humor pop culture Culture Schlock Moment

Dutch TV to Air Sperm Donor Reality Show
Amsterdam, Netherlands (Reuters)

Billionaire television producer John de Mol, behind the pioneer show Big Brother, will test the limits of reality TV with a program in which a woman searches for a potential sperm donor to conceive a child.

His new TV station, Talpa, launched this month, confirmed it will air a program called, "I want your child...and nothing else!" but gave no further details about the show.

"The plan is that we visit potential donors and–of course on camera–decide which man is most suitable," said the 30-year-old woman who will be featured in the program in an interview with De Telegraaf newspaper.

"Afterwards there will be artificial insemination," said the woman who was identified only as "Yessica" and who has bought a house with a room for a child.

The show is a one-off competing with four other reality TV programs, one of which follows five former prostitutes starting a cafe. The program receiving most votes from viewers Saturday, after all the shows have aired, will be turned into a series.

De Telegraaf also published an email address for men wanting to donate sperm to Yessica.

Nude Patrons Welcome to View Nude Art
Vienna, Austria (Reuters)

Too hot in the city? How about a nice, cool museum exhibition of nudes, in the nude?

Vienna's Leopold Museum offered free entry on Friday to anybody who came in swim suits or naked, in response to a summer heat wave with temperatures in the 90s.

The museum said about 300 women and men in bikinis or bathing trunks, and 10 in their birthday suits, showed up as of midday to tour the exhibit, "The Naked Truth," of nudes and other paintings that scandalised Vienna at the turn of the 20th century.

"The atmosphere is fun. The other visitors are amused and there have been no negative reactions," museum spokeswoman Verena Dahlitz said.

Museum Honors the Tenacious Roach
Exterminator's hall of fame stars 'Liberoachi' and 'H. Ross Peroach'
Dallas (Associated Press)

The Cockroach Hall of Fame Museum – an aging collection of the despised insects dressed in tiny outfits – isn't much to see. But the hall's cheery "curator" is always good for a few laughs.

"What's interesting is that people are afraid of seeing cockroaches running across their kitchen at night, but their guard drops when they see them wearing a tutu or a bikini," said grinning exterminator Michael Bohdan. Because his exhibit is featured in off-the-wall tourist site listings, Bohdan receives inquiries from around the country. He advises potential visitors against traveling long distances to see the museum, located in a strip mall. After all, this isn't the Smithsonian.

But for those who come, "we'll pull out these little suckers and have some fun."

In between sales of pest-control products at his suburban Dallas shop, Bohdan leads "tours" of decaying Styrofoam-based scenes featuring roaches in celebrity get-ups.

The displays, which take up a small space under a glass countertop, include the white-caped "Liberoachi," seated at a tiny piano, and "H. Ross Peroach."

Bohdan, 58, received widespread press attention during the 1980s after launching a publicity stunt to find Dallas' largest cockroach. That led to a job traveling the country to judge a roach dress-up contest for an insecticide company.

When the contest ended, the dead roaches were to be tossed out. But Bohdan gave them a new life, of sorts.

"I said, gosh, let me make a tribute to them, and that's how the museum came about," he said.

Bohdan has a long-standing love-hate relationship with the nasty home invader. After all, he estimates he's killed "hundreds of thousands of them." But they also propelled him to minor celebrity status, including an appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

"I've had my 15 minutes – but it's lasted longer than 15 minutes," says Bohdan, whose fedora is adorned with the carcasses of Madagascar hissing roaches.

"No roaches were hurt in the making of this hat," says Bohdan, claiming each of the hefty bugs died from natural causes.