Dirty Soap on MySpace – Just Not Too Dirty

There is an article from Business Week about MySpace’s continued move producing original webisodic content.  The focus is on their latest project SOAP, based (loosely as hell, one guesses) on the late-70’s classic of the same name.

Two things struck me about the article.  The first is that it claims MySpace is still only paying $5000/3min episode.  If that’s actually true they are at the very bottom of the spectrum and it will be interesting to see if they can really produce anything watchable at that cost.

The second thing didn’t honestly “strike me” since it was the point of the article.  Here, read this quote:

“During a run-through of the script at a Los Angeles restaurant in early April, an actress playing the clan’s octogenarian grandmother flashed the middle finger. That was too much for Cristian Cussen, MySpace’s 28-year-old programming chief. The flipped bird can stay, he told the producers, but it must be blurred. “I can’t show that to Procter & Gamble (PG),” Cussen later explained.”

Yup, a middle-finger.  Something I’m pretty sure they let Jon Stewart do on Comedy Central already.  So, you can pretty much forget about cursing, nudity or any of the other things you already can’t see on regular television.

I understand MySpace’s need to please perspective sponsors and there is plenty of room out there for “safe” content but it’s a little dismaying to hear MySpace setting the bar so low (high?)