Blow Out, Blow Up, Whatever
Dispatch from the Land of (Sur)reality
However diverse - and horrifying - the pathos of reality TV, the genre is united, nay defined, by a single ethos: Nothing's Sacred.
And with the storming of the Capitol, the White House, and soon the Supreme Court by the visigoths of the Christian Right, I've become something of a born-again civil libertarian, taking renewed glee from the goring of any sacred cow, no matter how corporate, money-grubbing or plain old dumb-as-a-lizard stupid the gorer may be. Which is to say, I'll take Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas over Hillary Clinton any day.
But, it turns out, there are limits to my secular-humanist degeneracy. I became aware of this recently while watching the second-season finale of Bravo's inane, horrible, but-it's-like-a-car-accident-that-I-can't-look-away-from reality series Blow Out.
The show centers on Jonathan Antin, straight yet massively drama-queeny hair stylist to the stars, salon owner and, as of this year, namesake of Jonathan Product, which includes items like "Dirt" texturizing paste -only $26 for a 3.35 oz. jar. (You know you're dealing with seriously high-fallutin' hair care when you're applying "product" - sans "s" - to your 'do.)
Generically Blow Out's actually pretty noteworthy, for the way in which its star shamelessly hawks products from the show's commercial sponsors (Amex, Lenscrafters, Revlon and others), both in the show's diegesis and in actual commercials that air during the breaks of his own show. This latter bit is, as far as I know, otherwise unprecedented in the annals, such as they are, of reality TV.
But let's get to the point - or, more accurately, the moment. It's the final scene of the season finale. Sephora has decided to carry Jonathan Product, and Antin's just been at the Times Square Sephora location all day for the product launch. He's outside in the afternoon, in front of the store, emoting like crazy for the camera. His dream has come true and all is right with the world.
Except not quite. Here's a closer look at the news crawl on the building behind him:
It's a little obscured by the bus, and it's easier to see in the full video sequence. But even here it's clear: that's breaking news of the London bombings, more or less as they happened. A quick look at Google's cached version of Sephora's Web site confirms:
Jonathan Antin, at Sephora, on... 7/7.
Ouch.
The only question - and I may be hopelessly naive in asking it - is, Did no one in the editing room notice, or did they notice and just not care?
However diverse - and horrifying - the pathos of reality TV, the genre is united, nay defined, by a single ethos: Nothing's Sacred.
And with the storming of the Capitol, the White House, and soon the Supreme Court by the visigoths of the Christian Right, I've become something of a born-again civil libertarian, taking renewed glee from the goring of any sacred cow, no matter how corporate, money-grubbing or plain old dumb-as-a-lizard stupid the gorer may be. Which is to say, I'll take Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas over Hillary Clinton any day.
But, it turns out, there are limits to my secular-humanist degeneracy. I became aware of this recently while watching the second-season finale of Bravo's inane, horrible, but-it's-like-a-car-accident-that-I-can't-look-away-from reality series Blow Out.
The show centers on Jonathan Antin, straight yet massively drama-queeny hair stylist to the stars, salon owner and, as of this year, namesake of Jonathan Product, which includes items like "Dirt" texturizing paste -only $26 for a 3.35 oz. jar. (You know you're dealing with seriously high-fallutin' hair care when you're applying "product" - sans "s" - to your 'do.)
Generically Blow Out's actually pretty noteworthy, for the way in which its star shamelessly hawks products from the show's commercial sponsors (Amex, Lenscrafters, Revlon and others), both in the show's diegesis and in actual commercials that air during the breaks of his own show. This latter bit is, as far as I know, otherwise unprecedented in the annals, such as they are, of reality TV.
But let's get to the point - or, more accurately, the moment. It's the final scene of the season finale. Sephora has decided to carry Jonathan Product, and Antin's just been at the Times Square Sephora location all day for the product launch. He's outside in the afternoon, in front of the store, emoting like crazy for the camera. His dream has come true and all is right with the world.
Except not quite. Here's a closer look at the news crawl on the building behind him:
It's a little obscured by the bus, and it's easier to see in the full video sequence. But even here it's clear: that's breaking news of the London bombings, more or less as they happened. A quick look at Google's cached version of Sephora's Web site confirms:
Jonathan Antin, at Sephora, on... 7/7.
Ouch.
The only question - and I may be hopelessly naive in asking it - is, Did no one in the editing room notice, or did they notice and just not care?
Posted at 6:29 PM
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