Tag Archives: Talent

Simon Cowell's Third UK Cheating Scandal

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Talkback Thames, which co-produces Simon Cowell’s Britain’s Got Talent with his Syco, has admitted to me that the show has used Auto-Tune to make auditions sound better. (Auto-Tune is primarily designed to correct pitch and disguise off-key mistakes as well as filter outside noise.) This is now the 2nd Cowell contest show which is using sound enhancement technology and the 3rd  Cowell contest show which is cheating. ”In line with standard television practice, sound filtering technology has been used on Britain’s Got Talent on our pre-recorded shows, but this does not unfairly reflect any singer’s performance. The performance shown on screen is a fair reflection of performance given in the live theatre.  Judges make their decision based on that live performance,” Talkback Thames emailed me. The producers are trying to split hairs; they claim the sound enhancement software is used only in post-production, and that Cowell and fellow panelists Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden do hear and judge only the performers’

TCA: Mark Burnett's Latest Unscripted TV – 'Dancing Behind Bars' & Prison 'Idol'

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Mark Burnett keeps putting his unscripted TV company up for sale, negotiates with the likes of IMG and even Ben Silverman’s Electus, and then loses the buyer because he’s asking too much. And, increasingly, Burnett has lost his programming touch, too. For instance, he took over HGTV’s Design Star contest this season and turned the likeable Vern Yip into the awful Donald Trump. The result is a now unwatchable show. (Burnett doesn’t even allow judges Candace Olson and Genevieve Gorder, both talented articulate designers, to talk. Just Yip. Ugh.) That said, Ray Richmond, who’s contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage, just sent me the news that the crime-themed network Investigation Discovery has hired Burnett to find the talent lurking in America’s prison system. Seriously.
Burnett’s entry Dancing Behind Bars will look to uncover hoofer talent among the incarcerated. The other show, Talent Behind Bars, is designed as a singing competition and has yet to attach a producer. Richmond says media in the room already began dubbing the second show Prison Idol, which Investigation Discovery honcho Henry Schleiff didn’t seem to mind. Schleiff noted that no hardened murderers will be permitted to participate — just those convicted of crimes like selling crack. Who’s gonna be the judges: prison guards? Surely there’s a buyer now for Burnett’s company with classy programming like that.

Taylor Momsen & “The Pretty Reckless” Rocked Out at a NYLON Party

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Taylor Momsen & "The Pretty Reckless" Rocked Out at a NYLON Party

First of all, have any of you bastards seen Taylor & her band in action? From the looks of the pics, her performances are definitely packed with a tremendous amounts of energy.

As we’ve stated many times over, Taylor is a multitalented 16 year old who’s simply at the stage of her life where she’s experinmenting with different things at the moment before moving to concentrate on just a single talent. Every young talent (especially in modern times) does it, so we’ll see where she ends up.

Here’s are her bandmates:

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Freud Talent Agency Starts Wooing Agents

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Anthony Jones at United Agents, who handles Richard Curtis and Mike Leigh, is understood to have already been approached by The Rights House, the new talent agency which has just taken over Peters Fraser Dunlop. Matthew Freud, chairman of Freud PR, is now presiding over PFD, already one of the biggest literary agencies in Britain, with talent agent Michael Foster, who represents Julie Christie, Sam Neill and some of the biggest names in UK TV. Foster and Freud are expected to spend heavily in recruiting senior literary and talent agents. ‘

H'wood Agents: Sheinwold Out, Ferriter In

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There are so many layers to most Hollywood agencies’ talent departments, that I’m not sure this is even significant. But Sharon Sheinwold, who’s about to go on maternity leave, has exited from all administrative responsibility in WME’s talent department (which of course is run by Patrick Whitesell and Adam Venit and administrated by Brandt Joel). I hear Sheinwold’s exit had to do with a David Wain-Paul Rudd-Jennifer Aniston package that they wanted produced by Judd Apatow (who’s repped by UTA). But Happy Madison’s Adam Sandler-Jack Giarraputo thought they should produce, and they’re really important WME clients, so Sharon fell on her sword. “Give [...]

Susan Boyles idol Elaine Paige makes nasty comments about her

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The Daily Mail has some incredibly bitchy, rude comments that Susan Boyle’s idol, Elaine Paige, made about Susan’s rise to success and talent. Susan of course mentioned Elaine Page, known as the queen of musical theater in the UK, as the singer she emulated during her audition on Britain’s Got Talent. Paige was previously very [...]