BINGLE. THE RADIANT CHILD
Well, that was underwhelming.
To be fair, Australia’s newest reality show Being Lara Bingle couldn’t possibly have been as bad as the nation’s venomous anticipation demanded. There have been car battery enemas which have been awaited with more enthusiasm than Lara Bingle’s debut.
Facebook has been a nest of snakes, with many threatening to de-friend anyone who supported the death of quality television by watching.
A line, it seems, had been drawn and crossed by giving Bingle, a model whose skill set consists predominantly of incredible blue eyes and pouting, a reality show.
The antipathy has been tangible.
She was mocked to her face live on air by three Brisbane radio presenters, who accused her of being “Australia’s answer to a question we never asked”, before inviting people to ring in and bag her. Which, even if you think Bingle is taking up valuable oxygen which could be combined with hydrogen and diverted to saving the Murray Darling, is just outrageously rude.
There’s something about her being young, blonde, beautiful and, yes, not very interesting, that enrages people and makes her a soft target.
Sam de Brito, in a white knight, rah-rah pro-Lara column in the Fairfax papers, proclaimed that all Lara haters were (and I paraphrase only slightly), jealous because they don’t look as smokin’ hot in a bikini.
(Actually, I suspect Lara appeals to some blokes because she is utterly vulnerable and it brings out a fella’s protective instincts.)
Nah. I genuinely (double negative alert), don’t think that’s the reason people aren’t keen on watching 23 half-hour infomercials about Bingle’s life.
Although her smokin’ hotness, and the presence in the premiere ep of a generous helping of comely side-boob, will explain why some will return next week for another gander. Even though more than 900,000 tuned in, I doubt those figures will sustain.
Despite the atmosphere on Twitter prior to Tuesday night’s screening being that of a stoning-in-waiting, with the Kardashians evoked many times as the yardstick to which Bingle could only dream of aspiring, the show failed to even trend until the final few minutes.
The public lashing, such as it was, was limp.
There was nothing, in the end, to rail against. Despite Bingle being pulled over by the police before the second ad break, this wasn’t the car crash spectacle we were expecting to be watching through our fingers.
Fact is, Being Lara Bingle, was kind’ve bland, sort of sweet, and not unlikeable enough to be interesting. One of the longer scenes is of Lara’s housemates – brother, Josh, and PR/best friend Hermoine, having a mock fight in the supermarket over which bread to buy. Yeah. Hold on to your hats.
Mostly, though, the show is so blatantly an advertorial for ‘Brand Bingle’, as Lara calls herself, that despite Bingle’s assertion that we will see ‘the real her’, it’s impossible to get any emotional traction.
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18 Responses to this article
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Paul June 14, 2012
Lara is the best
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C P June 14, 2012
The best what?
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Mez June 14, 2012
This girl is famous because of the men she’s slept with, one of whom was married at the time. For a lass of 24, she has some serious history. The media make me ill. They are as vacuous and lazy as those they promote. There are so many wonderful and inspirational people and stories out there but the worship of mediocrity is alive and well.
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FSN June 14, 2012
She’s not actually famous for who she has slept with. She’s known because she was the face of a massive international tourism campaign. This meant that people, and the media, became interested in who she slept with. It’s important not to get those things confused!
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bianca June 22, 2012
sooo true!!!!!!!!
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Alice Shaw June 14, 2012
This show is just not my thing.. not least of all due to it’s resurrection of the truly awful 80′s tune “Bop Girl”.
I am not jealous of Lara, I don’t want to be her, and she is of no interest to me, so I don’t want to watch her. One of the only points I agreed with in Sam de Brito’s article was that Lara is famous for being in the poorly thought out “where the bloody hell are you?” tourism ad.
From the ads for the show I got that her mum and her nan were kind of mean to her and that she missed her dad. Other than that she is a very pretty blonde model who has access to quite a few nice things and who should probably do a bit of training for other types of work just in case. Ho hum.
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Sally June 14, 2012
I am with Alice, I am not jealous of Lara and I have no desire to live her life or watch a show about her. I dont hate her and I dont agree with others calling her names and calling her useless. She is still someones daughter, sister, friend etc. There is a real person on the other side of your TV screens and I think saying nasty things about Lara or anyone else for that matter makes me think some people are worse role models for their own kids than Lara would ever be. I think people forget she is only 24. I am sure everyone here did stuff they are not proud of when they were younger.
