Real World Contract: You Could Die, Get AIDS

'Village Voice' highlights the frighteningly specific warnings
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 4, 2011 10:09 AM CDT
Updated Aug 7, 2011 7:25 AM CDT
Real World Contract: You Could Die, Get AIDS
The Cast from Real World - Paris arrive to the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall on August 28, 2003 in New York City.   (Getty Images)

Want to appear on MTV's Real World? First you might want to take a look at the contract, an "amusingly specific ... 30-page spectacular" the Village Voice got its hands on. Highlights, as interpreted by Camille Dodero:

  • "You may die, lose limbs, and suffer nervous breakdowns."
  • "If you undergo any medical procedures while involved in the show, they carry the risk of infection, disfigurement, death."
  • "You may be humiliated and explicitly portrayed 'in a false light.'"
  • "If you contract AIDS or other sexually transmitted diseases while filming ... MTV is not responsible."

  • "Interacting with other cast members carries the risk of 'non-consensual physical contact' and should you contract AIDS, etc. during such an interaction, MTV is not responsible."
  • "If you get kicked off the show, it will be filmed."
  • The contract also forces cast members to sign off "any objections to 'a serious invasion of privacy,'" writes Tracie Egan Morrissey on Jezebel, recalling that a 2002 cast member's sexual exploits were filmed with night vision cameras and hidden microphones.
The document "essentially requires cast members to sign their lives away, quite literally," Morrissey continues, but even the "outlandish" portions are "there for good reason." Don't forget, in 2010, one of the cast members was pushed off a balcony by a roommate, and landed two stories down on concrete. (But making it on MTV can pay off big-time in the end ... click for to see how.)

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