Emad's food looked great, especially the new main meals. Whereas the cooking at Gloria's didn't seemed to improve much except for the presentation.

Emad's won the $20,000 and they deserved it.

I might just walk back into Emad's again one day soon.

Ok so your trial for drug possession is coming up, so Todd's McKenney's PR team decides some positive spin needs to occur to garner sympathy for him.



Now if the best they can do is a story where he was attacked in the supermarket by a bloke with sausages because he wasn't nice to Pauline Hansen, maybe he needs to think about getting a new public relations team.


"I was buying meat for a barbecue when this guy accused me of not giving Pauline Hanson, who starred in the first series, a fair go - and hit me with his sausages!" he says.


If you want the full story you will have to buy this week's New Idea because I certainly won't be.

It was hard to tell who had hit the Aria parties harder Luke Dickens or Gabriella Climi. Six time Aria winner Gabriella who was the special guest singer on Australian Idol looked tired and a tad emotional. At times I really had no idea what she was gibbering on about. At least she admitted some of her acceptance speeches were shite because they were.

Bottom three was Teale Jakubenko, Sophie Patterson, and Mark Spano. The only surprise being Mark. Was his female vote turned off by his Diana Ross type moves?

Imagine Teale and Sophie having a conversation it would be super dull. Sophie even revealed she had been studying accounting prior to her auditioning for Idol. She would really slot into the stereotype of one.

Anyway Teale was first Idol to be safe. Was Mark Spano going to fall for the seventh place curse? No Sophie was eliminated and it really was her time to go she never lived up to all the hype surrounding her.

Shire uber model Cheyenne Tozzi was called in as a replacement judge for Charlotte Dawson at the Townsville casting call for Australia's Next Top Model.

Charlotte stayed in Sydney to be near jailed boyfriend Matthew Rhodin. Matthew who is up on fraud charges, spent the weekend in jail as he had yet to post the $100,000 bail. I wonder if Charlotte will help come up with the cash?

Anyway all reports from Townsville was that Cheyenne, who is only 19, acquitted herself very well.

Full story on Daily Tele.

Now all last year I was blaming Sheridan Tyler for Natalie's disasterous clothes on Australian Idol, but after looking at this fugly outfit clearly I was very wrong indeed. Is she on the drugs Britany Spears was taking when she was having her meltdown.

She said it was bought in an op shop in London for 6 pounds. Shepaid that much for it I could have got it from Best and Less and Spotlight for $5.00.

I am speechless.

Aria night is always a trick for the unwary when Channel Ten move the show back an hour to 6.30pm. Two other things happen on Aria night, Andrew G hosts the show alone, and the show will finish on time.

Tonight was soul night and the guest mentor was Guy Sebastian. Lucky for him he got to plug his Memphis album again. It was a nice change from aged rock stars whose careers were on the declinine.

I liked his advice that when he was on Australian Idol he picked a bit in each song to be a "moment". Well it worked for him some of his performances I still remember.

Mark Spano - You Just Keep Me Hanging On.
This is a soul song? Anyways just to remind us how butch Mark really is they had him sitting leaning up against a wheel of a car in his pre-song interview.

Mark did not look comfortable with soul, not helped by what he was wearing the tie made him look like a school boy. Also the choreographed moves with the back up singers just reminded me of a bad version of The Supremes.

Sophie Patterson - Papa Was a Rolling Stone
To think this girl was my favourite singer from the auditions. Last night when she opened her mouth and started singing it was like fingernails on a chalkboard. She is the same each week, strappy little dress, high high heels she can barely walk in, the little nose wrinkle at the beginning of the song, and the same warbly tones.

I would have liked to have seen her groove the song up a bit more and some tight black pants would have been more appropriate rather then the pretty doll dress.

Dicko said she mutilated the song. Teale Jakubenko is the only thing saving Sophie from going home.

Luke Dickens - My Girl
Now Luke is guaranteed to have a hangover after the Arias. He knows how to be rock and roll ok he just doesn't seem the type to turn down a free beer. After being told he needed to put more light and shade in his voice, which you knew he had no clue what that meant, he delivered tonight an assured performance.

Anyway I thought he was great and certainly was in the top 3 performers on soul night. He will be safe for another week.

Dicko gushed and said "he had a recording voice." Also that his rehearsal song was better. It was must have been sensational.

