More than two weeks have passed since WFLA-Ch. 8 aired as paid programing a controversial documentary titled Speechless: Silencing the Christians, which maintains that a "radical homosexual agenda" has led to unfairly persecuting religious people who find homosexuality morally wrong.
But the statewide gay rights advocacy group Equality Florida isn't willing to let the matter slide. The group has announced a press conference and demonstration at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, in front of WFLA's headquarters at 202 S. Parker St. in Tampa.
Equality Florida spokeswoman Nadine Smith said the group was disappointed that WFLA and executives at the TV station's owner Media General have not apologized for airing the documentary or offered free airtime for a presentation which might offer an opposing view.
Smith said their protest coincides with a local visit by Media General president and CEO Marshall Morton; online materials circulated by the group claim that more than 1,800 people have contacted the station to protest the show's airing in the first place.
The controversy is similar to criticism the St. Petersburg Times faced when it included copies of the controversial documentary Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West with editions of its newspaper.
Though supporters said the film focused on the excesses of extremists, other Muslim advocacy groups said the documentary was an attempt to turn Americans against all Muslims, distributed to newspapers across the country in swing states during an important election year.
Equality Florida has organized around outrage over the documentary, holding a statewide online town hall last week and asking members for $25 donations to help fight future airings of the program. A Facebook page advocating boycott of WFLA has drawn about 500 members.
Turns out, broadcast of the documentary may have helped organize gay people in Florida more than ever -- a rather ironic result.
Samantha Leigh's shot at American Idol fame came down to about 15 seconds; the amount of time she got to blast through Aretha Franklin's Rock Steady during her audition today before American Idol producers in Orlando.
Leigh was the singer I helped choose for a special audition slot handed out through WTVT-Ch. 13's Tampa Bay Idol contest, working with four other judges to sort through 80 applicants and watching 10 finalists sing at a Brandon mall.
Turns out, she and second-place finisher Brad Iturriaga did well, moving to the next stage in Idol's audition process.
Leigh's win guaranteed an audition before the show's producers ahead of the 10,000 people who crowded around Amway Arena today, joining about 50 people who had won similar contests around the region or done well at Disney World's Idol Experience.
According to Leigh, singers were split into groups and asked to sing when pointed at, standing before four casting producers. Generally, singers got through about 15 seconds of a tune before they were stopped -- nothing like the longer auditions with feedback they show during the Idol broadcasts.
(Here's Leigh with WTVT's Charley Belcher, me, WFLZ's Meredith and singer Belinda Womack last week in Brandon.)
"They tell you ahead of time not to introduce yourself, not to ask for feedback, they just point to you and you sing," said Leigh, 22, who works as a hairstylist and performs at Busch Gardens in Tampa. "It was crazy, nerve-racking . . . almost surreal."
Leigh and Iturriaga will perform for the show's executive producers later this month -- Fox doesn't publicize those auditions the way they hype the big stadium cattle calls -- and won't face on-camera judges such as Simon Cowell, if they're lucky, until next month.
Leigh didn't even get to meet Idol host Ryan Seacrest, who was there to film some of the opening sequences for the audition shows. "I did get to stand 20 feet away from him," she said, laughing. "Maybe I'll meet him next time."
It's easy to look like a poor sport when you're talking about negative stereotypes in film and TV.
The latest flap along those lines involve two of summer's most anticipated movies: Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno and the whiz-band action film Transformers 2.
Some critics have already taken aim at Bruno, denouncing Cohen's in-your-face mockumentary centered on a cartoonishly effeminate and hyper-sexual fashionista as a gay minstrel show.
Writing in Salon, David Rakoff provides a typically caustic review, calling the Bruno character "an open hydrant of empty, venal ignorance" and denouncing the film as "bad for gays" over its too-broad attempts to provoke homophobic reactions from unsuspecting people.
Other critics have lodged similar complaints against Transformers 2, noting that two new robot characters, Skids and Mudflap, talk in a patios normally associated with young black people and are mostly ineffective, foul-mouthed characters used almost entirely for comedic effect.
Director Michael Bay shrugged off the criticism, saying ""We're just putting more personality in. I don't know if it's stereotypes — they are robots, by the way. These are the voice actors. This is kind of the direction they were taking the characters and we went with it."
