The ladies burned up the dance floor this week on Dancing with the Stars as the celebrities took on the bolero, the lambada, the Charleston and the country two-step. The campy kitsch of the Charleston gave the week’s rising stars, Melissa Joan Hart and Kelly Osbourne, the confidence they were missing in previous weeks, while the forbidden dance, the lambada, got the judges all worked up. The duds of the night were the bolero — a sultry dance which proved so difficult, only Natalie Coughlin and Michael Irvin attempted it — and, the guys’ favorite, the country two-step. Yeehaw! Here’s a look at some of the Hulu team’s favorite acts of Week 4, as well as a final tip of the hat to Chuck Liddell, the Ultimate Fighting Champion whose lumbering two-step didn’t do much to win over the judges — or the voting audience. — Rebecca Harper (), Editor
Comeback Kid: Melissa Joan Hart
Trend alert! Thanks in part to Melissa’s campy performance with partner Mark Ballas, we see a flapper revival on the horizon. “The Charleston is all about the three E’s: energy, excitement and entertainment,” judge Len Goodman said. “You ticked off all the boxes.” The former “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch” star finally found her dancing rhythm as a 1920s starlet, a character which allowed her to be silly, have fun and show off her personality as she enthusiastically shuffled in tandem with Mark.
“Cabaret” Queen: Kelly Osbourne
For the first time since she wowed us with her Viennese waltz at the start of Season 9, Kelly Osbourne came out confident as she and partner Louis van Amstel paid tribute to Liza Minelli and “Cabaret” with their Charleston. It turns out Kelly had tried out for the role of Roxie in another Broadway musical, “Chicago,” and was relegated to play Mama Morton because she couldn’t dance. With this performance, Osbourne showed she has plenty of moxie to play Roxie. “Watching you is like watching a little birdie find their wings and learn to fly,” judge Carrie Ann Inaba told her.
Hot Stuff: Joanna Krupa
Following “Dancing” contestant Aaron Carter‘s lackluster lambada, which prompted Carrie Ann to warn him, “You have to chill out. You’re trying too hard. You need to turn it off. You’re turning people off,” the crowd was in dire need of a sexy rendition of the so-called “forbidden dance.” Peta spokeswoman/swimsuit model Joanna Krupa and her partner, a shirtless Derek Hough, delivered, turning up the heat as they spun and ground up against each other with palpable passion. “I hope that the children are in bed,” Carrie Ann said. It had the raunchiness that Len was looking for and then some.
The Frontrunner: Mya
Thanks to her R&B background, Mya’s always been a frontrunner on “Dancing,” but this week she really pulled ahead of the pack. (Sure, she and Melissa both earned 28′s, but the judges rewarded Melissa’s improvement this week.) Mya and partner Dmitry Chaplin collaborated on a sophisticated lambada number in hopes of simplifying things to appease Len, who had complained that Dmitry’s choreography was often too complicated. Carrie Ann and Bruno ate it up, calling it classy and erotic, but Len, always a stickler, was more reserved, wanting a bit more from the duo. Some dancers just can’t win!
Ultimate Champion No More: Chuck Liddell
Of all the frou-frou costumes the “Dancing” team forced upon Ultimate Fighting Champion Chuck Liddell (remember last week’s ruffled sleeves?), Monday night’s jeans and cowboy boots seemed most appropriate for our heavyweight dancer. Outfit aside, though, the grinning Ice Man never seemed to warm up to the “Boot Scootin’ Boogie,” with judge Bruno Tonioli saying that Chuck brings “carnage and mayhem to everything you do.” Despite the lumbering steps, Len admitted that Chuck is still entertaining to watch — but that wasn’t enough to keep him in the game. He may have been ranked No. 3 (ahead of football star Michael Irvin and snowboarder Louie Vito) by the judges, but it was a surprise to all when Chuck and Aaron Carter ended up in the bottom two after audience voting, with the UFC star getting the final knockout punch.
Which performances were on top this week? Do you think judge Len Goodman is being too tough on Mya and Dmitry? Share your opinions in the comments.
How do you make a story about marathon runners? You really get into the human stories, says Spirit of the Marathon director Jon Dunham. The documentary tells the stories of six runners who are preparing for one of the fastest marathons in the world: the Chicago Marathon. “I cast it just like it was a feature film,” Dunham says. “I knew I was looking for first-time marathon runners, Boston qualifiers, and a world-class athlete or two. We sent profiles out all over the country, in running magazines, on websites, and the responses came streaming in. Then it was just the process of narrowing it all down. We looked for amateurs, individuals in and around the Chicago area, and the stories evolved from there.”
Of all the famous marathons — New York, Boston — why did the Los Angeles filmmaker choose to focus on Chicago? “All roads were pointing to Chicago,” says Dunham. Because he was looking for someone training to qualify for the Boston Marathon, Chicago made sense. “Chicago sends the most runners to Boston,” he says, because it’s such a flat, fast course. But Chicago was also on the agenda for 2004 Olympic Bronze Medalist Deena Kastor, who suffers a foot injury early in her training for the Chicago race. But, for Dunham, it was also about the location. “It’s one of the bigger races, and it has a skyline rife with opportunities for filming. It’s a beautiful city,” he says.
