Who would have guessed, you select people for stardom based on their borderline disorders, reward them with more attention and airtime for unhinged behavior — and out of nowhere some of them start acting not funny crazy but really truly crazy?

Well, after one reality contestant broke into the White House and another, oh, just, murdered his ex-wife, the LA Times reports that reality moguls are making the expected harumphs about better screening processes, higher standards, guidelines...you know all those things you harumph about when you want to make it look like you are going to change everything when you really have no idea what you're going to do.

Furrowing their brows, the producers quoted express particular concern that the case of Ryan Jenkins, that two-time reality contestant who murdered his ex-wife and then fled the country was

the game-changer for everybody," said Michael Hirschorn, a former VH1 executive who helped develop such genre-expanding shows as "I Love New York" and now runs the independent production house Ish Entertainment.

Hirschorn said dating shows and programs that feature contestants dealing with difficult psychological problems, such as drug addiction, are now being approached more warily. More broadly, a rollback is already underway across the genre, he said.

"Vetting processes are going to get a lot stricter," he said. "The background checks are becoming more and more rigorous. Clearly, each time there's a slip-up, the bar goes higher."

Since the Jenkins case, television industry requests for background screenings have gone up 25% at Control Risks, an international risk consulting firm with offices in Los Angeles, according to Elaine Carey, national director of investigations.

The problem is of course, shows like Real Housewives and Rock of Love are built around bringing around bringing in people who are completely batty on a good day and poking and prodding them to see what jaw-dropping heights of insanity they can climb. It's all well and good to say we're looking for people who are just tantrum-crazy, tearing apart a Rock of Love bus crazy, betraying their best friend crazy, but certainly not killing their ex-wife crazy. That's where we draw the line.

Yes, it's easy to say, but we'd like to see the screening process that will let through the certifiably nutso but raise the drawbridge on the criminally psychotic. And until VH1 starts running reality shows about America's Favorite Tea-Cozy Knitters, our national debate on just how insane do we want our TV stars to be is likely to rage on.

Pink's "Get This Party Started" accompanied Abdul's entrance and, considering the lyrics, — "I'm Coming Up" — makes us wonder whether Abdul was trying to intimate that Ellen has a big ego. Plus, "I'm coming up" sounds like "coming out," which could be a dig at Ellen's lesbian ways. Then, looking back earlier in the day, Abdul said that American Idol would be a "different show" with Ellen in the judge's seat.

If you ask us, that sounds like a backhanded compliment from a woman whose love of money cost her a position in America's biggest spotlight. Now she's forced to make a spectacle of herself while dressed as the woman who replaced her.

But, have to admit: Abdul does do a knock-out job mimicking Ellen's mannerisms.

Police sources in Jenkins' native Canada, where authorities believe he fled after murdering Fiore, say that the 32-year old took his own life in a British Columbia hotel room.

"We were able to determine that it was Ryan Jenkins," said Sgt. Duncan Pound of the RCMP's Federal Border Integrity Program, during an early evening news conference. "At this point it would be speculation as to how long he had been there."

The find came just hours after RCMP said Jenkins was in Canada...

Honestly, we feel a bit cheated on this one: not only are we firm believers that murderers should feel justice's swift kick, but the brutality of this crime - Fiore's body was found in a suitcase sans teeth and fingers and was identified via her breast implants - only enhanced our thirst for a relatively happy ending, not a hanging.

After reporting Jasmine Fiore missing on Saturday night, Jenkins disappeared and is now believed to be hiding out in his home country of Canada after driving up the West Coast from Southern California and then boating into Canada. According to the Telegraph, Jenkins has a history of domestic violence in his past, including one incident involving Fiore:

Court records show that Mr Jenkins was charged in June in Clark County, Nevada, with a misdemeanour count of "domestic violence" when he was accused of hitting Miss Fiore on her arm.

Mr Jenkins was also charged with assaulting his girlfriend in July 2005 in Calgary and given a conditional discharge with 15 months probation.

As you may recall, Jenkins met Fiore, who was reportedly working as a stripper at the time, in a Vegas casino after being booting off of the VH-1 show. They were married two days later and divorced a short time after that.

Interestingly, Jenkins appeared on another VH-1 reality show, I love Money 3, where he supposedly won the show's grand prize. That show has yet to air, and it's doubtful it ever will now that VH-1 is desperately trying to distance itself from Jenkins in every way now that he's wanted for murder with his bail already set at $10-million.

