Tuesday night, update #1: Blog readers know that I'm obsessed with the cover of People magazine each week, so you know I enjoyed a series of tweets from Kate Coyne tonight, during the two-hour live After The Final Rose show. Who's Kate Coyne? According to her Twitter bio, she's an Executive Editor of People, overseeing film, tv and music. I've followed her on Twitter for quite a while and she sometimes shows up on Good Morning, America to talk about pop culture issues, but until tonight I didn't know that she's the one who writes/edits the cover headlines. I learned something else tonight: she really doesn't like Arie:
Producers of #TheBachelor have a job: make riveting TV. But #Arie, as a supposedly decent human (lol), has a responsibility to show an ounce of concern for a woman he claimed to love. Producers aren’t mafioso; you can say no to them. Arie could have said no filming. #TheBachelor— Kate Coyne (@KatePeople) March 7, 2018
So Lauren has atrocious taste in men and/or is easily manipulated or mislead. Far from the only woman to suffer those afflictions. And as personal failings go, still miles away from the total flaming crap heap of a soul that #Arie has. #TheBachelor— Kate Coyne (@KatePeople) March 7, 2018
Well, what #Arie SHOULD be regretting is that he is deeply, permanently never going to be a man who even remotely deserves a class act like #Becca. This woman is way out of your league. #TheBachelor— Kate Coyne (@KatePeople) March 7, 2018
Then she referred to the Jason Mesnick cover that I posted below:
So, as the editor of the Mesnick “Bachelor Betrayal” cover, I can tell you he complained, bitterly, about that coverline. I had little sympathy back then. But in light of #NotSorryArie and his antics? I’ll concede that Mesnick could have behaved far worse. #TheBachelor— Kate Coyne (@KatePeople) March 7, 2018
Finally, a warning. Tomorrow's cover is going to be a doozy:
Hey, #Arie...just a head’s up that if you felt even an ounce of panic when @jason_mesnick brought up his “Bachelor Betrayal” cover of @People, you might want to have a nice stiff drink before heading to newsstands tomorrow. 😘 #TheBachelor— Kate Coyne (@KatePeople) March 7, 2018
I can't wait.
What will be on the cover of People this week? The main cover story will almost certainly be Bachelor Arie Luyendyk and his current and former fiancees. Even when the story unfolds in the regular way, People usually features the newly engaged couple as the main story during the week the finale airs. (See past examples here.) For some reason, last year Nick and Vanessa were downgraded to a sidebar, bumped by a promotion for a new book by Prince's ex-wife:
This time around, as the whole world now knows, Arie "pulled a Mesnick" by getting engaged to Becca, then rejecting her a few weeks later to pursue his still-simmering romantic feelings for runner-up Lauren. Here's how people covered Jason's story back in 2009:
Tomorrow's new cover should look a lot like this one, possibly using several of the same words. What's different this time around is social media. During the live show last night, Chris Harrison could hardly mask his glee when, while trying to demonstrate compassion towards Becca, he also pointed out that the story was "blowing up on social media." No kidding. Bachelor Nation is excoriating Arie and it isn't pretty.
ABC, publicly salivating at the ratings gold a juicy scandal like this can now generate, has scheduled another live show tonight, two more hours of trauma and drama playing out live in living rooms across America. As I'm writing early on Tuesday morning, I'm actually expecting some serious backlash, not just for Arie but for the network as well. Filming the entire break-up, with not one but two cameras, then stretching the whole thing out over two nights and five hours of live television, is more than a little exploitative. Will they get the tone right on tonight's show? Almost certainly not. A few more thoughts:
The next Bachelorette. Is it Becca? Almost certainly.
Arie and Lauren. Are they together now? Apparently. Are they engaged? Possibly. Reality Steve says they may have gotten engaged last week-end, although he hasn't confirmed it. Will the two of them go the distance and actually get married? Don't make me laugh. I give it six months tops.
Chris Harrison. In one word, smarmy. He just doesn't have the acting chops to hit the right notes when he's supposed to be sympathetic, empathetic, or just plain kind.
Is there anything else going on in the world that might make it to the cover of People? Not much. I only have two other guesses, a Dead Celebrity (M.A.S.H. star David Ogden Stiers, who died last week) and the Oscars. Meet me back here tomorrow morning to see if I'm right, in the meantime, these are the stories currently posted at people.com:
The Bachelor's Becca Kufrin Breaks Her Silence After Arie Luyendyk Jr. Ends Their Engagement
Bachelor Nation Is Outraged with Arie Luyendyk Jr. for Dumping Becca Weeks After Proposing: 'So Heartless'
The Bachelor's Shocking Finale: Arie Luyendyk Jr. Proposes to Becca Before Dumping Her for Lauren
The Bachelor's Arie Luyendyk Jr. Explains That Heartbreaking Twist: 'I Made a Huge Mistake'
Mid-morning update: A couple more stories:
Chris Harrison Defends Filming Dramatic Bachelor Breakup: 'You Don't Get to Just Tell Fairytales'
It's a Breakover! Becca Kufrin Debuts Darker Hair After Dramatic Split from Arie Luyendyk Jr.
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