sadmad: So I'm not just making a mountain out of a proverbial
molehill out of this, am I?

OS: No. I think we see the light, brother sadmad.

sadmad: Again, let me make sure I'm explaining myself correctly. With
the case of FOX/RSL, some might be tempted to exonerate them, to a
degree, by ascribing their actions to that old adage 'Well, that's
show biz!'

MM: You mean they had assigned millions of dollars to going over
there to Italy and putting together a show, and the bottom line was
that they were all charged with coming up with SOMETHING to titillate
viewers and draw an audience. And the ends, for them, justified the
means?

OS: Hey, it certainly wouldn't be the first time in the history of
television or motion pictures that directors, editors and producers
manipulated 'reality' with clever editing tricks and so forth.

sadmad: Very true, Oliver. Remember, as I told you, I saw "JFK".

OS: Um, er, um -

MM: (laughs) Good one, sadmad!

sadmad: And I wouldn't laugh too hard, there, Michael. I
saw "Fahrenheit 9/11" as well.

OS: Hah!

MM: _____ off, Stone!

sadmad: Alright, I'm not prepared to exonerate the editors and
producers of JM2 for their chicanery and deceit. I'm just pointing
out their behavior within a context. As far as Linda is concerned,
I'm more willing to issue some leniency on her behalf since, as I
said, she appears to have wanted to get away but was corrupted by
FOX/RSL to come back again. That 'deal' would have been difficult for
a lot of people to have turned down.

MM: You're weakening, sadmad!

sadmad: Again, I'm not exonerating Linda, I'm just trying, out of
fairness, to put her actions within a context.

OS: Speaking of being fair, sadmad, let me offer another contingency.
Despite their being best pals and all, what if, out of embarrassment,
Linda never told Karolina about the 'deal'?

sadmad: Huh?

OS: That she never told Karolina about agreeing to come back and
perform like a trained seal for them under the guarantee that she
would 'win'?

sadmad: Hmmm.

MM: So, under that scenario, wouldn't you have to exonerate Karolina
then, too?

sadmad: Okay, I see what you're saying. There are a few aspects of
what went on, in that scenario, that Karolina could possibly have not
been aware of when she authored the various remarks we've discussed.
But let me emphasize that word 'possibly' when discussing what
Karolina may or may not have known.

MM: So?

sadmad: Whatever Karolina may NOT have known, she certainly DID know
the real reason her pal Linda wanted to leave the show being due to
her missing her boyfriend back in Prague. When someone asked her
about that, specifically, she responded back in one of her posts by
saying 'that's Linda's own personal business' and wouldn't discuss it.

OS: You're right. She did, didn't she?

MM: Yeah.

sadmad: So she KNOWS Linda's feelings at the time she was on the show
were 'genuine' about someone altogether different from David - but
then she was more than willing to trash Cat and publicly scoff at the
notion that SHE didn't actually have any 'genuine' feelings for him!

OS: True. So true.

sadmad: While some of us started questioning Linda and wondering
(after she 'broke off' with David) if he had made the right choice at
the end, Karolina made some other remark about how (while watching
the show) she couldn't believe some of the things she heard Cat say
to David or about David - implying total disingenuousness on Cat's
part. And that if David had picked Cat, instead of her pal Linda, she
(Cat) wouldn't have stayed with him for a single day. Do you remember?

MM: Uh-huh.

sadmad: She authored that remark well AFTER she had watched the show,
did she not?

MM: Yeah.

sadmad: Well after, in other words, having watched the same show we
all had where we had seen her pal Linda look right into the camera at
the end and go on about how she loved the beauty of the land on
David's new ranch and how she felt so much more comfortable there
than in some large city.

OS: So?

sadmad: When she well knew (as Linda's best pal) that the thought of
EVER living on a cattle ranch in Texas with David or anyone else, for
even 'one day', would have evoked from our cosmopolitan Linda a
reaction similar to Paris Hilton's when she was ordered back to jail!

MM: Touche'!

sadmad: So you see? Even if we apply the caveat that Karolina may not
have known about her pal Linda's agreeing to return to the show and
then willingly going along with what she knew was a fabricated
version of events for personal financial gain -

OS: - the likelihood of which, noting their close friendship, would
certainly be questionable -

sadmad: - she STILL covered herself with enough shameless hypocrisy
and just plain cattiness (pardon the pun) to eclipse the other two
easily. At least in my eyes. Where, may I ask, is the context for
possible exoneration for her there?

MM: Where, indeed?


(Part X to follow.)