Monday, November 23, 2009

Adam Lambert and his oral sex act

The poor editors at ABC have a bit of a problem. They're showing this year's normally dull American Music Awards, and when it went out on the East Coast, Adam Lambert reminded everyone he was gay:

When Lambert finished his song — complete with simulated oral sex with a male backup dancer and a passionate kiss with a male keyboardist — earlier tonight, fans hit the Internet to debate whether the American Idol runner-up’s first major televised performance since the Idol finale pushed the envelope too far.

Lambert points out that if he was Christina Aguilera, the stampede to the internet would be merely looking for downloads:
“It’s a shame because I think that there’s a double standard going on in the entertainment community right now,” Lambert tells RS backstage after the show at Los Angeles’ Nokia Theatre. “Female performers have been doing this for years — pushing the envelope about sexuality — and the minute a man does it, everybody freaks out.

A little disingenuous, Adam - it's not because of what you did, it's who you did it to - but the broad point is still valid.

So ABC have to decide if they leave the faux-blow in for the West Coast broadcast. Lambert warns them they better leave him uncut:
If ABC opts not to broadcast several of the more risqué moments of “For Your Entertainment” in a few moments, “In a roundabout way it’s a form of discrimination because it is a double standard,” Lambert says. “They didn’t censor Britney and Madonna macking onstage did they? But yet two men kissing they’ll censor?”

It might be more the oral sex bit that worries ABC - who, to be fair to them, aren't MTV and are also balancing the demands of the FCC and the threat of enormous fines alongside the cultural and societal questions.

In the end, ABC left in the kiss, cut the pretend oral sex bit - I'm sure you can download Adam Lambert blowjob video footage online if that slightly-understandable fudgey compromise disappoints you.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thirty-six years since Ziggy and Ronno and it's still frowned upon, eh? Presumably if it had been Eminem joking about rape it would have just got a couple of barely obscuring bleeps.

Olive said...

Isn't Lambert's surprise a bit disingenuous? I mean, I've never worked for the American Music Awards, and I could've guessed that they'd baulk at a bit of simulated man-on-man action, so Lambert must have realised it would be controv... oh.
I assume that the careers of American X-factor runners up tend to have the same 'squid in a blast furnace' life span as their UK equivalents?

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