|
|
|
A new reality show has castings for teenagers as young as 13 to 18 years old likes to make their own rules and "party like a rock star.” Its Los Angeles-based casting company, Metal Flowers Media, advertise it in Backstage, a publication widely used by professional looking for jobs. The producer of the show, “My Teen Life” is also the same producers of "The Real Housewives of New York City”.
"Parents, teachers and the haters are always in your business, but it's your life and you live it how you want to," the Backstage ad said. "If you're a modern-day teenage rebel with a hardcore lifestyle, we want to hear your story."
In the ads, there is a message that reads: "(expletive) parents. They're old and don't know (expletive). It's 4:20 and time for your friend Molly to tell your story." Molly is the name of a synthetic drug highly used by young fans of electronic dance music.
Last Friday, an employee at Metal Flowers Media claimed that company had wrapped casting for the proposed series. The person didn’t give her name, but he said that Metal Flowers has no involvement with the show's production and the project now was out of the casting company's hands.
Jon Marcus, the company's senior vice president of development said that there are no such series in the works at Shed Media US, which produces "The Real Housewives of New York City." He didn’t’ believe that anyone who worked with "Real Housewives" is involved, but he claimed that he has no knowledge of the project.
Shed Media is responsible for a range of unscripted series that include "Hollywood Exes" and "Basketball Wives" on VH1, "SuperNanny" on ABC and "Bethenny Ever After" on Bravo. Similarly, the Metal Flowers Media website has more than 100 programs that it has helped find participants, including "Naked & Afraid" on Discovery, "Top Guns" on History, "1000 Ways to Die" on Spike and "Storage Wars" on A&E.
Bravo said they didn’t’ made "My Teen Life" or any series like it. The market is there as MTV learned when it launches "Buckwild," a series about hard-living West Virginia residents that ended abruptly last year after one of its cast member died.
"I think parents will be incensed at this kind of thing," said Stanley Goldstein, a psychologist from Middletown, New York, and author of "Troubled Children/Troubled Parents: The Way Out."
Goldstein believes that the producers of the show are going to face some lawsuits because of the drug and alcohol usage of underage participants.
"It's a poor idea," he said. "It doesn't show great sophistication. But then again, a lot of television doesn't."
| |