As we learn more about Spirit ‘s subjects, we learn more about marathons: the training involved, the deep inner strength required to keep your feet going one step after another for 26.2 miles, and the sheer spectacle of the event: tens of thousands of people streaming through the urban city streets.
With this year’s Chicago Marathon taking place on Sunday, Hulu caught up with some of the runners we met in Spirit of the Marathon to see where they are now. (Professional runners Daniel Njenga and Deena Kastor were not available for interview.) — Rebecca Harper (), Editor
Ryan Bradley — Boston Hopeful
Though Ryan Bradley’s race didn’t turn out quite like he planned, he was back to his routine about six months later. “I’ve been doing about one marathon a year since then,” he said. Like the other amateurs we meet in Spirit, he’s not running the Chicago Marathon again this year — but that’s because he’s planning to run 26.2 miles in Des Moines next weekend, instead. His wife will be doing Chicago this year, though, so while she’s running the race Ryan’s on kid duty. “I’ve got to somehow manage to get three kids under the age of five down there to watch their mom run,” he said. “It will be fun — it will be a challenge, but it will be fun.” He and his wife had the opportunity to run the Boston marathon together, and now Ryan’s hoping to requalify within the next couple of years so he can return when he’s 40. So what’s it like living in a household with two marathon runners and three young kids? “We’ve broken our treadmill quite a few times,” he laughs. They take the kids with them on some of the shorter runs — the kids love it, he says — and the whole family recently ran their first 5K together (with strollers, of course).
Leah Caille — First-Timer
A knee injury slowed Leah Caille down in her first marathon, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to do it again. “I got to the first finish line, and the only thing I wanted to do other than sleep for three days was go out there and do it again,” she says. This year, though, she’s unable to participate in the Chicago Marathon due to spinal issues. “When you’re a runner, if you’re sidelined for even a few weeks, that kind of sets you back for a bit,” she says. “Well, I’ve been sidelined for a good long time more than that,” thanks to back surgery last year and then two herniated discs in her neck in March. “When God was passing out healthy spines, I might have been at the bar or something — actually, I was probably out for a run,” she laughs. She’s back to shorter, three- or four-mile runs now and hopes to get back to doing both the triathlon and a marathon this year. In the meantime, she’s started a run team at her daughter’s school — they’ve done several 5Ks together — and she’s coaching her volleyball team, as well. “Things are going really well,” she tells us. “My career has moved forward. I’m in the ‘business’ — I sell sponsorships for major races throughout the country, and I love it. Being a runner helps me to speak with not only knowledge, but also a deep passion for the sport.”
Gerald “Jerry” Meyers — Veteran Marathoner
In Spirit, we meet Jerry Meyers as he’s training his daughter for the Chicago Marathon. And though he’d love to be running this weekend, he won’t be able to make it. “I’m on the injured-reserved list,” he says. “I threw a blood clot in my leg in January and it’s still there.” Though he hasn’t been able to run since the beginning of the year — the longest he’s been off in 30 years — he’s still walking every day. After the film, Jerry ran the 2006 Chicago Marathon but had to pull out at mile 16, when an exposed nerve on the ball of his foot kept him from going any farther. “My family told me that if I didn’t quit, they were going to come after me with a baseball bat,” he says. “I was going to hobble in, but they said, ‘No way, you can’t hobble in on two broken legs, ‘cuz that’s what we’re gonna give ya.’ That’s the first time I was not able to complete a run.” Despite the blood clot, Jerry says he feels great today. “If I didn’t know better, I’d go out and run,” he confesses.
Lori O’Connor — First-Timer
Lori got the marathon bug during her first Chicago Marathon and had every intention of doing it again the following year. “During the first one, my training went really, really well,” she said. “I stuck to the schedule. I missed maybe one run that entire training session. I finished, I had a smile on my face, and I felt great at the end. I thought, like some runners do when they finish a race, ‘I can do it a little bit faster!’ There’s always this push to be better.” She prepared for her second marathon the next year, only to find out that she was pregnant after running the 20-mile training run. “My doctor gave me the option [to do the marathon] and I said ‘Hmm, I think I’m going to stay on the sidelines for this one.’ I know it would have been perfectly safe, but I just didn’t want to do it. I wanted to go for speed, and I knew I wouldn’t be going fast.” This year, Lori’s out of the race because she and her husband are both wrapping up their dissertations. (Lori is getting her PhD in Sociology.) “It’s very time-consuming to train for a marathon, and so this year I said I’m basically just sticking to half marathons,” she said. “I did a few halves in the spring and I’m doing another at the end of October. I’m holding off until the degree is in hand — that’s my reward, so I’ll probably train for one again next summer.”
