September 6, 2001
By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
Jeff Cahan likes "The Real
World." He gets a kick out of watching the series and, on occasion, spotting
the roommates around town.
What he doesn't like are
the production assistants badgering him to sign a release form so they
can air him on TV.
"I don't like going about
my business and then being nagged into signing something I don't want to
just because I happen to be in the same vicinity as one of the cast members,"
Cahan says. "I think it's cool that they're here in Chicago and am glad
to let them go about doing their job of being 'real.' But that doesn't
mean that I need permission to coexist with them."
A Wrigleyville resident,
Cahan dates a woman who lives in Wicker Park. She hasn't once spotted the
cast or crew. Him? He's run into them a handful of times.
"I've heard other people
complaining about those damned release forms, too. I think MTV overestimates
how much people want to be on TV. If it was a one-time thing, maybe. But
who knows how they'll make you look? And [MTV] airs these things like 15
times a day."
Now he knows what it must
feel like for the cast members of "The Real World." Of course, they actually
auditioned for the show.
Ironically, the cast missed
a chance to party on the lake with the B-96 crew because MTV wouldn't sign
the radio station's standard release form, which stated that the station
would not be liable if the cast members were to, say, fall into the water
or injure themselves.
"I had heard they were going
to be on that boat cruise but I didn't see any camera crews or anything,"
writes one e-mail correspondent. "It would've been fun to see what they
looked like before their show airs on TV, but it's not like they're Kid
Rock or anyone really cool."
Got a scoop about "The Real World" in Wicker Park? E-mail me at realworld@suntimes.com
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