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.
Happy Wednesday! It’s 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.
Whitney Houston: We will always love you JUST LIKE THIS.
Another day, more Whitney Houston drama. In addition to the pop star’s Westfield cemetery plot being indefinitely closed to the public, tabloid rag The National Enquirer has made the tacky, tasteless decision to publish – on its front page, no less – an unauthorized photo of the Newark/East Orange native in her casket. The photo was apparently taken by someone who attended the visitation at Newark’s Whigham Funeral Home last week, and the natural assumption is that that same someone made beau coup bucks by selling it to the Enquirer. I don’t know about you, but I prefer to remember Whitney alive – and obviously her family wants us to, as well, otherwise they would’ve opened the casket during the televised funeral on Saturday. The sight of her lifeless body (even if the funeral home’s restorative artist did a beautiful job) is the lastthing I want to see as I’m checking out at the grocery store.
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.
It’s already Thursday, and it’s 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.
Hugh Laurie and the "House" cast: Say farewell./Photo credit Fox
Fox has pulled the plug on its hugely popular series “House.” The show, currently in its eighth season, takes place at the fictitious Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. According to Entertainment Weekly, the series will wrap up the end of this season. The mag also reports that star Hugh Laurie said in November that he planned on retiring from television acting once the show ended. Meanwhile, the real Princeton-based hospital is flourishing: it is scheduled to move to a new, state of the art facility in May and officially be renamed University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro. Who says life doesn’t (at least partly) imitate art?
If it’s filming in Jersey, takes place in Jersey, or is about celebs from Jersey, you will find it here.
Expedia pitchman Michael Ian Black has found the humor in house hunting. The Hillsborough native has live-tweeted twice (most recently Tuesday night) during seemingly random reruns of the HGTV reality show “House Hunters International.” Joining him in exchanging witticisms is fellow funnyman (and “Daily Show with Jon Stewart” contributor) John Hodgman. Among Michael’s observations: “John, I prefer house #1. Second choice is #3. This means they will pick #2” and “Thank you, John. Once again, we have shown people that living overseas is always a tragic mistake.” If you’re interested in reading more of Michael’s “House Hunters International”-related tweets, check him out on Twitter. He is also the author of several books, including the upcoming “You’re Not Doing It Right: Tales of Marriage, Sex, Death, and Other Humiliations.”
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.
Ava Gacser's Blog 