"I Blame Flavor Flav"

I blame Flavor Flav for the show "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila."

A lot of B-list, C-list and even D-list celebrities got another - albeit brief - taste of fame by appearing on "The Surreal Life." The show gave Tammy Faye Bakker a chance to hang out with Ron Jeremy, Vanilla Ice a chance to be known for something other than "Ice Ice Baby" (unfortunately for him, it was his anger problems and abrasive personality) and Janice Dickenson a chance to look even more crazy than usual.

Unfortunately, the show also introduced Flavor Flav to Brigitte Nielson. They weren't the first - or the last - couple to meet on a reality television show, but they were an interesting (or odd) enough pair to get their own show, "Strange Love." Perhaps this is where the trouble began because, obviously, Nielson toying with and then dumping him was a profitable venture. Apparently, more so than the union of Adrianne Curry and Christopher Knight, as their reality spin-off "My Fair Brady" ran it's course quickly and quietly - like a mild case of the flu. Unfortunately, Flav-fever was far more virulent.

The next symptom was "Flavor of Love" - a parade of women chasing Flav's fame and money, but pretending to "love" him. Naturally, things didn't work out between him and the woman he selected. So they gave him a second season. And that meant more fame for an obnoxious young woman called "New York" (who, before starting the clock on her 15 minutes of fame, was known as Tiffany Pollard). Before you could say "gold-digger," she had her own show called "I Love New York" (the same premise as "Flavor of Love," but with a house full of men and Pollard's overbearing mother as her sidekick).

Of course, it didn't work out with the man she chose in season one, and VH1 is currently airing the second season - this time, complete with the near drowning of a midget. VH1 and MTV show only bad reality TV in lieu of music videos these days, G-list MySpace celebrity Tila Tequila is now seeking "love" in a house full of cameras. But her show needed a gimmick, so she has both men and women to choose from. Perhaps next we'll watch a "Survivor" reject try to find "love" among residents of a minimum security prison. It wouldn't surprise me - but I'll still blame Flavor Flav.

Originally published in The Chronicle on November 4, 2007