kidney

Looks like Jack Bauer's attempt to foil the latest evil doings by the bad guys in only '24' hours as hit a snag. Production on the show has been halted while star Kiefer Sutherland has surgery to repair a ruptured cyst near his kidney. The cyst actually ruptured last week while he was filming the FOX show. He'll return to the show next week and they say that there shouldn't be any interruption in episodes for the rest of the season.

A ruptured cyst near a kidney sounds like an incredibly major medical problem to me, something that would take a long time to recover from (especially if you have to go into filming scenes where you are hanging from a helicopter, fighting, and jumping off of buildings), but I guess medicine and surgery has come a long way.

A bunch of Dutch producers managed to get people's panties in a wad this week when they announced they were airing a show where contestants would vie to get a dying woman's kidneys. It turns out, it was a hoax.

The Big Donor Show aired last night in The Netherlands, where producers revealed their entire ploy was to put pressure on the Dutch government to raise awareness of the need for organ donation. The show did air, but just to prove a point. The woman, "Lisa", who was supposedly dying of brain cancer (but not really) interviewed potential candidates for her kidneys. Some Dutch viewers said the show was an eye-opening experience, because it explained just how hard it is in The Netherlands for someone to actually receive a donated organ (Dutch rules tend to favor family or friends only). The contestants who took part in the show were really in need of kidneys, but they were all in on the "joke" ahead of time.

Only time will tell whether this ploy just pissed people off, or if it had an actual impact.

I think the Dutch have us beat when it comes to crazy ideas for reality shows. A couple years ago, they produced a one-off reality series about a woman who wanted some sperm and nothing more, and now they've come up with Big Donor Show, which features a dying woman who will pick one contestant to receive her kidney.

All ethical issues aside, some questions remain, such as whether or not Lisa's (the donor) organs can be transplanted at all, given that she has cancer (specifically: a brain tumor). Also, the donation would probably have to be made before she died, because once she's dead, her wish to have any organ donated to a specific person is no longer valid.

(S04E09) I apologize for the lateness of this review folks but I moved into a new apartment this week and was without cable TV for a few days. I got hooked up yesterday afternoon though, just in time to record the repeat of this week's episode. That being said, I'm going to go out on a limb here. I just watched it and this may very well have been the most well written, best acted episode of Nip/Tuck yet. It was absolutely phenomenal.

After having a transplanted kidney removed for infection back in June, Entertainment Tonight and The Insider personality Steven Cojocaru is now free of infection and looking for yet another kidney. I assume, preferably, one not carrying some nasty virus with it. Despite the setback, Cojocaru is determined to keep working, and you'll most likely be seeing him on the air commenting on the MTV Video Music Awards later this month.