These days, it’s no surprise to find out that a cast member on one of your favorite reality shows has dabbled in naked photoshoots or gay porn — and if you haven’t caught on yet, pardon me for being the bearer of bad news, or thank your lucky stars, depending on how you feel about X-rated material.

Most recently, six masturbating men who starred in Tool Academy (refrain from obvious joke here) made their debut on the pornographic website Straight College Men … somewhat of a misnomer, if you know what I mean.

They’re far from trailblazers. Here’s a rudimentary list of reality shows whose stars have been filmed in other, namely naked, circumstances: For the Love of Ray J, Double Shot at Love, I Love New York and the upcoming Conveyor Belt of Love; Design Star and Chef Academy; Survivor and Big Brother; So You Think You Can Dance and American Idol.

Phew! That’s a lotta porn. And that’s not even counting those shows that combine the two, like HBO’s Cathouse, a series about a real life brothel.

What does it say about the world we live in that reality shows and pornography so often intersect these days? The Daily Beast’s Andy Dehnart notes that both mediums require highly exhibitionist stars to “expose themselves in intimate ways”:

The space between what reality TV offers and just watching people have sex has collapsed over time, which was perhaps inevitable for two genres that blur fantasy and documentary, asking subjects to expose what are usually secret parts of themselves in artificial contexts. Our attraction to reality TV stars’ private lives has led to the inevitable, as reality TV begins to embrace porn and porn embraces reality TV.

Brian Moylan of Gawker puts it a little more simply:

So, yes, it’s mildly entertaining to find out someone on television has been getting naked for money before a camera, but it’s not really news anymore. What we have instead is porn and reality TV sealed in a marriage of convenience as the two things that America loves more than anything, but doesn’t want anyone to know they watch.

Two universities went into lockdown in the past two days after suspicious activity was reported on both campuses.

Northwestern University issued a lockdown at their Chicago campus early yesterday after people reported seeing a gunman in an elevator. Offices and rooms were closed off in the Rubloff Building, locking students, employees and faculty in the building. A two-hour search by police proved fruitless, though the investigation continues.

The Takoma Park campus of Montgomery College was locked down Tuesday afternoon when a man raped a woman in the second floor bathroom of the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Performing Arts Center.

Police arrested Nathaniel L. Hart, 34, Tuesday evening at a Days Inn and charged him with two counts of first-degree rape, first-degree sexual offense and attempting to escape after arrest.

Spike Lee is coming to campus, which can only mean one thing: Black History Month is soon upon us. The ultimate bad-ass, in-your-face, New York Knicks obsessed director will make his way to campus February 4, courtesy of the ever-boasting Student Entertainment Events. For the second time, Lee will be speaking on campus in the Grand Ballroom and the topic will be his work and his experiences in the entertainment industry… or at least that’s what the Facebook event says. Most likely it’s going to be a billion times more awesome.
But there’s one problem with this event. It’s free, no tickets necessary. Although that might seem like the best problem ever, there are already over 600 confirmed attendees on facebook and that’s two days after the page was createsd. That means if you don’t show up uber early, yo ass won’t get a seat.
So, do the right thing, plan ahead and get your thick hipster black-rimmed glasses ready. It’s time for the man, Spike Lee.
- written by Adele Hampton

The editorial board of the University of Florida’s independent newspaper The Alligator recently came under fire for this brilliant take on the crisis in Haiti:

Besides the WTF factor — is it trying to say that donating to earthquake victims is better than sex? or that it’s so easy you can do it while f***ing? — the cartoon was labelled remarkably offensive by Alligator readers.

The editors had this to say:

We understand that Haitians are dealing with a horrible tragedy, and we would never want to treat the situation insensitively. But despite the heartbreak, we see beauty in the way the world is coming together to help Haitians. Our cartoon was simply an acknowledgment of the fact that people are joining together to get behind a cause.

Get behinda cause. Nice.

Despite the controversy, the editors will continue to run their sexToons feature, of which the cartoon in question was the latest edition.

Editor’s Note: Welcome to Route 50 East, a new Campus Drive feature rounding up the news of the day from Annapolis as long as the legislature is in session this spring. Expect Route 50 East to be posted each weekday afternoon/evening. Enjoy!