What an inspiring piece! i cannot imagine how challenging this is in so many ways. But so amazingly rewarding and fulfilling to know you, as a runner, can accomplish this. I want to do this now that I have seen this!!! Thanks for the mojo! I know for sure I will need my Topricin pain cream to tackle this though. I need it now just to jog down the street….ug. Thank you!!! :)
There’s one little ray of sunshine that comes our way every Thursday: Glee. Each week, the kids (and, sometimes, teachers) at McKinley High come together to produce catchy little numbers that are worthy of a download. In fact, a quick look at the iTunes charts shows that people love these musical performances — and these aren’t jazzy little teeny-bopper ditties: Last night’s boys versus girls mash-up episode featured “It’s My Life/Confessions” and “Halo/Walking On Sunshine,” which are ranked Nos. 9 and 12, respectively, on iTunes this afternoon, and seven other songs are in the top 100. Below, the Hulu Team looks at some of our favorite hits spawned by Glee. — Rebecca Harper (), Editor
“It’s My Life/Confessions, Pt. II”
Mr. Schuester pitted the guys against the gals in “Vitamin D” last night in an effort to prevent complacency in the ranks as sectionals approach. (Turns out they’re competing against a halfway house and a school for the deaf). The guys channeled their inner Jon Bon Jovis — with a little Usher, too — in a rock-tinged blend of “It’s My Life” and “Confessions, Pt. II.” Of course, they had a little help, thanks to Mrs. Shuester, who played school nurse in the episode.
“Halo/Walking On Sunshine”
Meanwhile, the girls — also with a little help from Mrs. Schuester’s “vitamins” — put on a peppy show choir number with Beyonce’s “Halo” and Katrina and the Waves’ “Walking on Sunshine.” In the episode, glee club superstar Rachel declared that the girls’ performance would be better than the boys’ — but if you look at the iTunes charts today, it looks like the boys won.
“Somebody To Love”
Ask most people what their favorite Glee number to date has been, and you’ll discover it’s probably not “Gold Digger,” “Don’t Stop Believin’” or “Rehab.” It’s most likely the club’s version of Queen’s “Somebody To Love.” Take a look and decide for yourself.
“Alone”
This cover (of Heart’s 1987 No. 1 hit) pays tribute to Mr. Shuester’s past. In last week’s “The Rhodes Not Taken,” Will tracks down a former glee club crush to get some help with the modern-day glee kids. As they reminisce about the good old days, April Rhodes (Kristin Chenoweth) and Will start to sing “Alone,” karaoke style. We love the Wilson sisters, but wow, April really brings it home as Will sings harmony.
“Maybe This Time”
Once again, Kristin Chenoweth showed us why she’s a Tony winner in this “Cabaret” montage from “The Rhodes Not Taken:” her character may have been a boozy washup, but she stole the show — and our hearts. (Of course, Rachel deserves double-billing on this one, too.) Since this former “Pushing Daisies” star is between gigs, maybe we’ll get to see more of her in future episodes. Otherwise, get this powerhouse a musical series of her own, stat!
“Taking Chances”
In the “Preggers” episode from week four, diva Rachel decides she’s too big a star for glee club and tries out for the school musical, instead. Her audition piece? Celine Dion, of course. It takes a big voice to pull off Celine, but our Broadway star pulls it off with style. No offense to Ms. Dion, but we may even prefer Rachel’s version to the original.
“Last Name”
“American Idol” alum Carrie Underwood won us over with her No. 1 country hit, “Last Name.” The Glee show choir (and April Rhodes once again) busted out the cowboy boots and big belt buckles as they sang and line-danced away and gave us a whole new reason to love this song. Who needs Rachel, anyway?
“Take A Bow”
The first episode of the first season of Glee wrapped with a sad, sweet cover of Rhianna’s “Take A Bow” by Rachel (Lea Michelle). Full of plaintive glances at her crush, Finn, it provided one of the first moments where we actually found ourselves rooting for the overeager overachiever.
“Bust Your Windows” Glee diva Mercedes took the lead in this cover, seeking revenge on a fellow “gleek,” fan favorite Kurt. As she takes a rock to his windshield, she delivered this catchy version of Jazmine Sullivan’s “Bust Your Windows.” We don’t know about you, but it’s one we don’t mind hearing again and again on our iPods.
Have you visited Hulu Labs lately? It’s a section of Hulu.com devoted to new products and features that are still in beta, so you can share your ideas on how to make these services more useful to you. It’s home to Hulu Desktop (which offers a lean-back viewing experience from your PC), Recommendations, Time-Based Browsing and our Video Panel Designer (a tool that helps you embed multiple Hulu videos to your website), but today we’ve added two new items for you to check out: Hulu Desktop for Linux and Hulu Publisher Tools.
Hulu Desktop for Linux
Since launching Hulu Desktop, we’ve read thousands of comments about the product. Among all the suggestions, there was one that far outnumbered all the others: our users wanted Linux support.
So while we were tweaking the user interface, adding a few keyboard shortcuts and fixing bugs on Hulu Desktop, we were also working on Linux support. Part of our commitment to help everyone enjoy content, after all, is to provide support to all three major computer operating systems. Hulu Desktop for Linux is compatible with both Ubuntu and Fedora distributions, and will support input from hundreds of infrared remote controls. (See the FAQ for more details.)
If you’re a Linux user and want to check out Hulu Desktop for Linux, you can get started here. Since this product is still in Beta, we encourage your feedback. Jump on our discussion boards to share your ideas, make requests and report any bugs to the Hulu Desktop team.
