ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 1, 1996 TAG: 9604010073
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHICAGO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
note: below
A TALK SHOW is suing four guests for conning the host, but claims of how they were treated on the show may make for hot, trashy drama.
If you think no topic is taboo for TV's much-maligned talk shows, try this one: ``Scam Artists Who Pose as Dysfunctional Guests.''
Of course, that wasn't the real title of an episode of ``Jerry Springer,'' in which a man was said to reveal to his wife that he had been sleeping with their children's teen-age baby sitter.
The actual title was ``Honey, Have I Got A Secret For You!'' But the secret wasn't the one Springer and his producers had counted on.
Turns out the philandering husband was really a Toronto comic, as were his purported wife, the baby sitter and the baby sitter's boyfriend, all of whom appeared on the show.
The truth was not revealed until afterward, and the show's producer, Multimedia Entertainment Inc., was not amused. It filed suit against the four in federal court in Chicago, maintaining that their hoax threatens the very integrity of shows such as Springer's.
But critics contend integrity is hardly these shows' strong suit. And the comics' counterclaims of generally slimy and dishonest behavior by Springer's producers essentially put TV talk shows on trial as well.
``By trying to make an example out of us, they've laid themselves bare,'' said Suzanne Muir, 28, who portrayed the unsuspecting wife.
Facing what could be a highly publicized trial where the comics promised to tell all, Multimedia has reached verbal agreement on a settlement of the lawsuit, spokesman Robert Zimmerman said last week. But he said the settlement was not final and added that the comics might have breached it by discussing the episode with The Associated Press.
Beyond that, Multimedia will say very little about hoaxers and even less about the comics' allegations. Springer declined repeated requests for an interview. And a spokeswoman said a self-imposed gag order was essentially in effect.
Media watchers say talk-show hoaxers probably aren't very common; a spokeswoman for Oprah Winfrey said her show has been fooled by imposters just three times in 10 years.
But several shows have folded recently, and those remaining are under increasing pressure ``to get the man who slept with his dog and was observed by a rabbit,'' said Christopher Sterling, a media scholar at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
``They're really running out of things to do,'' and in a rush to get the most unusual guests, they may neglect scrutiny that could weed out hoaxers, he said.
At the same time, Sterling noted, ``These shows thrive on the notion that these things are real. If that image disappears or is seriously weakened, it's going to put all kinds of doubts in the minds of an awful lot of folks.''
Johnny Gardhouse, 24, who posed as the philandering husband on the Springer show, said the hoax started as a joke when his roommate, Ian Sirota, responded to Springer's televised solicitation for guests who had slept with their kids' baby sitters.
Sirota, 30, posing as Gardhouse, phoned the show in December 1994 and the ball was rolling.
``The Springer people just go for it hook, line and sinker,'' said Mini Holmes, 29, a friend of Sirota's who posed as the 18-year-old baby sitter.
``They never checked our references ... it was just too easy. We just kept thinking, `They're going to catch on,' but the next thing we knew we're at the airport, flying to Chicago,'' where the show is taped.
During phone dealings with Muir, the alleged unsuspecting wife, producers told her the show's topic would be how to restore the romance to her marriage, but they made no mention of the ``secret,'' according to the defendants' court documents.
As their dealings with the producers progressed, the gag ``took a different form,'' Gardhouse said. The comics' aim became ``to show them how somebody could really react to something like this.''
He says he tried to back out a couple of times, ``letting them know this could really devastate my family, devastate my wife. They talked me out of it.''
At one point, a producer told him it would be safer if Gardhouse revealed his affair to his wife on television because she might become violent if he told her in private, court documents allege.
The four came to Chicago for the Jan. 9, 1995, taping. Gardhouse and Muir went on first, and Gardhouse revealed his ``secret'' before a jeering studio audience. Muir burst into tears quite convincingly.
When Springer asked Gardhouse on the air why he would choose to reveal ``something so intimate'' on national television, Gardhouse responded that the show's producers had told him to - but those remarks were edited out of the tape, court documents say.
Meantime, Holmes, posing as the baby sitter tired of Gardhouse's amorous advances, waited off-stage. There, she said, a producer started urging her on, saying `` `You're going to let him have it, you're going to let him have it.'
The hoax was revealed by a Toronto writer who saw the show when it aired Feb. 7, 1995, and recognized the local comics. Soon it was all over the Toronto newspapers, and the comics readily admitted the scam - even after Multimedia sued last summer, seeking more than $50,000 in damages.
Bert Dubrow, Multimedia's vice president of programming, responded, ``The truth is, these people came on and lied to us about who they were.''
LENGTH: Long : 104 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Canadian comics (from left) Mini Holme, Ian Sirota,by CNBJohnny Gardhouse and Suzanne Muir pretended to be just another group
of dysfunctional TV show guests. color