Electric Barbarellas

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The Electric Barbarellas were an American all-female electropop group whose career with producer Midi Mafia was depicted in a short-lived, critically panned, eponymous reality show that ran for one season on MTV. [1]

Contents

Background

In 2010, Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone personally paid over $500,000 to fly the group to New York to meet with record labels while filming a reality-TV series based on the trip, after asking then-Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman to give one of his romantic pursuits an MTV series. [2] Redstone then forced Viacom-owned MTV to air the series. MTV executives originally balked at airing it because it was "so bad" but their resistance almost cost MTV's then-CEO Judy McGrath her job. [3] Les Moonves also arranged for the series to be promoted on CBS, as a favor to Redstone. [2]

The series ended with a phone call from a record executive provoking much shrieking, but the group quickly faded into obscurity once the show ended. [4]

The group performed the song "Without You" on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on May 27, 2011. [5]

Members

Discography

The Alectrix

Two years later, Naylor hired Joe Simpson (father of Ashlee and Jessica Simpson) to audition new members for the group, under the new name The Alectrix. [9] Again, the ordeal was filmed as a reality-TV series and aired on MTV. [4] And again, soon after the series ended, the group faded quickly into obscurity.

Later, Naylor was sued by Sumner Redstone's girlfriend Sydney Holland for allegedly stealing her laptop. Naylor counter-sued, claiming Holland negatively influenced Redstone to intentionally interfere with the success of The Alectrix, however Naylor eventually dropped the lawsuit. [10]

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References

  1. ↑ Lyons, Margaret (2011-05-06). "The Electric Barbarellas Might Be the Phoniest Reality Show Ever". Vulture. Retrieved 2020-08-13.
  2. 1 2 "Inside the Near-Collapse and Resurrection of the Redstone Media Empire". Bloomberg.com. 2023-02-10. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  3. ↑ Lauria, Peter (2 June 2010). "Sex War at MTV: Sumner Redstone and his All-Girl Band, the Electric Barbarellas". The Daily Beast.
  4. 1 2 Hale, Mike (2013-06-03). "Girl Group Just Wants to Be Famous (Again)". The New York Times.
  5. ↑ "This Week's Guests". The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson . Archived from the original on December 21, 2010. Retrieved 28 May 2011.
  6. ↑ Conover, Patricia (2011-05-12). "Irvine woman seeks stardom on MTV's 'Barbarellas'". Orange County Register. Retrieved 2020-08-13.
  7. ↑ Tanya Ghahremani (25 May 2011). "Interview: MTV's Electric Barbarellas Talk About Girl Groups & In-Fighting". Complex. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  8. ↑ "The Meet & Greet: The Electric Barbarellas". Celebuzz. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  9. ↑ Friedman, Molly (28 May 2013). "MTV takes a different route to discovering stars with 'The Alectrix'". New York Daily News.
  10. ↑ "Former MTV Star Drops Legal Claim Against Sumner Redstone's Girlfriend". The Hollywood Reporter . 10 February 2015.
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