andPOP - Pop Culture With Substance

MTV Canada has recently announced a joint project with CTV and Free Form Productions Inc. called “Peak Season.” The supposedly unscripted show is currently in production in Whistler, B.C.

“Peak Season” is being filmed in a world-class ski resort and will focus on the lives, loves and “true-life drama” of a group of twenty-somethings.

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US reality TV star JASON WAHLER has been sentenced to a 60-day prison spell after pleading no contest to a battery charge in Los Angeles.

The LAGUNA BEACH hunk, 20, and model KRISTIN DeLUCA were arrested in September following a verbal altercation with towing officials who were attempting to move an illegally parked car.

Wahler punched one of the tow-truck drivers, while DeLuca kicked the tow operator and spat at him, according to a filed police report.

The drivers restrained the reality star and called police, who later discovered Wahler’s blood alcohol level was over twice the legal limit.

In court yesterday, Wahler pleaded no contest to one count of battery.

As well as serving time, the 20 year old was also ordered to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and anger management classes.

Meanwhile, DeLuca also pleaded no contest to one count of battery and was sentenced to 24 months of probation and 15 days of community service.

Both Wahler and DeLuca have also been ordered to participate in a one-day lecture at Los Angeles’ Museum of Tolerance as penance for the racial slurs they hurled at the tow-truck operators during the assault, according to TMZ.com.

It’s a bad week for Wahler, who was also arrested on Saturday when he reportedly “resisted a public officer” during a raid on underage drinkers in a North Carolina nightclub.

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After a summer of lethargy, excessive everything, and vacation nights I would rather forget, the stark realisation that school does in fact resume in two weeks has brought me back to reality.

With that epiphany over with, I decided it was only fitting to tune into a reality show having SOMETHING to do with education, just so I could get back in to that “student” mindset.

Enter “Tommy Lee Goes to College” (Tuesdays 9:00 p.m ET on NBC) where life-long badass, sex-tape co-star, one-time Pamela Anderson hubby and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee descends on the University of Nebraska at Lincoln (home of the Cornhuskers!) in the search of high academia.

After a stern meeting with the university’s chancellor (who called Lee’s music “an acquired taste”), Lee is off to the bookstore where he picks up texts on subjects ranging from Organic Chemistry to Law. Armed with the necessary reading material, he’s off in search of a roommate.

The scenes of Lee knocking randomly on dorm rooms looking for someone to live with really made me laugh. A super-rich and famous rockstar in need of a place to stay? Five-star accomodations no more! Grungy student living is what he gets (though he does cheat a bit when his team of “helpers” pimp out his shared room with flat screen TVs and plush leather chairs).

The next few episodes follow Lee as he tried to “adjust” to the student life: instead of getting smashed on a tour bus with Nikki Sixx and the boys then having to perform (on stage of course), he now has to learn to get smashed then head to class.

Though I didn’t get to see all of the episodes aired so far, the ones I did see were very entertaining. Highlights included Lee (and his God-awful SKINNY, tattooed legs) running on the track, marching band tryout and game day (Lee not being able to bend in his band get-up to tie his shoes was a riot, as well as his amusing interaction with his hot tutor Natalie — blond of course).

Sigh, if only Ryerson was this fun!

I’m starting to think digital cable is just not enough for me.

First I lose MTV Canada to Razer and now I discover an incredible new reality show on a channel only accessible in Canada by satellite (it appears on FX in the US)! Sigh. I have resorted to “acquiring” episodes (shh!) and despite the questionable legality of doing so, this show is worth it.

This show I speak of is called “30 Days” and is the brainchild of clever documentarian Morgan Spurlock, the man who forever turned me off of fast food with his Oscar-nominated doc “Supersize Me”.

The concept is simple: for 30 days a person is forced to live a lifestyle totally foreign to them, and must abide by set rules, all in the hopes of gaining a greater awareness of different lifestyle. Comfort zones be damned.

Along the way, Spurlock guides the viewer with his narration, clips of conversation with people on the street about their opinions, as well as basic explanations of the issues in each respective episode.

