Reality Bits

Dance Moms’ teacher Abby Lee Miller has been indicted for fraud. Following an investigation by the FBI, IRS and postal inspectors it has been revealed that Miller hid $755,000 in income. 

I was forced to watch episodes of the Lifetime series a while back when I was showrunning another show featuring kids.  As I was told more than once that our show should in no way be like Dance Moms I felt obliged to watch it. Who knew how much that shit would trigger me?    

As a formerly serious ballet dancer I am sadly well acquainted with the sadists who find a calling as dance teachers, but Miller takes things to a whole new level. 

Suffice it to say, I'm not exactly saddened to hear about her legal issues. Fingers crossed they will also result in her child abusing show getting cancelled!

#DanceMoms

***************

Next, a couple new things to report on the Duggar front (the family has provided much fodder for this blog): Anna Duggar, long-suffering spouse of Josh-the-molester, has sold their home in Arkansas and moved her family to Florida (where her own cultish family lives).  Some folks are hoping this is a sign that Anna may divorce the Duggar, but I wouldn't hold my breath.    

In seemingly unrelated (but likely not so unrelated) news Michelle Duggar gave the following advice to a pregnant fan asking about how to be the best wifey despite her condition: 

"You've got to remember this. Anyone can iron Jim Bob's shirt, anybody can make lunch for him. He can get his lunch somewhere else. But you are the only one who can meet that special need that he has in his life for intimacy.  So when you are exhausted at the end of the day, maybe from dealing with little ones, and you fall into bed so exhausted at night, don't forget about him because you and he are the only ones who can have that time together. No one else in the world can meet that need."

Some publications believe this is shade aimed at Anna, whose husband strayed with porn stars while she was pregnant.  

#19kidsandcounting #freeanna

***************

Finally, Effie Brown can't win for losing on Project Greenlight.  As discussed earlier on this blog, on the first episode of Project Greenlight she was presented as the Archetypal Black Woman raising issues of diversity in choosing a director. As the the show has unfolded, however, she has been (surprisingly) recast as The Man as in "The Man is keeping me down."   

In Project Greenlight terms, The Man is whoever stands in the way of the Visionary Director. In the real world as well as on the show, that would be the Producer (AKA the person who controls the budget). As Producer, a role she has successfully inhabited IRL, Brown made the perfectly reasonable suggestion that the Visionary Director Jason Mann shoot his film on a digital format rather than 35 mm. Well, it's reasonable unless you are wrapped up in the mythology of the whole Visionary Director schtick.  Because Visionary Directors only shoot on film. So Jason was obliged to go over Brown's head to get the format he wanted.  

In this fascinating interview with Indiewire, Brown discusses her experience on the show, and why doing it was a bad idea. 

As I always say, kids, when it comes to appearing on a Reality show: JUST SAY NO!!!!

#damonsplaining #projectgreenlight

How the Project Greenlight Diversity Debacle (Probably) Made It To Air

I have come here to confess: when I first heard about Matt Damon schooling Effie Brown on the finer points of diversity on Project Greenlight, the first thing that popped into my head was, "Well, kudos to Damon, he probably could have had them edit out that moment if he wanted."

See, of the Affleck/Damon entity, I've always preferred Matt Damon.  Damon, for one, did not, upon being asked to extinguish a cigarette by a person in whose home they were shooting for Good Will Hunting, look the homeowner in the eye as he stubbed the cigarette out in her potted plant.  (Guess who did?)  Additionally, while Damon did participate in creating that execrable piece of Oscar-baity bullshit, he has since stepped back and allowed his pal Ben to take the lead in creating more unduly lauded movies, choosing instead to build an impressive acting career.

You might even say that I have a teensy, weensy lesbian crush on Matt Damon.  So I weally, weally wanted to believe that Damon let the offending incident air because he believed it might generate a conversation about the racism that resides in even the most well-meaning of white people.  I know.  Pathetic.  Sigh.

Here's how I think it more likely went down:

Firstly, while PG is a reality show and therefore somewhat untrustworthy, I am inclined to believe that the incident unfolded in real life much as it did in the episode. Trust me: you don't script (or soft script) Matt Damon to condescend to the producer of Dear White People on the issue of race. So the moment had.to.be. somewhat documentary.

That being said, I'm sure that most people in the room were unaware that anything explosive had happened. People performing "conversation" for camera often get caught up in what the next thing is they should say, and don't really listen to each other most of the time. Damon, in particular, seems oblivious to having caused offense. He has the relaxed demeanor of a person confident in the correctness of his beliefs. It's possible that even the producers shooting the scene didn't know what they'd got. Following story in the field can sometimes be like tracking hummingbird mating rituals while juggling knives on a solowheel. Effie Brown, we can assume, was less oblivious.   

Whatever the case, no one is oblivious in post.  Editors and post producers have two goals: find the drama and bring it.  And on a show as vanilla as Project Greenlight, any conflict is going to be milked.  So, if I'm working on that show, that Effie moment would go straight in.  Sure, the guy's a star, but the moment happened and it is great conflict. Post producers don't tend to censor themselves around celebrities; those are the decisions we leave to executives. And those executives likely aren't going to eliminate good content unless they have to.

So, in the end, the decision probably lay with Damon and his team.  I suspect they could have insisted the content be removed, if they wanted.  And just to play devil's advocate, maybe it never even occurred to them to remove it.  But I find it hard to believe anyone would be cool with being portrayed (even slightly) as a racist, if they had the option of removing the content.  And yet they didn't.  Why? 

Re-enter Ben Affleck, stage right, smoking a cigarette.  You have to figure that Affleck's recent Finding Your Roots saga informed Damon's team's discussions. If you recall, that scandal pre-dated Nannygate but was equally, if not more, damaging to Affleck's image. It was the kind of shit the right wing lives for:  an espouser of liberal politics pressuring PBS to edit (censor) his slave owning ancestor out of a documentary program.  (And let's not forget, they do kind of pretend that Greenlight is documentary).

Damon and his team had to know that if it came out that he'd had material of this nature suppressed it would be devastating.  It would only take one person in the vast chain of people involved in producing the show to leak it, and Damon would wind up looking as devious as his ol' buddy Ben.

The best that Damon (and/or his people) could do, and did, is request that he be allowed to express his viewpoint in interview (which he did - unfortunately compounding the initial insult).  Team Damon might also have applied pressure to get the moment watered down (although it seems to play pretty straight to this producer's eyes). Whatever the case, they clearly realized there was no stuffing that particular genie back in the bottle.

And that, I suspect, is how the moment made it to television. And, look, I'm grateful it did. We need to be reminded that while racism looks like this, sometimes it looks like this.   
White people (like me) benefit from a system that is weighted in our favor.  We should not be surprised, then, when we reveal ourselves to be, well, ill-schooled in just how weighted that system is.  But it would probably behoove us to get an education.  If this incident gets even a few people (including Damon) to start examining their privilege, I would be willing to say Project Greenlight has at least one redeeming quality.    

OT (maybe?) Does it make me a bad person that I'm still totally salivating for the upcoming installment of The Bourne Identity?

#Damonsplaining