Posts from — October 2009

This is my attempt to get into the Spring Carnival spirit, as in acknowledge it.

Matt and Emma Preston at DerbyDay. Photo from www.news.com.au

Jenna and Lisa from Beauty and the Geek, with host Bernard Curry. Photo fromwww.news.com.au

Dancing With the Stars Sonia Kruger. Photo from www.news.com.au

Australian Idol’s Andrew G and Noa Tisby. Photo from www.news.com.au

Charlotte Dawson and Ivan Zellick from The Contender. Photo from www.news.com.au

Kelly and Regis a popular morning show did this spoof of Rachel Zoe, it was funnier then I thought it was going to be. Only for people who are watching the show.

Also for the “fashion forward” here is a list of ten items Rachel Zoe says are must haves for Autumn. (Cupcakes and Eggplant Blog)

This would appear to be the only thing people are discussing this week in the US – Adam Lambert’s first album cover. There has been much chatter, but as this year’s American Idol runner up said it is meant to be camp.

OK it is Friday, so it is time for you guys to have a laugh at my expense. This is an interview I did with some University of Sydney media students who were making a website examining reality TV.

I know now why people get botox.

The Contender commences on Fox 8 this Monday November 2 at 8.30pm. I will be doing a recap, but don’t have my usual enthusiasm as I am not a boxing fan. Anyway let’s hope it surprises me, and I am a big fan of Charlotte Dawson.

Here is what the press release said:

An unscripted drama about the lives, fears and hopes of 14 professional super middleweight boxers, The Contender Australia follows these boxers (from Australia and New Zealand), as they compete for the chance to forever change their lives and the lives of the people they love.   

Following the great success of the U.S. series of The Contender, the first series of the Australian version offers the boxers the ultimate prize of a fight with Anthony “The Man” Mundine.

 Charlotte Dawson and Daniel Amalm host The Contender Australia and work beside boxing mentor Johnny Lewis and team trainers Paul Briggs and Billy Hussein, who all play a part in guiding the boxers through the intense training and the most challenging experience of their lives.  

Produced by Granada Productions, the series follows their journey and the challenges these boxers face in their personal lives and career, as well as provide insight to their fears and hopes. The highly stressful, tough competition will test their relationships with each other in and out of the ring.  

Introducing our Contenders: 

ADRIAN TAIHIA, 26, Sandringham, New Zealand. Described as a rising star in New Zealand, Adrian only started his boxing career three years ago and boasts an undefeated record.

 BEN McCULLOCH, 27, Sydney. This hot Australian prospect is enjoying the “intensity” and “adult” world of boxing. Only turning pro last year, with three fights under his belt his future looks bright having won all three, two by way of knockout.  

DANIEL MACKINNON, 25, Otorohanga, King Country, New Zealand. Currently the New Zealand middleweight champion, Daniel credits his left hook as his strength. In the ring, he likes to work out his opponent and says no matter what their style is he can figure it out and adapt.

GARTH WOOD, 31, Petersham, Sydney. Once voted NRL’s fittest athlete during his rugby league career, Garth only turned pro two years ago – a short but impressive start with five fights and four wins under his belt.  

ISRAEL KANI, 36, Noosa Heads, Queensland. This former super middleweight champion prides himself on his fitness and training and is always ready to fight and compete, joining The Contender to get a sense of how far he can go in the sport. 

JOSH CLENSHAW, 32, Mt Druitt, NSW. He may wear his heart on his sleeve but, with 42 fights and more than 286 rounds to his name, he has been in the ring with just about everybody and has experience on his side. 

JUNIOR TALIPEAU, 25, Cronulla, NSW. Turning professional four years ago, Junior has come a long way in a short time with an impressive 14 fights and 14 wins record under his belt –  winning the vacant Australian middleweight title and making six successful defenses.

KARIZ KARIUKI, 32, Blacktown, NSW. This softly spoken fighter prefers to do the talking in the ring with an impressive record of 18 wins, 17 of them by way of knockout, and is currently ranked 10^th in the World Boxing Organisation ratings.

LES PIPER, 25 Carrara, Gold Coast. Les is the current Australian super middleweight champion and referred to as an improving fighter. He describes himself as a pressure fighter who has a high work rate and an aggressive and busy style.

