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Hogan's Daughter Takes Lead On VH1 Reality-Show Spinoff

Photo from VH1

"Brooke Knows Best" follows Hulk Hogan's daughter to Miami, where she will share a pad and party times with her pals Glenn and Ashley.

By WALT BELCHER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 8, 2008

Wrestling icon Hulk Hogan doesn't let daughter Brooke set out on her own without first giving her a taser to ward off unwanted advances of any unruly males.

Only a fool would dare mess with the daughter of a man who could twist them into a human pretzel. But there are fools in the world, so Hogan gives Brooke a spray bottle of Mace, too.

Of course, you'd have to be a really big fool not to notice the film crew that would be following the 20-year-old blond singer and reality TV star.

The Hulkster (aka Terry Bollea) also installs deadbolt locks on the doors of Brooke's swanky new 2,000-square-foot Miami penthouse. (If you're starting out on your own, you might as well start out big.)

And Hulk wants to make sure that her male roommate and pal, Glenn, is really gay.

"On a scale of 1 to 10, how gay are you?" he asks on the first episode of "Brooke Knows Best," debuting at 10 p.m. Sunday on VH1. When Glenn says he is a 10, Hulk is relieved.

All of this fatherly overprotection was part of the act on "Hogan Knows Best," which ran for four seasons on VH1 and was a hit for the network.

That show ended after Hogan's family hit some difficult times. There's a pending divorce between Hulk and his wife, Linda. And son Nick is doing jail time stemming from an auto crash that left his friend John Graziano in a coma.

The Brooke Hogan spinoff follows her to Miami, where she will share a pad and party times with her pals Glenn and Ashley. Hulk and Linda Hogan apparently will be recurring characters in this 19-episode reality show, which seems staged and scripted.

VH1 posted the first episode on its Web site (VH1.com) on Monday. The network plans a sneak preview every Thursday night. Full episodes will be posted every Monday following their Sunday debuts.

In the opening episode, there's a favorable spin on the family's woes. Hulk Hogan talks about still being in love with his wife and how hard it is to be on his own after 23 years of marriage. He also says Nick is "being positive and accountable."

Brooke says both her parents are hurting and she doesn't want to take sides. Divorce is a bummer, she notes.

But on the brighter side, she's ready to cut loose from her father's leash, jump into the apartment's hot tub and run around naked in her own place.

Her father warns her that you can get diseases from hot tubs and that stalkers with telescopes might see her naked body and rappel down the building and smash through the windows.

If he's that concerned, it must have be hard for old man Hogan when daughter Brooke showed a lot of her skin on the cover of the July issue of Maxim magazine. The Hulk reportedly was at the photo shoot - supervising or meddling - and that may be part of "Brooke Knows Best," too.

FOX NEWS RESPONSE: E-mails are still coming in, pro and con, about a recent column in which I offered the opinion that the Fox News network had gone nutso bonkers over presidential candidate Barack Obama. I've posted some of the comments on the Walt TV blog at TBO.com. Thanks for all the input.

VIDBITS: TNT is planning a remake of the compelling British series "Cracker," which starred Robbie Coltrane as Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald, a police psychologist who helped "crack" tough cases. He was a brilliant crime solver, but his personal life was a mess.

•Come Thursday, I will be headed to Beverly Hills for the annual Television Critics Association preview tour of network programming.

Among the scads of actors, producers and writers who will be chatting it up is Tony Curtis, who will be saluted with a 24-hour film festival on Turner Movie Classics on Aug. 27. He also has an autobiography coming out this fall.

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