Salon Arts & Entertainment | Hacking toward Bethlehem

{Hacking toward Bethlehem}

Abe Ingersoll, a former punk hacker
and infamous "Road Rules" cast member,
reflects on his ill-fated 15 minutes.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Jonathan Vankin

July 21, 1999 |Abe Ingersoll is not the type to hit a lady -- even if she is kicking his ass on national television. So when a tiny woman named Gladys smacked him with a roundhouse left hook, Abe reacted stoically. The punch landed squarely on his jaw, sending him sprawling. Gladys then pounced, raining blow after blow on his back and shoulders. The entire beating unfolded before rolling MTV video cameras, for later viewing by an audience of millions. But Abe did nothing to defend himself other than ball up and yell at her to knock it off.

Abe, a compact, spiffy-looking 18-year-old, was a cast member of "Road Rules: Latin America" -- a 15-week-long installment of MTV's peripatetic spinoff from the rusty but reliable documentary show, "The Real World." (Abe's "Road Rules" episodes, which first aired earlier this year, will likely be rerun in the fall.) When the self-professed "punk hacker kid" decided to audition for the show, it occurred to him that he might upgrade his odds of making the cast by hacking into the network of the show's production company, Bunim/Murray. He was right. Included in his haul were transcripts of previous interviews with prospective cast members, which gave him an inside track on what the producers were looking for.

"Actually it's not even hacking because it's so straightforward," Abe tells me as we sit in his Venice, Calif., apartment, several months after the fact. A well-scuffed surfboard leans against the wall beside Abe's home-built, Linux-loaded PC. "They had this information shared to the world. Anybody could just come and find it. Cheap production company, cheap T-1 connecting a LAN network to the Internet; what could possibly be at the other end of that?"

A whole mess of trouble, as it turns out. In short, Abe uncovered biographical insights on cast members from previous "Road Rules" excursions, several of whom dropped by for a "spontaneous" on-air visit during the Latin America shoot. He then used said info for nefarious purposes that inadvertently aroused the wrath of Gladys. So she beat him up. All in all, a pretty embarrassing 15 minutes of fame for a kid from Peoria.

For those not part of MTV's crucial yearning-adolescent demographic, here's the high concept behind "Road Rules": Find six attractive, outspoken, go-for-it young adults between the ages of 18 and 24, set them up inside an RV, put them on the road in an exotic locale, and then sit back and let the zaniness begin. It's so stupid it's perfect. A camera crew and production staff follow the young people around day and night, videotaping their every nervous tic, angst-ridden confessional and shouting match.

Abe's hack was a classic case of the chickens coming home to roost. Partners Jon Murray and Mary-Ellis Bunim's shows are carefully stocked with sexy, flamboyant and ever-so-slightly dysfunctional post-adolescents. The archetype is Puck from "The Real World," an abrasive loudmouth whose temporary "family" gave him the boot. The "Road Rules" producers knew they were getting another bad-boy specimen with Abe -- they even labeled him "The Bad Guy" in on-air promo spots -- but he turned out to be more trouble than they'd counted on.

"We knew we were taking a certain risk in choosing someone like Abe," says Murray, who learned of Abe's attack after the show had wrapped. "To some extent, that's what Abe is about." "Abe has tremendous charisma and he has unique experience," adds Bunim. "When we met him, we were excited that his back story didn't duplicate anyone else's. We didn't think a whole lot about the danger of casting someone like Abe. Maybe we should have. It's unnerving to feel that completely vulnerable."

And what does Abe have to say for himself? He doesn't offer any excuses. But as we become acquainted, he does tell me that he saw "Road Rules" as an opportunity for useful peer-group therapy in the wake of his rather turbulent upbringing. The show was a means, he says, "to be reconnected with my generation."

"As we see," he now admits, "that did not happen at all."

