ABC has ordered a script for a pilot based on the Melvin Burgess book about male teenage lust. The series, called "Doing It," will follow the travails of three teenage boys as they awkwardly work their way through their first sexual experiences. The program will be executive produced by former ABC entertainment president Francie Calfo and will be written by Jeff Judah and Gabe Sachs of "Freaks and Geeks" fame.
Network censors will be put to the test on this one if the series is to be true to the book which holds nothing back in its depiction of teen sex.
Nicole Ritchie and Paris Hilton
If you haven't seen her on camera, you soon will. Hotel heiress, Paris Hilton, is currently featured behind the camera in two very different types of work. The first, "The Simple Life," premiering on FOX December 2, is a new unscripted series that chronicles two affluent socialites (Hilton with Lionel Ritchie's daughter, Nicole) as they struggle to make the transition from uptown to small town as farmers in Altus, Arkansas.
The second, and already vastly more popular, is Hilton's turn as porn star in the Paris Hilton Sex Tape in which the then 19 year old (now 22) engages in hard core sex with former "90210" star Shannon Doherty's husband Rick Solomon. For all the media coverage, it's really not all that exciting. Sure, there's penetration and a blow job but it's really a drunken Paris vanity video shot in cheesy, "militarily green-lit" home video style. It will certainly haunt the poor girl for the rest of her life and give yet another reason for many to publicly make fun of her spoiled, pampered lifestyle.
Fleshbot covers it here. You can view it here.
UPDATE: Not surprisingly, there seems to be more tapes.
An ad campaign for U.K based children's charity Barnardo's has generated 60 complaints, over its graphic nature, to the U.K.'s advertising watchdog. One of newspaper ads shows an infant with a cockroach coming out of its mouth. Other ads show a bottle of alcohol and a syringe in the mouth of the infant. The ads are meant to shock the public into realizing the effects of poverty, homelessness and alcohol on youth.
Jane Goldman, a contributing writer to the Ad-Rag, defends the campaign saying, "If the ad is making people cringe that it's (the poor treatment of poverty-bound infants) going on, then the ad is working. Just because people don't want to see it, well that's sort of the whole point of the ads. To get the fact that these things are happening out there to those who live in their own little worlds, and to show that there is a way to stop these things from happening. If the ads aren't going to be seen by kids who would be scared or scared by them, then I don't see a problem with them at all. You can't close your eyes to the horrors going on and wish them away. Life isn't a Disney movie."
There are unfortunate circumstances in our world yet many choose to ignore them and go on with their daily lives oblivious to the difficult situation of others. Shock value is sometimes the only thing that can pull us out of our daily routine long enough to realize the plight of others. In this respect, this campaign is dead-on effective and should be applauded for it's effort.
Seems Friends is not all that friendly anymore. Thursday night, a long time ratings stronghold for NBC, is giving way to CBS. NBC's "Friends" is down 39 percent in Adults 18-49 over last year and CBS's Survivor is enjoying a revival increasing seven percent over its six season average.
