August 31, 2009
QUOTE: "Even Hollywood is embarrassed by the fact that this weekend's Top 4 competing films featuring horror, death, gore, mayhem, war, Nazis, aliens and sci-fi all did so well at the box office. 'What a sad statement on moviegoing humanity,' a top studio exec e-mailed me. 'And let's look at the ratings for the Top 4 movies at the box office tonight: R, R, R, and R. Yikes.'" —Hollywood industry blogger Nikki Finke, on the box office success of The Final Destination, Inglourious Basterds, Halloween II and District 9 [deadlinehollywooddaily.com, 8/28/09]
At a recent Britney Spears concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City, a group of fans was removed for ... dancing provocatively. One of those ejected, Sandra Ion, said, "I guess there had been a complaint from someone in our section that our dancing was too risqué. Meanwhile, Britney is onstage gyrating half-naked and singing 'Get Naked.'" [nypost.com, 8/27/09]
Put down your cell phone and pause the Blu-ray movie you're watching before reading this clip: Multitaskers may not be as efficient as they think. Researchers at Stanford University have found that those who use different forms of media simultaneously (print, television, computer-based video, music, video games, texting, telephone) are less able to focus than those who multitask less. In simple terms, they're more distracted. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, focused on the media-consumption habits of 263 college undergraduates and measured their ability to recall details presented in rapid succession and with frequent distractions. Stanford communications professor Clifford Nass said, "The prevailing wisdom among people who multitask is that they're skilled and adept and they handle it really well." He said in a separate interview, "The huge finding is, the more media people use, the worse they are at using any media. We were totally shocked." [AP, 8/24/09; usatoday.com, 8/24/09; bloomberg.com, 8/24/09 stats, c&e]
QUOTE: "This study adds to a growing body of literature that says, in general, that multitasking is going to be problematic for people, that it does compromise productivity, and that its consequences can be quite severe in situations like driving." —Dr. David W. Goodman, director of the Adult Attention Deficit Disorder Center of Maryland [cnn.com, 8/25/09]
According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a typical video game aficionado is an overweight, aggressive, introverted and often depressed 35-year-old man. Those findings were based on an online survey of 552 people ages 19 to 90 in Seattle and Tacoma, Wash. The report said that when children and teens become avid gamers, it leads to physical inactivity and an array of health problems that are exacerbated as they grow into adulthood. "Among researchers, there is growing concern and uncertainty about the health consequences of video game playing," said the CDC report. "Given the ubiquity of video games—industry estimates suggest that they are played in 65% of American households—these concerns may be justified." The CDC also noted that half of gamers are between 18 and 49 years old, and that among online gamers ages 8 to 34, almost 12% showed multiple signs of addiction. [Computerworld, 8/23/09; wired.com, 8/23/09 stats, c&e]
From June 2008 to June 2009, the amount of time the average console video gamer spent playing each month jumped 21%, to 768 minutes (12.8 hours), according to Nielsen Media Research. [usatoday.com, 8/11/09 stats]
Psychologists and medical professionals are still debating whether compulsive Internet usage should be formally classified as an addiction. But that hasn't stopped the Heavensfield Retreat Center in Fall City, Wash., from launching a 45-day treatment program for what it calls Internet Addiction Disorder. The rehab center's program, dubbed reSTART, is the first of its kind in the United States. [arstechnica.com 8/24/09]
More and more contestants are claiming that they have been treated abusively while filming reality TV shows. During the 2006 season of The Bachelor, for instance, contestants were forced to wait in vans for several hours while their "arrival" party was set up. Two of the women said there was little food but limitless alcohol, including wine and—when producers thought the video footage was too boring—a tray of shots. "If you combine no sleep with alcohol and no food, emotions are going to run high and people are going to be acting crazy," contestant Erica Rose said. Similar situations have allegedly occurred on Project Runway and Hell's Kitchen, with multiple 18-hour workdays, no breaks and verbal abuse from the crew, which can make participants psychologically and physically dependent on producers. "The bread and butter of reality television is to get people into a state where they are tired, stressed and emotionally vulnerable," says Mark Andrejevic, an associate professor of communications studies at the University of Iowa and author of Reality TV: The Work of Being Watched. [nytimes.com, 8/3/2009]
