Simon Fullers New Series

Everything this guy touches turns to gold........Adam is in very safe hands

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Simon Fuller is the creator of American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, and for his first foray into Internet programming he aims to take Hollywood with a team of virtual stars.

If I Can Dream, his new web-based reality show launching March 2 on Hulu.com, is an interactive series about the trials and tribulations of a group of twentysomethings transported to Los Angeles.

Recently, the show's cast of young models, actors and musicians paid a visit to the Drake Hotel in Toronto, where all seemed eager to differentiate themselves from the Guidos of Jersey Shore.

"We don't want to be reality stars, we want to be star stars," says Amanda Phillips, one of five young talents chosen to live out their dreams before 50 HD cameras in a house in the Hollywood Hills.

"Our show's not about sticking a bunch of short-fused people in a small space with a lot of alcohol and seeing what happens. If it was, none of us would be here."

Indeed, the hot chocolate-sipping new roommates -- Phillips, Justin Gaston, Giglianne Braga, Benjamin Elliot and Kara Kilmer -- say their only motivation for being streamed 24 hours a day on the Internet is the betterment of their work.

"I have a boyfriend, but he knows that my career is what I'm going for now," says Kara Kilmer, a 21-year-old model-turned-actress from Texas. "As far as that dirty, sexy entertainment you get from reality TV, you don't see any of that on American Idol.

Audiences want to watch people use their talent to try and succeed."

The group members earned their coveted spots after auditioning for Fuller. Since the program is being launched around the world on the Web, audience participation is not only encouraged, but is also an active part of the show.

"I'll be working on a part and someone can tweet, 'Yo Ben, I don't know what you're doing,' and I'll look at the camera like, 'Yo, thanks, I got it,'" says Benjamin Elliot, 22, a model from Hamburg, N.Y., looking to make it as an actor in Hollywood. "It's awesome to be part of something that's never been done."

The novelty of the series, besides its being from the Svengali who turned Adam Lambert and Chris Daughtry into stars, is that the cast is designed to be fluid. The five people at the Drake may very well not be the cast of the show in three months.

"Our position in the house may end with us being successful, or just going on tour or getting into a movie, then someone would take our spot and it would keep going with new people moving in," says Justin Gaston, 21, a musician who has been romantically linked with Miley Cyrus in the press. "Since Hulu is taking this program global, anyone in the world can send in audition videos. Anyone on the planet has a shot to be on the show."

The show has already created a sensation and the cast had touched down in Sydney, Hong Kong and New York before landing in Toronto.

The cast members are all eager to flaunt their wares in Hollywood and insist that they'll be known for their talent and not for their exploits in bars.

"We're not doing this just to be famous," says Amanda Phillips, a former cheerleader for the Buffalo Bills.

"This isn't the first or last time that you'll see us," Kara Kilmer insists.

"Look, it's not like drama's not going to happen in the house. We're not going to be sitting around all day reading books," Elliot concludes. "It's just not going to be as extreme as the Shore."

For more on If I Can Dream, visit ificandream.com.


http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Dreaming+fame/2565921/story.html