I've watched part of this since they made it a regular series and nothing has changed. Last week I saw a "real life" couple come in to have sex with Sunset Thomas. The older lady in the couple apparently had never been with a woman before so her husband just sat back and watched her engage in some g/g action with Sunset. Anyone who's watched any MILF porn in the past two years could easily identify the mature woman as Sammie Sparks.

Real life couple, my ass. It's all staged.

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I doubt that HBO knows they are staging things. Isn't it possible that the people at the Bunny Ranch didn't know who these people were and that they just wanted to be on tv, so they came in and lied?

There are certainly times when I have to put my hands over my eyes while watching this show (I am not a prude, obviously, but I don't believe it's ok to pay for sex. It shouldn't be illegal, but neither should heroin and it's not good either), but it's also very interesting at times.

What I'll never understand is how Air Force Amy is usually the top girl there. She is not attractive at all...in my opinion. I saw Sunny Lane there, going by Sunshine. Isabella Soprano is the star of the show, I think. She is beautiful in a natural way and her personality lends itself to this kind of show, because she's articulate and very open. I wonder if she's still married.

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I am sure that HBO knows exactly what is going on.

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It's sort of common sense that strangers agreeing to be used in pay cable tv show would get compensation, such as a free visit.

But that doesn't suggest the people are fake or the stories they use are made up like an episode of ER.

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Something about the way she acts suggests she might not be married any longer, but that's just a guess.

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www.bushdvd.com

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Dennis Hof: 'Cathouse Out Of The Bag'

JMT writes: "Maybe somebody at HBO finally recognized that televising a blatant, completely staged infomercial for Hof's whorehouse, and calling it a "documentary," makes them look like chumps and sleazebags."

At least SOMEONE finally agrees with what I've been saying since January 1st, 2004. I'm so sick of people trying to DEFEND this show when it is so blatantly and brazenly trying to pass off pre-planned events as "real."

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How in the world did Air Force Amy ever get to be the best "booker" in the house anyway? My god, HBO could not pay me enough to even consider that.

I still think it's funny that people are arguing that the show is staged. It not like they have the budget to put cameramen in there for long periods of time and hope that they have ideas for a theme for a show. This show isn't just a look inside a "whorehouse." Reality is a loose term-if you'll pardon the pun.

It's part reality and part scripted. Nothing worse on this show than the corny lines that Showtime makes Adam say on his Family Business show. Of course, they develop ideas for a plot but they also show you what actually happens. You couldn't do it any other way.

Like the poster who claims to have been on the show states, it's not like a cameraman is watching the door 24/7 waiting for someone to ring the bell. They find someone who's interesting or that might work for that episode or a future episode and they ask the person if he, she or them would like to be on the show. They might have to go back out and ring the bell and go through a pretend line-up. So? Why is that "fake?" Isn't that pretty much what would have happened anyway? You couldn't do this without invading people's privacy, so they have to approximate reality. Will some people act differently on camera than they would if they weren't on camera? Sure. But every reality show has that problem. Everyone wants to be a star and hams it up when the cameras are rolling, but, inevitably you capture real moments as well.

They don't give the girls scripts or anything like that. There are probably parameters and then they shoot what the producers have "created" as ideas for episodes. Again, I don't see the problem. Even on Survivor they use actors to show in certain challenges when they don't have tape of something they needed. They just don't have anything on that affects the outcome.

You can hide cameras in there to get "reality" but it probably won't make for a good show. And, again, as long as people know they are on camera or can be on camera they probably will act slightly differently than they would have otherwise. I don't think that makes a lick of difference overall. You still get the point.

The show is ok. I don't think prostitution is a good thing, that's just my opinion, so I sometimes look just because it's something taboo to me.

Isabella steals every scene sees in with her charm and smile. That's not something that you can script.

Edited by - veronica_mars on 8/13/2005 6:41:55 AM

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Does anyone have any bio info on Isabella Soprano? She doesn't have the porn look at all.

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Other porn stars are there, but clearly don't want to be identified with doing "that kind of thing."

If you look closely at the boards in the backgrounds it often lists the names of the girls.

I saw the name Monica Mayhem on the last episode.

Violet Blue is there too and was featured in one episode.

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Reality TV is a misleading term.

I think the Real World Season 1 was the first time that I heard the word and, even then, people commented how there was nothing real about that many young people with no jobs living in a million dollar New York Apartment.

Reality is subjective and your enjoyment depends on how real you want something or how you are able to filter out how the tv show affects the people and what you really learn about them, who they are, and what they do.

Same thing applies to the Cathouse. If the actually faked a customer, that's considered over the line even for a show that probably doesn't have high standards and they should have been called out about it.

Problem is, not very many people want to admit they watch the show.

Edited by - veronica_mars on 8/15/2005 3:38:57 AM

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Edited by - veronica_mars on 8/16/2005 12:40:49 AM

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If Adam's secretary who decided to go into porn had been a porn star cast as a secretary who would eventually decide to go into porn and date Adam, that would cross a huge line.

Same with Cathouse. They come up with plots, but most of what happens is as real as you can expect to see on a tv show. You mentioned they used a porn star as a customer. Well, if they knew that and planned it, well, that was over the line. I don't know why they would do that, simply because enough strange or interesting people do actually show up there, you wouldn't think they'd have to hire someone to pretend they were a customer. Hopefully, HBO didn't know that, because the show shouldn't be aired if the are truly creating fictional scripted plots. From what I've seen, they don't do that. They do what most "reality" shows do.

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