One of our Wise Guys, Tyler Barnett, recently went on Bravo’s reality show, “The Millionaire Matchmaker” (his episode re-airs next Tuesday, March 16th at 5pm — set your TiVos; you can watch a clip above). So we just had to give him the third degree:

Why, oh why, would you ever go on this show? Call us cynics, but we’re convinced it was all a marketing ploy for your new company, Tyler Barnett PR (they did give you pretty good in-office in-action coverage). Plus, you got your friend’s restaurant some nice play when you took your date there, too.

A PR firm owner doing his own PR? That’s outrageous. And it’s not like anyone watches the show, they only got a million viewers the first episode. Besides, if anyone wanted to find out about my new PR firm, Tyler Barnett PR, they can simply visit Tylerbarnettpr.com or Google Tyler Barnett PR.

Ha! So, how do you think you came off on the show? Was it a fairly accurate portrayal of you or do you think they made a caricature of you?

I came off as myself. I obviously didn’t have any control over the editing, but everything I said was real. I think it was a pretty accurate portrayal of who I am, built up of course by lights and cameras and Hollywood B.S.

We loved how you refused to shave your scruff and get a spray tan (seemed very un-L.A. of you, which is always a plus in our book), but then you caved! You shaved and, if that wasn’t a spray tan, it was a lot of foundation make-up. What happened?

I was pretty gung ho about not shaving. And I would never get a spray tan. She tried to convince me to for some time and my end answer was still no thank you, I like my face. The she called my mom. They didn’t air it, but she called my mom on camera and my mom agreed I should shave. She’s always hated facial hair so I figured what the hell, it will grow back. I was wearing makeup during the shoot as everyone else on camera is. I did not get a spray tan though, no thanks.

The other millionaire client featured on your episode (that once-child actor from “Picket Fences” with a Napoleonic complex and a bad case of name dropping): big douchebag or biggest douchebag ever?

In all fairness I only met him for a few hours, so I don’t know how much of that bullshit was for the camera. He was a douchebag without a doubt though. He stank of douchebagginess.

On your episode, how many of the women that are featured as potential dates are actually there to find love with guys who happen to be millionaires, and how many are actresses cast to fill the room? (No way was that woman in the red dress with the excruciating baby voice and the lobotomy for real!)

They all claimed to have jobs, but I have a hunch some of them were full of it. And as for the squeaky chick, I thought she was joking at first. But after talking to her for a while, I sweat, that was not an act! Creepy…

We like that you admit to the camera that the kiss at the end of your set-up date was awkward — do the producers push you to make-out if you seem to like each other? Would you kiss someone over dinner in a restaurant like that on a “real” first date?

The kiss was awkward for sure, but so is having dinner surrounded by lights and cameras. You have to remember they are making a TV show. It might be “reality” but you feel like you are in this fantasy world. I probably wouldn’t have kissed her if it was a different circumstance, but we did really hit it off and I did want to kiss her at the table. Once we got outside and were off camera, I kissed her again. That one wasn’t awkward.

At the end of the episode, it says that you and the woman you went on the date with are now “officially boyfriend and girlfriend.” Define “boyfriend and girlfriend” and tell us how long that lasted (again, we’re cynics). Read the rest of this entry »

To kick off your Superbowl weekend, check out these 3 bits that you won’t (but should!) see during the game this Sunday — all are in response to the anti-choice, anti-equality, anti-gay Christian group Focus on the Family’s 2.5-million-dollar spot (that we mentioned the other day) featuring football star Tim Tebow and his mom talking about how she refused to have an abortion after doctors advised her to. Hey, good for Mrs. Tebow, who had the right to make her own decisions about her reproductive health! Guess we can now hold our breath until CBS runs an equally “appropriate” ad about preserving that right to choose:

Watch the other 2 videos on SUNfiltered

We used to look forward to Superbowl Sunday for the ads (that, and the excuse to over-indulge in junk food). But it looks like CBS is determined to ruin the one sports-related joy in our lives. First of all they went and accepted an anti-choice ad from conservative Christian group Focus on the Family — apparently CBS no longer bans advocacy submissions or controversial ads, as they have claimed in the past. Of course, Focus on the Family claims the ad is not controversial at all, and is simply about “the issue of life.” Riiiight. The ad — which has not yet been released — is expected to feature Pam Tebow (mother of college football star Tim) and her decision to carry Tim to term despite a recommendation from doctors that she have an abortion. Sorry: despite a recommendation from doctors regarding the issue of life.

Unfortunately CBS’s policy on “controversial” ads still holds firm if the ad happens to come from a gay men’s dating site.

Read the rest of this post on SUNfiltered

photo via NBC

In honor of the beginning of the fall TV season, we present our top picks for the most sexy-mood-destroying TV shows:

1. Gossip Girl — Because who can possibly compete with fantasy, airbrushed sex like that? It’s enough to make your own sex life feel positively black and white.
2. The Office — The butt-clenching stress that results from all the second-hand embarrassment makes for good comedy but bad sex. Especially if you’re knocking on the back door.
3. Supernanny — We guess that this show could be classified as the best contraceptive device ever, but one episode might be enough to convince you that even a condom plus two back-up methods isn’t safe enough.
4. The O’Reilly Factor — If we need to explain this one, you need more help than we can provide on this site.
5. CSI (any of them) — Unless you’re a necrophiliac, this show really should not turn you on. Please tell us it doesn’t.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sacha Baron Cohen presented an award at the MTV Movie Awards last night as his German-fashion-maven character “Bruno”, dressed as a bare-assed angel who flies in over the audience and “accidentally” ends up sitting on attendee Eminem’s face. Was Eminem in on the stunt? Either way, it was brilliant live TV.