Hulu Publisher Tools
Designed for bloggers, site editors and webmasters, Hulu Publisher Tools makes it easy to browse and discover premium videos — from Hulu and other sites — to embed in articles and blog posts. In addition to content featured by the Hulu team, our publishing tool features a comprehensive directory that offers the opportunity to preview videos and copy embed codes from a single page. Editors can also create custom playlists for Video Panels that can embed multiple Hulu videos in a single unit.
A search bar lets you type in any keyword — “obama,” for instance — and we’ll call up all the relevant videos pulled by our web crawler. You can select a few clips that look good to you, preview them if you like, and copy the embed codes. And if all the content is from Hulu, you can put together a Video Panel in seconds and embed it on your blog, like I’ve done below with some recent clips from Modern Family.
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Although Season 3 of Current TV‘s in-depth reporting series Vanguard doesn’t get started on television until next Wednesday at 10 p.m. EDT/9 p.m. CDT, Hulu is bringing you the full season premiere a few days early. “The OxyContin Express” is an in-depth look at prescription drug abuse and the pill mills of Southern Florida, where lax prescription regulations provide easy access to addictive medications such as oxycodone for people all over the U.S. In her coverage of Broward County, Florida, Vanguard journalist Mariana van Zeller speaks to a family affected by pill addiction, travels the pill pipeline (the “Oxy Express”) from Florida to Appalachia, and rides along as the police crack down on pill dealers. Hulu spoke to Van Zeller about this episode earlier this week. Below, she tells us why they chose to cover prescription meds and all about her harrowing run-in with the angry owner of a pain management clinic. (You can watch part of the experience in the episode.) — Rebecca Harper (), Editor
Hulu: Hi Mariana, thanks for speaking with us. Can you tell us about Vanguard?
Mariana van Zeller: Vanguard is an award-winning weekly documentary series that airs on Current TV. What we try to do is tell stories that we believe are important and unreported, and we try to tell them in a way that basically speaks to a young adult audience. We live in a time when most outlets out there, most networks, are shying away from international reporting. They’re closing foreign bureaus, and they’re just not telling international stories. It’s out of a belief that people just aren’t interested in international stories. We believe the exact opposite. We think that especially young people are interested in long-format, in-depth reporting, but there’s no outlet out there that speaks to them directly. That’s what we’re trying to do. We do a lot of international stories, but we do a good batch of national stories as well. What we do differently is that we tell them in a more in-depth way. We don’t spend a minute on the topic, which is what you see nowadays. Again, we live in a time when every subject is approached for either a minute or it’s all conversation and discussion about the subject, but there isn’t actually feet-on-the-ground, in-depth reporting. The way that we report our stories is also very different from what you see in traditional media. It’s more off the cuff, informal. There’s more immediacy to the feel. That’s because, when things are staged, you sort of step away from the story, from the reality. We wanted people to feel like they’re with us, that they’re there on this journey as we tell these stories that we believe are important.
Of course, you reported on pills in the Season 3 premiere. Why prescription drugs?
You hear about prescription pills, unfortunately, when celebrities die. You heard a lot about it when Heath Ledger died and when Michael Jackson died, but that’s pretty much it. But actually prescription pills are a growing problem in the United States. More people now are abusing prescription pills than ecstasy, cocaine and heroin combined. We decided to take a harder look at it, outside the celebrity world, and really go and do an in-depth documentary about where this is happening, why it is happening, and how it’s affecting people. Just to give you an example, we found out that Florida was sort of becoming this source state, the Colombia of prescription drugs. A lot of people from all over the U.S. were heading to Florida to get their drugs. This has become a huge problem in Florida, where 11 people a day are dying from prescription drugs. This is something I like to say, because I think it really opens up people’s eyes: The day that Michael Jackson died, 11 people died that same day in Florida. That’s the average there. Between the deaths of Heath Ledger and Michael Jackson, 6000 people died in the state of Florida alone. This is a big problem and we can’t just look at it through the eyes of celebrities. We felt that we really had to go out there and do some actual reporting and find out what’s happening.
So what we did is, we followed the pills. We got to Florida and saw the devastation and the impact that prescription pills were having there, and then we followed the pill pipeline from Florida through Appalachia, where every day hundreds of people are coming down to Florida to get their pills and take them back to their states. They’re having huge impacts there, too. Prisons are filling up and people are dying. It’s destroying families and whole communities.
How did you find the people you profiled, people like Todd, an addict we meet at the beginning of the episode?
We spent about two months of preproduction in the office, just making phone calls every day, trying to find people. That was the hardest part, to find actual addicts who were willing to speak to us on camera. We were able to speak to a lot of them but, obviously, there weren’t many who were willing to just give us interviews on camera. But then we came across Maureen, who’s very active herself in the fight against prescription pills because she has lost a son already, and a daughter-in-law. She’s become very, very involved in this fight against these pain clinics in Florida. On the phone with her, she told us that her other son was also addicted to prescription pills, so we came down to Florida and she introduced us to him. We ended up spending a few days with him, and it was just an incredible experience for us.
Watching this, I was personally disturbed by Todd’s story and his actions, that he’s still using after all that’s happened to his family. Do you find that you have a hard time remaining objective as you report on things like this?
