Reality News Update, April 1: Frat Life Legal Woes, Zora Day, and New Shows

While most of the news focus related to reality TV in the past couple days has been on American Idol and Corey Clark getting the boot for the criminal accusations against him, there are several other things going on as well. For example, the guys from Fraternity Life may be in legal trouble, too! And then there’s “Zora Day,” America’s Next Top Model, and reality TV on the Food Network. Let’s take a look.

The boys on MTV’s Fraternity Life apparently didn’t understand the way this whole reality TV thing is supposed to work. As we’ve seen recently on Fox, you are supposed to do something bad and then go on a reality TV show, at which time The Smoking Gun finds you out and all is revealed. However, three of the pledges on the show got it backwards.

During the show, MTV cameras taped Tim Kukulka, Earl Atheide, and Steve Paul getting into the zoo after hours by going over the wall. While they discussed kidnapping an animal as a mascot, they decided against it. Even so, the local District Attorney says the zoo wants to press charges against them for trespassing, as they don’t think people should be walking around the zoo during the off hours. It can be dangerous to both the animals and to those who do it. The D.A. told Associated Press that they don’t intend to hammer the pledges hard, but to send a message that this isn’t a good idea.

And future reality TV show participants should take note as well – that’s one less thing people will have to dig up on you later.

Lambertville, New Jersey, was supposed to celebrate “Zora Day” this past Saturday, March 29, in honor – of course – of Zora Andrich, who won Joe Millionaire. Originally there was supposed to be a big parade, but it was scaled back due to worries about pro-war protests, according to The Trentonian.

What do pro-war protests have to do with Zora? Well, nothing, actually. But apparently the town council had voted in favor of a resolution opposing war with Iraq, just a couple days before the war began (obviously, their resolution had a big impact). And considering the way tempers can flare over this sort of topic, the worry was there that it might occur at this event, especially since the mayor had been promoting this event and he had also led the anti-war vote.

So instead, Zora rode down Main Street in a horse-drawn carriage, met with about 300 people, and then signed autographs for a couple hours. She was also given the keys to the city. The autographed photos went for five dollars each (unsigned for a dollar), and you could also pay $25 to have lunch with her. All proceeds are being donated to local charities.

But that’s not to say Zora is above looking for ways to make something off of all this. She told The Trentonian that she has a manager, but she’s being choosy. She has already turned down Playboy, for example.

As for the jewelry she was given by Evan, she plans to keep a couple but sell the rest, possibly on eBay. Of course, a portion of that would go to charity as well.

In the spirit of American Idol, UPN will be launching America’s Next Top Model on May 20. But the show will supposedly go beyond AI and also feature the contestants in a “model boot camp” as they all live together. No word on if the boot camp involves group binging and purging.

Judges will be evaluated by supermodel Tyra Banks and others involved in the fashion and modeling industry. The final model standing wins a contract with Revlon, an appearance in Marie Claire magazine, and a management deal with Wilhelmina Models.

We can only hope this show is judged better than the supermodel portion of Star Search.

When they say everybody is getting into the reality TV act, they mean it. While The Food Network had previously aired Cooking School Stories, now they are moving into more traditional (well, sort of) areas of reality programming.

The first of these is a reality dating show, Date Plate, which begins Wednesday, April 2, at 9:30/8:30 Central. Single people prepare meals for somebody they haven’t met, and the person eating the meals chooses their date based on those meals. Ooookay. I guess it’s no worse than any of the myriad other ways people have chosen on similar shows.

In addition, we will be able to watch Jamie Oliver (Naked Chef) as he opens his first restaurant. The series, Jamie’s Kitchen: The Fifteen will begin in the Fall and will feature Oliver training people to run the restaurant. Presumably, they will be clothed.

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at rno@pobox.com.

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