UPDATE: ABC just released a story containing some details about a "blow-out fight" Jenkins and Fiore engaged in at a poker tournament in San Diego, which was the last place she was seen alive.

"Jasmine was playing poker with a big group of friends at the Hilton Hotel," the source said. "She was being very rude and kept putting Ryan down. It was really awkward. She has a cutting sense of humor. He was getting really angry, and it totally set the tone for the rest of the evening."

The group later moved to the Ivy Hotel for drinks.

"She spent an enormous amount of time in the bathroom on the phone," the source said. "Ryan started asking who she was on the phone with, and she said her mom. It was 12:30 at night, and she was not on the phone with her mom.

"He kept screaming, 'Who were you talking to,'" the source added. "At about 1:30, they went up to their room to continue fighting."

According to police, Fiore, 28, was strangled to death and stuffed in a suitcase, which was found on Saturday morning in a trash receptacle in Buena Park, California. Jenkins, 32, had reported Fior missing on Saturday night, but has not been in contact with the police since. Concerned that he's attempting to flee to his native Canada, the Buena Park Police Department has issued an alert to the public, asking for information on the whereabouts of Jenkins, including a description of his car, and license plate. (Jenkins' publicist released a statement to TMZ, saying that he is speaking to his attorney, and plans on meeting with authorities "in the near future.")

Jenkins is a contestant on the VH1 dating show Megan Wants a Millionaire, in which men with a net worth of $1 million or more compete for the love of professional reality show contestant (and Sharon Osbourne victim) Megan Hauserman. (Jenkins was billed as a real estate investor worth $2.5 million.) The third episode, which aired this past Sunday, featured Jenkins' solo date with Hauserman (video to come). Rumor has it that Jenkins was a finalist on the show—which wrapped taping this past winter—but did not win. In a phone interview with TMZ, Hauserman said that, shortly after he was eliminated, Jenkins went to Las Vegas, met Fiore in a club, and married her two days later.

Today, VH1 yanked all material—posts, photos, and episodes—regarding the show from its site, and removed Megan Wants a Millionaire from the list of programs in its sidebar.

Curiously, all episodes have also been made unavailable on iTunes.

Further complicating matters for the network, TMZ has learned that Jenkins not only competed on the show I Love Money 3—which just wrapped taping last month—but also won the grand prize of $250,000, meaning that he would be on every episode of the season.

Update: VH1 has sent us a statement regarding Ryan Jenkins and Megan Wants a Millionaire.

Ryan Jenkins was a contestant on "Megan Wants A Millionaire," an outside production, produced and owned by 51 Minds, that is licensed to VH1. The show completed production at the end of March. Given the unfortunate circumstances, VH1 has postponed any future airings. This is a tragic situation and our thoughts go out to the victim's family.

Person Of Interest In Model Murder Married Victim [TMZ]
VH1 Reality Show Contestant Sought After Model's Body Found In Suitcase [ABC News]
Murdered Model's Husband Brags About $$$ [TMZ]

Fiore was married to Ryan Alexander Jenkins, a contestant on the VH1 reality show, Megan Wants A Millionaire. His bio appears to have been removed by the network, but Steve Huff at True Crime Report caught a screengrab of it earlier before they did. In it, the Canadian investment banker boasts that he "has left many amazing women in his life primarily because he wanted more women," and that "the only time he cheated on his ex was when he wanted to break up with her."





The show is currently airing on VH1 and TMZ reported tonight that Jenkins was among its "final contestants." The gossip site also says that Jenkins met Fiore while she was stripping in Las Vegas after he was booted from the show, and that they married two days later.

Fiore, who recently moved to LA from Vegas with Jenkins, was last seen Friday night, some reports say at a poker tournament in San Diego, while others say at her home in Hollywood. Her remains were discovered by a homeless man digging through the trash for plastic cans at around 7am on Saturday morning. Fiore's mother said that her daughter was employed by Playboy as a representative and a coordinator for something called "Girls of Golf."

Jenkins' publicist says that he will cooperate fully with police investigating the murder, even though authorities believe he may be attempting to flee to Canada, his home country. Authorities also say that it was Jenkins who reported Fiore missing on Saturday morning. He then disappeared completely.

Pic via Jasmine Fiore's Modeling Portfolio

1. Steven Adler Recounts His Suicide Attempt. We meet the former Guns n' Roses drummer in the living room of a small, sparsely furnished home with smashed-in (by Adler) front windows, moaning that he wants to die. Things then proceed to go downhill from there. Try not to wince as you hear him recount the time he ingested 100 Valiums, a bottle of Jagermeister, and heroin in an attempt at killing himself, but only managed to achieve a stroke and paralysis. Hey—you wanted Celebreality.