Absolutely. I think that’s always the biggest challenge for us journalists. In this story in particular, we had seen the harm that these pain clinics and these doctors are doing to these people, and were trying at the same time to be objective. We tried to get their perspectives on this, too, and of course, as you’ll see in the piece, we were chased away from one clinic. We called a bunch of other clinics because we wanted to set up interviews. No one wanted to talk to us. It gets really difficult when you’re trying to get their voice in there, too, but you’re being chased away and people are hanging up on you as soon as you call. I think that also says a lot about what sort of business is going on there, when we can’t get anyone to sit with us and talk to us. What we have to see, too, is that this is a minority. It’s a small group of doctors, but unfortunately they’re capable of doing a lot of harm. I’m not saying the whole medical community is corrupt.
When you do these exposés, what are your goals? Have you had any success stories from past stories that you’ve covered?
I think our main goal is always to raise awareness, to make people talk about what is broken in the system. People usually ask us journalists, “Why do you always do sad stories or tragic stories; why don’t you report on the good stuff?” Well, because when there’s good stuff, there’s nothing to report about. Our job as journalists is to shine a light and raise awareness on things when the system is broken, when things aren’t working, not when they are. If they’re working, it’s because everything is going accordingly. I think that’s always our objective, to shine a light and raise awareness on what’s going wrong and what’s broken in the system. In this case, it’s very flagrant and very obvious that something is broken and something needs to change.
In “The Oxycontin Express,” you were followed by someone during your coverage. What was that experience like? How did it all unfold?
It was insane. I thought I was in the middle of an episode of The Sopranos. Basically, we were filming on the other side of the street outside a pain clinic. As soon as we took the camera out — we had it out for five minutes — a car parked behind us. This guy started yelling at me because I was the only one standing outside the car at the time. He was cursing at me in a very, very threatening manner and asking us what we were doing. We explained that we were doing the film. He was just cursing and yelling, so we got in the car and drove off. He actually started following us. Two guys got into the car with him, and then another car joined them. Every time we tried to stop at a gas station, they would basically get out of the car and start running toward us. Eventually, we had to call 911, and they came to the rescue.
The back story is that we actually ran out of gas. We didn’t include it in our story, but every time we tried to stop at a gas station, they would come out. Eventually, on the highway, we ran out of gas as we were calling 911. We had to pull over, and I think they were very confused about what was happening because it was in the middle of the freeway in Florida, so they just parked behind us. They stayed in the car and didn’t come out or anything. We just waited. It was the most insane thing. The whole time, I was completely imagining that scene from The Sopranos where the guy comes out of the car and points a gun at us.
It was crazy. I was terrified. Luckily, the police arrived and they got off with a warning. We later found out that one of the cars belonged to the owner of the pain clinic, who was actually a guy who had already served time in prison for possession of steroids with intent to sell.
Have you had any other experiences like this, where you were in danger?
Oh yeah, many. I was doing a story once on the border of Syria and Iraq — it was actually right after the war in Iraq officially supposedly ended, when Bush declared the end to the war in Iraq. It was when the insurgencies started in Iraq, where insurgents, foreign fighters, were coming from all over to Iraq to fight. We did a story about the Syrians who were crossing the border into Iraq basically to fight the Americans. We spent a couple of weeks on the border, trying to get some of these insurgents who were coming back after fighting. We wanted to get their perspectives on what happened, why they were fighting, and how they were doing it. It was very, very scary because we were in a territory where, on one hand, we were told it was full of Al Qaeda members and, on the other hand, we were also trying to stay away from the Syrian secret police because we were there as tourists, or else we wouldn’t be able to report this story. We were followed by the Syrian secret police several times and we had to get the tapes out through Lebanon and it was crazy stuff.
Let’s see, what other harrowing experiences have I had? Well, we had another nerve-wracking experience when we met with militants in the Niger Delta, with the oil conflict. We had an appointment to meet them at this fort, and when we got there, it was a boat with seven armed young men — some of them looked like they were teenagers — who had a bottle of whisky in one hand, and a gun in the other, and they took us away for an hour in their boat in the middle of the swamps to one of their camps to show us, basically, their power. We were eventually able to speak to their spokesperson, and that was very nerve-wracking, especially since at one point, once we got there, to their camp, they didn’t allow women inside. It’s bad juju, bad luck to allow women in their camp. I had to stay in the boat and my producing partner, who is also my husband, was taken inside. So I stayed out in the boat with these seven guys with guns looking at me while my husband goes with the camera inside the camp. That was a nerve-wracking experience, for sure. I’m lucky that I do it with my husband, though. He’s my own personal bodyguard.
What else are you reporting on this season?
We also have another story about the end of the war in Sri Lanka. For 25 years, the government of Sri Lanka was at war with one of the biggest badasses of modern-day terrorism. They’re actually called the “O.G.s of modern-day terrorism,” the Tamal Tigers. After 25 years, that war came to an end, and a lot of countries were looking at Sri Lanka as an example of how to defeat terrorism. We traveled to that country during the waning days of that war to see what Sri Lanka had to do to defeat terrorism and what kind of examples we could learn from that country, if any.
How did you get your start?
