Wrap your brain around this one, if you will. What does one fallen reality show star (Jon Gosselin) plus one aspirational reality star (Nadya Suleman) equal?
If your answer is “a reality show starring the two of them and their 22 collective children,” you might be right. If your answer is simply “disaster” you’re more right, in my book.
A former “Jerry Springer Show” producer, Bobby Goldstein, told In Touch magazine that he had a pilot, “Jon - Kate = Jon + Octomom” in the works and that Gosselin was onboard. According to a press release In Touch obtained, Goldstein’s show would follow Gosselin as “he contemplates what hooking up with Octomom could really be like.”
According to plotlines in the release, Gosselin is “totally creeped out by the idea that if they got married, they’d have 22 kids,” and early on in the series, Suleman will be “talking openly about the two of them getting married … It’s so bad that when they finally meet, Octomom’s brood may start calling Jon Daddy.”
Even though Goldstein seems certain that Gosselin is going to go along with the reality show, Gosselin’s manager told E! news, “This is the first I’ve even heard of it. This isn’t happening.”
‘This is it’ shows personal side of Jackson
After attending the New York premiere of “This Is It,” I posted my initial reaction to the film to Twitter, but it’s deserving of some more ink. I’m not about to risk a Ben Lyons moment here, but I will say, my initial “good” understated things pretty substantially. It definitely tips the scales to great. But not for the usual reasons — to paraphrase Jimmy Breslin (who probably never imagined his name and Michael Jackson’s would be used in the same paragraph), where most films would zig, this film sort of zags.
You see Jackson at his best, perhaps not musically, but because director Kenny Ortega allows us to see Jackson unpolished. Since this is rehearsal footage, Jackson is not emptying his tanks of talent, focus and enthusiasm for each song. But even so, “This Is It” is textured and powerful because you see Jackson as a human, tweaking his show, having a moment with his earpiece, and coaching virtually every person on stage.
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Jackson does this because he’s a perfectionist. But it’s because he’s a perfectionist that we otherwise wouldn’t see this unscripted side of him — it’s not what he’d put out there.
And, of course, there’s Jackson’s performance itself. It’s hypnotic to watch the singer’s interaction with lead choreographer Travis Payne and the ridiculously talented backup dancers. When Jackson sings, even at half-throttle, his voice knocks on the door to the room where you first heard the song.
And then there’s his dancing. At 50, the man’s left heel is capable of exuding more musical expression than most younger people’s entire bodies. To call the net result a “performance” seems to shortchange what goes on onstage.
Did I find it difficult to separate what I was watching from the idea that Jackson could have been, just hours earlier, intravenously connected to a propofol drip? Yes.
Does the film erase any of the regrettable decisions he made in his personal life? No.
However, “This Is It” is a tribute worthy of — and necessary for — a pop culture icon such as Jackson. The fact that the film might also serve to recalibrate our memory of the man is a bonus.
Keeping tabs: the latest in meth confessions
First Jodie Sweetin, now Andre Agassi used meth? Really? People magazine has the story this week, and there is no way the tennis star’s confession isn’t going to be newsstand gold, especially with the cover line, “Love, Lies and Crystal Meth.”
But I sense some overselling going on here. People is selling a book excerpt, and the portion of the book that details Agassi’s meth use (no spoiler here, but let’s say it was very, very brief) is already out there. The cover is the most enticing of the celebrity magazines this week, but ultimately could disappoint.
Courtney Hazlett delivers the Scoop Monday through Friday on msnbc.com. Follow Scoop on Twitter @courtneyatmsnbc