2. Amber Smith Unveils A Week's Worth Of Prescription Drugs. We like Amber. We liked her immediately. She still retained her looks, besides doing enough uppers and downers every week to kill a Beluga Whale, and she seems to have a pretty good perspective on where she's come from, and where she needs to go. Still, it's one thing to hear someone tell you they're addicted to prescription meds—quite another for them to open their weekly pill organizer and reveal what looks like one of those one-pound bags of M&Ms spilled into its various compartments. Hang in there, girl.

3. Nikki McKibbin Describes Her Childhood Abuse. We can barely even type the details to this one, except to say we hope you're happy, Simon Cowell. Getting raped repeatedly at age 5 just doesn't really fully sink in until you're dismissed by a British egomaniac as being "excruciatingly hopeless—go leap off a bridge for talentless people" on the country's top-rated TV show.

4. Drunk Rodney King Nearly Gets Crushed To Death By A Car In Slo-Mo. You can't help but feel sympathy for King. The guy isn't a celebrity—he's a vicious beating victim, and there's miles of pain behind those eyes. He works now helping out on his childhood friends' tow truck business, but is incapable of going a day without getting wasted on beer and throwing up out the passenger-side window. The one, long shot of a car slowly lowering itself off a ramp as King basically passes out beneath it was like out of a horror movie.

5. Tawny Kitaen Learns Her Favorite Abused Sleep Aid Killed Heath Ledger. We thought we were going to hate Tawny Kitaen—best known for rolling around on the hood of a car in a Whitesnake video—but she's actually very likable, and seems like she'll be taking on the den mother role. There's dark stuff going on there with the four days she was put in jail for attacking her ex-husband, former Cleveland Indians pitcher Chuck Finley. We need a drink.

In the following video, the actor describes his ongoing struggles with Bolivian marching powder, reaching near Marcia Brady-levels of desperation and interspecies-sexual-favor-trading in order to get his hands on the stimulant. When time comes for check-in, rehab tech Shelly finds an agitated and uncooperative Busey unwilling to part with essentials like mouthwash, mobile phones, and large bags of weed, while minutes later a concerned Dr. Drew listens compassionately as a broken Busey relays the time he snorted blow off his own dog's back. Helluvuh drug.

• Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew [VH1]

Still, her tenuous grasp on the memory is understandable, as proven when Stern and Co. continue to quiz her about presidential candidates (asked Obama's first name, she carefully answers, "'Barack' or something?"), forcing an overwhelmed Hogan to cry out, "There's too many friggin' people in office!" Perhaps that would explain the blank she draws when asked the name of the current Vice President? The answer, dear Brooke, is "Dick Cheney," and it's as plain as the nose on your face (which, if you're not careful, Mr. Cheney will shoot off). [Howard Stern]

Production began last night on a pilot that a group of plucky producers hope will become the next big reality craze, Rollin' Sushi With The Stars. Combining elements from Bravo's Top Chef and Dancing With The Stars, Rollin' Sushi With The Stars is about discovering the celebrity with the greatest California Roll rolling ability. So far, the producers have only convinced two people to join the cast — veteran reality stalwarts Christopher Knight and Adrianne Curry. When asked about his involvement with the pilot, Knight said, "Well, we saw a camera setting up down the street from our house and we were like, "We haven't been on TV in weeks and these lavalier mics are just collecting dust. Turns out the producers were looking for some top notch talent and kaboom! We're creating some TV magic. After this, we'll definitely be able to get a table at Nobu."

[Photo Credit: Getty Images]

*A Call To The Bullpen is a work of fiction. Although the pictures we use are most certainly real, Defamer does not purport that any of the incidents or quotations you see in this piece actually happened. Lighten up, people ... it's a joke.

• New York Goes To Hollywood [Vh1.com]

According to VH1's clever press release, adorned with just as many giddy enthusiastic announcements punctuated by everyone's favorite online stupidity signifier (the! exclamation!! point!!!), the new Rock Of Love: Bus With Bret Michaels edition is far more exciting than its predecessors because the contestants will face challenges dealing with "the ultimate rock and rollers' test: life on the road!" So, instead of being forced to wear laughably too-tight football uniforms or perform public lap dances in tacky lingerie boutiques for the world's sexiest man to ever wear that much collagen on his face without shame, the troubled young things will get to prove their groupie gusto by, well, playing groupies. "Dodging the warm-up band's advances," "greeting aggressive" fans "with a smile," and, shit — we spoke too soon. In the finest example of what our great nation does best, the busty dingbats will still have the joy of participating in Mud Bowl 3. Why? It's "back by popular demand!!!!!!!!!"

