"The whole thing has been blown way out of proportion." Looks like we'll see the whole story play out on air this Monday, but
according to one Arie's best friends, the "drama" about how Arie used to date
Bachelor producer Cassie Lambert is much ado about nothing:
"People assume it was this really intense, long-term relationship - but
that's not the case. The whole thing has been blown way out of
proportion. It was in 2003 so Arie was really young. She was an
Indiana girl and knew a lot about racing. She drank beer and hung with
the boys. But Arie told me it was never a relationship. Like I said,
I've been one of his best friends for ages and I've never even heard her
name until now.
" The friend also says that Arie wasn't given special treatment at any point during the show.
Very unlike himself, Chris Harrison downplays next week's drama, calling it NOT "the biggest calamity in the history of the show": In his
weekly interview with TV Guide, Chris Harrison weighed in on next week's "intense" but not catastrophic drama: "Next week is the most romantic week, but also very intense. Emily does find out about the relationship Arie had with our producer and we deal with that. It's very straightforward, we show clips and raw footage, we just show viewers what we have and the conversation that took place. It was a decision of whether we sweep it under the rug and act like it didn't happen? We want to show people that yes there was something there, but it wasn't the biggest calamity in the history of the show."
"You give me that feeling that people write conference call question
s about." ABC has been doing this weird thing where instead of doing conference calls with the eliminated guys (NO KALON TRYING TO MAKE "BAGGAGE" A GOOD THING? NO RYAN EXPLAINING THAT "TROPHY WIFE" IS A COMPLIMENT?! LAAAAME.), they've set up chats with Emily's remaining guys. First,
Sean talked extensively about nothing. Then
Arie sent a lot of people with low reading comprehension levels into a TIZZY by joking that Emily is his fiancee, and then
shrouded the "spoiler" in further mystery by saying outright, "I'm just joking."
This week, it was one-F Jef's turn to transform straightforward questions into vague answers in that space between his ear and his mouth. Here are the most interesting parts from that interview:
- Emily hinted to Jef that Ryan was a goner: "When she came and picked up Ryan for her date in Croatia, she looked over at me one time not like, "This date is going to be fun." She looked over at me and just gave me this smile like, "Yeah right. This date's not going to be fun for anybody." So I kind of knew right then. It was weird. It was just a look she gave me, but at that time, I knew she wasn't being fooled by any of his tricks."
- The exception proves the rule: "I think all the guys there were chosen because they could possibly see themselves being a father -- minus Kalon."
- The true Jef: "It doesn't really show a lot on the show, you know, how much of a free spirit I am."
- On Arie's producer-dating past: "He'd be like, "Emily just feels like there's something that I'm like hiding from her or something that I'm holding back, and I have no idea what it is."
And obviously I had no idea that he dated one of the producers, so I was just like, "Well, what do you think it is?" And he's like, "I have no idea. I just get the feeling that she just doesn't trust me or that there's something up." And of course when I got home and I figured that out, I was just like, "Well, duh!" (Laughs)
[...] And I know she didn't address it immediately with him. She kept trying to get him to open up and talk about it, and I think that next week you'll find out a lot more about it. It's a really shocking and really cool interesting story."
- On Emily's final choice: "I'm flattered that people think that it's me. I think that's cool and I definitely developed strong feelings for Emily, but as for where I'm at right now and my feelings for her, I'm still crazy about her. But as for what happens, you'll just have to tune in to find out!"
Ryan clears up what he meant when he said he was "called to something greater": In
a hometown TV interview, Ryan Bowers said that quotes in which he was talking about his faith were edited to look like he was talking about himself, leading to his "cocky" edit on the show: "If you took a look at what I saw, you see this dichotomy, you see one side you see me talking about my faith and stuff and then the other side you see someone who is cocky and arrogant. So, some of that is hard to watch, because I know that when I was saying some of the things I was saying, I was talking about my faith. [...]
'I know that I'm called to something greater than this,' it's not talking
about her and being on the show, it's more or less being on TV and
things like that, I know I'm called to something greater than that."
FROM THE BALLROOM TO THE BACHELORETTE?!?! DWTS's
said she'd enjoy being The Bachelorette in a completely off-the-cuff comment during an unrelated interview the other day, so obviously everyone is now sh*tting their pretty little pants over how that's totally going to happen*!!!! (*almost definitely never going to happen)
Below, check out photos and read more details from Monday's episode, when Emily will take underdog John "Wolf" Wolf to the Lennon Wall in Prague, and those "desperate bachelors" will make for tension galore: