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I Like to Watch
"Oprah's Big Give" makes charity look as easy as speed dialing Jennifer Aniston, while "30 Rock's" Tina Fey breaks the angst of the single female out of a frothy Aniston-flavored rut.
By Heather Havrilesky [2008-04-27]

  • Charity Begins In Your Production Studio

    I was actually sort of entranced by this series. The key thing for me was: here are all these type "A" personalities trying to "win" the show by doing works of charity.

    So, how fast would they rush through giving out money to all the poor people ( normally called "losers" in their world ) so they could get on to the next leg of "Charity Survivor". It was hilarous to watch them trying to seem as compassionate as Mother Teresa when you know there was a stopwatch and calculator running in each of their heads thinking -- "is this the most sympathy bang for the buck"?

    But the thing that turned me off to all this fun, as Oprah...who seemed to want her charity proteges to be good...but not too good! In her reviews, she slapped down a few of them who seemed to have a knack for virtue...almost as good as...Oprah?? No...it couldn't be, so the Queen of All Charity occasionally jerked the leash to let them know that She Who Signs the 4' x 6' check wields the ultimate power.

    -- John A. Bailo
    [Read John A. Bailo's other letters]
    Saturday, April 26, 2008 08:46 PM
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