The Joke In E!'s "Pop Fiction Is On Viewers

The new E! series Pop Fiction, from Ashton Kutcher’s production company, arrived Sunday night under a veil of relative secrecy. Here was a show in which celebrities conspired to pull pranks on the paparazzi stalking them, punking the tabloid press. It was such an utter waste of time, though, that the joke was on any viewer gullible or bored enough to watch.

The premiere of Pop Fiction was so dull, it made those arriving-by-limo features on TMZ look like riveting breaking news by comparison. Paris Hilton spending a whole day carting around a bogus swami, just so she can be photographed with him? What, exactly, is the point?

If the point was to fool the media, apparently it failed. The payoff to the prank – clips of TV shows showing Paris and her swami together – revealed, if you looked closely, how the ruse didn’t take root. CNN Headline News footage was shown of Paris and her mysterious “spiritual adviser,” but under the headline “Paris’ Phony Yogi.” Hardly an impressive sting… and Avril Lavigne’s sudden pregnancy was received no more gullibly.

These Gullible’s Travels are so dull, and feed the frenzy so pointlessly – the media get their pictures anyway, so who’s really being used here? – there’s no reason to watch. Paris laments to her faux guru that she wishes people would just stop paying attention to her. For once, we’re in complete agreement.