QUOTE: "VH1 has come a long way since its inception in 1985 as an adult contemporary version of MTV. In this decade, the network has carved a reality show niche, catering to 20-somethings with a penchant for bad fashion, heavy alcohol intake and a willingness to do anything for their 15 minutes of camera time. ... Smut, amorality and debauchery are as common on VH1 now as George Michael and Kenny G. were in the late '80s. Ratings have never been higher." —Boston Herald contributor Michael Marotta [bostonherald.com, 8/24/09]
VH1 has announced that it will not air two new reality shows, Megan Wants a Millionaire and I Love Money 3, because a participant on both programs was involved in a grisly murder-suicide. Ryan Jenkins was one of 17 wealthy suitors vying for the affection of Megan Hauserman on Millionaire. He was also a contestant on I Love Money 3, which features people from various VH1 reality shows competing for cash. Then, on August 14, Jenkins allegedly murdered and mutilated his estranged wife, Playboy model Jasmine Fiore, before taking his own life in a Canadian hotel. According to The New York Times, Jenkins' previous violent criminal history came to light following Fiore's murder, raising questions about the effectiveness of background checks for the shows' contestants. VH1 has deflected criticism to the production company responsible for both shows, 51 Minds Entertainment. That company says it is "taking steps to ensure that this sort of lapse never happens again." [AP, 8/24/09; nytimes.com, 8/22/09]
QUOTE: "What more sensational story is there than the murder-suicide and what plot more irresistible than one about mad rage on the tawdry fringe of Hollywood? The reality-show era has yielded its first dead bodies, with contestant Ryan Jenkins' strangling his hastily married and quickly estranged wife, and proceeding to a short, dreary fugitive run he ended by hanging himself in a hotel room. No one is surprised: Who would expect the world of cable reality shows to offer a narrative that wasn't grotesque?" —The Big Money writer Mark Gimein [thebigmoney.com, 8/25/09]
The star of a popular Brazilian crime-busting reality show is being investigated by police for murder. Investigators believe that Wallace Souza may have contracted at least five murders to, in part, inflate his ratings. Souza, who's also facing drug and weapons charges, says he's innocent. "To say that a program that has had a huge audience for so many years had to resort to killing people to increase this audience is absolutely absurd," he says. [AP, 8/12/09]
The Spike TV show Ultimate Fighting Championship allegedly motivated a 22-year-old Silverdale, Wash., man to pick a fight with a group of youth. The young man threw rocks and "sucker punched" a 21-year-old before a fight broke out. A deputy at the scene says the man claimed "he needed to practice getting knocked out so he could prepare [for the tournament]." [kitsapsun.com, 8/12/09 c&e]
QUOTE: "Bad parenting has emerged as its own entertainment genre. From the round-the-clock gawk-fest provided by the Gosselin family (whose reality show is now less about the challenges of rearing eight children than their dissolving marriage) to the curiosity surrounding Michael Jackson's children, it seems that there's nothing more satisfying than cluck-clucking at poor decisions made by other parents. ... We read about these folks in such magazines as People and US Weekly and watch them on TV (entire forests have probably been decimated for the tabloid coverage of the Gosselins alone), then we express disgust for them and for the media outlets that enable them, and then we read and watch some more. Indeed, bad-parent voyeurism is addictive and sort of like pornography—albeit a markedly sexless form—in the same 'I was only channel surfing' guilty-pleasure mode." —Los Angeles Times contributor Meghan Daum [latimes.com, 8/20/09]
Last week, Culture Clips reported on how the movie Julie & Julia contributed to brisk sales of Julia Child's decades-old cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. This week, Child's famous cookbook has topped The New York Times best-seller list in the advice and how-to category. [The New York Times, 8/23/09 c&e]
UPDATE: R&B singer Chris Brown has been sentenced for his February assault of girlfriend Rihanna: six months of community labor, a year of domestic violence counseling and five years of probation. He's also been ordered to avoid contact with Rihanna for five years. Los Angeles Superior Court judge Patricia Schnegg said that she wanted to ensure that Brown performed physical labor during his sentence instead of community service such as mentoring young people. She also warned, "Any violation of your probation in this case comes with the potential for state prison." [AP, 8/25-26/09]