Happy Ides of March, y’all! Time for another edition of Only in Jersey!
If it’s filming in Jersey, takes place in Jersey, or is about celebs from Jersey, you will find it here.
So, as expected last night, in the wake of revelations that contestant Jermaine Jones had a violent criminal past and several outstanding warrants for his arrest, “American Idol” kicked the Pine Hill native to the curb. During a sit-down with producers Nigel Lythgoe and Ken Warwick in the episode, Jermaine said he had a reason why he didn’t divulge his run-ins with the law. “I just was scared, nervous,” he revealed. “I didn’t want to get judged, I didn’t want to get penalized for anything that happened in the past.” And while the producers said they would’ve worked with him had he been honest from the get-go, to find out about it after the fact was unacceptable. “We are not allowed to have anybody that has an outstanding warrant against them on the program and you’ve got four of them against you,” Nigel told Jermaine. The segment concluded with a rehearsal clip of Jermaine singing “Somewhere Out There.” It was a sad finish to a promising start. But perhaps Jermaine will find that New Jersey is the “somewhere out there, out where dreams come true.”
As a child of the ’80s, I have a soft place in my heart for the music of that time.
Mike Tramp: You bet your sweet bippy this poster was hanging on my bedroom wall.
All through high school, I was uh-bsessed with Duran Duran. And somewhere along the line, my tastes branched out from New Wave to the unfortunately labeled “hair bands.” Oh, I loved them all… Winger, Whitesnake, Warrant (why do they all begin with “W”?), Def Leppard, Slaughter, L.A. Guns, Bang Tango, Bon Jovi (Jersey, holla!)… you get the picture. But one of my favorites from that time was that other “W” band – you know, the one with the super hot Danish lead singer whose sculpted cheekbones clearly were carved by Michelangelo.
Happy Hump Day! Time for another edition of Only in Jersey!
If it’s filming in Jersey, takes place in Jersey, or is about celebs from Jersey, you will find it here.
Jermaine Jones: Thanks for misrepresenting New Jersey!/Photo credit Fox
Reality television and drama go hand-in-hand, no doubt. And there’s plenty o’ drama to go around these days on “American Idol.” Remember Jersey contestant Jermaine Jones, the show’s “gentle giant”? People reports that he will be quitting the show during tonight’s telecast. In a tweet last night that has since been deleted, Jermaine wrote, “Awww I will no longer b on the show.” TMZ goes a step further, saying the show’s producers discovered Jermaine has a criminal past that he had lied about. The Pine Hill native reportedly was arrested twice last year, and one of those arrests was violent in nature. On top of that, Jermaine apparently lied to police, giving them fake names each time he was arrested. Andthere are also outstanding warrants for his arrest. This news comes on the heels of reports that Jermaine’s story of his dad abandoning him as a kid are untrue. (His dad told TMZ that that wasn’t the case at all and that he sees his son regularly.) All of this raised the producers’ suspicions, and they started looking into Jermaine’s background more closely. And here we are. I guess the only question remaining is how much the show will reveal tonight (8 p.m., Fox) and what its explanation will be for Jermaine’s sudden departure. That leaves Kinnelon native Elise Testone the sole Jerseyan contestant left. Hopefully she will be able to impress the judges more than her next-to-last-place finish last week.
If it’s filming in Jersey, takes place in Jersey, or is about celebs from Jersey, you will find it here.
Chaz Brown: Hope he's good at juggling.
Jerseyans and reality shows go together like, well, peas and carrots. Case in point: A “Top Chef: Texas” contestant (who was eliminated in the qualifying rounds) from Voorhees will compete in Bravo’s latest food-based competition, “Around the World in 80 Plates,” beginning Wednesday, May 9. Chaz Brown, the chef de cuisine at New York’s Fatty Crab, will battle against 11 experienced cooks in culinary challenges across the globe. The show, which is hosted by Curtis Stone and Cat Cora, sounds like a combination of “Top Chef” and CBS’ “The Amazing Race.” Here’s hoping the French Culinary Institute grad never hears the unfortunate words, “I’m sorry to tell you, but you’ve been eliminated from the race.”
Despite speculation to the contrary, Whitney Houston’s family has no plans to hold a public memorial for the late singer, who died February 11 in Los Angeles, California. Whitney will be remembered during an invitation-only funeral service beginning at noon on Saturday, February 18, at her childhood church, New Hope Baptist, in Newark. There is, however, talk that the singer will be buried in Westfield’sFairview Cemetery. TMZ reports Whitney will be laid to rest beside her father, John Russell Houston Jr., who died in 2003, because that was what she wanted. Newark, meanwhile, is preparing for a crush of fans and onlookers during Saturday’s celebrity-filled, somber ceremony. “Obviously Whitney Houston was one of the greatest performers of our time, and certainly we expect a huge presence of other performers, actors and we’re preparing for all that,” the city’s police director, Samuel DeMaio, told The Star-Ledger. And New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ordered that state flags be lowered to half-staff on Saturday in Whitney’s memory.
Ava Gacser is a freelance writer in Central New Jersey. She is a former television columnist and features writer for several Gannett-owned daily newspapers in New Jersey.
Ava is an avid couch potato with a special affinity for reality TV, and she can't believe how many shows feature New Jersey residents!
She was a member of the Television Critics Association from 2005 to 2010.
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