Which raises an interesting question: When is such stuff considered stereotypical?
When Tracy Morgan voices a jive-talking hamster in the new animated movie G-force, is that a stereotype, or Morgan just doing what he does? Does that verdict change when you watch the commercials, where his character struts in front of the camera like he's doing a modern-day pimp walk?
I'll be discussing these ideas at about 9:30 a.m. this morning, appearing on National Public Radio's Tell Me More. My verdict, as someone who has seen Transformers but not Bruno: It seems tough to lay the stereotype label on Bruno, which is specifically crafted to pile on all those gay stereotypes in one character to satirize how we all react to them.
That's a lot different than creating two stereotypical fictional characters -- like Star Wars' Jar-Jar Binks -- purely for comic relief in a movie focused on a totally different subject.
In this game, I think, you get points for intent. Tune in at 9:30 and see if anybody else agrees with me.
As I originally reported last week, the family of legendary pitchman Billy Mays has given their permission for marketers to continue airing commercials featuring the popular infomercial/spot selling king, who died suddenly in his Tampa home on June 28.
Mays' family issued a statement Wednesday announcing the decision, reached after a conference call held last week with more than a dozen marketers who had built advertising campaigns around Mays. Though Mays' son, Billy Mays III, has made reference to a foundation to be established in his father's name, the Wednesday statement makes no reference to it.
Roger Pliakas, a California attorney representing Mays' family, said in the statement, "Out of respect for Billy's family, most commercials were temporarily pulled off the air as his loss was mourned. While the mourning and healing process will continue for the family, they have graciously given permission for all the people, inventors, companies and corporations to continue using his likeness on television and packaging pursuant to and honoring all existing agreements that he had in place. The family hopes this will be done respectfully and at an appropriate time because they strongly believe this is what Billy would have wanted."
The company behind the Mighty Putty and Mighty Mendit products announced Wednesday they will air the last long-form infomercial Mays recorded before his death, a pitch for the Mighty Tape adhesive strips that featured the salesman repairing a leaky air line while scuba diving -- in his trademark blue shirt and khaki pants.
"It is important to understand that Billy believed in every product he sold, and he loved nothing more than bringing helpful products to people at a great savings," said his wife Deborah, in the statement. "He always enjoyed meeting his loyal fans and taking time to really talk to everyday people."
Discovery Channel will air an hourlong tribute to Mays at 9 tonight called Pitchman: A Tribute to Billy Mays, featuring interviews with family members, his co-workers in the infomercial industry and his co-star on the series Pitchmen, Anthony Sullivan. A spokeswoman for the channel said Discovery had not made any decision on the future of Pitchmen, which aired the last episode of its first season July 1.
Pallbearers copied Mays look for his July 3 funeral, carrying the pitchman's coffin clad in his trademark blue shirt and khaki pants.
Discovery has also created a space on YouTube where fans can upload video tributes to Mays. Click here to travel to the site. Look below to see some of the videos already uploaded there.
One of the the things I always hated about the weirdness that surrounded Michael Jackson's life was the impact it had on the public's perception of his work.
As the full court media press gears up for his memorial Tuesday, it's happening again. TV talking heads speculate on the fate of his fortune, his children, his doctors and his former home -- but not much energy left for what will be his most lasting product: his songs.
So here's my list -- compiled with help from a few friends on Facebook and Twitter -- of his most-overlooked tunes. While others are cranking Billie Jean and Thriller on Tuesday, these are the jams I'll be banging while the world's media descends to pick once more at his public image.
2000 Watts, from 2001's Invincible: A club jam from New Jack king Teddy Riley and his boys, overlooked mostly because the slowed-down vocal track doesn't sound much like what we're used to from MJ. If he hadn't been chasing blockbuster hits, he would have put this jam in the clubs and watched all the haters jam out to one of his best late-era dance floor workouts.
This Place Hotel, from the Jacksons' 1980 album Triumph: Besides the fact that it's a smoking, sultry jam, this tune shines as the kind of tune that powered his solo debut, Off the Wall; a sinewy, jazz-inflected R&B jam, with his trademark, easy to overlook vocal gymnastics. Even though the hook repeats the phrase "Heartbreak Hotel," the tune's name was changed to avoid confusion with the hit by pop rock's other King.
