Reality TV is probably the best form of TV ever invented. If you want to watch wealthy men with bizarre haircuts hurl abuse at hateful ladder-climbers or British chefs get so angry that they soil themselves, then reality TV is it.
And now the news that Leonardo DiCaprio is getting in on the reality TV act has got us all excited too. Will the show follow Leonardo DiCaprio systematically shattering the dreams of aspiring actors with imaginative fury, or maybe it'll be a Simple Life-style show following Leonardo DiCaprio messing up a variety of undercover police jobs? No. In fact Leonardo DiCaprio's new reality TV show will be called E-topia. And Leonardo DiCaprio won't be in it. And it'll be about the environment. So we're a bit less excited than we were at the start of the paragraph.
The days of Leonardo DiCaprio being the slightly ratty pin-up from Titanic are well and truly over. The stories about Leonardo Di Caprio dating Sienna Miller and being a bit snotty about autographs are done and dusted – now Leonardo DiCaprio is a Serious Artist, and must behave as one. The Departed got to number one at the box office and – even though he had to struggle to outshine Jack Nicholson's strap-on cock – his performance was generally acclaimed. Even George Clooney wants to slip him the tongue, which must be saying something.
It seems like Leonardo DiCaprio is using his Serious Artist powers to steal Brad Pitt's thunder, though. Possibly still smarting from when Brad Pitt stole a zombie movie from him, Leonardo DiCaprio is going all out to steal Pitt's spot as Hollywood's number one environmentalist. Sure, Brad Pitt might have his little New Orleans competition – but now Leonardo DiCaprio has his own environmental movie and his own environmental reality TV show. Top that, Tyler Durden! Here's what E! Online has to say about Leonardo DiCaprio's reality TV show:
The series, called E-topia will follow a construction team, architects, environmentalists and urban planners as they take a rundown town and give it an eco-friendly makeover from top to bottom… Each episode will also direct viewers to an educational Website that provides tips on how to get involved with environmental causes. Piligian explained that the idea for E-topia was inspired both by the severe hit New Orleans took after Hurricane Katrina last year and by Al Gore's global warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth. "We're going to take a devastated community and help transform it as a prototype for the future," [E-topia's producer] told THR. "At the end of the day, we're all going to have to change the way we live, the way we burn and use fuel… We're trying to show the country and the world by example, town by town by town, how we can change the way we live and fight global warming."
E-topia hardly sounds like a bundle of laughs, does it? However, it's raising important issues and it'll boost Leonardo DiCaprio's environment-loving reputation no end – maybe even enough for girls to stop bottling him. Unless, you know, Jeremy Clarkson dresses up in a flowery frock and some slingbacks and starts hurling bottles at Leonardo DiCaprio in a bizarre revenge attack for raising awareness of the environment.
Could happen.
Read more:
DiCaprio's Eco-Friendly Development Deal – E! Online
[story by Stuart Heritage]