LOS ANGELES–And they said it wouldn’t last.
Whitney and Bobby. Britney and K-Fed.
Brigitte Nielsen and Flavor Flav.
All the various Bachelors and Bachelorettes and Amazing Brother Survivor hook-ups … and, of course, that poster-couple of reality dysfunction, former Newlyweds Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey … all of them, victims of their own attention-craving hubris, offering up their intimate relationships as weekly television fodder for the masses, only to have those relationships disintegrate once the cameras had gone.
There have been exceptions, like the pioneering Osbournes, Ozzy and Sharon, and the late-to-the-game Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed … but then, they’re old and set in their ways and half-deaf from decades of close proximity to very large speaker stacks.
How, then, to explain the youthful longevity – on TV and off – of Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott, the right side of the tracks/north side of the border celebrity couple whose own relationship/reality show, Tori & Dean: Inn Love, is about to start its second season here on Slice (Tuesday at 10)?
The cutesy, cuddly, cooing twosome – and I can tell you from first-hand observation, they really are absolutely besotted with each other – have survived his acrimonious divorce (from Toronto radio host Mary Jo Eustace), the death of Spelling’s father (TV mogul Aaron), her subsequent reconciliation with her estranged mother and the labour-intensive, crisis-plagued realization of their dream home/bed and breakfast, Château LaRue (named after her dog) – only to have it threatened by last month’s California wildfires.
And that would be literally “labour-intensive” – in the middle of all this, Spelling gave birth to their first child, Liam Aaron McDermott.
All of which would be enough to scuttle the healthiest relationship, let alone one already illuminated by the glare of celebrity, and layered upon that, the self-imposed spotlight of intrusive reality cameras.
And yet these two – now three – seem entirely unfazed by it all, as they have been all along. It was slightly less than a year ago that they first presided over a skeptical introductory press session at the TV critics’ tour, all smiles and giggles in giddy anticipation of the adventure ahead of them.
This, despite the questionable success rate of those who had gone before.
“It’s funny,” Spelling allowed at the time. “I mean, we had already signed on to do it, and we had the idea and were all really excited – but I hadn’t broken that news to Dean. He didn’t know that none of the couples who had done a reality show had lasted together.
“I was surprised no one had pointed that out, but …”
“I had no idea,” shrugged McDermott. “But we’re going to be the exception; not the rule. We’re going to prove everyone wrong.”
And they have – not only in terms of their still thriving relationship, but getting the B&B up and running and capable of actually housing guests. This from a Canadian actor with a bit of renovation and restaurant experience, and a Beverly Hills actress/heiress far less accustomed to serving than being served.
“I just have really good style,” suggested Spelling, “so I thought I could kind of spruce up a B&B.”
The project itself, she insisted, preceded the idea of doing a TV show, starting as far back as the previous summer, when they returned to Ottawa, where their romance began, to make another TV movie.
“Returning to the scene of the crime,” smirked McDermott.
“They had offered to put us up at a B&B, as opposed to our fancy Four Seasons hotel,” explained Spelling, “because it was so much closer to the set.
“I had never stayed in a B&B. Dean hadn’t either. So I had some trepidations … my makeup artist at the time was like, `Oh, B&Bs are just creepy and they’re old and (filled with) people’s used things …’
“And it was. It was old and musty and filled with people’s old, used things, like decrepit teddy bears with eyes hanging out …”
“Smelt a bit like pee,” muttered McDermott, as if only half-aware he was speaking out loud. “Well, it did!”
Not that that even fazed them (and besides, if the new place didn’t already smell of pee, young Liam Aaron would soon see to that).
“B&B’s are good for us,” Spelling continued, “because we conceived (in one) in Ottawa, obviously. But we also came away with the idea that we would like to reinvent the B&B, kind of do a modern take on it, and kind of reinvent it for our generation.
“Then came the reality show.”
Again, the combination of a new relationship and the round-the-clock scrutiny of in-house TV cameras does not, historically speaking, bode well, as epitomized by Newlyweds’ Simpson and Lachey (and MTV Canada is now offering a chance to relive that horror, as they replay all 40 excrutiating episodes weekdays at 2 p.m.).
“We’re kind of the next level,” Spelling countered. “We are still newlyweds, but we have the baby, and we’re juggling our careers and the new business … so it’s kind of Newlyweds: Part Deux.
“We are actors, and this is reality, but part of my thing is I kind of like to put a little humour into everything. Because you have ups and downs in life, and if you can’t laugh at it, then what can you do?”
As if in answer – to both this and the Newlyweds question – McDermott deadpans: “You know, I still don’t know … Is Chicken of the Sea actually chicken or tuna?
“Never have figured that one out.”
Cthulhu
Kiss The Bride
Tori & Dean: Inn Love
The first image of Tori and Liam for their Skechers campaign has been released! Click on the image to the right to view the full sized image. You can also read about the campaign and order shoes to benefit the charity over at Skechers.com.