Jamie Foxx Wants His Reality MTV
Jamie Foxx is adding reality television to his résumé.
The Oscar winner is an executive producer of MTV’s From G’s to Gents, a new competition show in which host Fonzworth Bentley (aka, Diddy’s Personal Umbrella Holder) attempts to makeover a bunch of rather rough men into charming sophisticates.
Think Pygmalion meets Boyz n the Hood.
“He really jumped into that executive-producer seat,” Bentley says of Foxx. “There were some ideas that I would come up with, and I’d say, ’You know, I would love to be able to do this.’ He was like, ’All right! If that’s what we’ve got to do to get these guys to change, then let’s do it.’”
And these were not easy men to change. Bentley not only did his best to teach them, among other things, how to dress, speak and even eat, but he was also the sole judge deciding who goes and who stays. The winner takes home $100,000.
The hardest part was watching one man struggle with major anger issues who was repeatedly fired from various jobs because of violence, Bentley said. He won’t reveal too muchyou have to wait until the series premieres on July 15but Bentley admits he had to give the man the boot.
“We actually ended up bringing in this lady who meets with prisoners in San Quentinlike a life coachand we did some sessions with her,” Bentley says. “She’s actually still doing sessions with this young man.”
Comedy Central gets real
Comedy Central is presenting it’s first unscripted series this summer called Reality Bites Back. Ten comedians will compete by making parodies of the most infamous reality shows. Whoever makes it to the end will win $50,000 in cash and the title “Lord of All Reality.” And guess who’s hosting? Michael. Ian. Black. The former State cast member will get to explain the absurd challenges and kick someone off the show each week.
Comedian contestants include Kyle Cease, Chris Fairbanks, Jeff Garcia, Red Grant, Tiffany Haddish, Bert Kreischer, Mo Mandel, Donnell Rawlings, Amy Schumer, and Theo Von. The series will satirize shows like American Idol, Survivor, The Amazing Race, The Biggest Loser, American Gladiators, Dancing with the Stars, and So You Think You Can Dance.
“I believe Reality Bites Back will do for reality television shows what Alf did for extraterrestrial puppet shows,” quips host Michael Ian Black.
This show has great potential. Fans of reality TV and those who think the genre marks the end of the world both will find this funny. (At least, I think they will.) What do you think? The premiere is Thursday July 17th at 10:30 p.m. ET on Comedy Central. Check out comedycentral.com for more information on the show.
Paris Hilton: Filming in NYC
Paris Hilton: Filming in NYC
Making her comeback to reality television, Paris Hilton was spotted out and about in New York City filming footage for her new best-friend-finding show.
The “Stars are Blind” babe checked out the Patricia Field store before making a stop at the Hotel Gansevoort and heading out to club One Oak for some late-night activity.
And it sounds like Miss Hilton keeps scoring big points with her boyfriend Benji Madden. The Good Charlotte rocker recently gushed about how great life is now that Paris is in his world.
He said, “I’ve never been so happy. Nothing worries me in life any more. When you find that best friend, that love, all your worries go away. Your work and everything you do gets better [when] you have someone supporting you. And she’s that for me.”
The reality stars you love to hate
The first reality show contestant I learned to hate was Puck from the San Francisco season of MTV’s The Real World. This was actually before people went on reality shows just to be on television and become some sort of celebrity. Oh, what innocent, fun times those were (and I’m serious - the first few seasons of The Real World were quite good).
Puck was actually OK for several episodes, but then he started with the hateful talk, not getting along with his roommates, and the battles with Pedro (though I have to admit that the thing I disliked most about Puck wasn’t any of those things, it was the time he stuck his fingers in the peanut butter - gah). Now TV Guide includes Puck in their list of the top 10 reality TV villains. You can probably guess a few of the others. Spencer Pratt is on there (I had never seen or heard of this guy until Letterman’s interview last night), Survivor’s Jonny Fairplay, and, of course, Omarosa of The Apprentice.
Anyone missing from this list?
(By the way, it actually hurt a little bit to check the “celebrities” category for this post.)