GUILTY PLEASURES: ROSEANNE'S NUTS
Roseanne Barr's New Reality TV Show
You may have heard that Roseanne Barr is living on a macadamia nut farm on Hawaii's Big Island.
Last night I caught Lifetime's reality show about it - called Roseanne's Nuts.
The first episode had comedians Phylliss Diller and Sandra Bernhard coming out for a visit, eating a locally-grown meal from Roseann's farm and then going to a local hangout and watching Roseanne's partner, the musician Johnny Argent, sit in with a local jazz band. (Diller, 93 drank Roseanne under the table).
The Passover episode featured Roseanne trying to put together a home-grown, sustainable, vegetarian Seder for friends and family, including her real-life son, Jake; her first ex-husband (Jake's father) and the actor who played her TV son on Roseanne.
Of course it fell apart; it's too much work; there's not enough food; she invited too many people.
Enter Greg, the colorfully-dressed happy-go-lucky hippie who lives in a tent on Roseanne's farm. He Oms, pops goji berries, eats off the land, makes up songs on the spot, invokes the Holy Mother and does what it takes to relax the uptight female guest who loses it when she learns she can't get cell phone reception anywhere on the farm.
"Greg represents everything I hate about people - everything," says Roseanne's son, Jake.
But it's Greg who saves the day when Roseanne gives up on the Seder.
He gets everyone to join in and help make dinner.
"I would love to serve the goddess" he says, referring to Roseanne.
And I realized, he's not just some layabout hippie - he's a left-handed tantric.
On Lifetime TV.
Jai Ma!
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Watch the brilliant Passover episode here.
THE SMALL-R REALITY:
From this interview with Roseanne - who is running for president of the United States:
Q) How authentic is the show?
A) The show is 100% fake, like every reality show.
Q) How did Greg Sipes come to live in your yard?
A) He doesn't really live there. It's just for TV. It's fake reality!
Q) What are your hopes for "Roseanne's Nuts?"
A) I hope it messes up people's programming and scrambles people at their core.
Love Love Rosanne! She tells it like it is.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who was on "reality" tv and it is what you say, completely fabricated.
ReplyDeleteGreat post tho"!
c.k., you are full of surprises!
ReplyDeleteI remember standing in line in front of a mega-bookstore one cold Chicago winter long ago, waiting to have Roseanne sign my copy of her memoir. It was the winter that pieces of ice were falling off buildings and killing people, so I wore my bike helmet til I got inside. Just in case.
ReplyDeleteI gave away the book when I moved two years ago.
But I do love to see a woman speaking her truth like that.
Here is a great article about the hell she went through with her sit-com - and how little has changed since then.