• Creator Mike Fleiss has a second cousin who was also in the business of fixing up men and women--Heidi Fleiss, the notorious Hollywood madam.
• Networks were originally leery of The Bachelor because Fleiss was the man behind Fox's notorious Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire? Other Fleiss shows, like Are You Hot? and High School Reunion, have not achieved the same level of success as The Bachelor.
• Two Bachelors--Bob Guiney and Jesse Palmer--were quarterbacks at Division I-A football programs in college. Guiney was a backup at Michigan State in the early '90s, while Palmer started 14 games for nationally ranked Florida from 1997-2000.
• Before becoming the Bachelor, Alex Michel had applied to be a contestant on CBS' Survivor: The Australian Outback. He was turned down.
• The first rose ever offered on The Bachelor went to Kimberly Karels, a nanny who ended up as one of Michel's final four choices in the first season.
• Trista Rehn has said that Michel called her a few days after choosing Amanda Marsh at their final rose ceremony and said he wanted to continue their relationship. Michel has denied it.
• Michel didn't find lasting love on TV, but he did parlay his notoriety into a job as spokesman for the online dating service Match.com.
• Several other Bachelor and Bachelorette participants have stayed in front of the camera. The Bachelorette's Charlie Maher is now a correspondent for Extra, and Brooke Smith, who was dumped by Bachelor number two Aaron Buerge, is a reporter for a local station in her home state of Alabama.
• The show's producers pay for the rings offered to the final choice, however, Buerge opted to spend his own money on the $34,000 Harry Winston bauble he gave to Helene Eksterowicz.
After Buerge and Eksterowicz called off their engagement, they sold the ring on eBay and split the proceeds.
• The show has recycled contestants three times: (1) Rehn, rejected on the first Bachelor, went on to become the first Bachelorette; (2) on that show, she turned away Guiney, who became the fourth Bachelor; and (3) one of his final four women, Meredith Phillips, starred in the second Bachelorette.
• In December 2003, the show's producers sued Guiney for breach of contract. They claimed Guiney was using his fame from the show to promote his CD, 3 Sides. A judge later ruled in favor of Guiney and his label, Wind-Up Records.
• A 37,000-square-foot Beverly Hills mansion used as a location on the second Bachelorette was rented by Michael Jackson in January 2004 at a cost of between $70,000 and $100,000 per month.
• Trista Rehn and Ryan Sutter are the show's only couple to make it to the altar thus far. Their televised wedding cost ABC nearly $4 million, but more than 17 million people watched.
• At least two other contestants, however, have found Hollywood-style romance outside the show: Guiney is now dating All My Children star Rebecca Budig; and Jen Schefft, whose engagement to Bachelor number three Andrew Firestone ended in December 2003, is reportedly seeing another reality star--Bill Rancic, the winner of The Apprentice.
• Before The Apprentice, Rancic himself had applied to star in The Bachelor.
• Bachelorette Meredith Phillips worked as a model prior to the show. Her likeness appeared in catalogs for Nordstrom and Land's End and on the packaging for Microsoft's Digital Image Pro software.
• Through four editions of The Bachelor and two of The Bachelorette, Michel, Buerge, Firestone, Guiney, Rehn and Phillips handed out a total of 235 roses.
• Through the first four Bachelors and two Bachelorettes, no one has rejected a rose offered to him or her. Four people did, however, opt to leave prior to a rose ceremony.
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Maxima