'Bachelor Pad' winner also lost
We have a winner of this season's "Bachelor Pad."
We also have a loser.
In what may be a first in the annals of reality TV, he happens to be the same person.
Poor Michael Stagliano, who got some good news and some bad news Monday. The good: The 27-year-old Californian won the $250,000 prize with Holly Durst, his game partner and former fiancee. The bad (which was revealed on live TV before 7 million viewers): Holly is engaged to another contestant, Blake Julian.
"She has a firm hold on my heart," said Julian, with practiced sincerity.
Cut to Stagliano, doing a solid impression of Ralph Kramden: Hamanahamanahamana...
Stagliano said he was shocked, then asked to go to a commercial break, before blurting out (with apparent genuine sincerity): "But really here? This is where I find out!?"
Well, yeah, Mike. You signed up for a cheesy reality TV show. Would an engraved invitation have been preferable?
There was irony -- admittedly of a low sort -- in Stagliano's march to triumph and defeat. After winning a clunky Cirque de Soleil wall-climbing stunt earlier in the evening, he cheerfully called the feat a supreme accomplishment because it had made "all of that ---- " he had gone through during the season "worth it."
Yup, all of that ----. There was plenty of that this season, too. But besides the money, there is some solace for Stagliano, who first appeared on season 5 of "The Bachelorette." He'll probably get invited back next summer.
