DJ AM, who you may remember as the other survivor in a plane crash along with Travis Barker, has a new show set to debut on MTV. The plane crash wasn’t the first time DJ AM, aka Adam Goldstein, defied death. Eleven years ago, he was a crack addict who attempted suicide, but fortunately the gun got jammed. Since he’s been so lucky to escape death twice, he’s looking to help other people with addictions. His show, “Gone Too Far,” will help the loved ones of addicts rescue their friends and family from the reaches of death. This show sounds familiar. Wait a second… Isn’t that the same plot as A&E’s “Intervention”? Indeed, it is! While I’m not shocked that MTV is completely copying another network’s successful show, it’s so not. In fact, recycled premises happen all of the time. More after the jump. [LA Times Blog]

It seems like only yesterday that MTV was promising to create a lineup of kinder, gentler new programming. Apparently, that’s off the table. Now, the struggling-for-a-new-identity-in-the-digital-age network is courting the kind of racy content once only fit for HBO. Possibly inspired by the buzz surrounding HBO’s new show, “Hung,” in which one well-endowed guy turns to male prostitution to pay the bills, MTV has announced a new show in development: “Hard Times.” Executive produced by David Katzenberg, who is best known for dating Nicky Hilton and Mary-Kate Olsen, in addition to being the son of Jeffrey Katzenberg, the CEO of DreamWorks, and Seth Grahame-Smith, who’s written books about porn and zombies, the series focuses on one RJ Berger, a “desperately unpopular” 15-year-old. That is! Until, one day, when he reveals to his student body that he is generously gifted below the waist. Hilarity ensues, I am sure. As for why the network is developing a TV show that amounts to a protracted d*** joke: “MTV declined to comment.” [Hollywood Reporter] 

Watching “The Real World: Cancun” makes me feel old for multiple reasons.

1. I am five years too old to actually be cast on the show.
2. It’s so insanely vapid that I cannot actually watch a full episode, which says a lot considering I can stomach an entire marathon of “Keeping Up With The Kardashians.”
3. Every single girl in the cast seems to be bisexual.

Why does point three make me feel old? Well, I think I just missed the boat on the bisexuality trend. Hear me out. I believe sexuality is a spectrum and where we fall on that spectrum when we’re born and how our sexuality evolves as a result of societal influence depends on the person. I also don’t think it’s relevant whether a person is gay, straight or bi, whether they were born that way or “chose” that “lifestyle,” as I don’t think what goes on in a person’s bedroom or romantic life is anyone’s business.

Some D.C. folks have not rolled out the welcome mat for “The Real World: D.C.” cast members and the whipped cream/hot tub/fake lesbian make out sessions sure to come. Quite the opposite, in fact! A couple D.C.-ers are grousing daily about their fratty new neighbors on the Anti-Real World D.C. blog. 

Explaining their, um, lack of hospitality in a post earlier this week, one writer explained that the blog “was created to serve as a forum for those who care deeply about what goes on in their neighborhoods— whether it be welcoming seven strangers with open arms or telling them to go home.”

La, la, la, la, la, I’ve got to be direct, I’ve been waiting for “Daria” on DVD ever since MTV took the “Beavis and Butt-Head”-spinoff off the air. Daria was to alt-girls what Cher Horowitz was to Valley girls. She made it okay to wear combat boots and not care about the latest fads. And her sarcasm was lethal, proving that a girl with brains and glasses can stand up for herself. We can’t wait until the summer of 2010 when Daria takes down the Heidi Montags of the world, or at least their ratings. [Street]

MTV’s new “TRL”-esque show, “The Alexa Chung Show,” started this week and its VJ’s style has already caught our eye. Good thing, then, that MTV.com will be detailing just what Alexa wore every episode online, with links to where the exact and similar items can be purchased. And look! She’s even rocking Catherine’s favorite nail polish shade—jade green! [MTV: Buzzworthy]

Check out this ad for MTV’s Staying Alive global HIV and AIDS prevention campaign. What better way to visually represent how people’s past sexual partners stay with them forever and become entangled than with name-shaped pubic hair! [Copyranter]

Spring must have sprung. Everybody’s getting naked! Especially when it comes to the covers of magazines. Yesterday, it was Miranda Kerr stripping down and chaining herself to a tree to save the koalas on the cover of Rolling Stone. Today, it’s Bar Refaeli taking it all off for the July issue of Esquire, her body painted with the contents of the magazine. The 23-year-old Israeli model is the girlfriend of Leonardo DiCaprio and the host of MTV’s most recent reincarnation of “House of Style.” I think the cover’s pretty awesome; it reminds me of “The Pillow Book,” in which bodies get turned into books. But what about you: Have you ever posed naked? [HuffPo]

In case you aren’t an MTV watcher and haven’t already been subjected to 90 millions promos for it, the MTV Movie Awards are coming at you tonight at 9pm EST. Since teens and 20-somethings are notoriously ADD, you know the network will be pulling out all the stops to keep us watching. Here are 10 reasons we’re looking forward to the show.

Paris Hilton is so misunderstood that she’s decided to let the world see the real woman behind the image in “Paris, Not France,” a documentary that debuted last year at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film, according to the Los Angeles Times, was supposed to go along with the 2006 release of “Paris,” her self-titled debut album. And director Adria Petty’s film is already out-of-date. It gives no mention of Paris’s stint in jail in 2007 and features the Paris that was always trying to upstage her last moment with stunts like riding a motorcycle on the red carpet. Comparatively, the Paris of today is much more low-key. But I bet she still believes she’s a victim of Barbie comparisons and doesn’t for a second think that she had a hand in perpetuating that persona.

