BBC Show Fined for Fake Contest
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Those bloody British! The BBC network of Britain was was ordered to pay an unprecedented 50,000 pound ($100,000) fine on Monday over a faked phone-in contest on its flagship children’s TV show.
“The decision to involve a child in the deception for the sake of expediency demonstrated a casual lack of regard for the welfare of that child,” the regulator Ofcom said.
Almost 40,000 children called the “Blue Peter” premium rate phone line on November 27 last year in a competition to win a toy. They were asked to identify a character from a soap opera from a picture of his feet and an accompanying clue.
But when a technical glitch meant no winning entrant could be selected, a member of the production team asked a girl visiting the studio with her parent to pose as a winning caller.
She was given the correct answer and put on air.
Another member of the public visiting the studio on the same day saw what happened and blew the whistle in March this year.
The BBC said it regretted that Ofcom found it necessary to impose a fine. It was the first time Ofcom had imposed a financial penalty on the public service broadcaster.
Tags: BBC Britain, BBC fake contest
Isaiah Washington To Sue ABC?
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Isaiah Washington, apparently, isn’t done with his former bosses at ABC after he was fired from the top-rated show, Grey’s Anatomy. The actor told the Houston Chronicle that he is contemplating filing a lawsuit against the network.
I have to clear my name,” said Washington. “I’ll start from the beginning. I’m telling everything. So here’s the truth.”
Washington went on to say the ABC fired the wrong guy, accusing T.R. Knight of exploiting the controversy in order to get a salary increase and to enhance his role.
Knight, who announced soon after the initial fracas that he was gay, told talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres in January that Washington used the slur against him and that “everyone (on the set) heard” him do so.
“That’s a lie,” Washington told the Chronicle. “I used the word during a disagreement with Patrick. I apologized for that. We shook hands and went back to work.”
He also said that he requested to be released from his contract after the incident but he was told to hang on.
“I was not fired for making homophobic slurs,” Washington said. “I did everything I said I would do. … I wanted everyone to know I was remorseful.”
Hmmm…if all these are true…Knight sounds like a schemy little creature.
Victoria Beckham Shuts Door on Reality Show
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Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham won’t be appearing on US TV after all despite reportedly signing up with NBC for a reality show that will chronicle her and David Beckham’s move to the States.
The uber-thin diva told Brit paper, “The Mirror”, that the welfare of her family comes before fame.
According to a “Mirror” source, “the TV series was a great launchpad for her career but she felt she was being pushed into a corner and David was obviously always going to take priority.”
What, did she actually think she will be the star of the show?
Tags: Victoria Beckham, David Beckham, Reality TV Shows
Jordin Sparks Is The New American Idol
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Jordin Sparks captured wide audience votes to beat beat-boxing opponent Blake Lewis and become the youngest American Idol winner ever.
“Mom, Dad, I love you,” Sparks, 17 and the daughter of retired NFL player Phillippi Sparks, said tearfully after a bearhug from Lewis.
The Finals Night pulled out the stops and the stars, with Gwen Stefani, Tony Bennett, Bette Midler, Green Day and more singing.
The two-hour show opened with Lewis and Sparks dueting on the Beatles “I Saw Her Standing There,” followed quickly by a touring Stefani singing “4 in the Morning” via satellite from Massachusetts.
Midler took the stage as the show came toward its close, singing “The Wind Beneath My Wings.”
Hundreds of “American Idol” fans lined Hollywood Boulevard leading up to the theater before the show.
Despite the big night, Simon Cowell, couldn’t help takling about Melinda Doolittle and what wasn’t to be. “I’m pleased for the two of them,” Cowell said of Sparks and Lewis. “They’re nice kids. But I would have liked to have seen one of them up against the big singer.”
Tags: Jordin Sparks, American Idol Winner, Blake Lewis
American Idol Showdown: Vote for Blake or Jordin
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After 18 weeks of eliminations — and that brief Sanjaya Malakar stint– the last two standing contestants of American Idol show off for the ultimate prize. Blake Lewis and Jordin Sparks now battle for fans’ votes and that precious chance to fame.
The winner of the popular U.S. television contest will be announced at the end of a two-hour finale on Wednesday, but not beforethe finalists are given one more chance to strut their stuff on Tuesday night.
Not even the show’s judge and music producer Simon Cowell would dare predict the winner. “I can’t call it at this stage because I think they’ve both got different strengths,” Cowell said. “One is a better entertainer (Lewis) and one is a better singer (Sparks).”
Sparks, who hails from Glendale, Arizona, is the daughter of former NFL football player Phillipp Sparks. The 17-year-old won the judges’ and audiences’ praise for delivering worthy performances.
But Cowell said Sparks is “a great singer, but added that she hasn’t done one performance yet which I can remember as a ‘wow.”‘
Lewis, who Cowell said was a “brilliant entertainer … not a fantastic singer,” had a somewhat rockier road to the finale. A full-time musician from Bothell, Washington, he puts his own original twist on classic songs by using a vocal percussion technique known as beat-boxing.
American Idol, now in its sixth season on the Fox network, has grown from a cheesy summer talent competition into a cultural phenomenon and the United States’ most-watched TV show.
Tags: American Idol Finals, Jordin Sparks, Blake Lewis
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