Rusty Saber: Naked News, Bra Ball raise eyebrows

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It has been a while since the Rusty Saber regaled readers with up-to-the-minute happenings in television and the arts. Since readers have waited patiently, the Rusty Saber is about to deliver.|ret||ret||tab|

This happening is half TV and half Internet. It's news presented almost like TV news shows, except it's on a Canadian Web site. I say almost like TV news because it's not quite like any news program you have seen. Pay attention here: Only women naked as a newborn baby's bottom read the news. That's right, naked. As Walter Cronkite would have said, "and that's the way it is." The way it is, is birthday-suit news.|ret||ret||tab|

The show, NakedNews.com, was created 15 months ago by a couple of Canadian entrepreneurs, Fernando and Kirby Stasyna. If you're like me, you are asking "why do they read the news in the altogether?" A good question, to which I answer, "Beats me."|ret||ret||tab|

The anchor is a comely lass named Victoria Sinclair. According to USA Today, she begins the newscast fully clothed. As the show progresses, she loses the jacket, the shirt, the skirt. It's what it sounds like, news and striptease rolled into one. Four minutes into the show, she stands in front of a backdrop reading Naked News; with the exception of a microphone around her neck, she is as bare as bare can be. Has Dan Rather ever considered doing the news sans clothes? I'm trying to conjure up this in my mind's eye. Sorry, as creative as my mind's eye may be, it can't visualize Dan doing the news naked as a jaybird.|ret||ret||tab|

Three other female reporters do news features. They, too, are in the nude. Ensuring that there is something to gross out everyone who might watch this thing, one of the female reporters is noticeably pregnant. She says she has no plans to quit until her doctor tells her that she can't continue to work. If she plays her cards right, she might give the audience the thrill of watching a reporter giving birth during a broadcast. Let CNN try to top that. |ret||ret||tab|

Responding to charges this is thinly veiled (pun intended) pornography, Ms. Sinclair says it isn't pornographic; delivering the news naked is "very much as if you come home and take off your jacket and shoes while telling someone about the day's events."|ret||ret||tab|

Sure, everybody goes home at night, strips down to their nothings and reads the news of the day to anybody who might be watching. Ms. Sinclair says the show is "sexy, not sexual." Sure, and men buy Playboy to read the articles. It should come as no surprise that 80 percent of the viewers are men.|ret||ret||tab|

To its credit, NakedNews.com practices truth in advertising: The ad soliciting newscasters reads "Journalism experience not necessary." I guess that's proof that the main interest of this outfit is showing buck naked women. Forget the news.|ret||ret||tab|

From the world of art comes the story of the "Bra Ball."|ret||ret||tab|

I don't know about you, but when I think of an artist, I think of a richly talented painter, sculptor, poet, musician, composer, singer, and so on. I don't think of someone who ties together a bunch of women's bras and underwear and calls it art.|ret||ret||tab|

Not one but two San Francisco Bay area "artists" have come up with the same concept at about the same time; both have hired lawyers and are prepared to go to the mat to protect what they believe to be creative content: A series of women's undergarments hooked together and wrapped around each other until they look like a mammoth ball of, well, it looks like a mammoth ball of underdrawers and bras. |ret||ret||tab|

One of the artists, Emily Duffy, accuses one-name artist Nicolino (I don't know if that's his first name, or last) of stealing her idea; she says she invited him to join her in the project. Instead, he swiped the idea and claimed it as his own. He says she stole the idea from him. |ret||ret||tab|

As the lawyers hold the fort, the artists keep on collecting bras and undies: Nicolino has amassed 2,000; Ms. Duffy, 1,300. The most incredible part of this story is that as we speak, Duffy is showing her version of Bra Ball at a gallery in Oakland. A gallery is actually showing this stuff as though it's real art. Astonishing! |ret||ret||tab|

The lawyers representing the "artist" are keeping mum on the status of the legal actions. Why hasn't Jerry Springer booked Duffy, Nicolino and the cast of NakedNews.com for his TV show? A match made in heaven without doubt.|ret||ret||tab|

|bold_on|(Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University and a Springfield public relations consultant.)|ret||ret||tab|

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