Archive for May, 2009

On Ajay’s blog – attached to her ChasingOprah site – she’s explained things from her side of the fence. Everything from her “stealing” from The Biggest Loser set to the reality behind her recent court case to the supreme douchebaggery of the paparazzi, all in her own words for the first time.

The court case you saw in January 09 was not all you have read about. What you didn’t read is that I was the one who had approached Centrelink over 4 years ago, before Biggest Loser ever aired on TV and told them that, as I had slowly pieced my life back together after the tragic suicide of my mother, I discovered the possibility that I might have received payments over what I was supposed to. It happens to a lot of people or so I have been told by others in similar situations to me.

It’s a long read, but worth the trouble if you want to hear Ajay’s side of things, without the filter the media forces on everything we usually read.

Read Ajay’s blog entry here.

You could also follow Ajay on Twitter.

It seems if you repeat a rumour often enough, it comes true? Or even a really dumb rumour can become true if some really dumb people are in charge?

Whatever the cause, reports are now coming in that next year Biggest Loser Australia will be getting a new host as Ajay Rochester has been dumped, apparently as a result of her recent legal woes and a desire by Channel 10 for the show to go “in a different direction”.

Why Ajay couldn’t’ve been retained for a “new direction” is not made clear in any of the stories I can find. Perhaps Channel 10 have bought into the whole “Ajay has the emotional range of a lump of wood” school of thought.

Of course the muckrakers have come out of the woodwork already. One news report claims:

Recently it was claimed Rochester “helped herself to waste materials” left over on the set of the ratings winner

“Waste materials”? Waste implies they were to be thrown out so who the hell cares if she helped herself? Unless the waste you’re talking about is poop, I can’t see why her claiming rubbish as her own ought to be an issue.

Another fun one is the claim that Ajay threw “a tantrum from hell“:

A BEAUTICIAN has revealed Ajay Rochester threw a “tantrum from hell” at her for supporting a petition calling for the Biggest Loser host to be replaced. …
Charmyne Palavi, who hit headlines last year for her kiss-and-tell relationships with a handful of NRL stars, was friends with Rochester until she joined an online forum trying to push former contestant Alison Braun to the helm of Channel 10’s reality weightloss show.

Hmmm, someone who claimed to be a friend was pushing for her to be sacked and replaced by somebody else? Why on Earth would Ajay be upset by that? Clearly she is just a diva!

Whether you think this is the right decision or not the fact remains we’ll be getting a new host next year. But who? Early speculation seems to favour previous contestant Alison Braun for the role, despite her lack of TV hosting experience. Ajay had not had a wealth of experience at the time she landed the gig either, but with Biggest Loser such a big part of Channel 10’s programming it’s hard to imagine them going with a rookie.

When the US version of the show went looking for a replacement for Caroline Rhea, they ended up going for an ex-soapie star who had battled her own weight issues in the past, Alison Sweeney.
Will the Australian version once more ape the US version of the show and get their own ex-soapie star who has battled with her own weight issue in the past, Kate Ritchie?

Or will they go with someone nobody expects?
Speculation, as always, in the comments section!

And best of luck in your future endeavours, Ajay. I for one will miss your ever tragic wardrobe. :-)

During tonight’s episode of The Gruen Transfer host Wil Anderson said that they were unable to air one of the ads they had hoped to air due to the ABC not giving them the green light.

Each week Gruen gives a challenge to an ad agency as part of a segment they call “The Pitch”, where they have to take something that is unusual or unpalatable and make it appealing via TV advertisement.
“The Pitch” for this episode was for ad agencies to come up with ads to “End Shape Discrimination” – which is to say end the stigma associated with being overweight.

One of the ads went to air and Wil directed interested people to a special website if they wanted to see the ad that they weren’t able to air, along with a 15 minute panel discussion on the issues the ad addresses.

It’s not, strictly speaking, Biggest Loser related, but as it deals with some associated issues I thought it might be of interest to anyone still reading this dinky little blog.

Before I provide you with the link I will warn you that the advertisement could be considered offensive. It contains a couple of jokes that are clearly discriminatory in nature and, well, quite repugnant in a sense.
But it is for a good cause and highlights an interesting dichotomy, where nobody much thinks of telling jokes about fat people when they’d hesitate to tell a joke about black people.

Now, if you promise not to come back crying to me the URL for the website is www.antiprejudicead.net

Do you think the ad agency went too far? Did it make you reconsider your own prejudices? I know I have some weighty thoughts rolling around in my head right now.