Ox Notes: August 16, 2007

Big shocker: Bachelor Andy and his chosen girl Tessa called off their engagement.

Jerry Bruckheimer, producer of The Amazing Race and National Treasure, is creating a drama about — what else? — treasure hunters.

Dateline: To Catch a Predator, which is being sued by the family of an alleged predator who killed himself when NBC’s camera crew showed up at his house, is going to be the focus of a special investigation by ABC’s 20/20.

Finally, I confess to being a Real World junkie. And so far The Real World: Sydney is great, thanks largely to Fresno, CA, native Trisha. MTV cast Trisha to be the loathsome mean girl who stirs up trouble in the house, and she’s living up to the role in spectacular fashion.

Trisha’s unable to concern herself with anything but herself and the grand drama that is her life. Last night, Trisha sent an email to her American boyfriend (in which she told him how he was forcing her to date Aussie men, because he hadn’t contacted her every single day). She then decided to park herself in front of the house computer until he responded. When a roommate asked to use the computer to look up an address, Trisha immediately snapped, "Get a personality!"

What makes this season special is that all of the roommates are calling Trisha on it when she acts terribly. In last night’s episode, southern boy Cohutta told her that he didn’t understand how she could hold hands with some Aussie guy when she’s got a boyfriend back home.

And then there was this great exchange between Trisha and roomie Isaac:

Trisha: "Do you hate me?"

Isaac: "I don’t hate you."

Trisha: "Do you like me as a person?"

Isaac: "Uh…I don’t know yet."

Trisha: [Bug-eyed reaction shot]

For Trisha in a nutshell, watch the third segment of episode 3.

But Trisha doesn’t limit herself to picking on her roommates; she’s managed to offend the entire Asian Australian community. In the show’s second episode, she described to her roommates her futile attempt to get a sample of a McFlurry at McDonald’s from an employee who she said didn’t understand English. She recreated their dialog using a mocking Asian accent for the employee.

Perhaps it was Trisha who didn’t understand that, in order to sample a McFlurry (a shake-like dessert), you’d have to make the whole damned McFlurry in the first place.

Now MTV is under fire for airing Trisha’s racist rant, and Trisha has to defend herself from accusations that she’s a bigot. Ahh, sweet consequences.