Why we show the (sizzling) stuff on television

It’s tough to do a talk show – a showbiz talk show. It’s almost always a balancing act between Satan’s lair and the deep blue sea. Sometimes you get to limbo and if you‘re lucky you reach purgatory. Heaven is elusive. Admittedly, this makes the journey exciting. Who doesn’t want to do inspiring, empowering television?

But who watches inspiring and empowering television? I pray everyone does.

Do you find a middle ground, so that you can do the foibles of movie stars while at the same time you cover the graduation rites of Klaudia Koronel?

I would often get comments like, "Why do you do stories on pregnant unmarried movie stars, or philandering actors? Why do you feature quarreling starlets and young stars fighting over boys in shorts? Why do you do gay stories and blind items? Why do you expose sex videos?"

I always say, "Because you watch them and because they happen and therefore they are showbiz news. But there are other stories we do like the graduation of Klaudia Koronel."

I don’t buy this concept that talk shows have something to do with the dismal state of the movie industry.

But should we do every scandal that happens in showtown? No. We don’t. Believe me, if we do everything that happens in showbiz, Fear Factor, is a kiddie show.

A movie star wants to be featured and talked about in good light. It’s simple. All he has to do is do it. And do it again. Otherwise, we only have the graduation of Klaudia Koronel.

But there are also stars that will do anything to get into the news. Do we fall prey into their trap? Oh yes, sometimes we do. We become hapless victims of their maneuverings. This is when showbiz talk shows are at its most banal.

Showbiz is like no other place. It’s both strange and magical. I love it with a passion. Talk shows are also strange and magical. Just like the showtown it covers.

But don’t get me wrong. We look for good showbiz news, too – like Klaudia Koronel’s graduation.

When a movie star called me about the imbalance between the good and the bad showbiz news on The Buzz, I told her emphatically that we do good news like Klaudia Koronel’s graduation.

This brings to mind what Pat Weaver; NBC president said in the early ’50s when television was nascent, "Television is a miracle. The grand design of television is to create an aristocracy of the people, the proletariat of privilege, the Athenean masses – to make the average man the uncommon man."

Of course Pat Weaver’s dream is still a dream.

Here are some points that you can think about in the context of television talk shows. Take them for what they’re worth:

• Showbiz is premised around the good and the beautiful. Anything ugly becomes interesting.

• Ignoring the wrong is condoning it.

• Great pieces of literature did not ignore the wrongdoings, frailties and excesses of men. They for instance ridiculed greed, perhaps to remind men that there is a better option. (But this is not to say that they did not celebrate the goodness of man.)

• The celebrity industry is complex and contradictory by nature. Visibility is an important tool in the star factory, but when stars become bigger, they expect to be invisible and invincible.

Congratulations, Klaudia Koronel! I’m truly proud of you.