One episode plops an ultra-conservative homophobic red-stater right in the heart of American gay culture in San Francisco where he is forced to live with a gay roommate, play on a gay sports team, attend gay-friendly Church services and the like.

Another episode shows Spurlock himself (and his fiancee) trying to live on American minimum wage for a month, the equivalent of about $5.50 US. The show’s website even includes a fun (yet sadly realistic) “game” where you enter how much you spend monthly on necessities such as food, shelter, and transportation to see how long you would last.

Let’s just say I wouldn’t last too long.

Though I haven’t seen all the episodes, of the ones I have seen, my favourite centered around David Stacy, a 33-year-old practicing Christian who must live as a Muslim for 30 days, adopting the strict customs of his host family in Dearborne, Michigan, a city densely populated with a large Muslim community.

From day one, Stacy must grow a beard, wear traditional robes and is forced to fly from his home in West Virginia in full attire. He faces the first hint of “different treatment” when surprise, surprise: Stacy is met with bewildered stares from people at the airport and is singled out for a security check and made to take off his shoes.

For the duration of his stay, Stacy takes Arabic classes, only consumes Halal meat, gives up alcohol and pork, learns how to pray, and tries to reconcile the image he has of Muslims with the reality he is faced with. His largest struggle throughout his time was his difficulty “accepting” a religion that does not believe Jesus is the Son of God.

When sent out to get signatures for an anti racial profiling petition, Stacy is forced to come face to face with those who view all Muslims as terrorists.

At the end of the show, Stacy seems to walk away much wiser and more accepting of the religion, acknowleging that he would defend it if he had to.

While I really appreciated the episode, my only criticism was that it seemed as though Spurlock purposely picked an extremely religious family that, I would argue, is not necessarily representative of the majority of American or even North American Muslims. While extreme culture shock IS the point of the show, I would have liked to Stacy placed with a “less religious family” so he could see the vast similarities between his own life and theirs, and not just the differences.

Nonetheless, if you have FX watch this show, if you don’t find a way to see it, it will not only open the eyes of the person featured, but maybe yours as well.

After two failed attempts, and seasons filled with “shocking” twists, regular guys around the world can rejoice: maybe beauty is only skin deep after all.

Last night?s finale of ?Average Joe: The Joes Strike Back? saw perennially perky red-head Anna choose the newly madeover, Nathan over the living Ken doll known as Rocky. Porcelain veneers and a new haircut be damned, she chose the formerly ousted Nathan for his personality, not his (new) looks, believe it.

Premise of the show: hot girl is shocked to learn that the dating show she signed up for is not what she expected. No charming male models await her, rather a bunch of ?average joes? wanting some love. Twist: Look out now, hot guys are added to the mix to thoroughly confuse the girl. This year?s kicker: ousted joes get plastic surgery in the hopes of standing a better chance against their above-par competition.

Yay.

Who said the Joes didn?t have a chance? So what if both Melana and Larissa chose the hunks in their respective seasons, the Joe won this time didn?t he? Just like the toothy Adam did a few years ago!

Score: Joes: 2, Hunks: 2.

Sigh, love truly is in the air isn?t it? If only it came off as a little more believable.

With both guys seeming more like caricatures than real people (but I guess that comes with reality TV territory), it was really hard to take either one seriously.

Nathan was the sentimental mushy guy who wrote (overly) sweet poems to his one true love, and Rocky was the stiff Casanova (with the frighteningly square jaw) who spat out lines straight from the scripts of ?Days of Our Lives? (?with passion comes chance? being my personal favourite).

I found it highly amusing that after Rocky was rejected then banished off the pier to the waiting truck, he was forced to sit there and watch Anna canoodle with her chosen love, all the while sobbing. Ah, reality TV.

Being an aspiring actor, I had a hard time believing he was as ?crushed? as he repeatedly said he was, tears or no tears. Regardless, he was fun to drool over bland personality and obvious fake-ness aside.

So that marks yet another season of ?Average Joe?. If the fates of the past couples are any indication (both Melana and Jason, and Adam and Samantha are both over though Larissa and Gil are still going strong), Nathan and Anna may once again need to stay together to even the score.