• 'ROCK OF LOVE 3': IT'S ON...WITH BRET! [VH1]

In a twisted way, sweet old Carol Brady was reportedly the first to open fire in what MSNBC describes as a nasty ongoing fight with VH1 reality standby Knight, all taking place on the very un-Brady battlegrounds of MySpace and personal blogs. In an otherwise innocent attempt to promote her latest TV flick on one of those Television For Ladies networks, Henderson was prompted to discuss her appearance on Knight's first post-Peter breakthrough role in The Surreal Life, where he met current wife and co-star of his second romp through reality show wasteland, America's Next Top Model winner and celebrity stoner Adrianne Curry. And Flo painted a not-so-pretty picture of the lovebirds, claiming VH1 producers were the masterminds behind the pair getting hitched, calling upon her to egg on the union, a coupling Henderson did not approve of whatsoever. In the rare instance when much-needed publicity looks plausible, Curry had her goons fight back on a minor entertainment website, following up with a conflicting apology on her blog. Eager for a little press of his own, Knight released a very sexist statement about silly women and their tendency to bicker when "generational differences" are involved, successfully making all things Very Brady very, very loathsome.

[Photo credits: Brady Residence]

• SCOOP [MSNBC]

Produced by 51 Minds' Cris Abrego and Mark Cronin, who together with Michael "Mr. Bad Taste" Hirschorn elevated the entire genre of reality dating shows to levels not seen since Joe Millionaire with their landmark Celebreality work, the show derives its strength from its unrivaled cast of charismatic, shameless and fame-hungry characters. While "real" dating shows like The Bachelor and The Bachelorette systematically place the focus of their shows on the show's primary character's search for love, the Vh1 shows revolutionized the genre by deciding to keep the cameras trained squarely on the contestants. And now, after multiple seasons and endlessly repeated marathons, millions of Americas have developed relationships with bizarre cast of characters (all of whom truly are "characters" in the truest sense of the word). I mean, come on. Mr. Boston? 12 Pack? Pumkin? Chance and Real? Rodeo? Midget Mac? Hoopz? After spending an inordinate amount of time watching their antics over the last few years, we would gladly pay money to watch these loveable bozos "compete" to see who's going to take home the $250,000 first prize — fuck finding true love! Fortunately for us and for you, we don't have to pay anything at all to watch the madness go down. Maybe summer 2008 isn't going to be so terrible after all.

• I Love Money [Vh1]

Joining him in rehab are Sean Stewart (Sons of Hollywood), Amber Smith (model/actress), Rodney King, Nikki McKibbon (American Idol), Steven Adler (Guns n Roses) and Tawny Kitaen (Actress).

Gary Busey, who is 13 years sober from his cocaine addiction, will also be joining the cast to take the journey with the others and to share his experiences on the recovery process.

Certainly, the cast cuts a wide swath of "celebrity," covering everything from the I.Q.-deficient children of successful recording artists to brutal police-beating victims (who we're concerned might unintentionally set off a second round of LA riots, this time with the city's disenfranchised addicts raging against the Sober Man), with your requisite American Idol contestants, Drummers of the Tribe, and decades-past-their-prime pin-up models thrown in for good measure. The most notable absence: small business owner and aspiring boy-pimp Heidi Fleiss, who was scheduled for intake, but according to the NY Post got cold feet at the last minute.

• Celebrity Rehab [VH1]

Show: On The Lot, 2007
Network: Fox
Wizards: Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett, producers. Carrie Fisher, Garry Marshall, and Brett Ratner, judges.
Fate: Lasting only one season, the extremely low-rated show pitted unknown directors against one another based on three-minute film submissions. Despite winner Will Bigham's "directing" aspirations, Will is currently and unsurprisingly pounding the pavement as a (still-unknown) actor.

