Thursday, December 18, 2008

Scallopgate Redux: On Behalf of Cheyenne Jackson, a Framed Jamie Lauren, the Gays, and Honest People in General, Amuse-Biatch Cries, “Bullshit!”

























Ok, now we’re just angry.

As any faithful viewer of Top Chef (including, and especially, cheftestants) ought to know by now, scallops are the devil’s playground, an ingredient fraught with peril and the sweet but briny foretaste of doom. And so, on some level, our girl Jamie Lauren ought to know, and ought to have known, better.

Still, what Bravo’s editors have done amounts to prosecutorial misconduct.

In building their case against the scallop dish Jamie made for the Seven Swans A-Swimming component of the skull-numbingly numbskull “12 Days of Christmas” Elimination Challenge, the editors showed 6’4”, blue-eyes-and-calves-of-death gay grointhrob (much better than heartthrob) Cheyenne Jackson saying, “I just tried the Seven Swans A-Swimming. A little too slimy.” Case closed; bring in the guilty verdict.

And yet, on the “bonus footage” on Bravo’s website we get to see Cheyenne’s complete statement, which we are transcribing just in case the video mysteriously disappears (it starts at the 30-seconds-remaining mark): “I just tried the Seven Swans A-Swimming, um, and it was good, surprisingly. I’m not usually a scallops person. A little too slimy.”


See how that works? So Cheyenne Jackson doesn’t usually like scallops because they are a little too slimy, but Jamie’s scallops were good and not slimy (and, let us not forget, Miss Martha Stewart herself raved about Jamie’s earlier-in-the-episode scallop dish).

So, you wanna talk about a little too slimy? Talk about Bravo.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just wish the 'general public' would take a moment to see what a cheftestant has to go thru before they start judging them. The cheftestants are doing a whole season in 6 weeks, almost 2 episodes a week, its almost a 24/7 day. The pressure they are under is 'maximum'...how would you like to come up with a recipe in two seconds in your mind that will have to made within a time frame. And, keep in mind they were doing Xmas in July...And, yes, the biggest culprit of them all is the BRAVO editing team, I'd like to see all the 'on floor cut film' of Jamie Lauren, I'm sure we would see quite a different person..Bahumbug to them...this was the lamest episode in a long time!

Anonymous said...

I watched the bonus feature, too, and found this really irritating. Thanks for posting about it!

Anonymous said...

Who can really be surprised. All these "reality" shows skew the truth to paint people however ups their ratings. Project Runway did the same thing in it's last season with it's treatment of Kinley. TC is no better. The real disappointment is that Chef Tom and Padma are now suspect with all they say and do. How do we know what's legit and what's not. I try to give them the benefit of the doubt, but they are too much a part of the machine to take seriously and trust anymore. Too bad because I really liked going to Craft. Now I'll just stick with my man Bobby Flay.

Anonymous said...

leeks can be slimey tho'...scallops when cooked bad are rubbery..seldom slimey. i suspect that jamie's dish was probably slimey indeed considering she used raw scallops.

Anonymous said...

i have a feeling tom decided not to send anyone home because if someone were going home, it would have been jamie. she has potential..would have been a shame to lose her this early in the game.

Anonymous said...

This is one of the many reasons I love this blog!! :) Thanks guys!

Anonymous said...

Wow, Kenley actually has fans (fans who can't spell her name but...).

Anonymous said...

I should add that though I'm sure Kenley was edited to be the villain (although given that everything she said was along the lines of "I'm awesome, everyone else sucks," you kind of wonder), her clothes were incredibly ugly, and THAT was not edited. Also, lol, Bobby Flay.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, this bugged me too but this whole epi. was a bit of a trainwreck ow that they reveal that the fridge went kaput and they gave them extra time/ingredients (vaguely discussed in the show) and, thusly, could not send anyone home...whatevahs, it's reality...

The Java Junkie said...

Bravo is the master of unconscionably specious editing. I second your cry of "Bullshit!" and raise you a "Shenanigans!!"

Anonymous said...

I'm heartbroken over this as well HOWEVER because I work in the media (news nonetheless - the most manipulated reality tv out there), I'm very familiar with altering a soundbite in effort to drive a story. It's unfortunate and it doesn't necessarily mean the story is false, it just means that maybe the sources to back the story weren't available. The true crime would've been if Jamie's scallops were actually really good but because she was on the bottom at Judges' Table and didn't receive many ribbons, it look as though that was not the case. So, while this does remind me that Top Chef is a reality show, I'm still addicted and can't wait to see who goes home this week.

Anonymous said...

That's some slimy editing...

Anonymous said...

why does it matter that cheyenne jackson liked the scallops? the judges didnt, and they are the ones deciding on who goes home. thats why she ended up on the chopping block. i am sure there were some there that didn't like hosea's winning dish as much as everyone else did.

Anonymous said...

"6’4”, blue-eyes-and-calves-of-death gay grointhrob (much better than heartthrob) Cheyenne Jackson"

take a cold shower! you're starting to sound like "Team Rainbow" Richard and his Tom Collichio lust

Anonymous said...

It matters, 6:51, because it reveals that Bravo is willing to fraudulently edit someone to make it look like they're saying EXACTLY the opposite of what they meant. Which sucks.

This is why the producers pressure the judges to always say something positive and something negative about every dish, no matter how wondrous or crappy it is. It allows them to manipulate the story and the viewer and preserve suspense.

Within limits, of course, there is nothing wrong with this. But the Cheyenne Jackson quote is really offensive--hilarious that AmuseBiatch discovered it on Bravo's own website!--and nobody should be more offended than Jackson.

Anonymous said...

that's even worse than the time the editors edited the marcel fight to show the other contestants joyfully shaving their heads before the assault when it was clearly after! isn't there a journalistic oath or something?