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BET SAYS WATCH 'GHETTO MESS' BEFORE YOU JUDGE: Reginald Hudlin defends show to reporters.
*Reporters at the Television Critics Association Press Tour in Beverly Hills bum-rushed BET entertainment head Reginald Hudlin Sunday about the network's upcoming series "Hot Ghetto Mess," which has already seen two advertisers flee over its controversial content.
"It's unfortunate that people are making an erroneous presumption based on absolutely zero information," Hudlin told reporters of the six-episode show, due to premiere on July 25.
The series is based on a Web site of the same name, where photos and homemade video clips of black folks (although there is a section for "Caucasian mess") in outrageous and extreme situations deemed low class.
The show builds on the Web site's effort to take "a hard look at some dysfunctional elements of our community," Hudlin said. "The intent of the show is no different than what Bill Cosby is doing as he's going across the country and lecturing as he talks about the problems of the (black) community that we need to address. 'Hot Ghetto Mess' approaches its goal in a lively way that will engage BET's young audience."
Jam Donaldson, a 34-year-old black lawyer from Washington, D.C. who created hotghettomess.com, is an executive producer on the BET program and was also on hand Sunday to speak to critics after BET's presentation.
"Everyone that sees the show will be pleasantly surprised. ... I think they will learn something. There's black history. We go to the community and ask what their opinion of some of these images are," she said. "The show is so much more than the name."
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