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She’s the TV mom everyone loves to hate. Kate Gosselin returns to the tube with her children in tow in her new series, Kate Plus 8, airing this Sunday, June 6 at 9pm on TLC.
David Zurawik of The Baltimore Sun says she won’t be doing so without a new level of scrutiny from lawmakers and mental health experts. He reports that “psychiatrists and child advocates say the shows can invade a child’s privacy and confuse a child’s sense of identity.”
Zurawik quotes Dr. Michael Brody, chairman of the Television and Media Committee of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (who knew there was such a thing?) as saying, “Kids in these kinds of shows are not having a childhood, and you don’t have to be a scientist to know what’s going to happen to some of them as they get older. It can be a real disaster for them.” He continues, “Just doing retakes, where they stage a scene and then reshoot it again because something went wrong, really screws up a kid’s sense of reality.”
Anyone who has been privy to the reality of “reality” TV will tell you that it is definitely not for the faint of heart. A talented and experienced friend who was recently on the set of a popular summer reality show left feeling that reality TV is “evil and not to be trusted.” Certainly by agreeing to appear on a reality show, you have to surrender to the fact that what happens in the editing room is out of your hands; you have to be okay with however you end up being portrayed in the final cut. The problem with the Gosselin kids is, they’re not old enough to understand any of that, nor to make their own decisions. Continue reading »
Former child star Gary Coleman, best known for his role as wisecracking Arnold Willis on 80s sitcom “Diff’rent Strokes,” died Friday at 42.
The actor suffered an intracranial hemorrhage after falling at his Santaquin, Utah, home on Wednesday and had been in a coma, according to EW.com.
For every former child star who makes it (Ron Howard, Jodie Foster), there are countless who can’t bear the difficult transition to adulthood (including Coleman’s ‘Strokes’ co-stars Todd Bridges and the late Dana Plato). In Coleman’s case, he had it harder than most given that his health condition literally prevented him from growing up.
Coleman suffered from a kidney disease that stunted his growth and required two transplant operations. His guest starring roles on The Jeffersons and Good Times helped him land a starring role at the age of 10 on the sitcom Diff’rent Strokes. The show aired on NBC from 1978-1986.
Playing one of two adopted black sons of a rich white widower, Coleman enchanted audiences and critics with his lively performance and his memorable catchphrase, “Whatchoo talkin’ about, Willis? Continue reading »
The buzzy movie of the week has to be “Babies,” a documentary that follows four newborns — each from a different culture — into their first year of life. The film uses no voice overs or subtitles. Instead, the audience gets to watch each of the kids within the context of their own culture and countries: Namibia, Mongolia, Japan, and the U.S.
French filmmaker Thomas Balmes’ 80-minute movie is the product of some 400 hours of video, most of which includes one of the four babies in front of the camera. That’s an average of 100 hours of work for each child, and some are starting to ask whether Balmes broke the law. Continue reading »
Poor E-Trade Baby. Like too many child stars before him, he was replaced, edged out of his job for the simple transgression of growing up. He’s a cute little guy, too. Let’s hope his future doesn’t follow the typical child star trajectory: rehab, desperate attempts to stay in the limelight, and all too soon, the inevitable VH1 reality show.
Yes, late last week came the news that E-Trade has replaced its spokesbaby Continue reading »
When most people think about the movie “Say Anything…,” they think about John Cusack, a boombox and Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes.” Then they think about Lili Taylor singing “Joe Lies.” Then maybe they think about John Cusack, on a payphone in the pouring rain, proclaiming, “I gave her my heart. And she gave me a pen.”
But eventually, after they’ve covered all those things, they will eventually recall that Cusack’s character — the iconic, perpetually romantic kickboxer Lloyd Dobler — had a nephew. You remember this kid. He also did a little kickboxing. He had a mullet. His mom was played by Joan Cusack. And when Lloyd asked, “Hey, my brother. Can I borrow a copy of your ‘Hey Soul Classics’?,” the kid responded: “No, my brother. You have to go buy your own.”
Turns out little Jason Dobler was played by an actor named Glenn Walker Harris, Jr. And since 2009 marks the 20th (!) anniversay of “Say Anything…,” this seems like as good a time as any to find out what happened to him.
It takes a very special girl to win the heart of Steve Urkel. And Laura Winslow — as played by Kellie Williams during nine seasons of TV’s “Family Matters” — was just that sort of special girl.
Williams, a native of Forestville, Md., in the Washington D.C. area, dabbled in modeling and theater before she snagged her starring role on the ABC (and later, briefly, CBS) sitcom at the age of 13. So what has happened to her since the days of laugh tracks and listening to Urkel repeatedly ask the question, “Did I do that?” Let’s find out.
Of all the demonically possessed kids to ever show their devilish faces in a horror movie, Regan McNeill in “The Exorcist” is easily the most terrifying — and memorable. Is there anyone who grew up in the ’70s and wasn’t absolutely petrified by the sight of her freaky head spinning all the way around? Or later, when the footage was reinserted into the film, the image of her crawling, spider-like, down a staircase?
It seems only fitting, then, to bring this month’s Halloween-themed Rich or Rehabs to a close with a primer on the queen of the child horror stars, the actress who played Regan: Linda Blair.
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