Marc Flemming
Renovator
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Registered: Jan 2003
Local time: 04:48 AM
Location: Santa Cruz
Posts: 3663
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And the winner is .... Poetry Boy.
In a move that shocked many viewers of ABC’s reality drama The Bachelorette on Wednesday night, 29-year-old Trista Rehn gave her final rose to 27-year-old poetry-penning firefighter Ryan Sutter, who promptly dropped to one knee and proposed marriage.
Said she: "This day is a day I dreamed about my entire life. I see smiles and laughter. I see babies and grandbabies. I see comfort and safety. I see me in a white dress, and I see it with you…I can now tell you without reservation that I am in love with you."
Said he: "I love you with every ounce of who I am and offer you my hand, my heart and soul and my love, forever, if you’ll have it."
Said ABC: "Oh God, please let us beat American Idol in the ratings tonight."
And so it did, with the network handily winning the timeslot with an estimated 20.4 million viewers (in preliminary Nielsen ratings) and the highest numbers for a non-sports program in the timeslot for the oh-so-coveted 18-34 category since a bachelorette of a different kind--Monica Lewinsky--sat down for a chat with Babs Walters in 1999.
American Idol, with a 30-minute voting results edition (red-haired Vanessa and "Hercules! Hercules!" Rickey were picked, by the way) and an hour-long "best of the worst" audition-clips show, finished with a none-too-shabby 16.7 million viewers.
The competition to win Trista's hand, meanwhile, had come down to Sutter and 28-year-old Charlie Maher, who, according to the now obviously false rumors that had been circulating for weeks, had been chosen by Trista and was already expecting a child with her.
But even after his trip to Rehn's St. Louis hometown and a dinner in which he not only won over her "protective" father but seemed to have her mom and stepmom ready to watch when he divulged that he sometimes shaves his chest hair, Charlie got the high-heeled boot.
"When you stepped out of the limo (at the beginning of the show), a tiny little voice in my head told me that you were the one. Every moment we've spent together since then has allowed me to believe in that little voice," Rehn told Maher. "Unfortunately, my heart has led me another way."
She fakes right and slam dunk…ouch!
Sutter, meanwhile, also leveraged that trip home to meet Rehn's 'rents, as he impressed them with his shyness and sincerity, the fact that he writes poetry for Trista (though, it should be noted, a portion of his eloquent taped message for Rehn was actually part of a poem often attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson) and his big move: taking her father aside and asking for Trista's hand in marriage.
From there, both men made a trip to Harry Winston for some ring shopping, though Harry & company might want to be on the lookout for Charlie at the returns counter.
As snuggly as Rehn and her fireman appeared in the Finale--and in a Thursday morning appearance on Good Morning America--ABC has already doused the reality relationship fire with a big bucket of cold water: Rehn and Sutter will be a part of the Thursday night network special in which Bachelor II hunk Aaron Buerge and his chosen one, Helene Eksterowicz, discuss the aftermath of his onair proposal.
The prognosis: Buzz is that the Missouri banker and the New Jersey school psychologist's love has gone to that big reality relationship graveyard in the sky, along with the coupling of first Bachelor Alex Michel and his rose recipient Amanda Marsh. And that pairing was said to go bust when Marsh found out Michel still had feelings for Rehn, who was the runner-up during the inaugural series.
But as the dizzying reality world turns for lots of viewers, especially those of the female variety, there's really only one thing to take away from the show: Charlie is now available.
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02-24-2003 09:20 PM