Teale Jakubenko - Ain't No Mountain Higher
Teale reminds me of the kid at school trying so hard to get into the cool group at school. He's trying his heart out but he is just not going to make it as a pop star. It is becoming uncomfortable to watch. His voice is just not strong or varied enough.

Again the stylist's had him in a tie and suit jacket. Luke had refused the tie which was a good thing.

It is time for you to go Teale.

Chrislyn Hamilton - Get Ready

Well this was her night and she looked and sang it great. Though I was not sure about the hip flick towards tiny John Foreman. If Chrislyn doesn't make it on her own I am sure she will make a great back up singer.

I will be surprised if she does not win the Cadbury's Magic Moment this week.

Wes Carr - If I Were A Carpenter
I would not have thought this song was soul either. Now Wes was going to get caught up in the suit jacket and tie look. No he looked all rock star in a waistcoat and shirt. He played the guitar and it was excellent. Really it is going to be a surprise if he does not win. His album will be out before last year's winner Natalie Gauci.

All the judges gushed - it is like they have a marketable Bobby Flynn.

Roshani Priddis - Reflections

I had such high expectations from her and they just were not matched. Sometimes she works to much on her performance and her voice is compromised because of it. Also the song choice was boring and pitch problems did not help especially in the higher registers. A certain bottom three.

Bottom three predictions - Sophie Patterson, Teale Jakubenko, and Roshani Priddis.

Ricky-Lee Coulter To Be A Divorcee at the age of 22.
The men in Australia will be rejoicing today now it has been revealed her marriage to Jamie Babbington is over. Ricky-Lee's publicist cited "distance and time apart" for the split. Ricky-Lee moved to Sydney to be a co-host on Australian Idol.

The couple were together for seven years. So she must have been 15 and he was 24 when they started going out. I am not sure what I think of that.

Full story on Daily Tele.

So You Think You Can Dance Australia auditions in Brisbane Today
Brisvegas dancers were out in force today for the auditions of SYTYCD Au. Season 1 winner Jack Chambers was from Brisbane, he will be permanently moving to New York in March. Part of his prize money has gone towards buying an apartment on the Upper West Side. Nacho Pop and Jack were also at the auditions today.

Brisbane Times has more details.

Charlotte Dawson's Boyfriend Is Doing Jail Time.
Now what is it with Next Top Model judge Charlotte Dawson and her propensity for men who have difficulties with the law. Her former husband Scott Miller currently has drug charges laid against him, and her current squeeze Matthew Rodin just spent the night in jail on fraud charges.

$100,000 is required to get him out of jail. Now Charlotte seems like a sensible woman she needs to ditch this guy and fast. Does she really want to be schleping to Long Bay Jail each weekend if he is convicted? The charges relate to a $7.5 million fraud.

The Australian has the full yarn.

America's Next Top Model Cycle 12 Spoiler Alert.
NY Mag has a little article saying the overseas trip for the Cycle 12 models is in Sao Paulo.

Well as I have said before I love it when politics and reality TV mix.

Donald Trump today called on George Dubya Bush to be impeached for leading the US into Iraq on lies on the bases there were meant to be weapons of mass destruction there. However as we all know this won't happen.

It is ironic the former president Bill Clinton was impeached for receiving fellatio, with the only people he hurt was his family. Whereas you can put a country into anarchy, spend billions of dollars and have thousands of body bags and that is ok.

Only in America. Don't even get me started on Sarah Palin.

The Donald article is here.

Dancing With The Star judge, Todd McKenney wants his drug possession charge dropped. His case which went to court today has been postponed until December, because a mystery woman witness was unavailable.

I thought the Marcus Einfeld case had the monopoly on mysterious female witnesses.

Earlier this year McKenney was found semi-conscious in a park with GBH in his pocket.

Full story here at the Daily Tele.

My thoughts on his predicament can be found in a previous blog here.

I wonder if there will be any complaints from the RSPCA after tonight's episode of Make Me A Supermodel after the models manhandle numerous different animals. My admiration for Hannah went up after she did not even blink when being told that the snakes in the water tank she was about to crawl into were getting "restless".

Also she had a disobedient piglet for her runway walk, the look on her face was priceless, she looked so pissed off as she strutted down the runway. However this expression works well in the world of fashion.

