VH1 announced today it is postponing any
future airings of the reality show Megan Wants a Millionaire after contestant Ryan Alexander Jenkins was named a “person of interest” in the choking murder of Jasmine Fiore, the 28-year-old swimsuit model whose body
was discovered stuffed into a suitcase and dumped into a Buena Park
trash bin.
“Given the unfortunate circumstances, VH1 has postponed any future
airings,” the network said in a statement. “This is a tragic situation
and our thoughts go out to the victim's family.”
]
Entertainment site GaySocialites.com is spinning the VH1 announcement as a full-blown cancellation of the series, which completed production in March: “VH1
has since canceled the show and revealed that Jenkins was a finalist on
the show. Any information about the show has also been removed from
their website.”
Sure
enough, clicking on the “shows” tab at the top of the VH1 website
brings up a list of 20 programs and four specials that are not Megan Wants a Millionaire. A tab on that page to “all shows” reveals no Megan Wants a Millionaire among all the VH1 past and current programs that begin with the letter “m.”
An international manhunt is under way for Jenkins, a 32-year-old Canadian who was one of 16 contestants vying for former Rock of Love contestant Megan
Hauserman's love on Megan Wants a Millionaire. The Los Angeles Times blogs on L.A. Now that Jenkins had recently signed on with a second
reality show.
That reality show was not revealed, but a loud sigh of relief was audible from Kathy Griffin's house.
Meanwhile, Kevin Roderick at LAObserved.com is lashing out at KNBC/Channel 4's web coverage
of the tragedy (and by “tragedy,” that means Fiore's death, not the cancellation of Megan Wants a Millionaire).
A screen grab from Channel 4's home page around noon showed that
headlines and stories on the murder were strategically placed to play
up to word “naked,” which was how the model was found stuffed into the
luggage tossed into the dumpster. And next to that KNBC story, the LA
Observer observed, was a teaser for PETA ads that feature stars who are
. . . drull roll, please . . . naked! See below . . .
If
you had been able to open the real KNBC page and keep scrolling down
below what is shown here, you also would have seen a story about celebs
not naked but in bikinis, as demonstrated by a photo of Britney Spears. Writes Roderick of all that skin: “I know local TV stations are
on life support these days, but geez.”
[
Perhaps
Channel 4's webmaster reads LA Observed. By 2 p.m., the page shown
above was replaced by a main story and picture about surfing dogs.
Hey,
Kev, don't confine your harsh judgment to local television. Here is
CNN's headline for its blog post that only went up a couple hours ago: “Exclusive Blog: Model Found Nude, Stuffed in Suitcase!”
Like a model found nude and stuffed in a suitcase is hot or something!?! No, for taste and decorum one must naturally turn to The Daily Inquirer, which features a link to the following poll under its coverage of the murder:
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.