Welcome back everyone. Long time no talk. Of course, if you were following along ever since “Bachelor in Paradise” ended, no need to be welcomed back, but for the majority of you, that’s not the case. Let me update you on where we’re at with everything. The spoilers have been released in sections. Your final four breakdown and who Not Peter is engaged to was posted on Nov. 30th. Then a week later on Dec. 5th, I posted your first 3 episode-by-episode spoilers. I’m trying to find out a couple last things from the middle episodes (4 thru 7), and hope to have those soon for you. For those just reading the Final 4 breakdown and who he’s engaged to, you read the story of the Cease and Desist I received the week previous to posting those. No new news to report there. There hasn’t been anything filed against me, and business will continue as usual on this site. My thoughts that day are the same now, so I just take it day-by-day and will continue to provide you with information you can’t get anywhere else. Let’s get this started, shall we?
First order of business is announce the 4th Annual Reality Steve Fan Appreciation Party is happening again this year. Still 5 months away but this thing fills up fairly quick, and for people making travel arrangements, I want to give you plenty of time to get things booked. It will take place Friday night, June 8th, at Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas. Thought maybe we’d switch up hotels this year, but Mandalay has always been good to me, so no need to change things. Party starts at 8:00pm and there will be an open beer and wine bar along with appetizers for the night. And of course, there will be the Reality Steve Trivia Contest as well with prizes for the first top 2 finishers. If you are looking for a discounted room at Mandalay, contact me immediately as rates are changing every day. I can see what rates are available for you.
Basically here’s how it works: it’s first come, first serve. If you want in, you have to let me know immediately. People who are flying in get first priority since I assume you’re less likely to flake after paying for a flight, and your confirmation to the party is showing me your flight itinerary. I’d say we’ve had about 95% of the people who said they were gonna show up actually show up the first three years, so that’s been great. But it’s a lot easier to cancel out or flake at the last minute if you’re in the area or you’re driving. So if you want in to the party, email me at steve@realitysteve.com, let me know if you’re flying or driving, and let me know the names of everyone in your party. If flying, once I have your flight itinerary, you’re confirmed. If driving, I need your hotel reservation to be confirmed. Last year was our biggest turnout as we had close to 70 people. This year, looking to get anywhere between 75-80. So if you’re interested, let me know and get me either your flight/hotel itineraries as soon as possible. Looking forward to seeing you there.
Obviously the news of the past week was last Thursday’s podcast with Arie and Peter’s exes, Sydney Stempfley and Brittany Hansen. I’ve seen some of the feedback on Twitter along with the emails you have sent me and, as expected, it’s varied. I’m fine with that. They did get plenty of support, which I really appreciate. But I fully understand that anyone who was already Pro Arie or Pro Peter was going to say anything they could to defend both of them. That’s not original. The ones I did see were basically pointless and you can tell written by someone who was just a fan. Hell, some of the responses to last Thursday’s podcast were coming within 30-45 minutes of me posting it. How can you possibly have an informed, intelligent opinion on an interview 30-45 minutes after it’s posted when the whole podcast was almost 2 hours? Exactly. Those were mostly the Arie and Peter fans who immediately dismissed anything either girl said, which is just sad.
The other thing that seemed to be completely blown out of proportion were the texts that were revealed. You do realize the texts were posted just to corroborate the girls stories that they told in the podcasts, right? The texts weren’t the stories. The podcasts were. Yet so many comments I saw tweeted at me or emailed to me were about dissecting the texts and nothing about the podcasts. If your argument is, “Well, you realize texts can be faked, right? How do you know they’re real?” Look, if you honestly think that both of those women, who I’ve been speaking with on and off for months now, forged every conversation they’ve ever had with either guy for the sake of waiting months to finally reveal it in a podcast, then I don’t know what to tell you other than you’re wrong. They didn’t. I could go on and on, but no need to. Peter was lucky Brittany took it easy on him. There is much more she could’ve shared. She has told me since, that just on Thursday alone, at least 10 women reached out to her personally and thanked her for speaking up because it helped them with relationships they were in. That was her goal so she’s very happy. She gained nothing financially, and she knew she was being vulnerable and opening herself up to criticism, but ultimately she’d had enough, and wanted to let people know that type of behavior wasn’t acceptable. I applaud her for that. There isn’t much else for me to say on the matter as I’ll let both interviews speak for themselves. It’s their story, not mine.
I’m sure plenty of you want to chime in and give your thoughts, so get your “Reader Emails” in this week along with any “Dr. Reality Steve” emails. We are back to our normal schedule this week with “Reader Emails” on Wednesdays, and “Dr. Reality Steve” and the podcast coming on Thursdays. Lets get those emails in and have a big first week of emails for both columns tomorrow and Thursday.
