VH1 |
« Previous Entries | |
Annie, the quirky artist who found herself vying for the hand of VH1 reality TV personality, Frank the Entertainer, on a dating show, has blogged about penetrating the ranks of reality television casting and attempting to shatter gender stereotypes. Bust.com features Annie’s series of blogs entitled “Shaming Famewhores” detailing her experiences in trying to crack the “Famewhore” code by creating a carefully crafted character that would appeal to the producers of Frank the Entertainer in A Basement Affair and fill the token “whacky chick” niche all-but required within the reality show’s microcosm.
With sweet, slightly off-kilter Renee gone, not much grieving is done for everyone’s favorite whipped cream-slingin’ serial fiancé. Things kick off immediately with the girls being assigned to their next challenge: Frank loves to croon and wants a woman who can sing back to him. After launching into a little ditty of his own, he tells the girls that they will be split into three teams of two with one girl as a spotlight soloist for this challenge. The teams will be assigned a topic and some Sinatra-style big band croon tune to pen their masterpieces to, then will be expected to perform them for him. The winning team gets a date with Frank.
Not much of the girls in the actual composition stage is shown, except for Annie talking about how nervous she gets having to perform and Kerry — as a one-woman team — agonizing over having to write the instant-classic, “Frank Loves Muscle Tees.”
This week, it’s Family Weekend at the Pasadena Rehab Center. This episode and Family weekend should have just retitled itself “Layne Staley’s Mom is the Coolest, Nicest Woman Ever.” Seriously.
Things open up with Mike Starr in a maudlin mood, sitting on his bed and listening to old Alice in Chains albums. He tells Resident Technician Shelley that this is the only way he can hear Layne Staley, the lead singer of the band who died eight years ago from a drug overdose. In his one-on-one therapy session, Mike talks about his longtime friendship with Staley and how the night he was kicked out of Alice in Chains, he was shot up by both Layne Staley and Kurt Cobain the night he was kicked out of Alice in Chains.
This week opens up with Felicia Kerry and Cathy, all snug in their beds, calling themselves the “A-Listers” It’s kind of funny considering that Cathy was all about throwing Felicia under the bus last week.
Elsewhere in the Maresca house, Renee is calling her Mom yet again, asking for more advice and is told to be herself. We later learn that “being herself” constitutes being a whipped-cream sucking freak with a costume fetish. Awesome!
Meanwhile, Frank delivers his public service message that the girls need to be dressed to impress at a family party in under an hour. Many of the girls feel that their outfits they’ve packed are too sexy for a family party. Felicia, being somewhat more conservative in her style, is nice enough to loan Cathy one of her tops to hold back the hooters. Again, I find this rather odd considering how Cathy was all about throwing her under the bus last week.
After last week’s cliffhanger, Tom Sizemore ends up staying at the Pasadena Rehab Center, not really needing much prodding from Dr. Drew, who points out the nature of addiction. In the span of a few minutes, Tom cycled from wanting to sober up, to wanting to leave, to choosing sobriety again. As an added bonus, his girlfriend Monroe will also be checking in for treatment, as well. However, the dynamic duo will need to be separated as it isn’t recommended for couples to be in the exact same treatment program.
Meanwhile, new girl in town, Kari Ann Peniche is making all sorts of friends all over the place. She incurs the Wrath of Shelly when she dawdles around putting together a cute outfit and carefully applying makeup so that she can go to the group session. Since the group must do everything as a group, the rest of the gang is held up from jumping right in since they have to wait around for Kari Ann.
This week, new addition, Kari Ann Peniche is settling into the Pasadena Rehab clinic and is more than making herself at home. Coming down off of her meth addiction, she’s all sorts of bitchy to one of the techs who asks her to come to group therapy. Kari’s ‘tude gets turned up several more notches when she goes all Cheswick and demands that her assistant bring her some cigarettes. Lisa D’Amato dubs her behavior “divalicious” (which is actually too kind) when Kari Ann pitches a hissy when she gets a soft pack of smokes instead of a hard one. Her snide antics are met with a chorus of eye-rolls from Rodman, Mackenzie, Lisa, and especially the tech who would like to throw Kari Ann through a window.
While Kari Ann’s issues are a tasty side dish, this episode focuses in mostly on the recovery and relationship between Heidi Fleiss and Tom Sizemore. In group therapy, Heidi seems smarmily pleased that Tom, who once lived in a million dollar mansion, is now homeless. He had lost his condo thanks to all of the substance he had dabbled in, too.
The morning after Jenny and her naughty bits were sent packing, several of the girls in the Maresca house contemplate who has been hiding secrets. Felicia tries to quiz Kerry as to who it was that Cathy may have mentioned dating before, possibly someone famous.
Obviously, Felicia didn’t get the memo that Cathy and Kerry are besties and Kerry ran directly to Chatty Cathy with the news that Felicia has been questioning her past dating history and warning her to be careful. Cathy and Kerry then decide that they will attempt to bring Felicia down next.
After “spending time with his kids,” which is actually code for “going on a massive bender,” Tom Sizemore comes back to Dr. Drew’s Pasadena rehab facility. His younger girlfriend, Monroe, is in tow, hanging all over him and making with the smooches all over him as she accompanies him inside.
Monroe will certainly not be pleased to know that Tom’s ex, Heidi Fleiss is holed up in the same rehab facility, particularly after she goes off on a tangent that she lives in “Heidi Hell.” Apparently, Tom still brings up his past relationship with the former Hollywood madam on a daily basis. Monroe wishes that he would just get over it and she could have his full attention in their relationship.
Somehow, I doubt that Heidi is the reason for Tom’s diverted attention, judging by how strung out Tom is when he returns to the facility. When Shirley, the Facility Manager, goes through his clothes to make sure he doesn’t have anything, she finds Sizemore’s sizeable stash that he brought in with him. The haul Tom smuggled in with him includes: a balloon full of heroin with enough for more than one good high; matches; Viagra; Coke and/or Crystal Meth. Shirley suspects that Tom’s girlfriend brought the heroin in for him, but the rest is all Tommy Boy.
This week’s episode of A Basement Affair doesn’t see much happening until the last quarter of the show when one of the girls is revealed to be something she’s not. Things kick off in the usual way, with Renee still being the de facto object of hatred of the girls in the house. In spite of making nice with her, most of the girls still hate her.
The focus on Ren-hate soon shifts to this week’s challenge: A game of bikini baseball in which the winning, scantily clad team earns themselves a gang date with Frank. The girls show up to the field wearing all manner of string bikinis, thigh-highs and other outfits that Mama Maresca vehemently disapproves of. She has particular disdain for Dana’s get-up, complete with garter belt, sniping that Dana’s supposed to be studying to be a lawyer but looks like a burlesque dancer. Oh, Mama! Lighten up already!
Things start off with Celebrity Rehab getting their money’s worth out of last week’s breakthrough moment with Mindy McCready having a seizure, doing a header off of her bed, and Mackenzie Phillips finding it simply hilarious… Until she realizes Mindy isn’t faking. The medics come a-runnin’ and gradually bring Mindy out of it before loading her into the ambulance. For some reason, Dennis Rodman’s heart grows three sizes that day and he rushes out to the ambulance to talk to Mindy as she’s being wheeled away and to offer words of reassurance. Aww, looks like Rodman’s coming around.
Afterwards, it’s revealed that Mindy dislocated her shoulder in the fall from her seizure, which will eventually require surgery. (Which, hopefully. means she won’t get addicted to painkillers and other meds following such.) Dr. Drew recommends anti-seizure therapy for a year to her.