 LUKE MOLONEY, 29, Reservoir, Melbourne. Often referred to as a pure boxer with great skills, Luke is currently ranked State champion and describes himself as more of a technician than a knock-out-style fighter. 

NADER HAMDAN, 35, Kingsgrove, NSW. Once a street thug and “out of control youth” who turned his life around with boxing, Nader is the only Contender to have already gone the distance with Mundine in a world title fight.  He turned pro at 20 and now at 35 he feels this is his “last shot”.

PRADEEP SINGH, 22, Boronia, Melbourne. Describing himself as “a nice man with a good heart” and priding himself on being healthy, Pradeep is religious about training for up to 17 hours a day.  

SONNI MICHAEL ANGELO, 24, Sydney. Described as one of the more outrageous personalities of Australian boxing, Sonni (“Jungle Boy”, from the Congo) has a style which has been described as explosive and unpredictable. He believes he is indestructible and someone who has defied all odds. 

VICTOR OGANOV, 32, Perth. Victor instills fear in his opponents with his professional career record of 28 wins all by way of knockout: an impressive record showing his talent and the lethal power in his hands.

 If you are reading this article through a feed on TV.com please come and join the discussion and check out the blog at www.realityravings.com

Channel Nine Considering Second Series Of The Apprentice.

TV Tonight has an excellent article about upcoming shows for Nine with an interview with programmer Michael Healy. He says they are considering a second series of The Apprentice.

He told TV Tonight:

“We tend to mark things very harshly here, particularly a first series,” he notes. “The Apprentice took 4 series in the UK before it popped. The BBC was committed to it. It wasn’t like it exploded onto the scene, it actually built season on season.

“It’s an incredibly well-produced show and Mark Bouris is very strong as an Australian Master in the role. We’re very proud of it and very happy with its performance. So we’d certainly be looking at the potential of a second series.”

Todd McKenney  May Not Be The Hands On Dad He Wanted To Be

The Daily Telegraph has an article which says Dancing With The Stars judge may not be as hands on to his two year old daughter as he wanted to be when she was born. He said at the time he would move to Melbourne to be near the mother of the child Anne Woods, but career kept him in Sydney. Now that Anne is performing in Mamma Mia in Sydney hopefully he might get to develop a relationship with the child.

Former Pop Idol Babe, Sophie Monk Is Back In Town

The Daily Telegraph has a story that when Sophie Monk landed at the airport this morning she was mistaken for Lara Bingle by “fans”.

However to me the real story was her people called the paps to tell them she was landing at 6.05am, and it took her an hour to emerge after all the other people from her flight had left. She was travelling with a makeup artist as well. When did she become so famous that she travels with an entourage? How does she afford it? Anyway she is back here for a wedding, a radio gig (today FM I think) and a magazine shoot.

If you want to check out her sashay through Sydney International click here.

Wes Carr Had Smallest Gig Ever At Southbank – Only Two Turned Up

The Herald-Sun says that only two people turned up to watch Wes Carr for the launch of MySpace music on Monday morning. To be fair it was only 7.30am.

SYTYCD Uber-Choreographer Mia Michaels May Be Coming To Australia

Hopefully this is not the false alarm it was last year, but in this TV Watch where she talks about why she really left the US version of So You Think You Can Dance she states she is scheduled to come on the Australian version of the show.

Also in other SYTYCD news Twitch the runner up in Season 4 will star in a film Stomp The Yard 2:Homecoming. Kherington Payne who was also on that season will be in it as well. Kherington was last seen in Fame. (Source: From Inside The Box)

Rumours Are Emerging about A Reality TV Show Between Jon Gosselin and Octo-mum

Popeater write about a possible reality show starting Jon Gosselin from Jon and Kate plus Eight and Octo-mum Nadya Suleman. This fuckery could only happen in America.

Project Runway Christian Siriano Sayings Revealed

Oparah.com has a article which reveals what Christian Siriano’s sayings meant. One of his famous sayings was Hot Tranny mess.

If you are reading this article on TV.com please come across and join the discussion and check out my blog on www.realityravings.com

Well if Australian Idol is dead someone has not told the Channel Ten publicity team, as it has been included in the 2010 program lineup.

However I suspect if they were thinking of killing it off they would not want to do that at time where they want positive press for there next year’s viewing schedule. They did not want Australian Idol axed headline, to overshadow some the new shows they will be launching.

