![]() |
|||
|
March 24, 2004
Reality hits Hooked Up couple
By KEVIN WILLIAMSON
So with Hooked Up -- an Alberta-based twist on the Bachelor formula -- having wrapped up last night on A-Channel by crowning Kimberley Bentley and Paul Braaten its reigning couple, the question is: Have they broken up yet? After all, the show was filmed late last year and a few months can see the most promising of relationships go sour. It turns out, though, they never really got together to begin with. "I'm here, he's there. You do the math," says Bentley. Here for her is Georgetown, Grand Cayman. There for him is Alberta. "Right after the show, I moved to California," says Braaten, who went to the U.S. to play in a pro-hockey league. By the time he got back to Alberta, Bentley had already left for the Caymans, where she just won an international model search. "We talk to each other on the webcam," he adds. "It's weird how the timing worked." "Paul's a great guy," she says. "We're just kind of doing our own things. We're really close and really tight. We get along great and we fully intend on keeping in contact. We just have to follow the yellow brick road." The series, co-produced by Calgary-based Nomadic Pictures and Lone Eagle Productions out of Toronto, took 10 men and 10 women up to Banff, where contestants were eliminated every week until only Bentley and Braaten were left standing. An oft-heard complaint among former reality-TV participants is that the image viewers see is more a creation of the show's editors than an accurate depiction of how they truthfully are. It's a sentiment Bentley echoes. She calls winning the show her "consolation prize" for enduring "15 minutes of embarrassment" and being portrayed as "a player." "I like to say that I want to do everything once and I've tried (reality TV) once ... I think I got a lot of bad light shot on me. "I think people who know me know better. That's what keeps me sane. Thinking that keeps me OK with everything. You have to know what you're going in for." Being constantly on camera, she adds, "You always feel like you have to be on. You never let your true emotions hang out." For his part, Braaten doesn't have any regrets about how the series turned out. "I think they did a good job showing who I am. You know, everyone slips up. Three weeks with cameras everywhere, they're going to find your faults. But I enjoyed it." While the pair still hopes to one day hook up, a reunion may take months. She's bound next for Miami for a modelling competition before returning to Calgary in the fall. Braaten, meanwhile, is currently in Alberta waiting word on some acting roles he hopes to land. If those fall through, he may end up going to Australia to play in a hockey league there for the summer. Asked about their situation, Braaten is philosophical. "Like anything else, things take time, I guess." |
|||