I’m from Portugal originally, and my name is Dutch, so I think I have a lot of the explorer’s blood in me — you know, Dutch and Portuguese. I’ve always loved to travel and I sort of decided I wanted to become a journalist when I was around 12 years old. I used to see all these beautiful anchors on Portuguese television. They seemed so knowledgeable; they could talk about anything and go on for hours for every issue. Little did I know they were actually reading from a teleprompter! That’s basically when I decided that I wanted to be that knowledgeable, and I always loved to travel. Early on, I decided I wanted to be a journalist, one who actually goes out and reports and travels and looks for stories. I wouldn’t want to be just an anchor or anything.
I just finished watching Vanguard’s 2009 Oxycontin Express, their doc about the prescription drug trade in Florida. It seems that Florida is the only state in the union that has no system of reportage for doctors writing CII- or the highest class of- narcotic drugs.
The film is remarkable, in that it shows us a lot of remarkable practices among a lot of legitimately-licensed docs in the Sunshine State. We learn that some 75% of all Oxycontin sold in the United States was prescribed in Florida.
The name, Oxycontin Express, is derived from the fact that hundreds drive- or fly to Florida specifically to “doctor shop”, to procure Oxycontin in huge quantities. We see just what a huge racket the so-called pain management business is down there.
The producers ride along with cops on stings. We see the Sheriff’s Dept. of Broward County bust people outside a pharmacy for selling their pills. We go along to Kentucky, where a backwoods sheriff has nailed a couple dozen housewives for “diverting” their prescriptions. One thrty-ish woman received seven years in prison for her sales rap. What we don’t ever see in this film is the arrest or even anything beyond mild harrassment of the crooked doctors themselves. We see cops talking about how ‘getting the doctors is very hard, so we go after these lower echelon people’. And we get up close and personal with the remains of a family that has been devastated by Oxycontin addiction. And it appears that all involved agree on one thing. Their efforts are absolutely without reward.
There is a profound lack of understanding of just what addiction means to an individual – or his /her family. There is no understanding of what addiction is… period.
What we don’t get by watching this exercise in outrage, is that once these drugs get into the hands of these poor slobs- people who are going through all these remarkable changes, just to possess a couple hundred pills- is that they, in most instances- have little choice. We do understand from the surviving son of a family that has lost a brother and a wife is that these addicts are not bad guys. We get that, after the doctors, there are no bad guys, really. Once the drug has control, they have no choice but to hustle pills and then sell them, take tham and whatever else their needs dictate.
When I saw the Broward County Sheriff’s undercover agents getting ready to go out on a sting, I was expecting some satisfaction as the cops swooped down on the unscrupulous doctors and their Escalade-driving henchmen. But, no. The cops, no doubt at great expense, drive to a local pharmacy and bust some poor couple for selling ten tablets of the stuff. It makes one realize just how worthless cops are in the so-called War on Drugs. One more tortured soul in the jail at taxpayers’ expense. One more dope addict the local politicians can brag about ‘gettin’ off the street6′.
The net result of all this is a big fat goose egg. As many questions are posed as are answered in this piece. OK. So Florida has no reporting system for narcotic scripts. Then why does Broward license these hundreds of businesses calling themselves Pain Management Clinics? What would- or could- the 123rd doctor to apply for one of these business licenses say if he were turned down at the county level? The funny thing here is that most of the greed seems to exist in places other than the so-called pushers. Ten thousand tabs of Oxycontin are written daily in Broward County and the sheriff wastes dozens of expensive man-hours to toss two people in the brig and get twenty tablets off the street. We hear a cop say, “So I think we’ve had a pretty good day!” -after delineating the 22 grams of this and that they’ve saved us all from using to ruin our collective life. Right. If a good day is getting paid for doing- or at least accomplishing nothing…
Cops, judges and lawmakers don’t seem to have much, beyond the weird blood-lust they get when they see someone getting high or making a dollar illegally. We look at the criminals via this movie and then we watch who goes to jail- and who suffers- and we can’t help but wonder… Can we really feel that our public servants are earning their keep by locking that woman up for seven years? Even the kindly ol’ bumpkin sheriff seems to approach that one somewhat at arm’s length.
If there is a sequel to this movie, maybe it could be called Legal Justice Express. Except that no one is traveling to Florida these days for anything related to justice.
My son (age 24) died last year from snorting Oxycontin obtained illegally. We lived in Cape Coral, Florida. My life as I knew it ended along with his. He was my only son. I say get the ridiculous drug off the market and do it as fast as possible. A few people needing it for pain can be transitioned over to something else – it’s not worth the loss of life that oxycontin leaves in its’ wake. There’s a group in SW Florida who are able to sell the stuff on the streets without consequence. google: Rod Spiller.
I was addicted to using Oxycotin and Heroin Introveneously for almost eight years. I just celebrated 3 years clean last month. There is a way out but it takes extensive repair of body, mind and soul. You have to isolate the problem that drugs are the solution for. I was lucky enough, after going to numerous 12 step based rehab programs to run across a non-traditional program that works.
