Word: idol
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...Such sudden and vertiginous popularity was bound to provoke a backlash, and in Indonesia it came not from teens who discovered a newer, hotter idol but from Muslim clerics condemning a false one. In a country obsessed with thy neighbor's morality, Inul's dancing was deemed pornographic. In early February, the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI), concerned that Inul's performances encouraged lustful acts, declared that her dancing and costume were circumscribed by its July 2002 fatwa against pornography. Authorities in devout Yogyakarta banned Inul from performing, fearing that she would "degrade the morality of the highly civilized and educated...
...being a perfect role model Who's perfect? You shouldn't curse, you shouldn't say s--- or f---, right? Sorry, I do that. You shouldn't smoke, right? (He taps his cigarette.) I do that. I don't drink because of asthma. I've never been that perfect-idol guy. For me, there is no perfect. When you get a piece of bread, you find out there's toast. When you get toast you find there's butter, then peanut butter, then jam. Oops, then you find smoked salmon. Then someone passes you a club sandwich. Do you think...
...Elsewhere, such fare has been gold for News Corp. In the U.S., Murdoch's Fox network owns several runaway hits including Joe Millionaire and American Idol. In India, the company's Star Plus is the leading cable channel, thanks largely to the popularity of a Hindi-language version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The success of Star Plus helped the Star Group, which is run by Murdoch's son James and reaches 53 countries, turn its first profitable quarter last year, after losing an estimated $1 billion in its previous 10 years of operation...
...their best, the shows offer something else entirely. One of the most arresting moments this TV season came on American Idol, when a single mom and professional boxer from Detroit flunked her audition. The show went with her backstage, with her adorable young son, as she told her life story. Her husband, a corrections officer, was murdered a few years before. She had taken up boxing--her ring name is "Lady Tiger"--because you can't raise a kid on waitress money. Her monologue went from defiance ("You'll see my album. Lady Tiger don't stop") to despair...
...Lady Tiger setting a bad example for her son on national TV? Or setting a good example by dreaming, persevering and being proud? American Idol didn't say. It didn't nudge us to laugh at her or prod us to cry for her. In about two minutes, it just told a quintessentially American story of ambition and desperation and shrinking options, and it left the judgment to us. That's unsettling. That's heartbreaking. And the reality is, that's great TV. --Reported by Amy Lennard Goehner/New York, Jeanne McDowell/Los Angeles and Adam Pitluk/Dallas