This weekend made me feel old. I mean, we already know I’m old, but this “Bachelor” promo that ran during the Oscars Sunday night was kinda funny and kinda sad. I’m sure you saw it. It was a take off on the scene in “Ghost” where Demi Moore was at the pottery table and Patrick Swayze comes up behind her and they make sweet, passionate love. I think. Anyway, when they did the Peter parody of it on Sunday, people were emailing me thinking that was some sort of clue to the season. Like, they had no idea it was even a reference from “Ghost.” I mean, it did come out 30 YEARS AGO. Holy crap. Yeah, no wonder some people had no idea what that was all about. But for me, someone who saw “Ghost” in high school and have referenced it numerous times over the years in past columns, kind of a jaw dropping moment when these millennials don’t have a f***ing clue what it was and think ABC just randomly made some pottery commercial with Peter in it. Smh. Yup, we’ve officially hit that point people. I’m old as dirt, I can’t relate to the young uns’ anymore, and I might as well apply for my AARP card. Go ahead, just make your “Ok Boomer” comment to me and continue about your day. My response is, go see “Ghost.” It’s enjoyable. Willie Lopez is a snake. And Carl is a bad, bad man. How dare you try and get in Molly’s pants after you killed her husband, Carl!
Outside of that, this weekend was pure insanity. Like, I can’t remember a weekend in Bachelor Nation like this past one that I’ve had to deal with. Literally starting Friday through yesterday, I think people were 100% convinced of four different theories floating around, when in actuality, none of them amounted to anything. I understand the ending this season is unspoiled. And I understand a lot of you HAVE to know what happens or else you’re gonna pop a brain vessel or something. But you’ve gotta stop believing EVERY…SINGLE…THEORY you see online. It’s not healthy, I tell ya’. Go see a doctor if you’ve been infected with theory-itis this season, because unfortunately, a lot of you have. And in over 300 emails, tweets, and IG messages I got this weekend, you really had yourselves convinced this weekend that Peter ended up with a woman whose face the audience will never see (that should’ve been your first hint). But I digress. Let me explain…
It all started when someone decided to post a theory online that Peter was dating his producer, Julie LaPlaca, it got legs, then this article was out there. At that point, all my inboxes exploded. This was the new thing. Everyone read that and just assumed because someone had a theory, that it must be true. As I said Saturday and I’ll say again. This theory is garbage. There’s nothing to it. Peter is not with his producer Julie. It was asinine someone even came up with that, and even worse, media outlets considered it a legitimate theory. Here’s the issue. Theories are just guesses. They’re speculation. They aren’t spoilers. Did you read everything IN this person’s theory. It was a whole theory based on post-filming social media pictures. People want to think they have something when they don’t. And I guess people will post whatever they want and get people to believe them. Then I’m the one that suffers the brunt of it because people come running to me for answers. Trust me, EVEN IF I had put the spoiler out there months ago, the second this theory came up I still would’ve been bombarded with it. I know this because it happens every season.
So this person says “I’m 98% sure Peter is with Julie…” then lays out aaaaallllll these points (which are nothing but post-filming pictures and comments) to try and back up their theory. Great. He’s not with her. So that makes all the time and effort they spent putting into their “guess” now a moot point and, well, wrong. We’re dealing with spoilers. He’s either with Julie or he isn’t. He isn’t. So anything written to try and convince you he is, seemingly is a waste. And I get that people want to have theories about the ending, but, if they actually took the time to think critically about this, they’d realize that theory made no sense. And for other outlets to pick up on this and run it just so they can get clicks, without critically thinking about this themselves, is reckless journalism to me. Unless it’s a Kaitlyn situation where she clearly screwed up and spoiled her own season in snapchat IN BED with the guy she chose, or, it’s Arie and Becca posting from the same backyard within 15 minutes of each other on their IG stories, any other social media pics aren’t definitive spoilers.
Peter and Julie have pics together post-show. Great. They’re they are in Times Square on New Year’s Eve together. Yeah. SHE’S HIS PRODUCER. Did that person bother to think even for a second that Julie travels with Peter ANY TIME he does media rounds? And he was in NY for the ABC Rockin’ Eve show like EVERY “Bachelor” has been on NYE for the past I don’t know how many seasons to promote the “Bachelor” because it premieres within a week after NYE. Peter spends more time with Julie than he does ANY of the women this season. Probably 10x more. She goes everywhere with him. So it’s not the least bit surprising that he’d befriend her, their families would befriend each other, and they’d spend time together outside the show. So to say because their families spent time together and took a pic together that Peter is with her? Huh?
Lets also not forget this theory gave you absolutely nothing in terms of how this would’ve possibly fit into any of the storyline we see at the end of the season. If Peter is with Julie, when did this happen? How did this happen? If the audience has never seen Julie’s face on the show, why would this be an ending anyone would care to see? They try and pitch a love story every season, right? 99.9% of their audience didn’t have a clue of Julie LaPlaca’s name before this weekend, let alone could pick her out of a lineup. Thus, they have zero investment in her. But she just shows up on final rose ceremony day, runs off with Peter, and the audience is supposed to be invested in that? C’mon people. Lets think before we theorize. I’ll continue…
Peter has said since the season started his season was gonna be unspoiled and has continued to say no one’s guessed it yet. And the show has doubled down on that. Do you think for a guy who has said that for the last two months, both he and Julie are gonna openly post pics and videos of themselves together? Even if your argument is, “They’re hiding in plain sight!” No. The show would never do that. They aren’t gonna give you evidence for 3 months of their final couple in public hanging out and just hope you don’t pick up on it. That’s not how this show works. These weren’t like some secret pictures this person stumbled upon either. These were all pictures and videos that were on both their public pages, and parents public pages. I don’t know how else to explain it other than there’s no way the show would allow this. But they weren’t a couple and were never a couple, so I guess it doesn’t matter.
One final caveat to this story is that someone added on to it by saying, “I heard that Julie was engaged until right around the time of the final rose ceremony and called her wedding off.” Jesus. Please, whatever you do, don’t let facts get in the way of your own narrative. Wrong. Julie was engaged this past summer and HER FIANCE called it off. So yeah, while whoever threw that out there sure made the story sound juicier and probably got more people believing this nonsense, it couldn’t have been more factually incorrect. And that’s where theories and random suggestions like that really throw me for a loop. I don’t deal in theories. I deal in spoilers. Big difference. My goal has been to find out what happened in Australia at the end of filming. These people are just mixing stuff together post-show with some pictures and videos. That’s not a spoiler. That’s a guess. Just trust me when I say Peter isn’t with Julie. Yes, I know I don’t have everything laid out perfectly with how the season ends. But it is absolutely 100% possible to not know the end, but KNOW that Peter isn’t with Julie LaPlaca. Or Hannah Brown. He’s not. Lets move on. And oh yeah, Robert Mills basically laughed at the Julie rumor yesterday in this interview.