Next page | "Ferris Bueller" meets "The Truman Show"


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Bargain Arts & Entertainment Edgy Reads Art, Architecture & Photography Entertainment Movie Tie-ins		{Hacking toward Bethlehem} Abe Ingersoll, a former punk hacker and infamous "Road Rules" cast member, reflects on his ill-fated 15 minutes. - - - - - - - - - - - - By Jonathan Vankin July 21, 1999 \|Abe Ingersoll is not the type to hit a lady -- even if she is kicking his ass on national television. So when a tiny woman named Gladys smacked him with a roundhouse left hook, Abe reacted stoically. The punch landed squarely on his jaw, sending him sprawling. Gladys then pounced, raining blow after blow on his back and shoulders. The entire beating unfolded before rolling MTV video cameras, for later viewing by an audience of millions. But Abe did nothing to defend himself other than ball up and yell at her to knock it off. Abe, a compact, spiffy-looking 18-year-old, was a cast member of "Road Rules: Latin America" -- a 15-week-long installment of MTV's peripatetic spinoff from the rusty but reliable documentary show, "The Real World." (Abe's "Road Rules" episodes, which first aired earlier this year, will likely be rerun in the fall.) When the self-professed "punk hacker kid" decided to audition for the show, it occurred to him that he might upgrade his odds of making the cast by hacking into the network of the show's production company, Bunim/Murray. He was right. Included in his haul were transcripts of previous interviews with prospective cast members, which gave him an inside track on what the producers were looking for. "Actually it's not even hacking because it's so straightforward," Abe tells me as we sit in his Venice, Calif., apartment, several months after the fact. A well-scuffed surfboard leans against the wall beside Abe's home-built, Linux-loaded PC. "They had this information shared to the world. Anybody could just come and find it. Cheap production company, cheap T-1 connecting a LAN network to the Internet; what could possibly be at the other end of that?" A whole mess of trouble, as it turns out. In short, Abe uncovered biographical insights on cast members from previous "Road Rules" excursions, several of whom dropped by for a "spontaneous" on-air visit during the Latin America shoot. He then used said info for nefarious purposes that inadvertently aroused the wrath of Gladys. So she beat him up. All in all, a pretty embarrassing 15 minutes of fame for a kid from Peoria. For those not part of MTV's crucial yearning-adolescent demographic, here's the high concept behind "Road Rules": Find six attractive, outspoken, go-for-it young adults between the ages of 18 and 24, set them up inside an RV, put them on the road in an exotic locale, and then sit back and let the zaniness begin. It's so stupid it's perfect. A camera crew and production staff follow the young people around day and night, videotaping their every nervous tic, angst-ridden confessional and shouting match. Abe's hack was a classic case of the chickens coming home to roost. Partners Jon Murray and Mary-Ellis Bunim's shows are carefully stocked with sexy, flamboyant and ever-so-slightly dysfunctional post-adolescents. The archetype is Puck from "The Real World," an abrasive loudmouth whose temporary "family" gave him the boot. The "Road Rules" producers knew they were getting another bad-boy specimen with Abe -- they even labeled him "The Bad Guy" in on-air promo spots -- but he turned out to be more trouble than they'd counted on. "We knew we were taking a certain risk in choosing someone like Abe," says Murray, who learned of Abe's attack after the show had wrapped. "To some extent, that's what Abe is about." "Abe has tremendous charisma and he has unique experience," adds Bunim. "When we met him, we were excited that his back story didn't duplicate anyone else's. We didn't think a whole lot about the danger of casting someone like Abe. Maybe we should have. It's unnerving to feel that completely vulnerable." And what does Abe have to say for himself? He doesn't offer any excuses. But as we become acquainted, he does tell me that he saw "Road Rules" as an opportunity for useful peer-group therapy in the wake of his rather turbulent upbringing. The show was a means, he says, "to be reconnected with my generation." "As we see," he now admits, "that did not happen at all." Next page \| "Ferris Bueller" meets "The Truman Show"