Dating Naked. Yes—that’s the title of a reality TV show. So, if you’re starring on it—what’s your first clue that you run the risk of having images of your-naked-as-the-baby-Jesus-self flashed around various media?
Twenty-eight year old Jessie Nizewitz, who starred in the show, is suing over just such a situation. Nizewitz alleges she was promised repeatedly by the producers at VH1 that her private parts would be “blurred out” when she was shooting a WWE-style wrestling move during the show’s third episode in May.
Really?
According to the $10 million lawsuit filed in Manhattan by Nizewitz’s high-powered lawyer, Matthew Blit, the runway model got naked—but with wet beach sand covering certain parts of her body—at the behest of the show’s producers. I’m thinking that’s their job. Surely you can’t be surprised by that?
Um, not so, according to Nizewitz. “I felt lied to, manipulated and used. I was horrified,” Nizewitz told The New York Post, explaining that she was brought to tears. Ok, pass the believability pills please…
That’s she’s upset, there can be no doubt—that she was duped—maybe. But come on—it’s a reality TV show—train wreck TV—this is what’s it’s all about. Getting naked in front of the cameras and expecting it to be risk-free? Isn’t that kind of like being “sort of pregnant?”
Unfortunately for her, the episode aired on July 31 with an unblurred-out crotch shot. At this point, Nizewitz became the butt of jokes on YouTube, Twitter and Tumblr, according to the lawsuit. And posters on the “Dating Naked” Facebook page noticed Nizewitz’s full-on nudity.
“I immediately started getting text messages. Everyone saw it,” Nizewitz told The Post.“One of the messages read, ‘So your money shot is on cable TV.’”
Perhaps the saddest outcome of all this is the reaction from Nizewitz’s family members. “My grandma saw it. I saw her this week and she didn’t have much to say to me. She’s probably mad. My parents are just annoyed,” Nizewitz told The Post. Again, reality (no pun) check: you’re on a show called “Dating Naked”. And we can only guess your contract said that, too—as opposed to saying you would be filming the next season of Downton Abbey, yes?
Nizewitz is also counting the failure of a “budding relationship” as part of the damage. She had been seeing someone for a month, and “He never called me again after the show aired. I would have hoped we could have had a long-term relationship. He was employed, Jewish, in his 30s and that’s pretty much ideal,” Nizewitz said. Hmm. Sounds like she summed him up about as much as a click on a JDate.com profile. Wonder if she even liked him…? At any rate, can we get a collective, “He’s just not that into you, honey”?
Nizewitz has reportedly worked for fashion designer and convicted pedophile Anand Jon, who counted a who’s who of Hollywood stars as his friends, including Paris Hilton and Jessica Alba. Personally, I would not be using any of them as references.
Nizewitz’s suit names Viacom, which operates VH1, and two production companies, Firelight Entertainment and Lighthearted Entertainment. “I think they owe me a huge apology,” Nizewitz said.
Oh, Gloria, where are you when we need you? It seems there are generations of young women who are growing up with the media endorsement of self-sexualization—(as I believe it’s termed)—thinking it’s consequence free. It’s not. Was Nizwietz used? Perhaps. Should her crotch have been covered? Absolutely. But can she claim naivete—I don’t think so. But hey—that’s up to her lawyer to argue.
I actually work in post production for reality TV so I have witnessed first hand the way talent is often treated on these types of shows. I have personally seen the lengths producers and executive show runners will go to, just short of sacrificing their first born, to get their talent to do whatever they want them to, all the meanwhile ensuring them that they have their best interest at heart. So yes, I 100% believe that producers ensured her, coddled her even like a child on their first day of school, that she could trust them and that they would protect her. I would say about 90-95% of the people we work with on these shows, are incredibly naive about their expectations for being on television.
That being said, I find it hard to believe that the assistant editors, producers, post coordinators, post supervisors, and online editors of the production companies involved and Quality Control teams at the network all failed to catch this un-blurred vagina. Each given episode goes through multiple edit cuts and approvals during the editing phase of the show. That means, this episode was probably watched at least a dozen times with the blurs in it, and still no one saw this?
There are likely two possible scenarios to how this situation came about. Either there is a slew of incredibly incompetent people involved in the making of this show, which is possible, or it's a…. wait for it….. publicity stunt. Maybe she took a cue out of Janet Jackson's playbook but decided to turn things up a notch?
I'd like to note, that I don't actually care either way. I most just want to share with you my knowledge of how reality TV generally works, and that yes, it is very possible and likely, that she was completely naive about this entire situation. However, regardless of the how the situation came to be, the argument of "she's naked so she should just accept this as a possibility" sounds like you are mocking this woman for having her vagina exposed on television, not really into that. Sounds too similar to the "she's wearing a low cut top so she had it coming" argument. I'm sure thats not your intention at all, but it does read that way.
I will say though, her comments about her personal "budding relationships" being ruined by this incident are completely ridiculous and I really could not care less if she lost a prospective, well adjusted and age appropriate, Jewish husband.
You are a b*tch, I am just saying. When people sign up for this show, they sign a contract and they are assured that their private area will be blurred. There is a difference with being naked live in front of a small group (cast/crew) verses being naked without blurred private areas for the world to see.