TV Producer Wants Occupy Portland on Wife Swap

We are 99 percent appalled

A casting scout has been contacting members of Occupy Portland, asking them to find a protesting family to appear on the ABC television show Wife Swap.

Bert Klasey, a freelance producer whose previous work includes AMC's Hoarders, has been posting on Twitter and sending letters to Occupy leaders. His interest in "99% families" for the series seems legit: The phone number on ABC's casting website leads to a voicemail box for the reality-TV series. We thought Wife Swap was cancelled in 2010, but it's apparently been picked up for the fall.

At least one Occupy Portland organizer has used her Facebook page to post Klasey's request for an "out-spoken" family with a child over the age of six, willing to trade spouses. He's dangling a $1,000 referral fee.

Most Occupiers in the comments thread seem amused, but some remain skeptical.

"Be a prop for mainstream media so they could make propaganda against economic justice?" writes Jason Sayre. "I can't see the positive side of this."

Klasey does not say who the woman would trade place with, but we're assuming Occupy Portland will soon be joined in front of City Hall by a tea-partying Alabama mama.

The full request is below.

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