As am I. In fact, I’m considering making it a “real” protest and not just telling them I’m angry and offended, but demanding that she be reinstated to the competition or I’ll quit watching their stinkin’ show – not only for this season, but for all future seasons, as well. And boycott their sponsors.
I wonder if the backlash were to be big enough, if they’d actually reinstate her. ??
Then why do they dress all the female contestants like hookers?
Ok, the following email has been sent…
I just read the USA TODAY story. It says another semi-finalist was kicked off “for undisclosed reasons.”
FOX has a bad habit of screwing up their reality series. Remember the couple-with-a-kid on the first TEMPTATION ISLAND series? And there was a “too old” contestant on the first AMERICAN IDOL. And I think there was something hinky about the second TEMPTATION ISLAND series as well, but I don’t remember specifically what it was.
I don’t know whether the production companies FOX contracts with just do a sloppy job of vetting the contestants. . . or whether FOX just maybe delights in these inconsequential scandals, but the bottom line is that FOX gets extra publicity out of it. And FOX is very greedy for publicity. . . .
So, whether Frenchie violated an actual rule that all contestants were bound by remains to be seen.
If you go to the USA TODAY website and read the story in their LIFE section, you will find a quickie poll on who did the best in Tuesday’s IDOL competition. So far, with something over 1800 votes cast, Ruben is the leader. . . followed immediately by “We Want Frenchie.” I think that says something!
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!
The fuck?! This is the very first I have heard of this, and I just came from Television Without Pity! I’ll have to go scoop them.
This is really sad. I liked Frenchie so much and I was really, really looking forward to seeing her next week. I’m so disappointed.
Thanks for ruining my day! :mad:
I love the show, but can anyone get THAT upset about it?
Also, I find myself in the uncomfortable position of defending Fox here–is it possible that she was doing something so sleazy that she even made Fox uncomfortable? Seems a bit early to vent on Fox before we know exactly what she did–the same Fox seems to be having some fun with their fetish-video finalist on Joe Millionaire.
As for the “it’s because she’s obese” argument, I would point out that (1) there is no evidence as of yet to suggest that and (2) American Idol is, after all, a “pop star” contest and not a singing contest. Image is clearly part of the competition, and her size sadly will affect her commercial success–but that’s a broader societal failing, not the failing of Fox.
<stunned silence>
Correct me if I’m wrong but did one of the Joe Millionaire finalists pose for bondage and foot fetish photos. If fail to see how Frenchie’s actions are any worse than the Millionaire chick or Nikki.
On another note, maybe this has nothing to do with Fox and everything to do with Simon. One can’t help but remember, given the constant comments to this effect; Simon’s label will be producing the winner’s record. Due to this maybe he has some extra say in the contract with Fox for the contest and its broadcast.
Given his obvious bias to the Britney Spears/Justin Timberlake look, it’s likely he felt he couldn’t successfully market Frenchie. He jumped on a chance to disqualify her in order help guarantee that the winner would be just another pop clone. This may sound somewhat odd given that many labels are now looking to create markets that are run completely contrary to the Britney Spears prepackaged plastic pop. But Simon has been the only judge to routinely criticize a contestant’s looks and dress.
Or maybe I’m too cynical.
I’m as disappointed as anyone to see Frenchie go, but this is an invalid comparison.
The Millionaire chick was in some bondage and foot fetish films, but she was fully clothed. The videos were tame enough to show on the local 6:00 news. Mostly just our gal being bound and tickled. Yeah, that’s right, tickled. The videos were more than a little strange, but they weren’t particularly nasty.
On the other hand, according to TSG, the website Frenchie appeared on was catering to those with a preference for underage girls (even though Frenchie herself was not underage). Frenchie’s spread included masturbation shots, which may be quite explicit. I can certainly see a pretty wide gulf between that and Joe Millionaire gal’s videos.
I’d like to see Frenchie stay in the competition – this is the kind of thing that would have blown over after a few days if she had stayed – but the comparison drawn is quite inapt.
I hate Fox as much as the next guy (the Futurama cancellin’ bastards!), but I don’t know that I see the problem here.
First, regarding the comparisons to Joe Millionaire: Was Sarah involved in any actual pornography? TSG reported that she was always clothed in these encounters. The situations seem fairly dissimilar to me.
Second, if they wanted to get rid of her for image reasons, why not rig the voting after she performs? There’s no way we’d ever know the difference.
Third, I’m sure Fox has their bases covered here, at least contractually. They probably either have an ethics clause of some variety, or just a general section stating that they can dump the performer at any time for any reason.
I don’t think that was why they did it. If they didn’t want an obese women on the show we never would have even gotten a chance to see Frenchie. She would have been edited out from the start rather then allowed to go to Hollywood. We never would have seen her sing for Simon, Paula and that other guy. We never would have seen any of her auditions.
I liked her too and am sorry to see her go. I really doubt that her weight had anthing to do with it.
I strongly suspect Fox and 19 Productions would rather have kept her, but sponsors demanded she be axed.
I, too, have written a letter demanding she be reinstated. There’s two weeks for them to change their mind, so don’t give up. Send your letters in.
Read the link again, Dewey. It said she was topless only and that she appeared to be masturbating. That description sounds to me more like her titties were showing and she had her hand down her pants/panties, giving the impression of masturbating.
While I’d agree that it’s not quite the same as the Millionaire chick’s bondage films, it’s certainly comparable to last year’s AI contestant, Nikki, who was a topless dancer/stripper for a living. I guess it’s ok so long as it’s a cute, skinny White girl, but a big, Black woman’s breasts are icky? I know there’s no evidence of that, but circumstantially, that’s sure how it appears to me. And whereas your contention that one can’t compare an AI contestant posing topless to a contestant on a totally different show (with different qualifiers, I’m sure) doing kinky bondage flicks, I think the comparison of one AI contestant to another is perfectly valid.
P.S. For those interested, there’s an online petition going at http://www.petitiononline.com/frenchie/petition.html
EW says it’s not the porn that lost her the spot… it’s the fact that she had “prior representation”.
http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,421953~10~0~frenchieisbootedfrom,00.html
A friend of mine is a stripper, and her money is earned in lapdances. Rules in local areas vary about how they may be conducted, but some version of that is the primary source of money for the majority of strippers.
I wrote to fox, and more importantly, I also wrote to Coca Cola, Ford, Herbal Essences, AT&T and Old Navy.
If you really want her back, make sure to write to the SPONSORS. And make sure you let them know what she did and you don’t care.
I think that the thing that makes Frenchie’s situation more severe is that the pictures are either on-line right now, or you can bet your butt that they will be put back on-line very shortly. The site mentioned in the Smoking Gun article still exists, and they’re bound to get a lot of traffic going there to see the pics. If there were videos on the net last year of Nikki stripping, I bet that she would’ve gotten the boot, too.
Read it again, it doesn’t say that. It says exactly:
Which means it is “unclear how she violated”, in other words…she probably didn’t.
Cite? If I have my choice of anecdotal evidence I’ll take the person who says she WAS a stripper over the person who says she knows one.
Lap dancing’s illegal in many, many places, and even where it is, it’s not always the norm.
Uh, ~$15 from dancing, or ~$50 from a lapdance in the back room. Where do you think the big money is?