I Love New York

As a person who writes about reality television, I'm going to give a little bit of advice to aspiring reality stars everywhere. If you sign up for a show, you are going to lose control of your image and how you are presented to the world or else you are not going to get any screen time at all. The only way to ensure that you don't wind up edited into a “character” is to be so boring that the editors don't bother with you. And that's not really what you wanted from being on a reality show like I Love New York now was it?

So if you're going to draw attention to yourself, you best get your head around the idea that you might not wind up the good guy or at least might not always have things portrayed the way you want them to be. Unlike what your mom might have told you, everyone in the world might not fall instantly in love with you, and the editors and producers might decide that rather than paint you as the hero/heroine we all see ourselves as, they're going to paint you as the villain or the goof or the weirdo or the loser.

If this happens, the wisest strategy might be, as in the case of The Entertainer, to embrace rather than rebel against how you were characterized on the show. When The Entertainer was kicked off I Love New York, New York called him a “loser” and he was derided for living at home with his folks and not having a high powered job. So what did he do? Shrugged and was refreshingly honest.

He told VH1's Celebreality blogger Rich Juzwiak, “Of course if I could afford to move out, why would I want to be home? I have no choice. I know at 29 years old I should be more stable and more established then I am. I'm not gonna deny that, but it doesn't make me a bad person. There are people that are 45-years-old that still don't know what they're doing with their lives. I'm 29. There's still hope.”

Unlike many reality show stars, he didn't seem interested in excessive posturing, saying he was delivering pizzas for a living after the show, but pointing out that while it's not glamorous, it's an honest living. The lack of self-hype involved in his response to his portrayal on I Love New York won The Entertainer quite a few fans who found his humble but positive attitude enough to push the toe-sucking image out of their minds.

On the other hand, we have Buddha. Buddha has been very vocal outside of the show about presenting his version of events, correcting omissions or wrong impressions created by editing, and continuing to run down his rivals from the show, especially Punk.

After the reunion show, he posted a 1000-word screed pointing out, again, that New York wasn't his type (he usually dates models, as he primly noted, “I have always had immediate access to GORGEOUS women therefore curvaceous modelesque women are typically the type that I date however EVERYTIME”) and then continued on for quite some time about how evil Punk is and how the show was inaccurate in its portrayal of the individuals involved.

Even if everything Buddha says is completely and utterly accurate, the rather shrill tone he's taken in response to how the show was edited serves to undercut his message that he is the “good guy” of the show. Studies in public perception have shown that protesting bad PR too much actually does more to reinforce your negative image than it does to counteract it. Some I Love New York viewers who were initially rooting for Buddha and his undeniably great looks have been commenting recently that his post-show attitude is turning them decidedly off.

So if, in fact, Buddha does want to continue a career in the entertainment business, he might take a cue from The Entertainer: be gracious and move on. It might not be as immediately satisfying as making a point-by-point rebuttal of the facts, but it might be a better move in the long run.



- Leslie Seaton, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Sources: VH1, FlavorofLove.blogspot.com
(Images courtesy of VH1)