Skype hype reaches Costa Rica

With product placements being what they are today, Skype was due for its moment in the sun on the flat screen.

The Skype publicity stunt didn't rival the incessant Cisco huckstering on "24," but it did demonstrate what Internet telephony can accomplish with real-time communications when Patti Blagojevich, the sometimes outspoken wife of exiled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, used the Skype online videoconferencing service to connect with her family from the Costa Rican jungles. Patti's in Central America participating in the high quality TV fare, "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!" without hubby Rob whose sitting on his hands at home waiting for a court appearance that, no doubt, will be carried on Court TV.

Anyway, the live video feed was the first time Rob was seen live on the show. Ostensibly more of a celebrity than his wife, he couldn't be there in person because a fun-squashing federal judge said it wouldn't be a good idea for him to leave the country. Rod, of course, is accused of trying to sell President Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder. Skype came to Rod's rescue--and probably that of NBC as well, since the ratings are no doubt higher for a disgraced governor than a disgraced governor's wife--by poignantly connecting the family, including 6-year-old daughter Annie, via videoconference.

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