Project Greenlight, 2001-05:
Network: HBO (two seasons), Bravo (one season)
Wizards: Alex Keledjian and Eli Holzman, creators. Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Chris Moore, producers, backed by Miramax Films and LivePlanet.
Fate: HBO dumped the series to Bravo after two seasons in which the winning screenwriters' films each grossed under $300k in national releases. Bravo's winning duo turned out the little-remembered horror movie (oops) Feast that, despite the best efforts of GULAGER, went quickly to limited release, and even more quickly to DVD.

Grease: You're The One That I Want, 2007
Network: NBC
Wizards: BBC fashioned the US show after Andrew Lloyd Webber's successful format for casting Broadway unknowns in How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? in the UK. Billy Bush hosted.
Fate: As with so many series borrowed by the Brits, NBC's gamble followed in the footsteps of The Office and American Idol, turning out big ratings and even bigger interest (at first) on Broadway once the winning leads took the stage.

It Factor, 2002
Network: Bravo
Wizards: Nicole Torre, Alice Peck, producers.
Fate: Though the show lasted just two seasons, the documentary following actors trying to get their big break did turn out two working stars. Sure, one got a gig as a 7Up spokesman, but Michaela Conlin went on to become a regular on Bones.

Show:Fight For Fame, 2005
Network: E!
Wizards: Adam Lieblein and Greg Meyer, producers and Acme agents.
Fate: Another documentary-style program, featuring five wannabe actors competing for a deal with Acme, the show suffered due to a boring format (monologues began each episode) and predictably low interested in real-agents-as-stars. Had Ari Emanuel been in charge, it would have been another story. The SF Gate summarized the one-season snoozer by including it in a piece entitled "Some Shows So Bad You Can't Be Paid To Watch."

• VH1 GREENLIGHTS 'SCREAM QUEENS' [THR]

The series, which began airing on Monday night, puts its focus on the years between the advent of the birth control pill in 1960 and the time of the Reagan administration's first public acknowledgment of the AIDS crisis in 1987. Much like TDY, the show's narrative sweep is driven by interviews with key observers of the sexual revolution, including influential participants (Hugh Hefner, Susan Brownmiller, Helen Gurley Brown) and savvy cultural critics (David Allyn, Gay Talese). And although the timeframe the doc covers mirrors that of TDY, it diverges from the way that series was structured in that each episode does not revolve around the activities of a particular decade. As the series' Executive Producer Brad Abramson told Defamer, "There's so many more threads here. The Drug Years was more of a straight ahead story. Here, we have the story of sexual liberation, the story of gay rights and feminism, and the challenge was how we could do all that stuff and keep it together."

"Sex is one of those subjects where people have wildly divergent notions of what the 'important' stories are, relative to other stories," Torgoff added. While that may be true, the series is successful at tackling a broad swath of topics in a manner that is both smart and entertaining. It traces the evolution of Americans' attitudes toward sex from '50s era sexual repression through the "free love" Sixties and concludes with the hedonistic "Me Decade" that was the 1970s and its aftermath. But while the story is largely driven by talking heads, the manner in which the episodes are scored using both music and wonderous archival footage helps this doc remain compelling throughout its four-hour runtime.

And while the series concludes in the Reagan era, the creators of the series readily acknowledge that our culture continues to grapple with issues pertaining to sex to this day. And while the media's fascination with sex has not slowed, the manner in which the stories are covered certainly have. "In terms of coverage, it feels a lot more cynical and hypocritical these days," Abramson explained. "Be it Dateline or whoever, they will do a story on the latest outrage while they are laughing all the way to the bank. It allows them to 'tut-tut' and have some distance."

Some critics have argued that the show presents a biased and left-skewing perspective on the sexual revolution, the creators are quick to point out that it's not for a lack of trying. As Torgoff told us, "For the record, let me just say, that we contacted numbers of the most prominent conservative pundits and commentators in this nation — like James Dobson of Focus On The Family — and they did not want to participate. I think that they have their own agenda and are not interested in engaging in a debate on the subject."

That said, plenty did come to talk. In particular, Hugh Hefner gave one of the more extensive (and, frankly, more lucid) interviews he has given in a number of years in this series. And we can't forget Danny Glover, whose anecdotes about the Haight-Ashbury scene will forever change the way you think about Sergeant Roger Murtaugh.

And although you may have already missed the first two installments of the series, the series continues through Thursday night (and, because it's Vh1, you know you'll end up watching a four-hour marathon while you're hung over on a Saturday afternoon in the not too distant future). If you loved The Drug Years as much as we did, we have zero doubts that you'll be disappointed in this doc that's equal parts entertaining and educational.

• Sex: The Revolution [Vh1]