Down With the Hot People Revolution!

One of the things that struck me about V For Vendetta was how average-looking the cast was. (OK, Natalie Portman is hot, but it was an unglamorous role -- recall the scene where she gets her head shaved live on camera.) The fact that the Inspector was played by a middle-aged dude rather than some muscle stud like Paul Walker was a breath of fresh air.

Whenever I see old TV shows or movies or those "Remember the songs of the 60s and 70s" infomercials, I'm struck by how normal the stars in them look. Something happened in the mid-90s. Someone discovered that hot people attract better ratings. Movie stars went from looking like Humphrey Bogart to looking like Matthew McConaughey. The only way you can survive in the music industry now is if you're hot. In fact, in all media, it's almost required that you've just stepped out of a Calvin Klein underwear ad.

Remember how the people on The Real World used to be representative of the audience? Back in the early seasons each cast member had some kind of specialty: the poet, the race-car driver, the musician, the political activist, the cartoonist. Remember Judd from San Francisco? No way Judd would get cast in 2006. He's so average. At some point in the last few years, they stopped casting real people and started casting models. It used to be you had to be good at something, have a talent... now you're just supposed to take off your shirt and jump around.

Now, I guess I'm guilty of supporting this. I did, after all, write about how I was going to watch the Olympics for the men. But still, it pisses me off. I'm not demanding that the media be full of fuglies, but can't we compromise? I don't think every news announcer and guitarist and bit player in UPN TV shows needs to look like a fashion model. It's at the point where, when I see average-looking people in a movie or on television, I have immediate respect for whatever it is -- clearly the creators have enough confidence in their story to not have to resort to doling out softcore porn. It's probably no coincidence that The Amazing Race is my favorite reality show, and also one of the few that casts normal-looking people. I can enjoy a show without being hypnotized by pectorals and perfect teeth, thank you very much.

There's a Coke ad that's been playing before the main attraction at Loews for a while. It's the one where the college kids go on a road trip making a documentary (and drinking lots of Coke). The kids looked like they were scooped right off the street and put in the commercial. The first time I saw it, I was shocked to see that they had Supercuts haircuts. And would you believe they also had acne! Now that is the pause that refreshes.