I Am A TV Junkie

3 Premiere Clips -- Gleeks: You Would Love Beautiful People From UK's BBC on Logo, Try Some!

So you sit there each week watching Glee and you think to yourself, "I like this show but there's not enough Kurt, and he should have an accent and ironically live in a city in England famous for imprisoning Oscar Wilde"

That's Beautiful People, the BBC Two musical comedy series based on the memoir of my email pal, Barney's creative director and raconteur Simon Doonan who grew up in the afore-referenced (?!?)  Reading, England.

See three non-spoilery clips from the season two premiere by clicking this link. They'll pop up right here.

Seriously, if you're loving that other musical comedy TV show you should really give this one a shot, it returns with new eps on June 12 at 10 eastern on Logo.

And if you don't think you get Logo, look again. You probably do. It's that channel with the RuPaul reality show. Catch up on season one by watching them all at LogoOnline.com at this link.

More as we get closer to the season two premiere.

Beautiful People on Logo: The One Episode You Absolutely MUST See

This is THE episode, the Diana episode. Tonight at 10 on Logo and right now online at their site, if you like.

It's titled How I Got My Tongs, and I'm not sure but I presume that this was the episode that was entered in the world TV fests that did so well. Of all the episodes of the series, this one best shows what this show is capable of doing. It's an all funny, all singing, all dancing spectacular that then suckerpunches you in the gut with the death of The People's Princess and ... well, why reinvent the wheel when I can link to someone's episode summary?

BBC Press Office:

Behind a display of gorgeous Girl's World heads in Barneys department store window, New York, Simon covets his prized Gold Tongs, as the comic memoir based on the story of Simon Doonan continues. 

Back to Reading, 1997, and a trip to the hairdresser and a fabulous pair of shimmering golden hair tongs prompts Simon's decision to turn Kylie into Princess Diana. But when the dye-job results in an orange disaster, an angry Kylie turns on Simon. Death is in the air...

BTW, hair tongs = curling iron/flatiron.

It actually aired last week on Tues at 10:30 but they replay the last week's ep at 10 tonight before the new one, which is the season finale, How I Got My Globe.

See a preview of tonight's episode after the jump. The show's been recommissioned (renewed) by the BBC back in and hopefully Logo will pick it up for it's second go round as well.

You can also watch full episodes at LogoOnline.com, for those of you who don't get the channel.

I would have a clip, but in their infinite wisdom, Logo doesn't provide embed code for their episode previews. And there's nothing on YouTube. Enjoy the images here, it's all I've got.

Of course, I've also never once heard from a PR rep for Logo. Not once. Ever.

Lame. I might actually write more about their shows if they did.

Video -- Watch Beautiful People Debut Tonight on Logo Or Right Here Right Now!

Watch the trailer now, watch the first episode tonight at 10:30, and then watch it again each day for the rest of the week at LogoOnline.com until the next episode airs.

Actually you can watch it online right now. Even right here at my blog if you want. I've just posted the entire first episode after the jump.

Trailer right below, for those of you who are saving it for your big (bigger) screens.

LINK

Simon (Doonan) Sez: Beautiful People on Logo May 26, Lunching in Palm Beach, Adam Lambert

Our online pal Simon Doonan, New York Observer columnist, Barney's creative director, bon vivant, husband to Jonathan Adler, writer of an outstanding memoir (known as either Beautiful People or Nasty: My Family & Other Glamorous Varmints, depending on when you bought it, I bought it earlier because I'm obviously cooler than you are ... KIDDING!) tells a tale in yesterday's Observer about lunching in Palm Beach when Bernie Madoff's business pal Robert Jaffe walked in the door.

But first, the premiere date for Beautiful People, the series based on the book from Facebook friend Jon Plowman and the BBC has been announced. May 26th is a Tuesday and you will tune in and watch and love it. I know it. It's just such a joy, you will kvell. Like I said when I saw the pilot last year (thanks, Jon) it made me feel like The Wonder Years was remade with me in mind.