I thought Jackie Frank's criticism of Shanina for letting go of her deer on the runway was a bit harsh. She said " What about if there had been 200 people in the audience and the deer got spooked and ran into them." (I paraphrased that). I mean really would you put a recalcitrant deer on a runway - wouldn't it detract from the clothes?

In a non shock move Issac was eliminated how he stay on for so long was a miracle. I suspect the girl vote.

One person whose strong girl vote may have evaporated this week was the good looking Rhys. There will be lots of teen girls who will be peeved he has a girlfriend, and he was gushing over her. It was then I was reminded he was a surfer, as she reminded me of a character out of Puberty Blues.

The uncomfortable situation award must have gone to Tom when his girlfriend turned up. Even worse when they were back at the house considering the amount of time he has been filmed lusting after Shanina. Unfortunately the girlfriend did not go for the jugular on this issue. That would have made great reality TV.

Bottom three are Sarah, Billy and Courtney. It must be time for Sarah to go, even though Billy smarminess annoys me.

The teams this series is the usual assortments of families, and dating couples, however this season there appears to be no gay team (I am from Sydney I notice these things), unless you count the two geeks who could be in the closet.

Anyway it was the usual schmozzle at the airport and then they were off to Salvador Brazil to find a sandwich shop.

The Geeks were leading at this stage and they then had to push a contraption loaded with candy somewhere. The question needed to be asked on how much of the candy had to stay on it as there was alot falling off.

New York dating couple, Terence and Sarah took the lead due to her ability to speak Portuguese.

Is Terence going to be the new Johnathan (of Victoria and Johnathan fame), as he was pissed off that Sarah was talking to other teams. "I want her to connect with me." and "You cannot climb and talk, I can." were two of his classic lines. I hope they stay in for awhile.

It was important to get there as quickly as possible as you needed to get a ticket to get the time they were leaving in the morning.

The next morning was detour time.
Detour:
Hard way up - Must climb entire staircase on their hands and knees.

Soft way down - must climb down cargo net from a elevator, only three teams can be on the net at the same downs. Most people were picking this one. This one would only be hard if you were afraid of heights.

Frat boys were the only ones to do the stairs and the question at the top was how many stairs have you just climbed. Whoops turn back round and do it again. By the way the answer was 53.

Then it was time to go to the pit stop. First to arrive were siblings Nick and Starr, with estranged couple Ken and Tina right behind them. These two teams have formed an alliance Nick and Starr are going to call them mum and dad. They do have American football in common. Ken is a former NFL player, and Starr is a Dallas Cowboy Cheer girl, and Ken's wife Tina looks like a former cheer girl herself. In fact she did a few cheer like bounces after she climbed down the rope ladder.

Last team to arrive were the old hippies they were eliminated.

My current fave teams are the geeks and the frat boys.

Take note Channel Seven say they have fast tracked the new season of The Amazing Race from the US - however we are still a couple of episodes behind so beware of spoiler on websites.

Buddy TV here has an exit interview with the eliminated team of hippies Arthur and Anita.

Also and interview with Phil Keoghan is here.

Luke Dickens The Dark Horse To Take Out Australian Idol.
Now who thought politicians were the only ones to use babies to win votes? Apparently Wes Carr is not the sure bet we thought he was of winning Australian Idol this year.

Livenews_ states that Luke is the dark horse to take out the title. Apparently the odds are shortening for him to win. Australian love an underdog.

Just an aside is Livenews sponsored by Sportsbet as it is always being quoted on their Idol articles. Not that there is anything wrong with that, in fact if Sportbet want to sponsor this blog....

Axle Whitehead To Present An Award At The Arias, Obviously All Is Forgiven
Axle Whitehead the man who proved you don't even have to make it to the final 12 to have a career post Australian Idol will be given a second chance at the Arias this Sunday.

Axle who notoriously flashed his genitals at the Arias two years ago, was sacked after the incident from his job on Channel 10's Video Hits. This turned out not to be a negative thing he went back to his music and released a well received album this year.

The ironic thing is that you can find anything on the Internet, however I have never been able to find footage of the incident. Not that I really want to see his bits, but for the sake of the blog...

Full story here where he explains the flash was a subconscious attempt to sabotage his television career so that he could return to his first love, music.

How very Freudian.

When is an alliance an alliance is always the question being asked on Survivor. And last night's episode spent most of the time devoted to the machinations going on in the Favourites tribe.

There were nine contestants left in their tribe so you did not need to be a member of mensa to realise you needed an alliance of five to dominate until the merge.

