Having been terribly busy the past few weeks, I''ve had to give up my normal TV-watching schedule. That means having to watch late Star World, AXN and C/S replays, or, if worse comes to worse, having to resort to online news reports or episode guides and finish it off with a hopeful trip to YouTube.com.
YouTube, in case any of you have been living in a cave the past year or so, is a popular video sharing website where users can upload, view, and share video clips. It was recently bought by Google.
Online news reports are helpful when it comes to reality contests or sports results. Last week, for example, I learned way ahead of my free TV-watching neighbors that Manny Pacquiao had won by way of ABS-CBNnews.com. Later in the same week, I also found out that controversial American Idol contestant Sanjaya Malakar had finally bid the talent search goodbye, this time by way of Yahoo! Entertainment News. Reports are no longer enough, though, especially when it comes to reality television shows. And why should it be, when the Internet is now instant replay at your fingertips?
Because I do happen to like Sanjaya-just not for American Idol and pop stardom-I looked him up in YouTube. I found around 5,000 videos of or about him there, including his final Idol performance where he sings his pitiful version of "Let''s Give Them Something to Talk About."
I had to get the extra juice, of course, and what better place to start than Technorati.com, from which site I picked up this piece''s title. Technorati currently tracks what''s being discussed in 75.2 million blogs on the web. Unfortunately, Sanjaya is no longer one of them-as far as the blogosphere is concerned, he''s old news.
The web has really revolutionized information sharing, as any victim of whatever scandal can attest. Anyone can be an overnight celebrity-even celebrities. Alyssa Alano comes to mind, she, the never-was has-been, who got her fifteen seconds of fame via YouTube with her painful rendition of "Kiss Me." The Paris, Britney, and Lindsay triumvirate also comes to mind, them and their panty-less extended-media-mileage ways. Where else can we see close-up pictures of their paparazzi-friendly crotches but on the World Wild Web? But these girls are already ancient, ancient history compared to Alec Baldwin''s newest scandal, where an angry voice message he left for his 11-year-old daughter was leaked to TMZ.com, and then spread virally. A Technorati search yields 18,744 results. I didn''t expect to see a lot in YouTube (it is a voice recording after all), and I was correct, although I saw more videos than I expected, mostly reactions and spoofs. I know there''s nothing funny about Baldwin''s tirade, where he calls his daughter Ireland a "rude, thoughtless little pig," tells her "You don''t have the brains or the decency as a human being. I don''t give a damn that you''re 12 years old or 11 years old or that you''re a child, or that your mother is a thoughtless pain in the ass who doesn''t care about what you do as far as I''m concerned" and warns her, "I''m going to get on a plane, and I''m going to come out there for the day and I''m going to straighten your ass out when I see you, do you understand me?"
But even you would laugh at what''s already out there on this subject. I''m checking out a YouTube video called "Alec Baldwin Call-Crazy Train Remix" as I''m typing this. Before this, I was watching another video where his voice message is mixed with clips of his David Letterman appearance, where he talks about Ireland''s being a dancer, and scenes from Kim Basinger''s movie Cellular.
The funniest video I''ve seen so far, though, is a spoof, supposedly from the Baldwin camp, where all his nasty and hurtful words are dubbed with touchy-happy-feely ones, such that he says, "I do give a damn that you''re 12 years old or 11 years old or that you''re a child, or that your mother is an awesome lady who doesn''t smoke" and "I''m going to get on a plane, and I''m going to come out there for the day and I''m going to straighten your hair out when I see you, do you understand me? I''m going to really make sure you a new ''do, then I''m going to get on a plane, turn around and come home. So you better be ready Friday the 20th to meet with a hairdresser so I can let you know just how I feel about what a terrific ray of sunshine you really are."
And that''s entertainment - nowadays!
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