We are all lucky that if we dont want to watch, we can change the channel, but please, if you dont like her then at least show a bit of class and keep the insults to yourself.
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Carly Findlay June 14, 2012
Great piece Fiona – I too thought the show was bland and Lara was a bit clueless.
It got me thinking about reality tv and bloggers and I wrote a piece about the similarities
Is being a blogger like being Lara Bingle? http://carlyfindlay.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/is-being-blogger-like-being-lara-bingle.html -
Red 60 June 14, 2012
I have nothing against Laura, but this is not the show that I would watch normally even if it was, say, Karl from Channel 9, lol,,,,, Reality Shows some have benefits eg – The Block – where you do learn some thing from them , and MasterChief, but not where it is centered around one persons’ life. But I wish her well., because I think she will need it… if the first show was anything to go by…
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sam June 14, 2012
There is a sort of hopeless naiviety about Lara. I once worked with a woman who was a friend of hers, who spent alot of time trying to keep her out of trouble. 24 is very young and I think I was probably a silly as her at that age, the only difference was that I wasn’t in the public domain.
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Sue June 14, 2012
24 isn’t young -
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shelley June 14, 2012
Looks smokin’ hot in a bikini! Well if that isn’t something to aim for….. Can she put that on a resume? Me think not. Oz is good a lauding people like Lara but I know not why. She is no yardstick, has no visible talents, there are thousands of young women like her. Does putting her on TV make her a role model for young people? God help us all if it does. Discussing this show is like discussing a glass of water.
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Katie June 14, 2012
Just what we need. Yet another “vulnerable” useless ditzy female image for our young women to copycat.
Talking of female images, it’s incredible the media is regressing like this. Now that we’ve been belatedly told how intelligent, talented, witty and smart Monroe (for instance) was – not a bit like her “dumb blonde” image – they are panicking to revive the delusional 1950s genre no matter what.
Of course Bingle is not a childlike ingenue (nor a Monroe it appears; irony nod wink). Bingle is clearly a well-connected model with an entrepreneurial streak. But for this lot she’s hired the wrong PR.
Why are mainstream audiences being offered this sickly pap in 2012? Whatever new reality TV thing it may be, it’s back to the future.
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literatechicken June 14, 2012
“Perhaps the answer is to parachute in Kyle Sandilands wearing a Borat mankini?”
I don’t think that’s the answer to anything, ever.
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Annie from Faulco June 20, 2012
Agree, literatechicken. Only thing worse would be Kyle trying to out-Borat Borat in the fashion stakes.
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Loz June 14, 2012
I find it hard to believe the nude photos weren’t a set up for the show, and it wouldn’t surprise me if she knows exactly what she’s doing. Famous for doing nothing and using reality TV as a vehicle to launch or maintain a career in this useless ‘profession’ seems to be the fashion these days.
I won’t be watching, but kudos to Bingle if she makes money out of such a vacuous enterprise.
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The Huntress June 15, 2012
Because I have no interest in and don’t read gossip magazines/watch TV, I never really knew who this girl was. I’d heard people talk about her, my lecherous father drool over her and due to writing a blog that has a section on making fun of stupid headlines I had a rough idea that she was meant to be a beautiful model who has made some poor choices. Or something.
But I don’t get it. I saw a picture of her recently and asked Mr. Huntress if that’s who she is. I was ever so slightly puzzled and without being rude, I don’t see what it is that makes her so appealling. I was expecting some kind of drop-dead, take-your-breath-away beauty, the way people raved about her, but I honestly just saw an ordinary woman. So why is everyone so fascinated by her?
I did once see Miranda Kerr doing a photo shoot in DJ’s while I walked through and I wanted to run away and cry she is so damn beautiful. She radiates a beautiful glow and carries herself with such grace and class that I cannot see how someone like Lara Bingle is allegedly so deserving of TV air time.
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royce June 15, 2012
Sue….. 24 is… SO YOUNG….. specially if you add ‘clueless’
