Fan Fare

The X Factor or “The Fix Factor”?

X Factor judge Simon Cowell faced accusations of rigging the result of last night’s X Factor vote as the tabloid newspapers, so often the champions of the hugely popular show, began to turn on the man they like to call “Mr. Nasty”.

Twin act John and Edward Grimes (aka Jedward) survived a popular vote while singer Lucie Jones was shown the door. The two acts ended up at the bottom of the heap in a phone vote, and it was up to the judges to decide which one to throw out. But if the judges are split 2-2, the results of the public vote come back into play. Cowell had the deciding vote with the panel split 2-1 in Lucie’s favour, and he decided for the twins.

The Daily Mirror’s headline (because the X Factor has long been headline news in Britain) was “Farce Factor” while rival The Sun wrote: “‘Ward a Load of Cobblers“. Quoting fans, the latter newspaper added: “Cowell’s gone too far … show is ruined.”

Readers may reasonably ask if any of this matters. Well, it may matter to Cowell, who has become one of pop music’s most successful managers through his appearances on X Factor and similar singing competitions here and in the United States. It may also mean something to ITV, the channel which airs the show in the UK. With peak audiences approaching 15 million, its advertising revenue from the biggest show on British TV must be healthy to say the least.

 For those who follow the show, and care about it, many feel that Cowell’s decision to refer the decision back to the popular vote, rather than voting off Jedward, smacked of a stitch-up. He had been Jedward’s most vocal critic for weeks, and popular opinion would appear to support the argument that loser Lucie had far more talent than the twins, whose performances have been variously described as “bizarre” and “ridiculous”.

Theories abound as to why Cowell might decide to save the twins. The most popular is money — like them or loathe them, the twins seem to get the crowds going and Cowell might be looking ahead to the X Factor tour when the show is over. The removal of strong vocalist Lucie may also remove a potential threat to the singing acts on the show which he endorses.

Will his decision backfire? Will less people tune in to the show because they feel the whole thing is rigged? Or has Cowell pulled it off again by ramping up the stakes and getting the nation talking about the show again? It wouldn’t be the first time.

from India Insight:

Is ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ poverty porn?

"As the film revels in the violence, degradation and horror, it invites you, the Westerner, to enjoy it, too...Slumdog Millionaire is poverty porn," wrote London Times' columnist Alice Miles.

The phrase "poverty porn" spread across the Indian media as commentators nodded in agreement or shook their heads even before the film premiered in its native Mumbai and India could (legally) watch it.

A group of the city's slum dwellers, including children, protested against the word "dog". A social activist filed a defamation case in Patna. And this week, hundreds of slum dwellers in Bihar's capital ransacked a movie theatre demanding the title be changed.

So, is it really "poverty porn" for the Westerner's delectation? Are beatings, torture, and the maiming of street beggars a sick form of adult exotica?

Perhaps the question can be rephrased: does a morbid fascination with the suffering of others find a place in art and is "Slumdog" are a striking example of this?

Be it a film on the Nazi holocaust, or based on crime, or a painful examination of the horrors of drug abuse (Trainspotting?), viewers can gawk at the world's dirty underbelly whether or not they would describe themselves as pain perverts.

But the film has caused real offense in some parts.

from India Masala:

How “Slumdog Millionaire” got its name

If you are wondering why "Slumdog" and why not "Slumboy", there's a story behind how Danny Boyle's Golden Globe-winning film got its unusual name.

Turns out screenwriter Simon Beaufoy was wandering around the slums of Mumbai researching the film, when he saw cats and dogs apparently asleep in the alleys.

But they weren't asleep.

Beaufoy, speaking at a news conference in New Delhi, said he was intrigued to notice their eyes -- moving, discerning, watching.

"I thought it was a fantastic metaphor - of somebody who's apparently not worth anything, is actually looking, eyeing everything and knowing everything -- just like the boy in the gameshow knows everything."

"Slumdog Millionaire" is the rags-to-riches story of a boy from a Mumbai slum competing on the Indian version of the television gameshow "Who Wants to be a Millionaire".