The reviews? Check this from TV Scoop, where it says, "They are two wonderfully warm and charismatic characters, but this show is absolutely packed full of them. Simon's mother, Debbie, is a gregarious, often drunk bottle-blonde, played - one might say against type, but brilliantly - by Peep Show's Olivia Colman, his father is presumably the most intelligent plumber in Reading, and his sister is the ultimate tart with a heart. They're a close family, who dance and argue and genuinely love each other completely.

"As well as great characters, this comedy has the added bonus of being made with real care. It is amazing that we can already be nostalgic about the 1990s, but the era is evoked brilliantly through the soundtrack and attention to detail. In this way, there's a slight Spaced-feel to this: it's a heightened reality, with a bright colour palette, flashbacks and flashforwards, and lots of fantasy sequences."

But back to Robert Jaffe, whose Madoff connection you can further examine at this link, Simon recounts the afternoon that Jaffe walked into Chez Jean-Pierre in Palm Beach recently:

I thought about standing up and doing a whole "J'accuse!" number, but my Jonny always tells me he can never tell whether I am sitting or standing, so I decided against it. My Jonny is excessively and gleefully focused on my lack of height: He claims that my being a couple of inches shorter than he provides him with what he lovingly calls "a flattering adjacency."

As we watched Mr. Jaffe-he carries and dresses himself like a retired male model/croupier-sucking down a cocktail, we could not help reflecting on the overwhelmingly heterosexual nature of the whole Madoff thingy. Yes, I know that we gays are by no means perfect: We did after all popularize many horrid trends, including diamond stud earrings and wedge haircuts. But Ponzi schemes? Feeder funds? Not so much. The gays are far more interested in fondling than hondling.

I dunno, Simon. I saw a photo of Charles Ponzi the other day (top of post, Ponzi left, Doonan center, Jaffe right) in a magazine (or was it the Los Angeles Times opinion section? Yes, it was) and he looked like he was quite the dandy.

Jaffe? Pocket square? Crossed legs at the knee? How fancy! Robert! How many old ladies did you have to allegedly swindle to get the money together for all those double-breasted suits and pocket squares, anyway? And the dye job. Actually, the dye job looks rather amateur.

You should be ashamed of yourself. For the dye job and the alleged swindling.

Palm Beach Post from December 2008:

Known for his impeccable grooming, penchant for fine suits and royal bearing, Jaffe, 64, has been sullied by his association with Bernard Madoff. The 70-year-old investment king is accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme that has rocked the tony island.

In the week since the part-time Palm Beach resident was arrested, Jaffe has been threatened. He has resigned as chairman of the foundation, a position he relished. He canceled his son's engagement party. He has hired a public relations agent to deal with the barrage of questions from the media.

Hopefully, those who know him say, the controversy will blow over and his life of charity balls and galas and community activities will resume.

Those who know him must realize that it's not happening, the blowing over part. Hope it never does. Get this guy investigated, dammit and fast before he has the chance to cover his tracks.

Allegedly!

Simon goes on, and I love how he goes on, switching gears later in his piece to talk about the Iowa marriage decision (Yea!) and the American Idol headliner of the season, Adam Lambert:

(A)s if further proof were needed that the gays are on a roll, there is a strong possibility that one of our own is actually going to win American Idol: I refer to the charismatic and kohl-eyed Adam Lambert. Call me lowbrow, but I am a huge Idol fan, and Adam-a sizzling combo of Robert Plant, Bryan Ferry and Shirley Bassey-keeps turning my blouse inside out every single week.

Fabulous! I was just thinking about Brit pop legend Bassey the other day. Even as a very young boy I knew there was something extraordinary about Bassey when I would see her on US variety shows. Or, maybe it was just that she always wore something shiny and I'm attracted to shiny things.

Read Simon weekly at his New York Observer page, bookmark it (and this site, too, don't forget me!) and I'm sure he would be thrilled if you would click over to his personal website, SimonDoonan.net, where the whole Simonverse (universe, only Simon-centric) is available for your review and consideration.