The buzz from Annapolis this week centers around the maybe, maybe-not gubernatorial ambitions of former Prince George’s County Executive Wayne Curry.

Curry held a gala event for his birthday, and fellow Democratic O’Malley bugaboos Jack Johnson and Doug Duncan, a former university vice president for administrative affairs who was said to be considering a run for governor himself, were both in attendance. Here’s some video shot by a Baltimore radio host and blogger at the event, via Maryland Politics:

Then, Curry showed up — seemingly for no reason in particular — at a major budget hearing in Annapolis. At both stops, Curry lambasted the state’s leadership, without ever naming O’Malley in particular. Here’s how the Washington Post’s Aaron C. Davis described Curry’s complaints:

There’s unfairness laced into O’Malley’s spending plan, that it takes money from Prince George’s County and other poor areas and deposits it in rich areas, Montgomery County chief among them. Echoing Republican criticism, Curry also said the governor’s plan fails to seriously deal with the state’s long-term budget imbalance.

“Both speak of indifference of leadership,” he said without uttering O’Malley’s name.

More analysis after the jump.
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Women took simultaneous step forward and step back in the news this morning. While The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the number of female undergraduates continues to outnumber males. The report “Gender Equity in Higher Education: 2010.” found that males made up only 44 percent of undergrads during the 2007-2008 school year.

Though females still outnumber men in universities, the study has found that the gender gap has stopped widening.

On the other hand, the number of teen pregnancies and abortions are up. Pregnancy rates among teen girls went up 3 percent, according to a study by the Guttmacher Institute, a sexual health non-profit group. 7 percent of teen girls got pregnant in 2006. The rate has decreased significantly since the 1990s which saw a 12 percent pregnancy rate among teens. The abortion rate rose 1 percent. Many blame the situation on abstinence-only education, a trademark of the Bush Era.

Quick Hits:

Two Metro workers were killed north of the Rockville Station early this morning after being struck by track equipment. Commuters can expect delays in Red Line service to Rockville. Free shuttle buses were put in place to transport riders from Twinbrook to the closed stations.

The National Zoo’s panda Tai Shan will be headed back to motherland China later this week to enter a breeding program.

Charles McC. Mathias Jr., a three-term republican Senator from Maryland died last night at the age of 87 in his Chevy Chase home.

Bus travel from D.C. to New York will be increasing as several companies added routes starting from Union Station.

And for some reason Khloe Kardashian of all people got to meet the president this week. Turns out being famous for nothing continues to have its perks.

But in the case of students at the University of Rhode Island, the fight— and the party — is over.

A judge upheld a rule allowing the city of Narragansett to place orange stickers on the fronts of houses that have disrupted their neighborhoods. This law is unfortunate for the many students living in houses in the seaside college town.

U.S. District Judge William E. Smith ruled that the law did not violate the constitutional rights of students or the landlords who own the houses.

Students have appropriately named the stickers Scarlett Letters. If residents take them down before the end of the school year they are fined $100.

Smith ruled, literally, that the Constitution does not guarantee American citizens a right to party, no matter what the Beastie Boys may claim.

“Anyone who has college-aged children knows that ‘hanging out’ is an important, even vital social experience,” Smith wrote. “But just as the Constitution does not recognize a generalized right of social association” of the type that includes “‘chance encounters in dance halls’ … it does not protect college house parties, no matter how many problems of the world may be solved at them.”

Noise violations have also been a sensitive subject in College Park over the years. Residents and council members have often motioned for stricter noise violation regulations in the city due to loud college parties. A noise violation costs $500 in fines and a second violation in six months fines residents $1,000 and the landlord $500.

“Our neighborhoods are serving as the dorms,” Mayor Stephen Brayman complained at a city council meeting in 2008.

In early 2008, the city council tried to lengthen the time period in which students could be charged for a second violation, prompting student protest. Many felt that they could end up paying more due to a first fine issued to students who had rented a house before them. Complicated wording caused a the council to drop the proposal, however.

But though College Park students may be dealing with the threat of noise violations at rowdy off-campus parties, we are still no 21st century Hester Prynnes, marked publicly for the very right that most college students feel they have. The right to party.

So this one goes out to you, University of Rhode Island: