Former Miss D.C. Kate Michael writes on her blog, K Street Kate, that she was told by soon-to-be reality TV star Katherine Kennedy ("herself!") that filming started yesterday on Blonde Charity Mafia. The show, as you'll recall, is styled after The Hills and follows the lives of young, blonde Washington socialites. It will eventually air on the Lifetime network, following Project Runway.......

It's all speculation and rumors at this point, but this is one potential reality TV show we're happy to hype. Mr. Irrelevant caught Wizard's star and highly trained professional blogger Gilbert Arenas calling in to 106.7 WJFK’s Big O and Dukes show, where at some point, he mentioned that he's been approached to do a reality show. Agent Zero is famous for not partying out on the town, preferring to stay home and play video......

As commenter RJ noted on our earlier post about the Washingtonienne television show, it appears that the reality show we've been ... anticipating? for months now is getting realer and realer all the time. The Examiner's Yeas & Nays column announced earlier today that a cast has been set for the so-called 'The Hills of D.C.' The stars are "local socialites/hotties/20-somethings Katherine Kennedy, Krista Johnson and Sophie Pyle. Johnson’s younger sister, Alexa Johnson, may also......

The Washington City Paper's Angela Valdez provides a two-pronged update today to the monstrosity that could be the Late Night Shots reality TV show we told you about earlier this month. In a piece over at Campus Progress, she interviews Havva Eisenbaum, the producer of the pilot, who says that they've already had "nibbles of interest from networks" who might end up picking it up once the pilot is completed. Considering how many reality TV......

Hollywood, rock and roll and reality TV are all subject to artist Jeremy Blake’s critical eye in Wild Choir: Portraits by Jeremy Blake. The Corcoran Gallery of Art, where the show opens tomorrow, calls his work “psychological pop portraits” — trippy digital videos depicting the lives of cultural figures. Flashing images, voice overs, music and explosions of color are typical in the three videos on display — 2003’s Reading Ossie Clark, 2005’s Sodium Fox, and......

MONDAY >> They put it pretty well themselves, and since it's all about them anyway, we're just going to repeat what the Black Cat had to say about their anniversary party tonight: "After 14 years of pouring you guys drinks, then picking up the glasses, working the doors, and sweeping the floors, we've decided that it's time to dedicate a night to ourselves. Black Cat staff bands, staff DJs, and staffers will be hanging out......

It has only been a few months since D.C. last had a reality TV star/contestant to fall behind -- unless you include our very own Marion Barry and the saga of his various trials and tribulations. But somehow it has escaped our attention that local chef Rahman “Rock” Harper, Executive Chef at B. Smith’s in Union Station, has been competing in this summer’s season of Hell’s Kitchen. The oversight could be due to the fact......

As the world holds it's breath, teetering precariously on the cusp of the Super Bowl (well, at least in America), the wheels of the -ists keep on turning. Austinist was in a musical frame of mind as they listened to the new Shins album, updated the SXSW band listings and got called "punk rock" for their efforts by MTV. And an ice storm swept through the area. Bostonist said goodbye to John Kerry's plans......

Torontoist visits the site of a new Frank Gehry structure, stalks "the elusive Bahamas streetcar", and watches Tom Green get surgery. Phillyist rejoices in the Phillies' wild card chances, mourns the injuries sustained by Eagles defensive end Jevon Kearse, and goes pirate on our asses. SFist notes that Guns and Roses were in town, that San Franciscans are taking over reality TV, and that the San Francisco Chronicle's skills of original nomenclature could use some......

Hill staffers, it's your turn to bathe in the harsh glare of the reality TV spotlight. The new six-part Capitol Hill documentary series The Hill (not to be confused with the Laguna Beach spin off The Hills) shadows the young staff of Congressman Robert Wexler (D-Fla) as they navigate the slippery halls of political power. While a documentary about the wonky inner workings of a Hill office sounds mundane at best to us, we are......