Buy Simon's book and check it out before the series starts here, on Logo, on May 26 just by clicking through from my icon below to purchase from Amazon. And thanks again for clicking on my Amazon links.

And good morning, gang!

Allegedly.

Our Pal Simon Doonan Meets Gossip Girl's Ed Westwick, Mary-Kate Olson at Burberry Barney's Blowout

Ah, Simon. What I love about Simon is that he, and I try to emulate this, is unabashedly himself.

Of course, sometimes people who don't know who "yourself" is can be taken a bit aback. As he recounts on the Barney's site this AM:

When I met Ed Westwick at the blowout bash for Burberry designing genius Christopher Bailey at Barney's last night, I think I came on a bit strong. I couldn't help myself. "You're the heart and soul of Gossip Girl. You wipe the floor with your cast-mates. You are so over the top and great I just wanna scream at the TV screen" etc etc etc.

(snip)

Memo to moi -- at cocktail parties, try to tone it down a bit and speak in that low key hoarse murmur that Ed uses when he plays Chuck.

More at this link, including the encounter with MKO.

Nothing more yet on scheduling from Logo about Beautiful People, the BBC series based on Simon's memoir that they bought recently. I'll keep you up to date.

BTW, at Barney's riight now there's this Marc Jacobs Mancy Messenger Bag at a 50% discount. I don't want you to buy it for me, I just wanted Marc Jacobs to consider naming his messenger bag something other than rhymes with Nancy. Might sell better.

But for $100, if you force it on me, I'll use it. I won't call it Mancy.

Love ya, Simon.

US Cable's Logo (Yea Logo!) Picks Up Rose D'Or Nominee BBC's Beautiful People

Enormously good news today for my Facebook friend and legendary UK comedy producer Jon Plowman (Ab Fab, The Office, Little Britain, Vicar of Dibley, Gimme Gimme Gimme, French & Saunders, That Mitchell & Webb Look ... must I go on or can you just click over to his IMDB page?) as Logo picks up the BBC Rose D'or-nominated series Beautiful People for broadcast in the US.

Also very good news for friend of the blog Simon Doonan from Barney's and the New York Observer in that the series is based on his memoir, which is brilliant and funny and a great read.

This is as far as I can see the highest profile series the cable network has picked up for first run. And, with their recent acquisition of a part of The Sarah Silverman Program, I think this would make a great Thursday Night block of comedy.

Why Thursday? Because it's a prime piece of TV real estate and viewer levels are at their highest.

Brian Juergens at After Elton:

Set in the early '90s, the show tells the story of Simon's coming-of-age as a gay teenager in working-class Britain, and made a big splash with mainstream audiences when it premiered in the fall overseas. We've been dying to get a look at the show (being big fans of both Doonan and of the people behind the sitcom, who also brought us a little show called Absolutely Fabulous) and we're stoked that we'll all get the chance in the near-term.

Congrats to all. Looking forward to it. And I will be keeping you in the loop.

Logo really scored today. This is outstanding TV, should bring a lot more of everyone to the cable channel.

A clip from season one after the jump.

Video -- BBC Picks Up Series Two of Beautiful People, Will US Pay Cable Come Calling?

Hey, people at Showtime, I think this would be very nicely paired with series three of Secret Diary on a Sunday night this fall, don't you?

BBC Press Office:

Beautiful People, the comedy series inspired by the eccentric childhood of style guru Simon Doonan about growing up in suburban Reading, has been recommissioned for BBC Two.

The series gained wide critical acclaim, and featured a cast that included Olivia Colman, Meera Syal, Aidan McArdle and Samuel Barnett.

It also brought together youngsters Luke Ward-Wilkinson and Layton Williams who stole the screen as the teenage Simon and his best friend Kyle – better known as Kylie.

Writer Jonathan Harvey said: "I am thrilled that the BBC has faith in a show which struck a chord with so many. I can't wait to get back to spending time with a group of such lovable characters again."

As my Facebook friend and the show's executive producer Jon Plowman says in the same release, "I'm jumping up and down that this musical comedy memoir will get a chance to entertain even more people in the forthcoming series."

