Popular Reality TV

Faced with a lawsuit from the producers of The Bachelor, “Reality” Steve Carbone’s lawyer has responded by saying Steve did not receive information from contestants from the ABC series, even though the lawsuit includes alleged e.mail messages from him that actively solicit information from contestants. In a response to a Nov. 22 letter from the show’s lawyers, Steve’s attorney replied with a letter he posted on his site in response to the lawsuit, which he says he has not yet seen or been served. His attorney wrote, in part, “…Mr. Carbone has not received any confidential information from the participants whom you indicate may have received recent emails from him, and he has no intention of posting any information from such participants, as no such information was provided. There has in fact been no interference with your clients’ participant contracts, and your assumption about alleged disclosures of information by any such participants as stated in your letter is incorrect. Thus, t...

Today in The Daily Beast, I report on a lawsuit quietly filed last August by DJB, Inc., a company run by executive producer Mark Burnett, against a John Doe who turned out to be Jim Early, the man who posted accurate Survivor spoilers on Survivor Sucks as “missyae.” The lawsuit was dismissed after Early gave lawyers information about his source(s), and he told me that he identified Russell Hantz as the person who gave him information about seasons 19 and 20. For all the details, read the story , and you can also read the actual lawsuit [PDF] . In the story, Early explains how he first came into contact with Russell, who originally appeared on Survivor Samoa and is about to appear on Survivor Redemption Island; why people thought “missyae” was Russell’s wife; why his information that Carrie Prejean and Kimbo Slice would be on season 22 was inaccurate; and why he identified Russell as his source, providing the lawyer who filed the lawsuit with e.mail as documentation to prove his cl...