Working Day and Night, from 1979's Off the Wall: Rock With You and Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough were bigger hits, but the real dance floor jam in my Gary, Ind., neighborhood from Off the Wall was this song, which perfectly melded producer Quincy Jones' L.A.-style funk with MJ's muscular vocals.
Jam, from 1991's Dangerous: Much as people rave about Bad, this workout is Jackson's real attempt to really be bad -- hooking up with gangster funkster Teddy Riley to create a hip-shaking, head-nodding groove topped off with a master rap from Heavy D. Too bad the video features an odd duel with basketball king Michael Jordan.
Stranger In Moscow, from 1995's HIStory: A textured and soulful ballad, it would have been one of his most touching slow jams -- if it hadn't been written about how he felt while touring Russia after child abuse allegations surfaced against him back in America.
P.Y.T., from 1982's Thriller: Inexplicably panned by reviewers who loved the rest of MJ's biggest record, this funky pop confection was even left off early CD versions of that classic album. Too bad, because it now stands as one of MJ's best overlooked hits.
As the pungent aroma of hotdogs and fireworks fades from your memory, I’m willing to allow that the last thing on your mind this Independence Day weekend might be watching television.
Which is too bad. Because we’re not even halfway through the season, and already there’s enough great new and returning series to turn NBC into a watchable network again.
Just in case you haven’t been paying attention, here’s my list of what’s working so far in summer TV (with links to see online!).
The Closer, 9 p.m. Mondays, TNT: Producers continue to find new ways to stretch this super-appealing workplace family into new directions. Last week, the FBI agent husband of Kyra Sedgwick’s scrappy Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson – played by the highly underrated Jon Tenney – pushed his spouse into investigating a murder for his office just by asking for a little help and counting on Brenda to be Brenda. (www.tnt.tv/dramavision)
Burn Notice, 9 p.m Thursdays, USA: Centered on a spy stuck in Miami, this is just another excuse to send a compelling family of characters through a wild series of espionage-tinged adventures. The recent episode featuring The Shield’s Jay Karnes as an old nemesis returning to mess with superspy Michael Westen was a particular stand out. (www.usanetwork.com/fullepisodes/)
Nurse Jackie, 10:30 p.m. Mondays, Showtime: Picked up for a second season before the closing credits rolled on its debut episode, Edie Falco’s hospital drama about a super-righteous, pill-popping emergency room nurse is wonderfully dysfunctional and provocative. Nurses don’t know whether to cheer a hero who flushes a rapists ear down a toilet and tells off a doctor who killed a patient, or protest a character who cheats on a seemingly good-guy husband while ingesting ground-up Percocet like it was Splenda. (www.sho.com)
Late Show with David Letterman, 11:35 p.m. weeknights, WTSP-Ch. 10: Tasteless as his Sarah Palin jokes were, Letterman turned up the heat during Conan O’Brien’s ascendancy to the Tonight Show, establishing dominance as the new king of Late Night. While O’Brien was chilling with The Soup’s Joel McHale and comic Norm MacDonald, Letterman managed classic appearances by Howard Stern, Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington. Small wonder Dave’s closed the ratings gap in weeks. (www.cbs.com/late_show/video/).
Rescue Me, 10 p.m Tuesdays, FX: Denis Leary’s on-the-edge NYC firefighter Tommy Gavin is struggling with increasingly intense hallucinations, an increasingly obvious fall off the wagon and a precarious arrangement with both an ex-wife and ex-lover for friendship with benefits. And it’s still a sidesplitting comedy. (http://vod.fxnetworks.com)
After a week helping judge WTVT-Ch. 13's Tampa Bay Idol contest, now I understand why Fox is backing up the money truck for Simon Cowell (at last count, a salary of $144-million per season was in the offing).
Joined by MJ Morning Show personality Meredith, area vocalist Belinda Womack and WTVT-Ch. 13 feature reporter Charley Belcher, we slogged through 80 video submissions last Thursday.
Then on Wednesday, we saw 10 finalists sing their hearts out before a crowd of a couple hundred people at the Brandon Mall. But as much as I wanted to unleash my inner Cowell -- best I could do was letting one fella know, gently, that his appearance wasn't quite up to snuff for the gig -- the contestants were just too good.
