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THE WEDDING VIDEO

By Rory L. Aronsky | June 22, 2003

How about a fun time watching a wedding video? Many of you out there have probably seen many of them with the cheap graphics and sickly sweet music, but what about one with warts and all? That’s the idea found here courtesy of Norman Korpi and Clint Cowen who have brought together 10 former Real World cast members (Korpi included) and have come up with something incredibly funny.
Here’s the dirt: Norman’s wedding to Sky (Brien Perry) is coming up and 10 grand has come Clint’s way, courtesy of his mother, who refuses to attend the wedding. Norman hires Clint to film the proceedings leading up to the wedding as well as the wedding itself and wait until you see what happens. First off, Clint isn’t a professional videographer and took the job because he’s in his 5th year of community college, as indicated by Lindsay Brien (RW Seattle) who recommended him for the job. Soon enough, Clint is flying across the country to visit many of Norman’s “friends” and get their feelings on his upcoming wedding. The funny thing here is that Norman thinks that everyone who knows him loves him. Sheesh! This guy doesn’t live on Fantasy Island, he owns it and he’s evicted Tattoo and Mr. Roarke.
Many of these friends don’t even know that he’s gay. That’s right, kiddies! Sky’s a guy and there’s more to Sky than Norman sees. Now, I never saw one episode of the Real World and don’t know how these people portray “exaggerated likenesses of their “perceived” public images”, as the press kit indicates. You fans of the show out there will likely appreciate that more than I did and will probably have a fun time identifying the Real Worlders that united for this. But damned if this isn’t a fun time! Not only does Clint focus his camera on Norm’s friends, but also we see many other preparations for this wedding. A visit to a wedding planner isn’t successful and the wedding planner provides the flimsiest of excuses as to why she can’t do this wedding, after learning that Norman’s getting married to a guy. I swear that scene feels absolutely genuine as if directors Norman and Clint did that without the planner’s prior knowledge of what was going on. S**t, that sounds obvious.
Anyway, the cast members found in here are an interesting lot. Lars Schlichting from Real World London is not very happy to be a part of this and spends his time bitching about what’s been going on, and I can’t blame him. Norman’s friends are at each others’ throats constantly, but when Norman is in the room, it’s as if there was no ill will toward each other.
However, Heather B from Real World New York is the funniest of this group. What interests her most is how Norman was able to afford a place like The Castle in Beverly Hills (Wait ‘till you see the place!), and yet he still owes her for paying his phone bill at one time. When she arrives at The Castle, she finds a red dildo that she takes an instant liking to and the funniest moment with that is when she and her red phallic friend are in the backseat of an open-air vehicle, on the way to a hayride, and she’s waving it at vehicles passing by on the 405 Freeway and even sticks it in Syrus Yarbrough’s (RW Boston) ear at times. She also has an argument with Rachel Campos Duffy and Sean Duffy because despite Rachel being pregnant, she got the room with the good bed first, dammit!
The person that replaces the “homosexually frightened” wedding planner is a woman named Pam and she is as sweet as can be when talking to the two guys about how the wedding should be set up. There’s one telling moment where Pam’s asking how the seating arrangements should be, like who should sit next to who and who should be far away from certain people they don’t like and Norman says, “Oh, everyone loves me.” Wow. But man alive, Pam can be a real queen bitch, especially at one point where rumors are flying at supersonic speed that Sky was seen with a woman and Pam really gets in his face about that, bitching about how he will not ruin this job for her and how important it is that she succeeds in this one. But wait until it gets to the point that there is a blow to the wedding arrangements! REAL Queen Bitch there and her associate Kirby (Kirby Horwitz) tries to calm her down.
As the film winds down, don’t think you’re being let go that easy. The ending provides a biting comment toward reality TV that makes perfect sense. Great stuff! Even for someone like me that’s not a big fan of reality TV, this is a lot of fun.

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