I never, EVER thought I’d say this, but after the spectacle that was Jake Pavelka and Vienna Girardi’s interview on The Bachelorette, I’ve found myself on Team Vienna. For now, anyway. I could still jump ship and declare myself Team Nobody. It happened to me with the Gosselins, I used to be disgusted by Kate and would vaguely, halfheartedly stick up for Jon. I mean, she was so mean. But Job Gosselin saw to it that I hate him too, and Vienna could do the same thing. Let’s see if she starts posing for tabloids wearing Ed Hardy clothes and diamond earrings.
OK, so I know a lot of people think that everything involving The Bachelor(ette) franchise is completely and totally fake. And while I do think that an awful lot is probably staged (though I don’t want to know specifically what), I do think some of these relationships have got to be for reals. I could use the Trista and Ryan union as an example, but I’d rather use Jake and Vienna. Here’s the thing: I don’t think you can fake that much hate.
After The Bachelorette on Monday night, host Chris Harrison sat down with Jake and Vienna for their first interview together after their recent “bitter break-up”. I love watching people break up on TV so much more than watching them fall in “love”. Case in point: I didn’t even watch that Meznick guy’s Bachelor season, but I cackled with reality TV glee when he dumped Melissa Rycroft on TV and she muttered “You bastard”. Call me insensitive, call me shallow, but that was hilarious and so was this Jake and Vienna interview.
At the beginning of The Bachelor, I kind of liked Jake. He cut women who weren’t right for him left and right and seemed intent on finding someone he could really be with. He seemed grounded. As the show went on I liked him less and less, to the point where I hoped he’d send my favorite contestant Gia Allemand home because I thought she was too good for him. He was obsessed with Vienna’s sex appeal over everything else. That didn’t mean I hated Vienna any less. I thought she was trashy, annoying, overly-dramatic and childish. But Jake was the one who made the idiotic decision to propose to her.
The interview with Jake and Vienna revealed a lot about Jake’s personality, and Vienna came across as more truthful. Sure, I think Vienna probably went on The Bachelor because she thought it would be cool to be on TV. But Jake’s actions have proven he’s far bigger of a fame whore. He did The Bachelorette. Then he did The Bachelor. Then he did Dancing with the Stars. Then he got a guest gig on Drop Dead Diva. Soon he’ll appear on Bachelor Pad, completing the trifecta of reality TV dating. And back in the day he had a failed acting career under the name “Jake Landrum”. It sounds like Jake fell in love with fame, not with any of the women presented to him on The Bachelor.
Let’s look at details of the interview. Chris Harrison said it was with a “certain degree of sadness” that they were bringing us the interview. I’m sure in his head he added “and a certain amount of unabashed glee, because the ratings are going to be through the roof”. He said that some people from The Bachelor(ette) franchise have “gotten married, and even had children”. Once. One couple, Chris. And don’t count the guy who picked one girl, and then dumped her and married the runner-up. That was about as romantic as a groom dumping his fiancee at the rehearsal dinner and then marrying the maid of honor at the wedding.
Overall, the mood was a mix of tense and explosive. Jake’s jaw was clenched the entire interview, and he looked like he was suppressing some serious wife-beating rage just because he was on TV. His stories and explanations sounded rehearsed and he barked “Don’t interrupt me!” over and over again, only responding to Chris Harrison’s questions instead of actually interacting with Vienna.
Vienna, on the other hand, recounted specific and detailed examples of how and why the relationship fell apart, and it all sounded pretty believable. In fact, Jake didn’t even deny most of the incidents. Vienna gets lost driving through L.A. and Jake gives her directions. She double-checks with the GPS, he hurls the thing across the car in a fit of rage over being “undermined”. Or as he says “To prove a point”. Jake can’t get the couple’s new furniture to fit in their bedroom and Vienna suggests a new layout. Jake freaks out again, because she’s “undermining” and “emasculating” him. Jake freaks out that Vienna has a guy over at the apartment, who she says was “a gay guy named Todd”. There was a disagreement over the cross-country flight of a sick dog, which got cut off when Chris Harrison said “We don’t really care about the dog”. (Apparently that was Jake’s problem too.) Vienna also said that Jake made no effort to get to know her family, and that things went sour after a month when Jake was no longer interested in or affectionate with her. Jake didn’t deny that either, saying that any man in America wouldn’t want to be affectionate with a woman who was constantly emasculating and undermining him.
Vienna also said that instead of returning to his career as a pilot and living a normal life in Dallas as planned, Jake moved her out to L.A. in an attempt to chase the spotlight. This I believe. The only bit that strikes me as insincere is Vienna’s claim that the only reason she’s staying in L.A. is because she got a job in marketing with some sort of cancer/shampoo/save the children charity. We can’t know if this is true until we see if she starts taking crappy acting and reality gigs just to stay in the spotlight, like Jake.
Personally,I’d have liked it better if she’d said she did the magazine interview because she needed the money. After all, he did move her out there when she was fresh out of college with no money and no job. I also believe that she knew that after the break-up Jake would also be running to a tabloid with his side of the story, ASAP. I’d want to beat him to the punch too. When Jake complained that he’d come home from vacation (or something) to find himself on the cover of five magazines, I couldn’t help but think he finished that sentence in his head with “and I was aiming to be on six”.
Chris Harrison hit the nail on the head when he pointed out “This is going to hell in a hand-basket in a hurry”, but I couldn’t help but feel that he had his feet planted on Team Jake’s side the whole time. Why didn’t he pressure Jake further on his decision to give up his career as a pilot and pursue an acting career?
Throughout the interview, and through Vienna’s anecdotes of the hardships of their relationships, it became abundantly clear that Jake is a controlling chauvinistic fame whore with a terrible temper. He treats Vienna like a child and reacts with anger whenever a situation doesn’t go his way. His word choices, like “undermining” and “emasculating” reveal a guy who can’t stand to be questioned by a woman and needs to hold all the power in a relationship. Sure, I always thought Vienna was young and immature. But he knew she was only 23 when he chose her. What were you like at 23 years old?
The interview ended with Jake snapping at Vienna one too many times, and she left in tears. During the interview, Chris Harrison asked “Will this crap continue?” of their media wars. It was a funny question coming from an enabler, but my answer was “I sure hope not”. Yeah, the interview was a juicy look inside a bitter and broken relationship, but it was the only look I need.
