Sometimes you are pulled in to the drama. When I saw my daughter watching “My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding,” I thought, what in the world is she watching? What trash, I thought. But I sat down to catch a glimpse, the story was so compelling. I was drawn in to this strange culture of people who groom their very young daughters to be brides someday. That’s it, the goal is to have a huge wedding, a huge gown and be a bride. After marriage, these Irish travelers then live in small trailers and RV’s with extended families nearby.
So the bride has this fairy-tale wedding that she has dreamed about her entire life. Then afterward, she just cooks, cleans and is very subservient, and that’s her life.
This is the 21st century, is it not? Most of these girls get custom-made wedding dresses that are so large and so heavy; they actually get scars from wearing the dress on that one day. They can barely walk down the aisle! It was fascinating to watch, but then it was kind of sad to realize that for so many of these traveler girls, they would never go to school, let alone college, and most never worked. They were born to be wed and have one type of life.
Far from sad, the happy and upbeat “Glee Project,” was designed to find the next young star to join the “Glee” show. On the show, most of the Glee kids are supposedly seniors now. As I said in my last column, I stopped watching Glee but came upon this show on the Oxygen network quite by accident. Twelve young hopefuls were chosen, age 18 to 25, out of the 40,000 who auditioned all over the nation. Each week the kids would sing and dance with the Glee professionals, audio coach, Nikki Anders, choreographer Zach Woodlee, and then complete a video directed by Erik White, a music industry director who directed over 75 music videos. The Glee Project was written, directed and filmed superbly—we all really were invested in the show and talked about it a lot.
One of our favorite cast members was Cameron Mitchell—just very likeable and genuine and kind of nerdy. A confident but shy Texan, he clearly celebrated his nerdiness and was very comfortable with the person he is. Very refreshing! He was having a difficult time relating to the video shoots when they involved any type of sexuality. The show used some Katy Perry songs, and many of those are clearly suggestive. Erik White asked Cameron if he could kiss Hannah, (another cast member) for a video shoot and Cameron refused.
After that particular video, Cameron decided to quit. We were all so upset! He was our favorite, and we wanted him to go on and win the part for Glee. In Glee, you must act, so if kissing would be involved or a scene even talking about sex, actors have to go with the direction. The director, Ryan Murphy even toyed with the idea of writing a part for a Christian student who comes to the school on Glee, but Cameron decided that he wanted to stick up for what he believed in (staying true to his girlfriend back home and not kissing anyone else) and he felt good about his decision.
He felt that he not only needed to uphold his Christian beliefs but also realized that he didn’t want to be an actor, but rather just be involved in singing. Admirable to be sure, but we still missed him when watching the remainder of the shows.
As it turned out, they had a tie; two guys won—Damian (a guy from
Alex was the only openly gay contestant and did several of his ‘last chance’ performances in drag. The directors and choreographer who judged always said Alex was the most talented, but he was not a favorite on set. While confident in his ability, he came off as arrogant and snobby, not good for likability on set or with viewers. His sexual orientation did not bother us, but his attitude was very irritating. He rarely said anything nice about anyone’s performance like everyone else did.
Even while Damian and Sam were declared winners, Alex never stepped up to hug them or congratulate them as did Lindsay who was on stage as well. When Lindsay and Alex were also chosen as ‘winners’ the others all stepped up to hug Alex and congratulate him.
There was also a side contest to choose the most popular contestant, and Cameron won! We were happy for him. He has a great personality, is humble about his talent and his castmates liked him. They all cried, including his best mate, Damian, when he decided to depart the show. Viewers had to vote on the Oxygen website and Cameron won $10,000. Quite a popularity contest; imagine if he would have stayed as a contender and won? I guess money wasn’t his goal—inspiring.
There’s a lot out there in TV land and sometimes you find a winner in the supposed “reality” genre we have today. I will always think of the Glee Project when I hear a particular Katy Perry song or a Bruno Mars tune. And I will also be reminded that there are teens out there who genuinely listen to a higher voice to guide their life, avoid contentious lyrics in hip hop/rap and make good choices. I love the lesson Cameron showed, (while watching with two of my kids) that not going along with the crowd is both courageous and empowering. With that said, this reality show was a positive experience and fun to watch.