A musical highlight from the first series of the show after the jump. And let's all get to work trying to convince a US broadcaster to get this to us, okay?

And if you need to find someone at Showtime to bug, bug Robert Greenblatt, this is right in his wheelhouse.

The clip, it's after the jump. And it's genius. Great show, a mold-breaker even.

Video -- Beautiful People Debuts On BBC Two; Also Simon Doonan's Priceless Sarah Palin Comments

UPDATE (Hours later): I've seen the premiere. I loved it. I said in a comment to someone involved with the show, "It made me feel  how I imagine straight guys felt when watching The Wonder Years." I'll say more tomorrow.

Clip from the show's premiere episode after the jump, but first, from yesterday's New York Observer column by Simon Doonan, on whose book the series is based:

While La Palin herself is a snappy, pulled-together kind of a chick—expertly applied maquillage, sculpted tight black silk Shantung suit—her utterances vehemently discourage and disallow any stylish expression among the rest of us. It’s that typical beauty queen mentality: I’m the glam ruler and y’all are my earnest-but-dowdy serfs. According to the Republican candidate, we, her subjects, are a homogenous nation of “hockey moms and Joe Six-Packs.” This relentlessly panache-free vision of the United States is gruesomely uninspiring, to say the least.

In Sarah Palin’s America, there are no Diana Vreelands, hip-hop queens, Janis Joplins, Zelda Fitzgeralds, Gwen Stefanis, Edie Sedgwicks, Annie Oakleys or Babe Paleys. There is a chilling absence of stylish daring. In its place are hockey moms, masses and masses of hockey moms—all attired, one imagines, in those denim dresses, worn over turtlenecks. Uggs in winter. Crocs in summer. Holiday-themed sweaters. Quacker Factory, etc. Pass the cyanide capsules, please.

You gotta click over for more. Anything that references both Home Shopping Network clothing from Quaker Factory's Jeannie Bice, she of the frequent appearances on The Soup, and Sarah Palin is worthy of your eyes.

I plan to see the first two episodes of Beautiful People from BBC Two in the next couple days and I will report. Until then, an extended preview clip from the premiere, after the jump.

Simon Says "I Do!," Writer/Bon Vivant Doonan Marries Jonathan Adler in SF

You know, one of my favorite things is opening up the Sunday Styles section of the NY Times each, well, Sunday ... anyway, opening it to the marriage announcements and looking for the same sex couples.

Today, a Facebook friend was staring me in the face.

NY Times:

Simon Doonan and Jonathan Adler were married Thursday evening at the Clift Hotel in San Francisco. Howard Steiermann, a minister of the Universal Ministries, officiated at a ceremony that included Jewish traditions.

Mr. Doonan (left), 55, is the creative director of Barneys New York. He is also a columnist for The New York Observer and the author of four books, including “Eccentric Glamour: Creating an Insanely More Fabulous You” (Simon & Schuster, 2008). Next month, the BBC will broadcast a comedy series based on his memoir. He graduated from Manchester University.

Mr. Doonan is the son of the late Betty Doonan, who lived in Bangor, Northern Ireland, and the late Terry Doonan, who lived in Hove, England. His parents both worked for the BBC; his mother was a clerk in the news department and his father monitored foreign broadcasts.

Mr. Adler, 42, is a potter, an interior decorator and an owner of home furnishing and design stores bearing his name. He is also the head judge on “Top Design,” a reality series on the Bravo network. He graduated from Brown.

Mr. Adler is a son of Cynthia Adler of New York and the late Harry R. Adler. His mother was a lawyer at his father’s law practice in Bridgeton, N.J.

Mr. Doonan and Mr. Adler met in November 1994 on a blind date arranged by a mutual friend.

I'm sorry, NY Times, for reposting so much of the announcement. You gotta give people their due, however. This was a little as I could, in good conscience, post.

So, congrats, Simon and Jonathan.

More about Simon's upcoming TV project on the BBC after the jump.

