July 2007 News Archive (Page 4)

On August 26, FOX will air the Teen Choice Awards. Here are the nominees for various trophies from with the world of reality TV...

Reality/variety show: "American Idol," "America's Next Top Model," "Dancing With the Stars," "The Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll," "The Hills."

Choice TV personality: Nick Cannon of "Wild 'N Out," Ryan Seacrest of "American Idol" and E!, Simon Cowell of "American Idol," Tyra Banks of "America's Next Top Model," Bruno Tonioli of "Dancing With the Stars."

Male reality/variety star: Apolo Anton Ohno of "Dancing With the Stars," Flavor Flav of "Flavor of Love," Jojo, Diggy, Russy of "Run's House," Sanjaya of "American Idol," Three 6 Mafia of "Adventures in Hollyhood."

Female reality/variety star: Jaslene Gonzalez of "America's Next Top Model," Jordin Sparks of "American Idol," Lauren Conrad of "The Hills," New York of "I Love New York," Paris Hilton of "The Simple Life."

Love or hate reality TV, you can't deny its popularity.

Last week, the number-one show in all the land was America's Got Talent. Not just reality show, folks. The top-rated show period.

Multiple airings of So You Think You Can Dance were also widely watched. Take a look at the chart below to see where all ranked:

America's Got Talent - and now it also has a judge that will guest-star as a high roller on NBC's daytime drama Days of our Lives on July 27.

In this special episode, Nick Fallon (Blake Berris) is at a Las Vegas casino trying his luck at a game of blackjack when he meets skillful gambler Pete Springer).

Reality TV Magazine reports that Pete is winning every hand and Nick can't understand where he went wrong. On the verge of bankruptcy, Pete takes pity upon Nick and shows him how he can win - and impress the girl of his dreams, Chelsea Brady (Rachel Melvin).

"In light of the fact that I deal with real life soap operas every day," says Springer, " - it's a total thrill to actually be able to appear on one - particularly of the stature of Days of our Lives."

We'll be watching!

British author Salman Rushdie and his wife Padma Lakshmi, host of TV show Top Chef, are getting divorced, his spokeswoman said on Monday, just two weeks after he was awarded a controversial knighthood.

Rushdie, 60, is best known for his novel "The Satanic Verses," which outraged many Muslims and sparked death threats that forced him to live in hiding for nine years.

He married Lakshmi, a former model born in 1970 in India, in 2004. She was his fourth wife and the couple had no children.

"Salman Rushdie has agreed to divorce his wife, Padma Lakshmi, because of her desire to end their marriage," spokeswoman Jin Auh said in a statement on his behalf. "He asks that the media respect his privacy at this difficult time."

Rushdie hit the headlines two weeks ago when he was selected for knighthood by Britain's Queen Elizabeth, provoking renewed anger among some Muslims in Iran and Pakistan.

When the Indian-born Rushdie started his romance with the model more than 20 years his junior, the British tabloids made much of their differences in age and intellectual stature.

But Rushdie always defended his wife.

"Anyone who's met Padma knows she's as intelligent as they come," he told The Times of London in a 2005 interview. "But, you know, it's not supposed to be permitted to be gorgeous and really smart and also very nice."

MTV's Two-A-Days, docu-reality series that chronicles Alabama's Hoover high school football team, might be getting called for a penalty.

Two teachers at Hoover High have claim to know of grade changings and other academic improprieties involving former seniors who have also suited-up for the school's Buccaneers football program, The Birmingham News first reported last Friday according to Sports Illustrated.

As a result, former Northern District of Alabama judge Sam C. Pointer Jr., who served in that capacity for 30 years, will lead an investigation into the allegations as well as other concerns.

"I believe they want to get it done quickly and I welcome an investigation," Hoover High football coach Rush Probst told Sports Illustrated.  "It's all a lot ado about nothing.  Are there minor issues?  Yes.  It's just that down here, ours are on the front page because of the success we've enjoyed."

The Buc's success on the field was evident long before MTV descended upon Hoover in the fall of 2005 to film the school's football team, as it had won four straight championships prior to the 2006 season, in which it lost the title game last December.

Only 11 days prior to the start of Hoover's spring football practice, Sports Illustrated reported the school's athletic director Jerry Browning called a meeting with the city's superintendent Andy Craig that apparently had nothing to do with how to regain its winning ways and instead dealt with off-field issues.

"I told Andy of things that were to possibly come out. I felt it was not a matter of if but when and I was not going to cover anything up or hide anything," Browning said and Reality TV World reported. "There was plenty of smoke and conversations that I had held with others voicing concern about misconduct, but there was nothing earth shattering."

While Browning claims he never intended his discussions with Craig to become public, that's exactly what happened when he resigned from his role as Hoover's athletic director on June 18 to take the same position at another school in Montgomery, AL.  Browning told Sports Illustrated he decided to leave Hoover "because of professionally philosophical differences and personal reasons as well, a chance to spend more time with my family."

Since then "grade-changing allegations" have begun to emerge, most notably from Forrest Quattlebaum - an 11-year math teacher at Hoover who claimed the final grade he gave one of his football-playing students was changed without his consent to allegedly assist the player in qualifying for college scholarships.  In addition, a Hoover assistant superintendent confirmed to Sports Illustrated that another teacher at the high school came to her earlier this year with a concern about "losing a job over another senior football player's grade."

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