Listen to Irene's radio show at nooneslistening.org
Visit Irene's website irenemcgee.com/
Irene Mcgee
A former MTV The Real World star, McGee was voted "Most Popular Cast Member" by the program's viewers.
Her campus program, "The Sur-Real World: Media Manipulation and Me," is a thought-provoking examination of one of young America's most popular television programs.
She also speaks to audiences about her battle against Lyme Disease.
Irene McGee has become a household name among teenagers and college students all across America. She gained her fame as a member of The Real World�Seattle cast, and has appeared on television since May 1998. The Real World is the highest-rated show on the MTV network, and the Seattle series has been named by viewers as the "All-Time Favorite Real World Series" and Irene voted the "Most Popular Cast Member" by viewers.
Irene, who is a native of Poughkeepsie, New York, graduated from Georgetown University in May 1999. In high school, she was class president, vice president of the student body, and a member of the prestigious senior committee. Her accomplishments stretched to the athletic fields, where she was a member of the varsity field hockey team and varsity soccer teams.
Irene was one of just a handful of student-athletes who were selected for the New York State Olympic Development Program and the Olympic Development Regional Camp. She was a starter on the varsity soccer team as a freshman in college. She later started for the Georgetown University Women's Soccer Team in the ultra-competitive Big East Conference. It was at this time that she was diagnosed with late-stage Lyme Disease, which forced her to end her intercollegiate soccer career.
Also at Georgetown, she was a member of the senior committee and had major responsibility for organizing functions for up to 7,000 people. As a lark, she tried out for a spot on The Real World series. Close to 15,000 people around the world also competed with her for seven precious spots. Needless to say, Irene emerged victorious, and, as they say, "The rest is history."
But not everything you see on TV is real, even when it bills itself as being real. Irene endured four months of conflict, jealousy, and envy while taping the show in Seattle and Nepal, which resulted in a relapse of the Lyme Disease.
Frustrated by the lack of honesty and ethics on the show, Irene became the first person in the seven-year history of the Real World series to walk off the show. The "slap that was heard 'round the world" framed her final scene on the show.
Listen to her radio show at nooneslistening.org
Update on Irene:
Irene McGee's radio show
Many of you may remember Irene McGee from the Real World Seattle. Physically sick with Lyme Disease and feeling misunderstood and misrepresented, she left the show (but not before getting smacked by one of her male roommates.)
Appropriately, Irene is now a student of media literacy. Along with lecturing on the subject, she's learning the tools of personalized media like blogging and podcasting. Good for her!
Irene is also hosting a radio show on KSFS called NoOne's Listening that's also archived online. V. Vale of RE/Search and Lawrence Lessig were guests on recent shows and Noam Chomsky will be on soon.
Source: http://boingboing.net/2005_11_01_archive.html
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