“Anonymous” Pens Thinly Veiled American Idol Backstage Scorcher

[Miguel]

There are two Amazon Vine reviews now. The second also gives it 5/5 stars. The reviewer describes himself as an "aficionado of reality television."

The book is not just fluff. The characters ring true.

I was surprised to find this is a real book that clocks in at 304 pages. 100,000 copies for first printing.

Publishers Weekly:

The transparency of the book’s American Idol characterization is annoying and uninspired. Attempts throughout at satire, not only of television and reality television but also of corporate and American culture (a big corporation is called “The Big Corporation,” for instance) fall flat. The odds that this book will be eliminated in the first round are high.

Excerpt from Kirkus description:

The novel’s impersonation of Steven Tyler’s verbal gymnastics is so dead-on, so charmingly nutty, kudos are in order. Bibi Vasquez (the JLo stand-in) comes off less attractively—as a driven, foulmouthed hunter, out for blood, even if she’s not sure why. The most sneering portrait is reserved for the show’s host, Wayne Shoreline, a workaholic sociopath who is sexually neutral and whose culinary tastes are satisfied at the pet store. Occasionally, Sasha has a few moments to devote to a personal life: trying to reconnect with her stoner boyfriend in Hawaii, working on her novel (which consists of deleting most of the first paragraph) and even finding happiness tentatively with an LA guy, found by her nosy Russian landlord. But of course, even Sasha knows her life pales under the starlight of the Icon universe, what with the drugs, the sex and the scandal lurking at every turn. Anyone who has ever watched American Idol, and that will be almost everyone, will have the immense satisfaction of the “inside scoop,” real or not.

Excerpts from LA Weekly review":

After reading the whole thing, we're going to go with a combination thereof: We suspect the writer had some level of access at Idol. But the Great American Novel this ain't. Frankly, the most interesting (perhaps the only interesting) thing about this book is trying to figure out what pieces could possibly be true. Is J. Lo a self-absorbed ninny? We're buying it. Is there "an unsettling ... femininity about" Simon Cowell? [I think they mean Ryan Seacrest] OK, we buy that, too.

...READ THIS IF ... You either love reality TV, or you work in the business. Or maybe you're just looking for a lazy hangover read and you're not particularly choosy. We will admit that this book grew on us -- we meant to give up after the first couple of chapters, but somehow, we read the whole damn thing.

...A KEY QUOTE ... "This week, we're going to use N for a definite 'yes, they'll go on to Hollywood,' X for a maybe, and Y for a categorical 'no, but the kid looks like a crier or a psycho, so roll the cameras.' And remember: NEVER explain this to anyone. ... Another thing. If someone has a good gimmick - y'know, dying kid, mom in prison, amusing facial tic -- put a star in the top right corner."

The Daily Mail gives us this:

To increase on-screen drama, and to make it look as natural as possible, producers manipulate contestants before they perform with the strategy: 'Tell the singer the very opposite of the truth.'

If the contestant is a wonderful singer, the producers tell them to prepare for the fact they probably will not move on to the next round.

But if a singer is terrible, producers puff up their confidence. The book says this screening process makes the final outcome, and the contestants fate, all the more cinematic.

Meanwhile the star judges are taught to give the most talented contestants plenty of negative signals, such as shaking their heads during the audition process, to add to the tension.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/articl...-Idol.html

Hmm, they apparently picked that up from The New York Post, which also gives us this:

After the auditions are done, during the high-stakes Hollywood performances, the elaborate backstories contestants tell about the song they’re about to sing are almost always ghostwritten, the book says.

Contestants who aren’t producer favorites are sabotaged with mind tricks and steered into making poor song choices that could result in their elimination.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/boo...21jFasGJ/2