Reflections on Rock of Love Bus

The following e-mail conversation took place on January 9th roughly between the hours 8am and 2pm.   It began as a rant on the premiere episode of VH1′s Rock of Love Bus, but then shifted to a discussion about celebrity between myself and Geppetto Jones.

Geppetto @ 8:32am

What a skank fest!   All the Amy Winehouse wanna be’s, the pathetic 50 somethings with the botox and the enormous horribly done boob jobs.   What is up with the crazy Brazilian?   Who as Brett said, “May just kill us all” as he gives her a pass for the bus.   The most pathetic was the Thai ladyboy in the bathing suit. She was the one the union guys had to move as they were striking the set.

I don’t know who has fallen more, Brett Michaels or the bimbos that go on these shows. There has to be a social pecking order with these reality shows. What’s worse being a Rock of Love/ I Love NY/ etc. “contestant” or being on The Biggest Loser? Or being on Supernanny, Wife Swap, etc?

Holly @ 9:01am

I think that the VH1 stuff is it’s own category.  I mean, you have train wrecks like Supernanny and Wife Swap and Bridezilla. Producers pick complete opposites and let the chips fall where they may.  They’re usually thrown in a screaming match but no one will likely get physically harmed in the making of bad tv. VH1 has tapped into the cardinal rule of reality and all so-bad-it’s-good tv.  The more f*cked up people with low self-esteem and no values you have in a room competing over anything –will make people will watch. Most of these girls, have some sort of agenda.  They seem to want to model, or sing(only in the broadest sense) or just promote themselves.   This latest celebreality show from VH1 is the third and hopefully final installment of Rock of Love.   Now, I have to admit Brett Michael can actually form complete sentences. I think what made my favorite, Flavor of Love so great in the most horrible of ways was that although I found Flavor Flav disgusting to look at and frankly in need of subtitles almost every show… he was very endearing. He bore no malice for his contestants.  I actually thought this guy was too good for all of them. I don’t know if that says more about him, them or me. After just one episode of RoL Bus  I think that Brett Michael’s is smart enough to knock out the chick who serenaded him with lyrics on her genital herpes and gonorrhea facts sheet but not smart enough to stop making out with the Brazilian chick who just puked her guts out. We’ll have to wait more than the usual 7 to 10 days if he can find love the third time around.

Geppetto @ 12:28pm

I don’t know if I can sit through another episode.  I’m still disappointed in Brett.   He’s a Rock star– well small “r” now.  I don’t have a problem with normal people degrading themselves, but what’s up with “celebrities” who do it.  I know he’s in it for the money, but come on.  Go sell some songs to Microsoft or go appear in weird Japanese TV ads.   If Hendrix and Morrison were alive would they be on crappy reality TV?   No, they overdosed like a rock star should.    Or just age gracefully like Mick Jagger and David Bowie. I know the problem with this comparison– Jagger and Bowie are much older than Michaels and won’t outlive their fortunes.

My biggest beef is that there has been this weird devaluing of “celebrity”. Normal average people are now given more than 15 minutes and are elevated with “star” status and people who actually accomplished something in the fields of music, art, and sports are having to compete with them. I guess I’d call it the mediocrity of increasing celebrity equality.   I understand why Gary Oldman is a star. I don’t understand why the loser of the Bachelor gets an ET exclusive.   Am I being an elitist, for wanting a dividing line between accomplishment and buffoonery? Obviously this argument falls apart with a Lindsey Lohan or Brittney Spears.

Holly @ 12:34pm

Two Words… Paris Hilton. She kind of broke the boundary for celebrity without ANY merit.  I mean you had George Hamilton. But he at least was in a couple of cult movies (Where the Boys Are, Zorro the Gay Blade) and is reasonably amusing.   When the public started started celebrating super models as celebrity and “actors” I think we opened Pandora’s Box for loosening the term celebrity. The jumping the shark moment culminated with Paris Hilton and those of her ilk or at least strain of contagion.

Geppetto @ 1:13pm

I thought about her. But there have always been rich people who wanted to be in the spotlight: Howard Hughes, Donald Trump later in his career. Being rich in America is like being royalty in Europe, you are automatically a celebrity– its just a matter of shifting from the society pages to the entertainment section. I don’t think she broke the barrier or jumped the shark.   She’s just a lemming.

I do agree that celebrity got cheapened with the rise of the supermodels– but as vapid as it is, appearing on the cover of Vogue or Elle is an accomplishment, not everybody can do it.   Losing weight on The Biggest Loser or getting kicked off of Beauty and The Geek is not.   There has to be a Ground Zero or Missing Link when it all went wrong.   I should blame the industry that I work in, if it weren’t for E!, People Magazine, TMZ, The Insider, and all the rest– there would be logical cyclical popularity for celebrities. But now to fill all of the air time and pages online, they have to promote anybody on TV that farts on a cable network program with more than 15 viewers or shows up to a nightclub without their knickers. Also the has been’s never get to disappear. Remember how Tiffany, Samantha Fox, and Debbie Gibson disappeared at one point. That’s what should have happened to Brittney Spears and Jessica Simpson. But no. They are still with us.

Maybe Anna Nicole Smith is the one. She was a Guess model. Then a Playboy centerfold. “Actress”   and then married into money.  Widowed. Then reality show “star”.  US Supreme Court plaintiff and then a high profile death. I think she was the one who jumped the shark.

Holly @ 1:21pm

I would have to disagree. For all her faults she actually did stuff.  Not great stuff and not always well but you’ve got to admit…she did stuff. She even did some soft core cable porn. that alone is better than Paris anyday. Who can we blame…really?  Princess Stephanie?  There is a fine line between I did nothing to merit my fame and I did something really awful for my fame.

Geppetto 1:40pm

I know Anna Nicole did stuff. I just think its where things start to go downhill. She should have faded after getting married, but somehow she stuck around and that left the barn door open for any bozo with a pulse to become a “star”. Doing “awful” things– do you mean bad porn like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian or criminal behavior earning infamy type of stuff like Manson?

Holly @ 1:49pm

No, more doing good things rather poorly.

**End of discussion.