One kid came looking like a backup singer for Chris Brown and unleashed an amazing take on Somewhere Over the Rainbow (think Jennifer Holiday-meets Sam Harris). Another guy stepped up looking like a roadie for Kid Rock and uncorked a spine-tingling version of Oleta AdamsGet Here.
In the end, the crown went to Tampa resident Samantha Leigh (left), who ruled the stage with an energetic cover of Aretha Franklin's Rock Steady.
In addition to having great vocal chops, though, she had a sexy, spunky look, a great outgoing performance attitude and the kind of unexpected act -- punky girl with the soulful vocal chops -- that might make an impression with Idol producers.
Leigh gets a gas card worth $100 and a guaranteed spot before the show's producers when they come to Orlando July 9 to audition Floridians.
We were just hoping to pick someone who might pull a Jordin Sparks and go from local affiliate contest winner to overall Idol champ. (photos courtesy of Fox 13)
Take a look at the video below. I think you'll agree that we may have pulled that off.
When the world's most visible pitchman dies at the height of his fame, it's the obvious, yet painful question: What to do with all the commercials?
Billy Mays' unexpected death Sunday made that question a serious issue for the direct-response marketing industry's top names. Mays was so successful and widely used -- one tracking firm said he has up to 15 different commercials airing on TV stations across the country at the moment -- that his passing could affect the fate of companies worth many millions of dollars.
According to Bill McAlister, owner of the company that makes Mighty Putty and Mighty Mendit household adhesives, more than a dozen marketers who had commercials featuring Mays got together on a conference call organized by his partner Anthony Sullivan Tuesday to discuss the issue, joined by an attorney representing the pitchman's wife and his adult son. McAlister said the group decided to resume airing his commercials next week, after Mays' funeral and burial near Pittsburgh.
The Discovery Channel has scheduled a full-length tribute to Mays at 9 p.m. July 9, but they also made note of his death during the final episode of the series he and Sullivan filmed for the channel, Pitchmen. Brief memorial messages played leading into and out of commercial breaks during the show, and the last 10 minutes or so served as a short, powerful memorial to the 50-year-old sales dynamo.
Most of the show was a surprisingly satisfying wrap-up to the season, featuring Sullivan and Mays facing off in a battle of pitches at a Philadelphia home show. Sparked by a challenge during a radio appearance, the two agree to pitch different products at different booths in a sprawling home show; but Sullivan finds a couple of friends to throw on disguises and disrupt Mays' patter.
Despite the disruption, Mays still earned about 30 percent more money than Sullivan; later segments highlighted how many inventors featured in the series saw their products rack up millions in sales behind Mays' spirited commercial spots.
Mays' son Billy Mays III is also providing regular updates on his activities through his Twitter page while preparing for the tributes to his father and struggling with grief. "Watched the finale surrounded by cousins and friends," he messaged last night. "About two minutes of silence after the tribute at the end..."
Indeed, the show's final minutes may have been the most fitting tribute possible: showing the impact the world's best-known pitchman had on so many lives before the passing of his own.
It's an eerie sight: reruns of Billy Mays commercials playing on in the wake of his death on Sunday.
But one company that hired him to turn their product into a serious moneymaker, Mighty Putty owner Media Enterprises, says it will declare a one-week moratorium on Mays' commercials for the putty, and Mighty Mendit, as a tribute to the fallen pitchman, resuming airings on Monday.
Impact Gel was featured in the first episode of Mays' Discovery Channel show Pitchmen and is one of the salesman's best-known new products (Mays took the product on talk shows, wrapping his hand with the material and banging it with a hammer.
"After 10 years as Billy's business associates and personal friends
there is no doubt that Billy would expect the show to go on," said Bill
McAlister, President of Media Enterprises. "A brief moment of
advertising silence seems to be fitting tribute to the world's greatest
infomercial voice. He will be missed."
Some might ask whether taste might indicate holding off running his commercials for much longer. Few infomercial hosts are as well know as Mays; it's tough to gauge the impact for consumers who will see products pitched by a pitchman they know is deceased.
Look below to see what you'll be missing this week. Click below to see the release from Media Enterprises on their decision.
