Thursday, September 7, 2017

Not A Fan

Saturday morning, update #3: I had intended to get away from all things Bachelor for a while, but it's just too juicy to ignore. Emily Maynard's former fiance, and (apparently former) friend of Arie, Jef Holm, has weighed in on the next Bach:

Holm, 33, and Luyendyk Jr., 35, made it to the final two on Emily Maynard‘s season of The Bachelorette in 2012. Maynard ultimately chose Holm, though they broke off their engagement months later.

Holm and Luyendyk Jr. maintained a strong friendship, though it appeared to have fizzled in recent years — and now, it’s evident that the two men had some sort of falling out.

After ABC officially announced Luyendyk Jr. as the next Bachelor on Thursday, Holm voiced his displeasure via Twitter.

“Oh the stories I could tell…” he wrote, adding that he would “rather see a double bachelor” in response to a tweet from franchise creator Mike Fleiss claiming this was “by far the most positive reaction” they’ve ever had in announcing the show’s new lead.

In a follow-up tweet, Holm added that he “stopped being friends with [Luyendyk Jr.] years ago because he’s disgusting.” (From an article at People.com, read it here.) 

None of the distinguished gentlemen who make up the fraternity of ex-Bachelor contestants are choirboys; in fact word on the street is that many of them have gleefully leveraged their reality TV fame to  hook up with as many pretty young women as possible. Rumors about Jef and Arie have been out there for years. Did Bach producers know before casting Arie? Do they care? Arie turns 36 in a couple of weeks, the same age as Nick. What will his contestant pool look like? Nick's cast included women as young as 23; the oldest was Rachel, who was 31. (And, at 31, Rachel chose the oldest man on her season. Bryan is 37.) Will Arie's cast also skew young? Will a broken-hearted/pissed-off ex-girlfriend show up to torment our Bachelor, similar to the woman who claimed to have been DeMario's ex? Will all of this play out in the tabloids, as predicted by Reality Steve as soon as Arie's name was announced? Probably to all of the above. As I said, it's juicy.

Friday afternoon, update #2: More info about how we got to this point of Arie yes, Peter no, at least for now. From People.com; read the article here.

“Peter was absolutely in discussion. He sort of alluded to that as well. I think at this point in his life, the breakup with Rachel was still very raw. Sometimes you move on very quickly, sometimes you don’t. I think that, for him, there were still residual feelings there, and it was a very real breakup,” Robert Mills, ABC’s Senior Vice President of Alternative Series, Specials & Late-Night Programming, told Entertainment Tonight.

…“I think the finale, when that aired and everything after that was also hard on Peter. I think he just didn’t know. I think Peter probably would have done it and been an amazing Bachelor, but I also don’t know if he, himself, knew if this was the time when he was ready to really do this 100 percent,” added Mills, who said Kraus wasn’t “100 percent ready.”

Still, like Luyendyk Jr., it’s possible that the Wisconsin native, who runs a personal training company in Madison, Wisconsin, could have his second shot at finding happily ever after on an ABC reality series down the road.

“I think we’ll always be in touch with Peter, and there might be a time. … It might be a year from now, when it’s better for him,” said Mills. “It was all about timing. If Arie wasn’t ready, we would have looked at him, but we want it to feel right. Peter was an incredible fan favorite, which I think was great, but I also think the double-edged sword with that is, if it’s not the season that the fans want, which, you know, might have been if Peter might not have been ready to commit 100 percent, that’s also disappointing, and it would have been disappointing for Peter too.”

Following his appearance on The Bachelorette, Kraus thought he would be cast for the role of Bachelor “up until early this week,” a source close to the situation told PEOPLE

“Peter got an indication yesterday that a new Bachelor was going to be announced and that it wasn’t him,” the source said Kraus. “But he had no idea who it was or that it was specifically Arie.”

Kraus essentially turned down the opportunity a few weeks ago “because he was conflicted,” the source added.

Thursday afternoon, update #1: It's been a wild day in Bachelor Nation. Now Peter has released a statement on Instagram:
#tbt to the most incredible journey of this life time that has now officially come to an end today. As I sit here writing this, I struggle to hold back the tears as I am overcome with emotion one last time. First and foremost.. @therachlindsay , there are so very many things that I've wished I could say to you since the day we parted ways in Spain, but for everyone's sake, I'll keep it short... You gave me a chance and all that I can say is thank you. I have a heart filled with love for you now and always and wish you nothing but the best in your life and love ahead. ABC, you saw something in me, but something held me back. You treated me with such love and kindness and showed me glimpses of a life I never once dreamed that I could have. I will be forever humbled and grateful and will always look back at these last 6 months with an ear to ear smile, knowing that this has truly been a very special life indeed. Upon leaving the @bacheloretteabc I was asked, "what did you learn, about yourself during this process?" And at the time I naively said "nothing that I can think of." Now... looking back... I realize I learned one of the single greatest teachings of my life; When you let uncertainty or fear guide your decisions, you risk missing out on what could potentially be the greatest opportunity of a life time.  So live dangerously, live without the fear of the unknown, and continue to live and love with a heart that is truly open to anything. #thankyou #lovealways
A post shared by Peter J Kraus (@peterkrauswi) on

Original post:
I've been pondering the fact that Reality Steve has been wrong about Peter three times. He initially claimed that Peter "won" Rachel's season and was engaged to her, before clawing that back and admitting that Bryan was the winner. (Steve said his sources led him astray...) In mid-August he claimed Peter had turned down the Bachelor job, then on August 30 he reversed again and said that Peter was the Bachelor (again, according to his sources.)  We may never know for sure what really happened with Peter, but after all the drama Arie Luyendyk, Jr. has been officially announced as the next Bachelor and Steve is not a fan:

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