2005 in review - Art, Media, and Culture

Germaine point

Five days after she joined Britain's Celebrity Big Brother reality show, feminist author Germaine Greer quit the show and wrote a detailed article about the ways participants are coerced, deprived, and manipulated by the show's producers in order to create conflict, what she called "cruelty television". Although she was widely criticized for appearing on the show in the first place, Caitlin Moran of the Times of London felt that Greer had done everyone a favour by exposing the techniques. "In all the reality shows over the past five years, we have never, on a single occasion, had anyone even remotely sane and intelligent on them."

Bombs away

British television provider Sky Digital announced it would begin carrying a channel called Bad Movies, programmed by the Sit-Up TV production group. "We'll take great pride in showing complete crap," said Ashley Faull of Sit-Up.

Skipping class

"There's swearing, there's smoking, there's sex, there's everything in there. We were looking for that."-Teletoon vice-president of programming Carole Bonneau, on a cartoon called Bromwell High

Legal briefs

"We will sue the newspaper and everyone who helped in showing these pictures."-Ziad Al-Khasawneh, lawyer for Saddam Hussein, after Britain's the Sun newspaper published unflattering jailhouse photos of the deposed Iraqi dictator in his underwear, washing his clothes, and sleeping

No media honeymoon

The wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles was treated with much less respect by the British media than royal events usually garner, with the tabloid Daily Star proclaiming "Royal Wedding Souvenir Issue" near the bottom of its cover, just above the headline "Boring Old Gits to Wed".

The wincing future king

"These bloody people. I can't bear that man. I mean, he's so awful, he really is.…I hate these people."-Prince Charles, on vacation in Switzerland, on the media in general and, specifically, Nicholas Witchell of the BBC, overheard while speaking an aside to his son

Fear and self-loathing

"No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 years more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun-for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax-This won't hurt."-A note titled Football Season Is Over, written by gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson four days before he committed suicide

Statuary rape

A bobblehead figure of beat-generation author Jack Kerouac released as a limited edition by the Lowell Spinners, a minor-league baseball team based in Jack Kerouac's Massachusetts hometown, was added to the collection at the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Heresey evidence

Because of protests by evangelical Christians in the southern U.S., educational filmmakers have begun to avoid mentioning the word evolution in their movies. According to Montreal producer Stephen Low, this amounts to "pre-censorship". His film Volcanoes-which never uses that word-has been rejected at several IMAX theatres-even those at science museums-and called "blasphemous" for mentioning bacterial DNA and discussing the "journey" of life.

They made their choice

"People eat too much, drink too many free drinks, they get sick.…They're jet-lagged sometimes, so they just sleep."-Celine Dion, on her Las Vegas audiences

That's entertainment!

"The ministries of cool inside pop-culture factories like MTV will ensure whatever perversity gathers jollies on the freakish fringes will slither into your living room."-L. Brent Bozell III of the U.S.-based Parents Television Council