This is nothing more than DEA propaganda! Oxycontin and other opiate pain medications are not used for Cancer only. There are many people who suffer from severe chronic pain (I am one of them) and these type of medications are the only ones that help. Because of idiots like Todd and the woman who made this joke of a documentary, people that need these meds for their pain are denied treatment. If you want to make a documentary, how about making one about pain patients and their need for these wonderful pain medications to be able to function like a normal human being and not bedridden because the pain is too horrible, but we are denied care and many of us commit suicide because of being either undertreated or not treated at all. How about making one about that and not one State’s problem with junkies.
You should be ashamed of yourself for not doing the research for people with chronic pain and putting it into this “documentary”!
This is nothing more than DEA propaganda! Oxycontin and other opiate pain medications are not used for Cancer only. There are many people who suffer from severe chronic pain (I am one of them) and these type of medications are the only ones that help. Because of idiots like Todd and the woman who made this joke of a documentary, people that need these meds for their pain are denied treatment. If you want to make a documentary, how about making one about pain patients and their need for these wonderful pain medications to be able to function like a normal human being and not bedridden because the pain is too horrible, but we are denied care and many of us commit suicide because of being either undertreated or not treated at all. How about making one about that and not one State’s problem with junkies. You should be ashamed of yourself for not doing the research for people with chronic pain and putting it into this “documentary”!
Siobhan Reynolds,
I am an 18 year old living right here in South Florida. I can personally say that this documentary is 100% accurate, and those of you who disagree are blind and ignorant. It is disgusting how easy it is to find and get pain killers such as Oxycontin and Roxys!
It is crucial that the word gets out and the problem does get solved. Although people do need to take responsibility for their actions, it is the governments job to protect the people from harm in the first place, i.e. stronger regulation. This way THOSE WHO ACTUALLY NEED IT are getting it, and those who don’t are not.
Bill Nuna,
You are very wrong. Addicts aren’t just those “living off the rest of us”, though that is what you would like to think, they are everyone from the RICH to the poor.
I get that people in pain need need their pain pills ,but makes me wonder if some aren’t addicted themselves thinking they have to have them to live. No one can tell me anything about this topic when my husband OD on pain pills in Aug. 2009 at the age of 33 he was going back & forth from KY to FL for 4mths lost 60 lbs in a short time also. I know some don’t feel sorry for people being on drugs ,but those people need to understand at first it is a choice but turns into an addiction than thats when it’s hard to control without support & help. My husband was introduced by Oxy’s from someone he thought was his friend & the guy got him hooked & even had my husbands family in denial he was a good guy. I also have a friend who is on Oxy’s now within the last 4mths she use to be a size 12 now is a size 2 she looks awful & like she is dying.
After my husband had passed there was a very high level of Oxycotin in his system. For those who think it’s a joke I’m here to tell you it’s not & some are just being selfish by saying “well what about me I can’t get pills?” I’m sure you could if you really wanted them that bad.
Seriously, if these kids are handed out Oxy’s & Roxy’s from these clinics like it’s candy then I’m sure people that are really in pain can get what they need. I don’t buy that sorry! It’s just something else to complain about. I have had 4 deaths within 7mths related to Oxy’s & Roxy’s so don’t tell me it’s not getting bad . Yes drugs have always been an issue for ever but random people are OD on these pills left & right at very young ages & NOTHING is being done. Why? is my question…It doesn’t add up when Celebs are even dying & still nothing is being done. 11 people are dying a day in FL just over pain pills alone….HELLO??? IS this thing on???
How about those who are only worried about themselves not being able to get what THEY want for their own needs & actually help shut these clinics down so you can be able to get the treatment you need easier cause complaining about it isn’t doing any good. I know it makes too much sense & why should someone actually care & do something for someone else right??? Exactly so sit & pout to everyone then hush it up until you really know what people have had to go through that have had friends & family pass away over this topic.
Jennifer King, I know your comment was along time ago but would like to say just be careful with your daughter. I know you think she will stay clean after her treatment .My husband didn’t when he got out of rehab & he still got back on pills. You have to be very careful & not be in denial. I wasn’t & could tell every time my husband would lie which he hated that & it began an arguement but I didn’t care. It only took him one time to get hooked back on them. Addicts get tempted at their weakest time in their lifes like a dog could die or fam member & they try anything to get rid of the pain cause thats the best way they know how not knowing it could be the last time their alive. I wish you nothing but the best & I do wish there was something I could do myself to help get these clinics out of business.
Step son from Melbourne in a one year treatment program. He was shooting it. His Mom in West Palm nearly died when she OD’d from the pain clinic shopping spree they were on. Now I live in TN where facts are reported. http://www.newschannel9.com/news/seized-988844-pills-bradley.html
I live in South Florida and on Thursday had to put my 20 year daughter into detox after finding out she was addicted to roxy’s and xanax. Over the past two days I’ve done nothing but research this and realize that this is absolutely happening right before our eyes. She kept telling me about how she got them with MRI’s and I had no idea what she was talking about. Now it all makes sense and so many things are falling into place. I live on an island that isn’t full of beaches and so it’s affordable. There’s an entire generation of kids on this island that are consumed by these drugs. I have watched this documentary 5 times so far. I’ve also found that it’s not just Broward county. Now they are banching out and taking up residence on our side of the state (we are on the east coast). I want this stopped and I want to know what I should do to help. I’m so angry right now I can’t see straight. It’s the same people who recently devestated our housing market, the vampires of South Florida who always have their hands in every part of what makes Florida so corrupt. To those of you that are defending this, you’ve got to be kidding me. If you have legitimate ailments you can go to a legitmate doctor. This is a front and you know it.