One of the new shows will be Junior Masterchef where kids (I think 9-12 year olds) will cooking for the shows judges George Calombaris and Matt Preston. Let’s hope they are not diluting the brand to much. However it would appear Celebrity Masterchef will not be returning.

Channel Ten however do have their usual high quality of reality TV scheduled with The Biggest Loser, So You Think You Can Dance Australia, and MasterChef Australia.

All of these will be supported by Ten’s superior digital online sites. Something the other channels would do well to emulate.

If you are reading this article on TV.com please come across and join the discussion and check out my blog on www.realityravings.com

One of the reasons I like watching The Amazing Race is seeing Americans appear totally ignorant about the countries they are travelling through. However tonight the contestants hit a new low, when they could not recognise the iconic Jackie Kennedy-Onassis.

 I know we don’t expect they yanks to know much about what is outside their country, but really this was ridiculous. Only about three teams recognised her.

It was an OK episode but for some reason it was not the most entertaining, here are a few thoughts on it:

• The poker player girls have got to be the luckiest team in the history of The Amazing Race, both times they have come in last to the pit stop they have been given a get out of jail free card, once it was a non-elimination leg, and tonight they benefited off the bad luck of another team;
• Just as I had decided Zev and Justin were my favourite team, and was very happy when they came in first, it was discovered Zev did not have his passport. They were told be Phil they had to go and find it before the last team was checked in. Unfortunately they did not. But why wasn’t it in the bum bag? Anyway I am sure they will have to live with that stuff up for the rest of their lives.
• Lance is a tool and if Keri marries him she is a fool;
• Also Mika and Canaan don’t appear to be members of MENSA either, but then members of MENSA don’t appear to be members of MENSA either (I’m thinking of you Sabrina from The Apprentice);
• I know they showed people struggling with the monkey manouvre road block but I thought it was too easy and not that entertaining;
• Did Phil tear up when he told Zev and Justin they were eliminated?
• Does this mean the brother’s get the Velocity prize for coming first by default?

Here is an interview with the guys on Reality Wanted (by the way there are no spoilers there).

They do reveal in the interview that the passport was found as it was handed in. They lost it in the monkey manouvre challenge when Justin put his hand in the bum pack to get out a light.

If you are reading this article on TV.com please come across and join the discussion and check out my blog on www.realityravings.com

Ok so I confirmed Corin Storkey may not be the “typical” geek, he has managed to hold down a relationship for quite sometime and have a kid (see my story about it here  and further details on the saga go to TV Tonight ). However I think Emma “Miss Congeniality” is fake as well. I have mentioned it before but she is obviously not as dumb as some of the other girls. Also I think her parents are doctors or are at least university graduates.

So it is interesting that the two “fakes” are bonding very well in the house.

Though I don’t blame her Corin looked pretty hot jumping into the spa. Did I spot a glimmer of a six pack? Apparently Emma is the beauty the geeks all like as she is good looking “naturally attractive” and the most intelligent.

The challenges tonight were a speech for the beauties, and the boys had to dress them for a day at the races.

Hadassah thought the speech might involve John Howard, because clearly politicians and reality TV is the new fad.

The beauties were teaching the geeks about fashion. Which I thought was interesting considering a lot of the girls have dubious taste. Expect a lot of micro minis.

The challenge for the boys was first they had to make a fascinator that reflected their personality, and also had to pick a dress for their beauty to model.

Kate Watehouse, and Peter Jago were the judges. Seriously what sort of taste does Peter have, he was all bling bling.

Toby’s fascinater was based on patriotism, and I thought it looked ok.

I loved Paul’s fascinator with the disco ball and wrestler. Xenogene’s had a bit of everything in it, but he is my favourite geek.

Michelle had a shark on his head to reflect Peter’s love of nature.

Corin and Lisa were runner-up in the challenge, but Emma and Jeremy won.

At this point they were definitely whipping up the Emma and Corin flirtation, they were very touchy feely.Corin likes Emma’s integrity.  And she thought “he is definitely dateable”. “They would have very smart babies,” said Lisa. I think the issue with Corin and the child is if it had been put out at the beginning of the show no one would have thought anything of it, however it appears they were trying to sweep it under the carpet. A big thanks to commenter Goofus for the tip.