You’ve seen “Cribs,” right? Each week, cameras capture a celeb’s master bedroom, backyard pool, and refrigerator full of perfectly organized rows of Fiji water or Diet Coke cans. Well, think of Mark Menjivar’s collection of photographs, entitled “You are what you eat,” the high-brow version of the peeping-tom show.

Menjivar sees an open fridge as the perfect staging ground for a discussion of consumption and consequence. If the saying holds true—that is, if we really are what we eat—Menjivar thinks refrigerators are windows into our souls—or, at least into our stomachs. Whether it’s a bartender’s fridge full of take-out cartons, a family’s refrigerator a week after deciding to eat locally grown produce (it’s totally gung-ho-leafy-green veggies), a short order cook’s frozen tortillas alongside a frozen snake corpse, or a spare but organized fridge belonging to a blind person who lives alone, the contents adroitly tell the story of each individual life. 

MTV wants to protect you from the skanks you see on their station. To commemorate STD Awareness Month, they’ve launched a safe-sex campaign. And they’re so down with the kids, they’re speakin’ their language, their cell phone language, that is. The new initiative is called “It’s Your Sex Life,” with a focus on GYT—that’s how you’d text someone “get yourself tested.” Yikes, shouldn’t that be a phone call or at least an e-card?  Anyway, they kicked off their crotch crusade with “Pedro,” a biopic about Pedro Zamora, the HIV positive cast member from the third season of “The Real World.” But, all month long you can look forward to PSAs from the likes of Santogold, the Maddens, and N.E.R.D. Plus, Beth Ditto will be answering sex questions in a segment called, “Ask Beth.”  Wow, the safe sex push plus MTV promising to play music videos—it’s like 1994 all over again!

MTV plans to launch 16 new reality shows over the next four-and-a-half months, in an effort to retain its young and flighty audience. Recent ratings show a 23 percent drop in the network’s core demographic of 12- to 34-year-olds. The new series will be in the same vein as “The Hills,” a slightly scripted success story at MTV, but will avoid the backbiting and bitchery themes of most reality shows nowadays. Instead, the shows will focus on young people accomplishing their goals and proving themselves. Gee, that sounds like “Made” to me, but hopefully MTV won’t actually interfere in the lives of these young people. But then again, is watching someone fail also entertaining? MTV probably doesn’t think so. Brian Graden, president of entertainment at MTV Networks music channels and president of Logo, said these new themes are in step with the Obama generation. If Beyonce’s “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” video is any indication, the Obama generation also enjoys music videos. Take a look at MTV’s programming for today and you’d discover music videos only air for two hours, from 5 am to 7 am. The rest of the programming is the fluff the network (and its audience) is trying to escape. After the jump find out some of what MTV has planned for your viewing pleasure.

To help you judge, here’s the show in two minutes, as presented by Best Week Ever!

Russell Brand quotes Oscar Wilde as easily as he rocks his ridiculously teased hair.  He’s sexy, he’s suave, but, above all, he’s smart and he isn’t afraid to speak his mind.  Despite getting flack for openly teasing the Jonas Brothers about their chastity rings and the “retarded cowboy President” Bush at the VMA’s last night, I thought [Me too!—Editor] Brand stole the show with his off-handed hilarious comments—of course an accent makes everything sound better. Sure, the hole in the ozone is probably caused by the amount of hairspray he uses on his hair-do, but damn the boy is fine and funny!  From guyliner to his groovy anti-establishment attitude, who is this one man British invasion named Russell Brand?

Did the budget get majorly cut for this year’s award show? Sure seemed like it, given the scaled down event space and the horrendous lineup of performers. Host Russell Brand was either hysterically funny or horribly flat, depending on who you ask, but I think everyone can agree that the British comedian (known for his role in Forgetting Sarah Marshall) was basically off the teleprompter the majority of the time, inciting anger in teen virgins (like Jordin Sparks and the Jonas Brothers) and Republicans (we’re sure Speidi didn’t appreciate his firestorm of insults spewed about President Bush and Sarah Palin). Suffice it to say, if Sparks, the Jonas Brothers, and MTV producers have anything to say about it, Brand will be getting a full body cavity check the next time he goes through immigration—that is, if he’s ever allowed in the States again.

Really MTV? Now, I know I can hardly knock ya too much—after all, The Hills is my vice—but when I read about an upcoming show called Model Makers, I knew maybe my favorite craptastic network had gone too far. Billed as a “Transformation Make-Over” reality show, Model Makers advertised for contestants with the following ad:

Have you always wanted to model but don’t know where to start? Maybe you don’t know the right people. Maybe you are not thin enough. Maybe you are not photogenic.  MODEL MAKERS will give you the ultimate make-over and transform you into the model of your dreams. Women come in all shapes and sizes, but models don’t. The term model conjures an image of stick-thin, towering beauties oozing confidence, glamour, poise and sexuality from every pore. ‘Skinny,’ ‘no body fat,’ and ‘size zero’ are the words and phrases associated with models. ‘Chubby,’ ‘well-fed,’ and ‘big-boned’ are not…

By now, it’s pretty much accepted that The Hills is, to a certain degree, scripted. According to a recent article in Entertainment Weekly, parts of scenes are re-shot (for example, if the girls enter a nightclub and a crowd of people get in the way of the camera, the producers will have the girls enter again), Lauren Conrad and crew let the producers know in advance what their plans are (partially so that they can get approval to shoot at any venues and also so that they can devise a “storyline” for the week), and the producers also have no control over whether the girls play any of their conversations or actions up for the cameras.

The hit song of the summer, I Kissed A Girl by Katy Perry, is the soundtrack for a new sexual revolution. From co-ed LUG’s to Hollywood’s hottest stars, girl-on-girl action is steaming up the streets and screens across the U.S. What publicly started with Madonna kissing Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera at the Video Music Awards in 2003, has grown into a full-on, leggings-style TREND.