Remember season one of Project Runway (fashion-speak translation: SO last season)? You know, back when the show was a guilty pleasure and way before you developed a doomed, unrequited crush on Daniel Vosovic? Surely you haven’t forgotten season one finalist Wendy Pepper, the “Mom from Virginia” designer and arch nemesis of fellow finalists Kara Saun and Jay McCarroll. She was the one who — whether because of reality TV necessity or her actual personality traits......

Once again, DCist Three Stars alum Hello Tokyo has invaded network television. Back in February, their single “Radio” was chosen by Animal Planet as the theme song to a mini series on horseback riding called “Horse Power,” with several of their other songs used throughout the rest of the show. Now MTV has noticed this local talent, featuring their song “Kiss Me Goodbye” on the premiere episode of The Real World: Key West. Fellow District......

This week in music, love is in the air and reality TV invades the District. MONDAY >> Kick off your week with the GZA and the RZA as the Wu Tang Clan works the 9:30 Club tonight, Shaolin style. If you weren’t able to get tickets to the earlier sold out show, a second later set has been added as part of the ODB Tribute Tour for $50 a ticket. First show -- 7 p.m.......

Our love for The Amazing Race: Family Edition may not come as news to regular readers. We were quite disappointed that the Black family from Woodbridge, VA was the first team to be eliminated this season, though we believe that they were much too functional and supportive of each other for reality TV success. However, we are particularly looking forward to tonight's episode, as the nine remaining families race through our backyard. An AOL preview......

Plays by women; plays about women. The fairer sex captures the imagination of many D.C. theaters this September, offering works by celebrated female authors and performing plays that focus on female characters. And if that's not your thing, well, there's always Kafka. Two area theaters present works by Caryl Churchill -- Studio Theatre performing A Number beginning Sept. 7, and Fountainhead Theatre staging Top Girls, which opens Sept. 8. The former show explores ethical issues......

Good news for D.C. residents who are desperate to get in on the whole reality TV experience, but are, how shall we say, perhaps not telegenic enough to be actually cast in one. You can sign up now for something called Urban Dare, billed as a mashup of photo hunt, trivia & dare-filled race through the city. All you need is a team of two, a digital camera, and a working knowledge of D.C.'s public......

It's time again to indulge in our (possibly unhealthy) love for reality TV. In addition to the many fictional portrayals of the city ready to hit prime time this fall, a local family from Woodbridge, VA will be competing in the Emmy winning CBS series, The Amazing Race, the Family Edition. Last season featured a retired Easton, Maryland couple, Meredith & Gretchen, who did the region proud by being only slightly whiny and performing reasonably......

With season eight of CBS's Emmy winning reality TV hit, "The Amazing Race," reportedly in production, the show's producers are hosting an open casting call at Jack Taylor's Alexandria Toyota (3750 Jefferson Davis Highway) for the ninth season on July 10 at noon. The show's website contains the application form and a lengthy list of procedures and requirements for potential contestants. Teams of two (or, in the case of the upcoming eighth season, four) race......

It's been a while since we've checked in with the Post's Animal Watch desk, but this week's list in the District weekly is filled with stuff that is more comical than the normally depressing examples of animal neglect. We perhaps shouldn't be laughing, but we find the mixture of detailed and semi-vague information from the reports to make for good reading. Oh the twisted irony in this one on Capitol Hill: Humane Society officers removed......

Think that there isn't a middle ground between highbrow cultural esthetics and the baser pleasures of reality TV? Well, there's a new kid on the DC arts scene that wants to prove otherwise. Barrelhouse, a DC-based, independent literary magazine straddles the line between popular culture and literary criticism very well. Their first print issue is a mix of poetry, fiction, essays and an interview with the lovely Emmylou Harris. Barrelhouse does literary the way we......

By now you've seen the "Mary Quits" and "Bob Quits" advertisements plastering the city. They're part of a massive campaign by the America's Legacy Foundation, a group funded by the giant 1999 tobacco settlement between the states' attorneys general and the cigerette companies to encourage people to quit smoking. The Mary quits website features a daily video and log monitoring her attempt to quit smoking last summer, giving the prosaic task of kicking an addiction......