By now, we've all heard that authorities believe last week's "boy in a balloon" emergency was a hoax perpetrated by 6-year-old Falcon Heene's slimy, reality-show-seeking family. Turns out, Mom and Pop Heene have had their share of TV exposure before -- appearing several times on TV’s Wife Swap.
Here's the deal -- I've seen Wife Swap, and they'll pretty much only cast your family on that show if one or more members of your family are clearly (and I mean visible within the first five seconds -- keep your hands away from the cage) nuts. So strike one, Richard Heene.
Strike two? Heene's angry YouTube Videos -- creepy both for their level of intensity and the fact that he made them at all.
And strike three: The fact that the little one blurted out, "You guys said we did this for the show," while being interviewed on CNN, and later threw up (one guesses from the stress of the situation) during a TODAY appearance.
Okay, okay, I know that there are far worse fathers out there -- but this is just so icky, no?
Heene is probably looking at jail time, and poor little Falcon is going to grow up feeling guilty -- after all, he's the one who let the cat out of the bag.
People seem torn. Is our reality-show culture to blame for this episode? Or is it all about Heene? What do you think?
-- Holly
Oct 28, 2009
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