As news spread of the death of infomercial king Billy Mays, found dead in his Tampa area home Sunday morning, longtime business partner Anthony "Sully" Sullivan was stuck in London, fielding an avalanche of phone calls and struggling to hold himself together.
Mays, 50, was pronounced dead at 7:45 a.m. at a Bowen Daniel Drive condo, discovered by his wife, Deborah Mays. Though Mays had been a passenger on a US Airways flight that had a tire blow out during landing on Saturday, Sullivan said he doubted the incident had anything to do with his friend's death.
"He was going into hip surgery, and he was a little nervous about it," said Sullivan, who last saw Mays on Tuesday when the two appeared together on The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien. "We were going to take the whole of July off . . . he was going to have his hip surgery and we were going to just relax.
During a press conference with police at 1 p.m. Sunday, a spokeswoman confirmed that Mays was due to have hip replacement surgery Monday. A reporter at the press conference said Mays told reporters on Saturday that a piece of luggage hit him in the head during the flight incident.
"I hate to say it, but the king is dead," said Sullivan, his voice breaking into tears. "I mean that from the bottom of my heart. I’ll always remember his booming voice – him saying 'Billy Mays here.' He was the best friend a man could wish for – he was much more than people knew."
Mays became an internationally known celebrity thanks to his energetic infomercials for products such as OxiClean detergent and Kaboom household cleaner. Always clad in his trademark, sky blue shirt and khaki pants, Mays drew audiences with a booming voice, expansive gestures and his well-known opening: "BILLY MAYS HERE."
Heralded as one of the most successful infomercial hosts in history -- he proudly claimed $1 billion in sales over his career -- Mays reached a new audience in April when the Discovery Channel presented a TV series based on his work with Sullivan, dubbed Pitchmen.
Cool Billy Mays Links:
*Hear audio from one of Mays greatest pitches and see photos from a Gulfport filming session for Arm & Hammer baking soda by clicking here; photo at left from that session.
*See my interview with Mays, featuring outtakes from some of his best-known infomercials, by clicking here.
*One of Mays' last infomercials was for the Jupiter Jack cellphone broadcast system. Check out that video on the product's Web site, by clicking here.
*Video from the Associated Press of Mays can be found by clicking here.
*And you can sign our guestbook on Mays' legacy by clicking here.
Pitchmen's last episode of the season is scheduled for Wednesday and Sullivan hopes to talk Discovery into reworking it as a tribute to his departed partner. "We were close as anyone could get over the last six months . . . I still can't even believe this," he said. everyone in Tampa is just devastated."
Mays, who had two hip replacement surgeries last year, talked about dealing with continuing discomfort during a commercial shoot in Gulfport in April. Even the consummate pitchman, he also used the opportunity to tout the product featured in the first episode of the TV series, Impact Gel.
"I had a tough year," he said. "I had (my hip) replaced twice. I had a staph infection from the first one, so this last year’s been trying. All my shoes have the Impact Gel in ‘em and it’s given me more stamina . . . I stand on my legs all day, I’m still feeling . . . I’m healing right now, so these hard floors just kill ya. So it’s been a big lifesaver for me."
Mays' son, Billy Mays III, noted his father's death on Twitter Sunday morning, saying: "On my way to the house. He's gone. I'm gonna be strong for him. Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers everyone."
The Discovery Channel also released a statement Sunday morning, saying: "Everyone that knows him was aware of his larger-than-life personality, generosity and warmth. Billy was a pioneer in his field and helped many people fulfill their dreams. He will be greatly missed as a loyal and compassionate friend."
Tampa police have announced a press conference at 1 p.m. No information yet on funeral plans.
Photos by Times photographer Scott Keeler
Here's a look at Mays' last talk show performance, on The Tonight Show, and one of his last infomercial pitches, for the Jupiter Jack:
The Feed is a blog on TV, media and modern life by St. Petersburg Times TV/media critic Eric Deggans. Possibly the most critical guy at the Times, he has served as music, media and TV critic at various times over 10 years.
E-mail Eric Deggans:
deggans@sptimes.com
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The Feed is a blog on TV, media and modern life by St. Petersburg Times TV/media critic Eric Deggans. Possibly the most critical guy at the Times, he has served as music, media and TV critic at various times over 10 years.
E-mail Eric Deggans:
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