{"id":93495,"date":"2025-01-26T19:38:27","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T03:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/?p=93495"},"modified":"2025-01-26T19:38:27","modified_gmt":"2025-01-27T03:38:27","slug":"battle-of-the-80s-icons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/blog\/2025\/01\/26\/battle-of-the-80s-icons\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle of the ’80s Icons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another blast from the past is O-Town<\/em><\/strong>.  The band constructed on the television show Making the Band<\/em><\/strong> has been in the headlines before \u2013 mostly regarding allegations against their Svengali <\/em>Lou Pearlman<\/strong>, who had a penchant for watching footage of Ashley Parker Angel <\/strong>in the shower (and who can fault him for that).  People forget that after three seasons on ABC<\/em> with O-Town<\/em>, Making the Band<\/em> did 9 more seasons on MTV… with Sean <\/strong>\u201cDiddy\u201d Combs<\/strong>.  With all the scandal surrounding Diddy<\/em>, the O-Town <\/em>boys (who have reunited sans the aforementioned Angel) want to set the record straight.  Their management said, \u201cThe corporate events O-Town <\/em>does tend to be the strongest offers for the group,\u201d a statement that speaks volumes.  \u201cThe offer was pulled due to the perception of the group being attached to Diddy…Since the Diddy news, we\u2019ve received questions and hesitancy from several talent buyers, especially for soft tickets like fairs and theme parks, as well as city-funded events.\u201d  What I got out of this is they do a lot of county fairs, amusement parks, and events sponsored by Tang<\/em>.  For the love of Pete, let O-Town <\/em>sing!<\/p>\n

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Speaking of oldies but…well, oldies, how many of you remember Robin Byrd<\/strong>?  Even if you know where she ended up, you probably don\u2019t know where she came from.  She was born and raised in NYC, studied marketing, dropped out of school to be a nude model and eventually appeared in some porno films \u2013 including Debbie Does Dallas<\/em><\/strong> (so that gives you a rough idea of her age).  In the late \u201870s, public access cable was starting, and Robin paid to host her own weekly talk show on the city\u2019s infamous Channel J <\/em>\u2013 which had no censorship and regularly ran nudity.  Robin became notorious by sitting down and chatting with straight and gay porn stars, having them strip, and provoking \u201cMr. Cameraman\u201d.  She became a viral sensation \u2013 long before there was a cure!  Robin also became a very visible gay activist in the NYC community in the \u201880s and \u201890s.  Now she\u2019s trying to get a documentary made about those heady times.  And, as usual, she wants to hear from you.  She says you can call (347) 829-4959.  If you call, tell me what she says \u2013 I\u2019m afraid to find out how much a minute she charges.<\/p>\n

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Jonathan Bennett <\/strong>is also going back to the future.  Just after the new year, he took what some are referring to as an \u201ciconic commercial\u201d (which I, inexplicably, never saw) for Carnival Cruises <\/em>which featured Kathie Lee Gifford <\/strong>singing, \u201cAin\u2019t We Got Fun\u201d.  Oh, good \u2013 three reasons why it doesn\u2019t ring any bells!  Apparently it was iconic enough for the Mean Girls<\/em><\/strong> star to do a kinda shot-for-shot recreation with himself as a latter-day Kathie Lee (sans <\/em>Cody <\/strong>and Cassidy<\/strong>).  The result \u2013 a viral video (there\u2019s a lot of that going around this winter, so bundle up).  It got the attention of Kathie Lee, who said, \u201cI suppose imitation is the best form of flattery, so thank you @jonathandbennett.  Although, I do look a whole lot better than you do in a bikini!\u201d  Curious \u2018cause he ain\u2019t wearing a bikini, or a monokini.  Decide for yourself when you see both videos on BillyMasters.com<\/u><\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another blast from the past is O-Town.  The band constructed on the television show Making the Band has been in the headlines before \u2013 mostly regarding allegations against their Svengali Lou Pearlman, who had a penchant for watching footage of Ashley Parker Angel in the shower (and who can fault him for that).  People forget<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93495"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93496,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93495\/revisions\/93496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}