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Joe Millionaire Was A Fake
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Posted by: appleye1

Of course this doesn't really surprise anyone, does it? The story is here but its a subscription site so I'll quote it:

quote:
Joe Millionaire was Joe Faker from the start
January 27, 2004

HOLLYWOOD · There's something the 43 million Americans who fell in love with Joe Millionaire ought to know: He was cheating on you. Not that this should be a surprise, inasmuch as the series was built on a lie.

Evan Marriott, the erstwhile $18,000-a-year construction worker who was tapped by Fox to fake being a multi-millionaire searching for a bride, now says he never had any intention of becoming seriously involved with one of the 20 gold-diggers in his TV harem. "They weren't bad girls, but people go their whole lives not ever finding the person who's right for them and their soul-mate. How was Fox going to put 20 girls in front of me and expect me to find one out of that?"

But what about the anguished pacing around his room as he sought to narrow the field?

"That was all staged," Marriott said.

Didn't he go into the woods with one of the women, with a strong implication that heavy petting, at the least, was taking place?

"Totally fake."

What about the sweet-nothing whispers and smooching sound effects?

"Totally fake."

The heart-tugging scene in which Marriott eventually selected Zora Andrich as "the one," a decision seen by more Americans than those who watched last year's Oscars, also was invented drama. "I had to pick one of the girls, so I figured I'd pick the nicest one there," Marriott said. Zora, a New Jersey schoolteacher who does a lot of charity work, was chosen over Sarah Kozer, whose resume included bondage and fetish films.

Marriott presented Andrich with a $25,000 ring, ostensibly a gesture that he wanted their relationship to proceed, which is how she interpreted it. "I would like to continue this journey and see where it goes," she said in the climactic scene.

It didn't go as far as their dressing-room doors. The morning after the finale, which had been taped months previously, Zora appeared on Live With Regis and Kelly. As soon as she came out, Regis did a double take, asking where the ring was. Zora startled him -- and probably millions of Americans -- with the news that the relationship ended as soon as the set lights went out. Asked if it had, in fact, ended without ever getting started, Marriott said, "Yes, it did."

One bar to an ongoing relationship, even if Marriott did connect with one of the women, was geography. He's wed to California. "None of them were worth me living here and them living wherever they did in America." (Zora is from New Jersey.) "If they all lived in L.A., I might have said, `Give me your number. Maybe we'll have a beer.'"

When told of Marriott's comments, Fox Entertainment President Gail Berman said she was unaware he was faking it. Perhaps to spare her network embarrassment, she challenged his version of events. "I think revisionist history is an interesting way of looking at things. I didn't know about any of the things he says, nor am I positive that he was `in that head' completely when he was there."

Fox sweetened the show but didn't invent scenes, she said. "We put in the [smooching] sound effects. You have to produce a show well. You do editing. You cut things around. But we don't say, `Go out and make out in the woods.' I would have to argue that point with him."

This isn't Quiz Show Scandals II. There is no indication anyone coached or influenced Marriott's decision and you can't force someone to love someone he doesn't. Still, the episode has a pungent aroma.

Representatives of date-and-mate series on competing networks say creating scenes is out of bounds. "Everything that happens on ABC shows actually happened. There's no staging," said Andrea Wong, the network's executive in charge of reality series, including The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. "When the viewer is watching a reality show, they expect to see the story as it unfolded. We might build a moment or emphasize it with music, but it's a moment that happened. Any love scene you see actually happened."

Stuart Krasnow, producer of NBC's Average Joe, sometimes wishes he had writers and that his players were actors: "It would be easier than to have cameramen following them around 24 hours a day." However, network rules don't allow this, he said. "We do go back to the editing room and create stories about everything that happened and take things out of context to create drama. But we don't make things up. I think viewers have a good sniff sense."

Krasnow could be right. America made Joe Millionaire II one of the biggest disasters of this season. It opened to fewer than 7 million viewers, then declined weekly.

Berman thinks fallout from Marriott's Joe Millionaire was a factor. "The public knew it wasn't a love story at the end. I think they didn't do a particularly good job of carrying out the fantasy."

Marriott thinks he did a great job. "I sold 40 million people."

The payoff has well exceeded the $500,000 apiece he and Zora received. Thanks to the publicity from the show, he said he has been hired to do commercials for KFC and Ragu, and made guest appearances on several sitcoms. It also led to his latest gig as host of (appropriately enough) Fake a Date, a new matchmaking series that will premiere in March on the Game Show Network.

"It's been fun, one hell of a ride," he said. Tens of millions of viewers were taken for quite a ride, too.

Tom Jicha can be reached at tjicha@sun-sentinel.com.

Posted by: Redstixxx

that's sick

Posted by: Marco

I'm shocked. SHOCKED! :D

As if I needed another reason to stay away from "reality" TV ...

Posted by: meridian

What a dope. He "sold" 43 million viewers on his sincerity and now he blows it! And for what?

As George Burns said, "The key to success is sincerity. If you can fake that you've got it made." :)

Posted by: ADG

yawn.

Neither my wife nor I has ever watched any of the "reality shows" - not one. And from all these posts it appears we've not missed a thing.

Posted by: rhuntington3

That's reality TV for you. I wish it would all go away. Trouble is, no one will believe this story.

Posted by: Gene S

Although its not Fox, what NBC says pretty much tells the tale.

quote:
Stuart Krasnow, producer of NBC's Average Joe, sometimes wishes he had writers and that his players were actors: "It would be easier than to have cameramen following them around 24 hours a day." However, network rules don't allow this, he said. "We do go back to the editing room and create stories about everything that happened and take things out of context to create drama. But we don't make things up. I think viewers have a good sniff sense."

They do create stories and take things out of context, but they don't make things up! :rolleyes:

Posted by: Frylock

I don't get the big deal with this story. It's no surprise. Reality TV is not complete reality. That would be boring. People who think it is reality probably also think that Las Vegas and CSI represent reality. It's TV. It's designed to entertain. If you want something real, watch Biogrpahy or PBS. Not Fox.

Posted by: UnionBuster

Heh, well he can put this on his acting resume now.

Posted by: jeff125va

OK, I could have sworn that they were prohibited from seeing each other between the conclusion of the taping and the airing of the finale, so as to prevent people seeing them in public (even if I didn't remember that, it makes total sense, there would surely be public sightings). I don't remember her Regis appearance, but why would the fact that they hadn't seen each other even been a surprise in light of that fact?

As far as what he said about their geographic issues, I can only assume that he meant even after the finale aired. Anyway, I can't say that I blame him - if he really just didn't go for any of those girls, if he were honest about it the show most likely wouldn't have made it onto TV.

Whatever, I can't understand people getting so upset about something like this. I mean, there's nothing to stop even the news from being made up or manipulated (aside from actual slander or losing viewers), what makes people think that they're entitled to some degree of truth when it comes to "reality" TV?

Posted by: newsposter

Reality tv is fake? Way to crush my heart people. Next thing you will tell me is soap operas aren't about real people's lives and families. And all those moonshots are fake, the mars pics etc. Maybe Capricorn One and Fox were right :)

Posted by: KLB

I'll second that <yawn> who cares. It was fun to see these women who were there to meet a millionaire get fooled and he's dumb for not even getting laid out of all that.