We know we heap a fair amount of abuse on Fox. Mostly, though, that’s just for their “fair and balanced” news coverage and their angry ranty political talk shows. When their cheery sparkly morning show comes calling, however, we just can’t say no. Because there’s nothing like dishing dating advice in front of a live audience who are being goaded into yelling “Kiss!” or “Dismiss!” so loudly that they probably can’t hear all that oh-so-sage advice anyway. Oh, yeah, and we’re total publicity whores to boot. Hey, it’s the recession, folks. Will you still respect us in the morning? (Answers in the form of “Kiss!” or “Dismiss!” only please.)

Okay, now that the disclaimer’s out of the way, click here to check out Em on “The Mike and Juliet Show” in a segment called “What’s Normal When It Comes to Dating?” (and here’s part two). Her fellow guest is one of our favorite sex experts Ian Kerner — unfortunately the producers decided there wasn’t room on the couch for Ian and Em and Lo. Fortunately, though, we agree on pretty much everything except baby talk, and that topic didn’t come up on Monday. Topics that did come up include a romantic solution to going dutch on dates; when to use the “girlfriend” word; what’s TMI when it comes to sharing with your friends…and your mom; and what to do if your boyf frowns upon ladies night (you’ve got to fight for your right to party, clearly). Stay tuned for the text version of the questions we didn’t get to in the next post.

And yes, we’re as disappointed as you are that the gentleman in the photo with the grey pompadour didn’t get to ask his “is it normal?” dating question.

photo via CW

Back when we watched the original 90210, all we remember learning about sex was that if you didn’t sleep with your boyfriend on prom night, he might end up addicted to crystal meth. Oh, how times have changed. Here’s the Gossip Girl guide to sex…

1. Never make a list of all the people you’ve ever slept with. And if you do, burn it before your boyfriend finds it in your purse while digging for tip money for the delivery guy.
2. The lonely boy with his head stuck in a book is much more “attentive” in bed than the jock. And you better snag him now, because once he gets to college, everyone else will figure this out too.
3. If he seems too good to be true then he’s probably sleeping with his stepmom.
4. That bad boy that you think you can “rescue” from himself? He’ll just keep on breaking your heart until the story becomes so boring that even you can’t stand to hear it anymore. Read the rest of this entry »

So we were catching up on our train-wreck viewing on Tivo last night and saw a bit of Dancing with the Stars (we know, we know, but it’s like sequined crack!). Anyway, one of the contestants is Holly Madison, the den mother of the Barbie-esque triptych that “dated” — and fairly recently broke up with — Hugh Hefner. (If you ever saw any of their reality show, The Girls Next Door, then you know what a strange business relationship they all had, complete with office rules and curfews for the three female “employees.”) After her quickstep, during the public critique by the judges, we were struck by how judge Carrie Ann Inaba’s assessment of Madison’s dance was also a perfect feminist critique of her relationship with Grampa Ascot:

What I think is so nice about you is that you’re so willing and eager, that you definitely trust him, you let him drag you around…but I had the feeling you were kind of like a doll and he was just dragging you around the floor. And I didn’t feel that you were grounded in your own… You have to hold your own with [your partner] and be an equal partner in the relationship. Okay? So work on that.

The clip above only shows the dance (without the judging), but you can watch the whole episode here if you’re a masochist. (It’s Week 2, Part 1; Madison is the first dancer up).

Douche and Freckles on the season finale of The Batch

It is with great shame that I, Lo, admit to having watched almost all 17 (!) horrendous seasons of The Bachelor on ABC. But last night’s “After the Final Rose” special (an in-studio event where the betrothed and the rejected appear together 3 months after the final rose is handed out) finally made it all worthwhile. At last, pay-off!

In case you haven’t been initiated into this particular reality sorority, The Bachelor is one of the most emotionally choreographed and formulaic shows on television — the same shit always happens: the Batch pretends he can’t make up his mind between the two finalists (out of 25) who’ve somehow fallen in love with him over the course of a mere 6 weeks, it’s the hardest decision he’s ever had to make, how’s he gonna do it, blah blah blah; then miraculously, on the morning of the final rose ceremony (that’s how he picks “winners” each round: he gives his faves a rose), he’s gotten a sign from god and woken up sure of whom he’s meant to spend the rest of his life with; he pummels the heart of one and proposes to (or promise-rings) the other; the happy couple, who are contractually obligated to prance their coupledom on national television one last time, show up on the post-game special holding hands, making goo-goo eyes and fart jokes to prove their closeness; then they enter the real world where it takes about 6 to 9 months for each of them to realize that the other is a soulless shallow twit who — no way! — isn’t actually “the One,” as we read in the tabloids. (Now you understand my shame.)

Host Chris Harrison (who surely must drink himself to sleep every night in order to live with what he does for a living) is fond of promoting every single show as “the most dramatic episode ever.” It’s a baldfaced lie I’ve come to expect from him. The only time he’s come close to delivering on that promise was when, a few seasons earlier, bachelor Brad did the unthinkable and rejected both finalists (of course, after having led both of them on with overtones of the the sincerest love and deep heartfelt tongue probings). It was a rare and surprising upset to the order of the Bachelor universe. But nothing compared to what happened last night!

Read the rest of this entry »