English Entertainment
Star World’s new reality show features a ‘Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé’
MUMBAI: “If anyone objects to this marriage, please speak now or forever hold your peace.”
AfterThe Apprentice English general entertainment channel Star World will look at an unusual marriage situation for its next reality show. My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé from the Fox stable will start airing on Star World from 30 December every Thursday at 10 pm
The show sees a woman trying to convince her family that she is serious about a questionable man in order to win the prize of a million dollars. She is however in the dark about the fact that her “fiance” is an actor who is trying to make the task as difficult as possible.
Steve, the big fat obnoxious “Prince-not-so-Charming and his obnoxious family will test the limits of his recently engaged girlfriend’s family and friends through behaviour that is shocking even by American standards.
The bride to be Randi, a 23-year-old first grade teacher must make it all the way through the wedding ceremony and final “I do’s in order to win a million dollars.
The toughest challenge for Randi is to convince her friends and families that she has fallen in love with this obnoxious slob and they are getting married very soon. She sacrifices her relationship with her family in order to have the chance to reward them with a huge sum of money. She will hurt their feelings, for permanent stability, happiness, and a chance to reach some of their unattainable dreams.
Steve, a professional actor in real life, has to disguise himself as a somewhat loathsome ogre, in such a way to drive Randi crazy. He drinks milk straight from the carton, chomps food like a primitive man and gabs with his mouth loaded, squeezes the toothpaste from the middle of the tube, leaves the toilet seat up, invites Randi to join him in the hot tub. He will do anything by all means to push his fake bride-to-be to the brink of tolerance until she gives up.
One wonders what kind of a reaction the show will get in India. Here marriage is considered to be a sacred bond and some of the conservative lot especially those who subscribe to the arranged marriage tradition may not enjoy seeing a woman and her family’s emotions being manipulated.
The broadcaster will also start airing the second season of The Apprentice from 7 January at 9 pm. Corporate magnate Donald Trump hosts the show which sees aspiring and ambitious youngsters vying for a $250,000 a year corporate job.
The channel will also air the 62nd edition of the Golden Globe Awards on 17 January at 6:30 pm and 8 pm. This will recognise the best that film and television had to offer in 2004.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