Also, Nell Kalter’s “Floribama Shore” recap is now up here for your reading pleasure. Have you been watching this? I mean, it’s about as wild ass as you can get.
Page 2 I’ll have some “Bachelor” news for you concerning some of the women this season, along with what exactly are they hinting at in the trailer with someone’s ex returning…
cmall2
January 2, 2018 at 8:02 AM
Mike was cheating on Chelsea with Rani and hooking up with her in hotels while Rani was cheating on Gabe at the same time. Those two are perfect for each other, minus the fact that what got Rani with Mike is what will eventually divorce them…
He’s already going out with single friends and staying out in hotels! Hi Press Hotel??
adelina
January 2, 2018 at 10:24 AM
^^^^^^I feel some shade and personal vendetta stuff from the comment above by @cmall2. I noticed that Rani (what is that name anyway) looks just like Chelsea.
I agree that Tia is really Raven 2.0. I do find Tia much prettier than Raven and always found Raven to have a Morticia look that is unattractive. What was that clothing shop Raven was in? Is it hers? Looked very rural chic.
The comment about Maquel looking like Kesha made me laugh. She does resemble Kesha but a rich man’s version for sure.
Bekah is super cute but she is also at an age when she thinks she’s cute and clever and down to earth and really needs to convey that. I have a 22-year old child with the emphasis being on ‘child.’ Very young but props to Bekah for wearing short hair really well.
Krystal is exhausting and reminds me of Britt. Always ON and super HAPPY and super affected and super just go away.
I thought Arie came off as a bit dim, a bit dull and a bit slimy. He seemed to lear at the women after intros more so than Bach’s in the past.
rob22
January 2, 2018 at 11:07 AM
Gotta say that the women this season are very good looking. That wasn’t the case last season. I agree that Arie was totally leering at the women after the intros. He’s really creepy. It was actually a bit shocking that the girls seemed to be into an old creeper. But I guess that’s why they’re there. If they don’t act into him their 15 minutes are up quickly. What a show. Girls throw themselves at a guy they’re not that into (some even sleep with him) just for attention and social media cred. It’s pretty sick when you think about it, especially in the “Metoo” world we live in.
jlal
January 2, 2018 at 11:19 AM
I totally agree that Tia is way more pretty than Raven, but yet a Raven 2.0.
I didn’t think Arie was coming off as slimy at all. He didn’t “leer” anymore or less than other bachelors. Also, Nick was older than Arie so everyone just stop with the old crap. I’m not and wasn’t even on Emily’s season a big Arie fan, but am getting sick of RS and others just trashing him.
RS cracks me up with the “womanizer” comment. Really, womanizer? Too f’ing funny. Also, he IS a race car driver, there are many who try different categories of racing. So, he isn’t as good as his Dad, way to shame someone. At lease he was out there trying, jeez.
Arie has been a single guy living the single life. Doesn’t seem any more or less “slimy” than any of the others, save Shaun and Ben, that have been the bachelor. Not too many guys are going to say no when they have a chance with a pretty woman. Sounds like RS has some sour grapes. I can’t figure it out, why he is so against Arie. Been reading this site for years and have never seen this blatant animosity toward a lead before.
trainwrecktv
January 2, 2018 at 9:11 PM
I don’t think Steve has been any harder on Arie than anybody else. Arie is just an easy target. I tried to play devil’s advocate during this first episode thinking to myself things like, “Maybe I’m just imagining he is leering…” but nope, that was definitely some *skeezy* leering. The creepy mumbling about the women as he watched them walk away definitely didn’t help.
It was also pretty bad watching him actually say that the things that make him excited to be alive are “excitement,” good food (defined as pizza) and friends/companionship. If he doesn’t think quicker than that on his feet and keeps up the creep factor, this might he a hard season to watch. I have a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that Arie is going to make me miss the days of smooth operator Nick, and I didn’t think that was possible.
rob22
January 4, 2018 at 7:09 AM
Look, Arie is impossibly superficial and self-centered. I know that is often the case, but I doubt that Arie has any real thoughts beyond what feels good here and now. There are many examples just from the first episode. The leering comments about the women as he turned to look at their backsides. The “adrenaline junky” comment. Just to name a couple. Sure, he’ll parrot some bromides about wanting a future, wanting someone to share his life with (his life, of course) and marriage…. blah, blah, blah. He’ll say it because it’s expected. In that way, he’s really no different than Nick (or many other Bachelors), but Nick was just better at playing the part. He acted just well enough to get many to buy his act, for a time. Arie is completely transparent. So, is he a bad guy. No. Is he terrible for taking advantage of willing females in the past. No. But let’s not try to pretend that Arie is here to actually find a wife. That’s just silly. Let’s just enjoy this trashy charade for what it is. For what it almost always is.