"Joe Millionaire" runnerup Sarah Kozer is fit to be tied over the way she was treated by the blockbuster TV reality show.
"I'm horrified," Kozer - who got the boot from fake rich guy Evan Marriott in Monday night's finale - told the Daily News yesterday. "[I'm] completely embarrassed."
She said she and the other 20 women who flew to the French chateau where the show was taped were duped by the show's producer, who never even told them "there was going to be a guy there."
"I thought it was going to be 'Sex and the City' in France," said Kozer, 29, breaking her network-imposed silence from her home in Beverly Hills, Calif.
"The way [they described it], it was going to be 20 single, sophisticated women in France, looking for romance and adventure. Then, once we got there, [they said] 'Oh, it's going to be a dating show.' It was a setup from the get-go. We didn't know what we were getting into."
Kozer - who caused an off-screen controversy when it was revealed she had starred in dozens of bondage and foot-fetish videos - also said she was unhappy about being portrayed as the "bad girl."
"It's upsetting," she said. "Because it wasn't like that. These shows are edited in a very Freudian way - they have to have a Madonna and a temptress. Once they started editing, I was really shocked that they chose me to play that role."
As for Evan Marriott, aka Joe Millionaire, they haven't had any contact since the show ended with Marriott choosing Zora Andrich over Kozer as his "fairy tale princess."
"We're not allowed to [have contact with him]," she told The News.
But she wanted to make one thing very clear about their relationship.
Referring to the notorious moment when she and Marriott ventured away from the cameras for what seemed to be an al fresco makeout session - replete with "slurp"-ing subtitles - Kozer said: "It was nothing ever more than a kiss. Even Evan is backing that. It was a setup - even Evan getting me off camera was a setup."
The experience wasn't a total loss for Kozer, who said she made friends among her fellow female suitors - including Melissa Mowery, who is staying with her in Los Angeles.
Kozer said she has spoken with Andrich.
"I talked to her yesterday and today, just briefly," Kozer said. "I told her to hang in there. And I called her to congratulate her Monday night."
As for the fetish videos, Kozer said: "I never thought it was a big deal. I told Fox about it at the beginning. There was no nudity. It was a modeling job." Now Kozer just wants to move on.
"I'm hoping to do ... a cookbook, and [there's talk of] a reality cooking show," said Kozer, who has a broadcasting degree from George Mason University. "I've also had some hosting offers. I've got an audition with E! for a style show."
A reality cooking show? What and wage unfair competition against all those FAKE cooking shows? What a bimbo.
The bit about the whole show being a setup is some funny sheit though - the idea that they never told ANY of them that it was going to be a "dating" show is just lunacy.
personally i think sara got what she deserved i didnt think she would end up with evan nor do i think she was not after the money...i am glad evan is now with zora she is perfect for him
I finally watched the finale today.. pretty cool. I'd already know the outcome, but had recorded the show to watch later anyway.. following that drawn-out experience of catching up with the opinions of all the other chicks that got dropped from the show, I didn't realize that when they finally pulled Zora downstairs to be "talked to" that that was the moment of truth.. they shoulda glorified that a bit more IMO.
I was amused at Sarah's reaction to getting dropped, the way she kept that little smile plastered on her face and "behaved" as if she were unconcerned about him not having the $50M. She struck me as a little insane at that moment.. some sort of strange denial trip like.. as if she'd just had her leg blown off by a land-mine, looked down and smiled thinking, "oh, that's nice.." before what happened really sank in. THAT kinda insanity. Ah well, anyway.
Zora seems like a sweetheart.. she's been so quiet and clammed up.. it was a real pleasure to actually hear her speak for any length when she met Evan for the final time. I wanted to hear her say more stuff - didn't matter what, she could speak in tongues, I just wanted to hear her speak.
ah well, anyway - the current People magazine has something on the two of them reacting to the whole ordeal "for the first time ever" and I'm curioust how that's going to read, especially with those revelations that the whole thing was heavily staged and the girls didn't even KNOW that they were participating in a dating show until arrival in France, etc.
Dare I say..? I thought Bachelorette was a better series.. seemed more genuine.
Ok, so I know that the girls were not told the real concept of the show, but everyone of them knew they were going to France to participate in some sort of a dating/singles television series that would be aired on TV. Whether they knew the whole story is irrelevant. What is relevant is that their true characters would show regardless of what situation they are in. Some did better than others. Where I think Zora shone was that she followed her own intuition and was very conservative because she smelled a rat. She didn't do anything on camera to be ashamed of and she behaved with good taste and manners. And that in itself gives credit to her character. Obviously the show was edited because they were there for 6 weeks! And obviously the audience didn't see much of what really went on there. But, using common sense, Zora, who appears to behave well in most of the scenes we were allowed to see, wouldn't know which scene to behave well in or not, so she must have been behaving well all the time!!!duh! unlike many of the others.
I would think that anyone who agree to participate in this type of a reality program would be willing to accept whatever the outcome was. I mean, they got to spend 6 weeks in France in a chateau doing things most of them would never be able to afford if they were footing the bill! For some, I think they didn't take the time to see what a gift that was, like a fantastic holiday! I think they got greedy and were caught up in the quest to somehow secure their position so they could continue to live that way. After having a glimpse of Zora's little pad, I think she had a much better 6 weeks in France than she would have had at home!!!
Who knows if Zora and Evan do stay together after the final show this Monday! As a viewer, I feel they network should tell us, but really, once they are off the air, they get their private lives back. Zora and Evan's paths probably would never have crossed without their participation in this show. Maybe it was fate and maybe it was just another experience on their individual paths.
02-21-2003 11:03 PM
