As I've mentioned a time or 12, the addition of wi-fi to the ballroom has massively changed the way the tour operates. Not only are half the people in the room too preoccupied with their blogs and Twitter feeds to pay attention to the panel (though at least they're in the room, which they wouldn't be otherwise), but the ones who are paying attention now have the ability to fact check every statement the panelists utter. So when a castmember on BET's new reality series "Harlem Heights" tried to play coy about her celebrity ex-boyfriend, she had to deal with a roomful of people armed with web browsers.
"Harlem Heights" chronicles the attempts of a group of young black professionals to make it big in New York City. Among the cast is Brooke Crittendon (she's second from the left in that photo), who works at MTV and explained part of the reason she appeared on the show is her ex.
"I was involved with a very famous rapper for a number of years," she said. "And I worked in the news and documentary department (at MTV). So a lot of our pop news involved myself. But because I sort of played the background to the person that I was dating, I had to go through people saying things about me or just sort of assuming who I was... I just was like, “I just want to let people know what I really am and what I really do. I’m not just this person’s girlfriend.”
A reporter (who doesn't watch much MTV, apparently) asked the natural follow-up: who's the famous rapper?
"Part of my personal journey beyond actually wrapping the show is to not mention that person," she replied, "because if I’m trying to get from under the shadow of being that
person’s girlfriend, I feel like to constantly drop their name and that association is sort of saying, “Hey, I don’t want you to think I’m just that, but I did used to date this really cool person.” You know what I mean?"
While one reporter then asked the show's producers what sort of fireworks we'd see among the castmembers, another reporter was busying using Firefox (or maybe Safari) to look up Crittendon. As the producer tried to answer the fireworks question, reporter number two grabbed a microphone and blurted out, "KANYE WEST."
"I guess that's our fireworks," cracked producer Kurt Williamson.
That's a pretty funny story. Alan, do you get embarrassed by those type of reporters or is it funnier in person? Her response was pretty brutal but does anyone really care? Any more stories like this are very appreciated!
ReplyDeletelove this story!
ReplyDeleteand it might be just me but I notice I can't totally read the words that start each line - text is too close to the edge of the page. Is it possible a CSS sheet got screwed up somewhere? (and ain't it nice for me to bring this up when you're wall to wall and 2000 miles from home? I just noticed it...)
captcha - rutality
Off topic, but so far NPH is rockin' SNL... the parts that he is in anyway.
ReplyDeleteI recorded SNL but haven't watched it.
ReplyDeleteI'm watching the pilot of The Big Bang Theory, which I stupidly deleted from my DVR a few months ago. (It almost never fails that if I delete it, I want it back - so no one talk to me about that show with the pie shop)
Kanye is sooooo going to blog this tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteBryan:
ReplyDeleteWhy should Alan or anyone else be "embarrassed" by that reporter? I was actually cringing more at Crittendon's "Part of my personal journey beyond actually wrapping the show is to not mention that person." OK... because I'm sure "that person" had absolutely nothing to do with you being cast, because nobody at BET knows how to work that internet thing.
I am amused to see that reporters at press tours can be just as much self-obsessed losers (present company not included, of course) as fans at Star Trek conventions. Your "fireworks" story oddly reminded me of a convention I went to last summer. In the Q&A, someone asked guest Malcolm McDowell about working with his nephew in a recent project, but didn't mention the nephew's name. Malcom said, "ah, yes... what's his name?" A fan sitting next to me shouted out, "SIDDIG!" [Siddig El-Fadil aka Alexander Siddig] Uh, yes loser, Malcolm does know who his nephew is, he doesn't need your help.
ReplyDeletePeople always harass Trek fans about that kind of nonsense, but it's refreshing to see they're not the only ones suffering from such brain damage.