Sundance Channel Picks up AbFab Creator's Dark Dark Comedy Viviennne Vyle

Note to those who follow these things -- I will continue to write and review stuff from producer Jon Plowman, my Facebook friend, until he becomes an actual friend.

No, this doesn't mean that I will start writing about The Starter Wife (coming back to USA Network) and Desperate Housewives, as I know (or knew) people very directly involved in those shows and I try to stay away from those things.

Now, about The Life And Times of Vivienne Vyle, from Variety's Stuart Levine:

Half-hour "Vivienne Vyle" is a linchpin of Sundance's newly launched Sunday night comedy block, yet the humor here is so pitch-black dark the series would work better as a drama.

Saunders, recognizable to many for her work in Brit hit "Absolutely Fabulous," co-writes with Tanya Byron and has made Vivienne multidimensional. It's just that through the first two episodes, there are few of these dimensions that invoke warmth.

(snip)

There's some attempted cubicle humor that tries to capture the tone of another BBC hit, "The Office," but the intentionally awkward moments are just that, failing to generate any appreciable laughs.

To her credit, Saunders is compelling -- nearly as good as she was in "Ab Fab" -- but even a fine performance isn't enough reason to tune in when she's playing a woman nobody would want to spend time with.

I did watch some of the first episode a long while back on YouTube, and I can get this review because of that, but don't let it scare you away. This might just be the next generation of the comedy of making everyone VERY VERY uncomfortable which started with Ricky Gervais.

I think this show which seems to take it to the next level is maybe a few moments ahead of the curve.

But I'm a comedy warrior and I'll check it out.

And, btw, coming soon from Plowman is the BBC series Beautiful People based on the comic real-life adventures of Simon Doonan (read his memoirs, they are delightful, especially the book that shares this title and Nasty: My Family and Other Fabulous Varmints).

Summer Reading? Me? Yeah! Simon Doonan's Nasty: My Family and Other Glamorous Varmints

I'm reading a book. TV Junkie reading a book. Well, not yet, I'm waiting for it to show up at my door first, and then I'll read it, that's how it works.

Anyhow, why? I'll tell you why. I have a new social networking friend and he is Jon Plowman, which anyone worth their salt knows is the preeminent producer of comedy on British television. AbFab, Gimme Gimme Gimme, The Thick of It, The Vicar of Dibley, Little Britain, The Office, etc., he's the man!

Once head of comedy for the BBC, Plowman has relinquished the job recently and is once again making shows for the network, and I have a feeling this one, a TV adaptation of Doonan's memoir, is going to be making the jump to BBC America or some other broadcast entity nearby.

It will be called Beautiful People, a better title for a TV show than the book title, and here's a description from the BBC Press Office:

It's 1997. Thirteen-year-old Simon and his best friend Kyle can't open a fridge door without belting out a show tune. And his family is even more eccentric.

Mum Debbie (played by Olivia Colman) is a whirlwind of matriarchal warmth in killer heels. Dad Andy is a lovable Irish softy and avid wine maker and older sister Ashlene is a wannabe ghetto queen.

Then there's family lodger blind Aunty Hayley (Meera Syal) and lobotomised grandma Narg (gran backwards) who lost God and found a foul mouth.

Based on the childhood memoirs of window-dresser extraordinaire, style arbiter and writer Simon Doonan, the sitcom follows his childhood reminiscences of escaping the grey gloom of suburban Reading to live amongst the Beautiful People - before coming to the realisation that true beauty, as ever, is closer than we think.

Doesn't that sound like so much fun you just can't stand it? I know!

BTW, Olivia Colman is from That Mitchell and Webb Look, Meera Syal from The Kumars at No. 42, and Oscar winner Brenda Fricker (My Left Foot) plays the grandmother.

Written by Jonathan Harvey, who wrote Gimme Gimme Gimme for BBC.

So, that's why I'm reading a book this Summer. Well that and I have apparently and evidently been using the words apparently and evidently so often it's noticeable, so I need to return to the well and find new vocabulary.