Update on fat camper public enemas

There has been considerable interest in the upcoming E! Television reality show depicting a “wellness” camp with Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie as counselors.

As Reality World reported, this isn’t like summer camp kids remember. On the first episode they will be at a camp run by Susan Powter and administer enemas outside. “Powter ordered the enemas because "she believes the first step in wellness is cleaning yourself out."

Chris Alexander, a spokesman for The Simple Life's producer said the 10 minute segment “will have you on the floor laughing.” This weekend, Kristen Veitch’s column on E-online promoted the show, urging viewers to watch to see what it’s like “to give an enema to a complete stranger.” In her online interview with Hilton and Richie, they describe how gross it was to give enemas to the overweight campers.

I finally reached D’Arcy Rudnay, Vice President of Corporate Communications at Comcast Corporation headquarters, which owns E! Television, and shared with her concerns that this was abusive towards the fat campers for entertainment and could jeopardize the health of impressionable young viewers by giving them harmful and life-threatening misinformation about enemas, health and weight loss. She was urged not to air this episode.

She corrected one piece of misinformation in the news, and regrettably reported in my post, and said that all of the campers are of legal age, and no children will be part of this upcoming episode.

“The wellness camp where production of The Simple Life recently took place is for adults only and focuses on health, nutrition, yoga, weight loss and exercise for adults,” she said in an email.

It is reassuring to learn that underage children will not be the brunt of such ridicule, but sad that there are fat adults whose self-esteem has been so beaten down that they would consent and that others see such abuse as acceptable entertainment. There was no response to the other concerns.