Brandy News

(5/29/02, 12 p.m. ET) -- MTV plans to air its first segment of Brandy's reality series, Special Delivery, next month. However, the Grammy Award-winning R&B singer and actress is considering pulling out of the five-segment show due to the negative publicity that has compared her show to the Osbournes, the network's top-rated program starring rocker Ozzy Osbourne and his foul-mouthed family.

When LAUNCH spoke to Brandy about her program, which chronicles her pregnancy, she stressed that it was not her intent to emulate the Osbournes. "I guess because the Osbournes has done so well with their show, and just a reality show with MTV, I think that's what people think my show is going to be about," Brandy said. "And actually, I just wanted to share my experience of me being pregnant and balancing my career and my personal life together. I wanted to show that to my fans. But now, they've turned it into 'Brandy's trying to be like the Osbournes,' and that's kinda like why I'm contemplating whether I should do it or not."

In the June/July 2002 issue of Blender magazine, the Osbourne clan said they did not think any other celebrity--including Brandy, Sting, and Whitney Houston--was up to the challenge of having the MTV cameras invade his or her personal space for sixth months. "It'd all be bullsh-t," Ozzy told the magazine. "They'd only show you what they wanted you to see."

Daughter Kelly Osbourne and wife Sharon Osbourne dismissed the thought of doing a show on Brandy. "Who wants to see her weird ass giving birth?" Kelly said. Sharon added, "Does she really think showing her vagina is going to help her career?"

Brandy told LAUNCH that such comments regarding the project has caused her to have reservations, "Actually, I was going into it like a diary, and then, they just thought the story was so great that they should do more episodes. So initially, that's what it was. But, you know, they turned it into something else, the press. And the Osbournes have their little comments to say, and it's like, 'Oooh, that's not what I'm trying to do. That's not what I'm about, so.'"

-- Billy Johnson Jr., Los Angeles

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