Baywatch hottie Donna D’Errico told to strip down for TSA body scan

by Tom Johansmeyer on


She might not have been the biggest name on the show, but former Baywatch actress Donna D’Errico seems to think someone remembers her. She believes she was singled out by the TSA for a full body scan because of … well … her body. She was the Playboy centerfold once upon a time, after all.

According to SlateV, D’Errico is “outraged” over this and follows Khloe Kardashian‘s televised comparison of her TSA pat-down to a public rape.

The TSA, observes SlateV, “is damned either way.”

So, what would D’Errico have rather had? She seems to like the hands-on approach and would have preferred a pat-down.




[photo by Lucca Castellazzi via Flickr]

Mixed Messages, Part II: The role of the flight attendant

by Tom Johansmeyer on
It’s almost embarrassing to admit that the short, comical (and obviously very powerful) JetBlue video that I noticed on a recent flight left me with so much food for thought. Maybe it’s the fact that a stick figure chased a little red dot into the overhead compartment … I’m not sure. What does matter is that it had an effect. In addition to noticing the opportunity for increased service with no expense, it also occurred to me that the flight attendant is being positioned as a service employee … rather than the final arbiter of the rules or safety czar.
This made me think: how secondary is the service role to the primary safety responsibility of these airline employees? We’ve all seen plenty of commercials with smiling flight attendants eager to please their passengers. Yet, we have yet to see an airline invest its marketing dollars in a 30-second spot chronicling the exploits of the heroic flight attendant.

But, wouldn’t that be a great idea?

Think of how it would play out … a la David Hasselhoff with a torpedo buoy, red shorts and a mission to save a life. We’d see her (or him) burst forth from the galley, flotation device in hand and a determined look on her face (wow, this really is starting to sound like a Baywatch knockoff). “Safety First,” I’d label the ad campaign, with the only service highlighted being the gallant saving of a life.

What more could you ask for? I don’t know about you, but C.J. running up the aisle to guide the passengers sitting in the exit row is a pretty compelling reason to choose an airline.

Or, we could all face the fact that the service aspect of the gig isn’t really as secondary as it seems.

Family Guy cartoon banned in Venezuela

by Alison Brick on

I think we’d all agree that there are some bad TV re-runs out there that deserve to be taken off the air. But I’m not sure that Family Guy is one of them.

Venezuelan authorities have banned the cartoon from future broadcast. Any TV station that doesn’t drop the show will be fined.

What prompted this reaction? The recent episode in which Brian, the talking dog, started a campaign to legalize marijuana.

Watch out future cartoons, so you don’t offend the Venezuelan government! It has happened before, and it will surely happen again. The Simpsons was banned there last year because of its “messages that go against the whole education of boys, girl, and adolescents.”

Televen was one station threatened with a fine for showing The Simpsons in the morning hours. What did they do to avoid the fine? They were forced to show public service films as an apology. And they replaced The Simpsons with Baywatch.

Really, now. Baywatch is better?

It seems as though the government and TV in Venezuela are closely linked. President Hugo Chavez hosts his own talk show. And if new regulations go into effect, cable stations would be forced to broadcast all of Chavez’s speeches.

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Venezuela: Simpsons unsuitable for children, replaced with… Baywatch???

by Anna Brones on

The Simpsons is such a TV-institution that it is pretty much enjoyed all around the world. If you think Homer is amusing in English, just try him in Danish. But not everyone finds the classic dysfunctional family humorous. In Venezuela the TV show has been dropped from morning television because it was deemed unsuitable for children.

The BBC reports that Venezuela’s TV regulator finds that the show sends “messages that go against the whole education of boys, girls and adolescents.” Which show does a better job of sending positive messages to children? The bikini-clad, silicon-stuffed ladies of Baywatch apparently. That is exactly the show that Caracas TV station Televen decided to replace the mid-morning Simpsons slot with.

The Simpsons might make it back onto Venezuelan TV, just later in the evening. That way children can have their morning cereal with suitable half-naked American women instead of the unsuitable deadbeat, donut-eating father who says “doh” a lot. We wouldn’t want children growing up with a bad example now would we?