Since leaving the Celebrity Big Brother house three weeks ago, infamous duo Speidi have been splashed across the UK’s national papers, front pages of several gossip magazines and have been featured hourly in online blogs and news sites. Due to their ‘new found’ fame across the pond, they have even claimed they are planning to move here permanently. Yes, really. If they can bring their dogs, of course. But amidst this Speidi hype, I think their ‘evil’ and ‘malicious’ sides have been completely forgotten altogether. They are now being painted as this gorgeous, loved-up couple who can do no wrong. Well, I’m not convinced.
They painted a rather mixed picture for themselves whilst in the CBB house – going from bad mouthing the other housemates, to crying on the last night in the house and ‘admitting’ that it was all an elaborate gameplan, to win over fans and be entertaining. I will admit, they did make the show this year, as it was brilliant to watch – and I am glad they finished second. But I’m left a little in the dark as to who they actually are. I feel a little cheated watching them.
Their story contradicts constantly, and although they claim to be ‘real people’, I don’t think I have ever seen a speck of ‘reality’ about them. As a society, we look up to ‘celebrities’ because they are glamorized and live the life we could only dream of, supposedly idealistic versions of ourselves. We enjoy reality, because we can relate. Well, I can’t relate to someone that isn’t real.
In interviews, they consistently skirt around the question, giving rather false and ‘pre-edited’ answers, much to the interviewers frustration. At one point in the house, Heidi was heard telling Lacey that the couple weren’t going to have kids, as Spencer didn’t want them – however now, they’ve been talking about having kids in OK! Magazine and can’t wait to provide a ‘stable’ home, which the money they’ve made from British TV.
I appreciate they are ‘actors’ in the world of reality. ‘Entertainers’ as Spencer calls it. But I’m not convinced. To me, there’s a much darker underlying tone to their relationship and their constant battles with the media (and their former housemates). I have recently been watching the first series of The Hills, primarily because I was curious as to what Heidi was like before Spencer, and before all the surgery.
I was surprised to see that although a little misled, Heidi was pretty normal – she liked hanging out with her friends, she stuck up for Lauren Conrad during times of woe and cried when she was given a puppy for Christmas. I know the show is a little set up, but the Heidi in the first series is a very different Heidi to the one we see now.
In a recent interview, Heidi claims that she was warned off Spencer from the word go, with friends telling her he was ‘bad news’ and that it would never work. At the time, Spencer was part of an ‘evil’ secret society in college, scheming, plotting and planning. Although he claims he has left this society now. Something just doesn’t add up.
My question is – are we happy to let our reality television (the genre our children/younger generation watch, and also believe to be ‘reality’) become so staged? Are we happy to let Speidi try and ‘entertain’ us by faking what is their reality? Yes, it’s entertaining. But then shouldn’t it be referred to as ‘reality drama’ or ‘staged reality’. For now, I’m not sure. They might like being the villians. But it does seem rather odd to ‘play’ a part all day, every day.
Perhaps, we might catch a glimpse of the real Speidi in their new one-off documentary ‘The Speidi Story’, which surprise surprise will be airing on Channel 5 (Feb 18th) – as predicted. Or perhaps we won’t.