Hadassah was freaking out about her public speaking challenge. Her topic was combating obesity. She finally started talking, it didn’t make sense but was vaguely amusing.

By the way was the hall where the girls were doing their public speaking the same hall where a very bad concert was held by the “talent” in My Kid is A Star (sorry I thought I had erased that show out of my head).

Jenna did not know what a republic was so said things should stay the same, not mentioning the monarchy.

Lisa is hilarious as she is so ditzy. Michelle was sweet talking about her parents.Emma won talking about the GFC and how much she spend to much on shoes.  

This meant they got to nominated both teams. The teams that were nominated were Toby and Jenna, and Elise and Paul.

The boys had fashion questions to answer. I would have only been able to answer one of the questions correctly.

The girls had questions about speeches. Elise stumbled on a question about Mahatma Gandhi, so Toby and Jenna got to stay.

If you are reading this article on TV.com please come across and join the discussion and check out my blog on www.realityravings.com

Reality TV and beauty pageants have always been a quick way for people to heighten their profile when their other skills and accomplishments will not raise them above the milieu. Rachael Finch, Miss Universe Australia, has now tackled both genres. The 21 year old auditioned for MasterChef this year with a stir-fry which looked like it was laden with sauce, and was panned by judge George Calombaris.  Hence she did not get through to the top fifty then, but  by acquiring a tiara and her sash and she got a start on the celebrity version.

Rachael tottered in on white stilettos, which I did not think went with the cutoff ripped denim shorts, and she doubled her hotness once she got the blundstones on.

Ryan O’Keefe the Sydney Swans player, who I have never heard of, clearly my sports knowledge is very poor, made up for his lack of charisma with a high cuteness factor.

Ryan O’Keefe was cooking a fettuccine bolognaise sauce, which sounded a bit simple but he was making his own pasta.

Rachael is doing two courses a salmon, and crepes with creme patisserie, and strawberry and basil. The judges were impressed with Rachael ambitious menu and thought she showed some chefy skills.

George was cooking risotto bonza – I was a bit disappointed that they did not do a flashback to Andre’s strawberry and champagne risotto. Ok all you Masterchef Australia season two contestants who are still auditioning or in the top 50 – do not cook risotto, you will have better chance with a souffle.

George’s oyster was also pretty wacky pesto, parmesan, and then put in the oven. Also lamb with risotto is not something I particularly like.

Ryan’s fettuccine was beautifully cooked, but the judges felt the sauce should have had a longer to develop more flavour.

George’s risotto was a big fail, too chalky, however his oysters were given a positive response, though I am not sure why he wanted to shuck the oyster when he was going to cook them.

Both of Rachael’s dishes attracted praise, and she won the round.

Tony Bilson was the guest chef  the choice of dish was between  scallop and truffle tart with a beurre blanc and sweetbreads or a bouillabaisse.

Rachael picked the tart as she thought both the guys would prefer to cook the bouillabaisse. And it was a smart tactic.

The tart did look very complex. But even though they get one lifeline which means Tony Bilson will come and give them advice for 90 seconds, George and Gary also wander the room handing out advice. They told Ryan his pastry was undercooked, and George told Rachael she was cooking the sweetbreads wrong.

George Negus was in more trouble then the early settlers when he forgot to put the spinach puree on his tart. He had to take off the delicately placed scallops truffles and his pastry broke. Chances of him winning – very slim.

Matt Preston thought George had given them an Italian version of a french dish. They did pull him up for not taking the membrane off the scallop. But they were positive about the flavour.

Ryan’s dish looked ok, “Really precise,” said Gary “Pastry base a bit undercooked.”

“Needs a bit more time in the oven,” said Matt Preston.

Rachael’s dish looked beautiful. “You have just the right amount of  spinach on the tart,” they were all very positive except for Matt nitpicking about the presentation.

However unsurprisingly it was Rachael that got through, something I thought would happen due to all the Eamon Sullivan romance rumours that have been circulating. Where would they have met? The semis.

I have to confess that the celebrity version is not as engaging as the “real life” version. There is not the emotional engagement with the contestants that we had with the original. Some of the celebs are entertaining but some are pretty dull. Bring back Alex Perry I say.

If you are reading this article on TV.com please come across and join the discussion and check out my blog on www.realityravings.com