The opioids narcotics are effective for diseases such as chronic pain partially solved, medicines like Vicodin, Lortab, oxycodone, Lorcet are widely used in USA and Europe for medical specialists according to findrxonline the percentage of use of these drugs is very high in this part of the continent.
its hilarious how this whole story does not take all the real pain patients into account at all. Just reports on idiots like Todd who smoke their Oxycontin. What about REAL PAIN PATIENTS VANGAURD?????? you claim to be a journalist, well stop being a propaganda machine for the DEA
Siobhan is correct. As an educated individual who is also a pain patient, I can say that Mariana did not do her research on medical treatments and what Opioids are used for. Many in correct statements made such as “Oxycontin is only for cancer death patients” WRONG.
That is not at all true. Oxycontin was not NOT made for Cancer Pain who are dying . It is for all chronic pain, non-malignant and non terminal pain especially. When you have a nerve impingement or disc problem makin you want to die, but then instead of spending thousands on surgery a tiny pill gives you life back and if your not an idiot and don’t abuse it you will function just FINE! That part is of course not reported in your story. The DEA is already ruining the lives of pain patients around the world. And dare I say it, Opioid provide so many more benefits then just pain relief, I actually advocate for them being used for psychological conditions, but that is never going to happen in this backwards society. I blame both the government hard headed types and the abusers. Read the article below Mariana if you reading this, it will do you a lot of good. You did NOT do the right type of intellectual research before presenting you one sided piece of pill mills.
You have no idea what “Chronic Pain” is and that is your first problem. Disc degeneration, nerve issues, the list goes on all of these people start off on percs but need somthing which does not make them drowsy and can deal with their pain giving them a better quality of life, and if there is something that can do that for you, it doesn’t mean that you are part of some pain clinic conspiracy. Florida Pain clinics are not the story hunny, Opiate abuse has been going on way before Oxycontin in Florida. It is about how to get legitimate pain patients prescriptions without having one sided stories like yours make us all look bad! Got it?
Siobhan, you’ve got to be kidding me! Either you are completely bereft of a moral compass or just completely stupid! The people that were shown in this expose were flagrantly and admittedly doing prescription drugs…and not in the way it was intended! How many people smoke Oxy as prescribed by a physician? You’re not supposed to do that! You’re supposed to take it as intended…with water and swallowing the pill.
There may well be people who are denied pain meds, but it would seem to me that all they would have to do is take a trip to Broward County Florida and they could have all the pain meds that they want!
Also, did you not see the men who were following the reporters in this story? Have you thought to ask yourself WHY they were doing that if nothing illegal or immoral was going on?
People who advocate the legalization of drugs should watch this story as it illustrates what the result of such will be: Many people dying and many leading miserable unproductive lives as addicts!
To the reporters of this story, hat’s off to you! You’ve done an excellent job of exposing this problem! Well done!
This is disgraceful and utterly misleading DEA propaganda. Classic DEA story line.
The conflation of drug abuse and pain treatment is a crime against people in pain and the government has no business developing propaganda like this with our tax dollars.
The real story is that millions are DENIED pain care due to the DEA’s crackdown on pain treatment. I would be very interested to see this “reporters” credentials and to learn of the origins of this story.
People are dying in droves out here because they can’t get care, folks…but what do you care? You are trying to justify your unjustifiable and failed war on drugs.
A most powerful report. Scioto County Ohio is number 2 in the state for “accidental” overdose deaths and we are becoming like Florida with a pain clinic on every corner. Even down the street from the County Jail. In a county of about 83,000 we have 8 or more pain clinics. It is killing me to see our children destroyed because of the Greed of the Pharmaceutical companies and the Doctors and the Pharmacies. Just put a bandaid on the problem, make our lives even more miserable by arresting the little guy who is addicted and let the legal drug pushers get by with it. When are we going to wake up and really do something about this? What is it going to take a politicians child dying?
According to these studies this kind of opioids narcotics should be legalized as they consume to improve quality of life of people suffering from chronic pain and suffering, it is important that this announcement has given the International Association of Cannabis as a medicine as it indicates findrxonline the methods in use and the characteristics of each.
What is left out of the story is these pillbillys are living off of the rest of us. They are getting HUD Housing, Food Stamps and a medical card.Even after they are busted for dealing. These people are scum. The parents teach the kids the system and it keeps going generation after generation. The sheriff needs help to clean up his county. I say drug test welfare applicants.
And cut them off if they fail the test.
First rate investigation. Thank you for doing the reporting that the main stream media fails to do.
With all the shows Vanguard has produced on drugs and jail, I would love to see a show on ibogaine. It is supposed to be a plant from west Africa that interrupts addictions.
This drug is supposed to help addicts recover from their addictions by interrupting their craving and allowing them to stop using. Supposedly there are clinics in Canada and Mexico that treat addicts. It is classified as a Schedule I drug in the United States, so use in the states will be underground.
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Yes I do think they are being too tough on Mya and Dmitry.