Cerise was the swinging member between the alliance of two couples, Ozzie, Amanda, James and Parvati, and the other four of the group.

Johnathan thought Cerise was tight with them, but when Parvati and Amanda promised to take Cerise to the final 3 with them she decided to stick with them. That alliance was arguing whether to vote out the intelligent Yau-man or manipulative Eliza.

Whereas the other group was wanting the flirty Parvati out.

Now even Survivor amateurs know your alliance has to vote the same way to ensure it survives. So when the elimination votes were tallied there were six votes for Yau-Man, two for Parvati and one for Cerise.

What had happened to Johnathan, Eliza's etc alliance? It is week three and they are in a shambles. Lets hope they can regroup by next week.

Here is an exit interview with Yau-Man (if you don't look at the photos at the top of the page too closely there won't be any spoilers). He explains why Ami voted for Cerise as she wanted to keep in good with the two couples once she realised they did not have the numbers for Parvati.

Australian Idol's Luke Dickens Had A Baby Boy
Luke Dicken became a father earlier then expected. His wife Brooke had the baby boy on Monday night during the live verdict show.

The baby was not due until December. I hope the baby is well. Luke will continue on the show.
Source: Daily Tele

Wade Robson To Teach Two Day Workshops At Carriage Works in Sydney on the 11 and 12 of November.
Wade Robson who has choreographed some of the most amazing routines on the US version of So You Think You Can Dance will be in Sydney next with his wife Amanda to teach two day workshops at Carriageworks.

He will also be doing a two day workshop in Melbourne on the 8 and 9 of November at the Mercure.

Personally I think they will be amazing as his style is so original. Wade is Australian but went to the US at a young age as he was discovered by Michael Jackson.

However Michael is not the only troubled superstar he has worked with, as Britany Spears has asked him to choreograph her new world tour. He previously choreographed her shows when she was an up and coming performer.
Wade Robson (Right)
Ticket for his workshops can be bought at Ticketmaster and are $148.50 for a two day pass. Personally I think this is great value.

Source : Daily Tele

Is This The Biggest Non Story About Demelza Reveley Ever???
Now I am not the greatest fan of Demelza, but this story on News.com.au appears to be the biggest non story ever.

They say that in a period where Aussie models like Alice Burdeau and Myf Shepherd are the toast of the International catwalks Demelza was forced to stay home. Her agent Priscilla Leighton-Clark, also a judge on Australia's Next Top Model said Demelza was "not ready". However in good news for Demelza as agents in New York love her and Priscilla will send her when "she can cope."

I am not sure what they are trying to say in the article, another dig perhaps?

Matt Moran was back on TV to try and knock some struggling restaurants into shape in The Chopping Block.

The premise was the same as last year, a secret critic reviews the restaurant, then Matt Moran gives advice about the menu, a $5000 makeover occurs, then 48 hours later the critic comes back to dine again.

The winner of the $20,000 is the place that gets the most stars from the food critic.

The first season never rated as high as channel 9 would have liked, so it is good that they are persisting with it, as it is an entertaining format.

The main change is Catriona Rowntree is not the host anymore. Matt Moran does that role. David Grant who was the critic season one was unable play the role anymore as his identity had been revealed.

Noted food writer Alan Saunders replaces him, and on first viewing he is not as acerbic as David was, but he should improve as he gets his TV legs.

The show was set in Shellharbour tonight with an 'Italian' restaurant Angelinas versus Tandoori Place.

Both of these business are struggling, and the problem usually boils down to management/owners not taking enough control. It amazes me that owners who have put thousands of dollars into the their own business that they are not control freaks and let their staff get away with lax practices or kitchens to pump out substandard food.

The action in this places always takes place in the kitchens. Angelina's had a determined, but over confident chef, and Tandoori Place had an experienced but lazy chef.

Matt Moran has a great knack of being warm whilst criticising the staff, he is no Gordon Ramsey and that is a good thing.

After a Matt Moran touch up Tandoori Place won. Angelina's lost due to Alan Saunders not receiving his food two hours after he had set down. The owners wife was using the docket machine and she was stuffing up. Why have someone doing something they have never done before on such an important night? Also where was the owner of Angelina's he was not managing either the floor or the kitchen.

Will the chef was devastated. My advice for him would be buy the business off the owner as with his enthusiasm he would improve place further.