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Page 3 • Tuesday, February 24, 2004
Mooning over Meredith
h&M grad student Lanny Lawrence vies as possible mate for ABCs 'The Bachelorette’
By Lauren Smith
THE BATTALION
While most of the thousands of male “Bachelorette” hopefuls
nere putting on their charming smiles and shirts that matched
leireyesfor audition videotapes to be sent to ABC, “The
Bachelorette” sought out Lanny Lawrence.
“A friend of mine worked for a magazine in Dallas, so she
Imy mother submitted me for a contest for the June issue,”
Lawrence said. “A lady at the casting department for ‘The
Bachelorette’ is from Texas, and she picked up the magazine at
lieairport while she was visiting her family, and the producers
lied me soon after that.”
Lawrence was named one of Dallas’ “10 Most Beautiful
ople” in the June issue of D Magazine.
When Lawrence was contacted by ABC to see if he was
iaterestedin auditioning, he was working on his master’s degree
ailexas A&M.
was pretty hesitant to do it at first just because I didn’t
how the show,” he said. “It took me a while to actually com-
Provi ittodoing it, and I thought it sounded like a fun deal, so I
lent ahead and tried it out.”
After a series of phone interviews and several videotaped
iaieniews with the executive producers of the show, Lanny,
ilongwith 60 other bachelors, flew to California for what was a
«eekend full of intense interviews.
“We did a bunch of psychological testing, like paper testing,
probably 3,000 to 4,()0() questions total,” Lawrence said. “We
meet with a psychiatrist, a lady who works for the FBI,
a pretty extensive background check. There were blood
tests,urine tests and filmed interviews with executive producers
oftheshow where they asked about past relationships, our inter
ests, if you could find love on TV, things like that.”
None of the potential bachelors knew that the bachelorette
raMeredith Phillips from the Bachelor-season four with Bob
sid, l|Gainey,and Lawrence wasn’t exactly thrilled about the news.
They showed us a video of Meredith about 24 hours before
Imether,”Lawrence said. “I was surprised, but I wouldn’t say
Iwasexcited because she wasn’t really what I expected, plus
after watching the show, I knew that she didn’t really care for
horses and that's kind of my entire life for the past couple of
years,sol was kind of worried about that. I definitely went
an open mind because like what I am experiencing
now, a lot of people see you on
a television show and think
they know you, and she was
different than I thought, a pret
ty cool girl actually.”
Lawrence said he was
shocked by how emotional
many of the men would get.
“It was kind of interesting to
me because some of the guys
were getting into her pretty
quick,” he said. “The whole
process is sped up so I can defi
nitely say on my side, I dealt
with a lot of emotions a lot ear
lier than I am used to just
because of the fact you are
stuck there, cut off from the
rest of the outside world, so all
you can think about is this girl
and you’ve got these other
guys doing the same thing,
talking about it all the time; it’s
a strange situation.”
The bachelors are not
allowed to listen to the radio,
watch television or read books
during Filming. The bachelors
actually only live in the bache
lor pad for 12 days before it is
narrowed down to the four Finalists, who move into separate
hotel rooms.
“I lived in the hotel for a month even after I was kicked off
the show because I still had to stay so people wouldn’t say, ‘Well
Lanny was home at this time, so he had to have gotten kicked off
right here,’ so I ended up having to stay the whole time. v
The real boredom kicked in for Lawrence in the month he
spent with an ABC ‘handler,’ although he said he did enjoy liv
ing in California.
After two group dates with Meredith, a one-on-one where he
cooked her dinner and a date in Texas on the ranch where he works,
Lawrence said he felt conFident going into his last rose ceremony.
“I was surprised when I got voted off because my confidence
Lanny Lawrence, an A&M graduate
Meredith Phillips. Lawrence made it
Courtesy of • ABC.COM
student still working on his thesis spends some quality time with Bachelorette
through as one of the final four remaining bachelors.
level was pretty high; it wasn’t that high at First,” Lawrence said.
“After I made it several rounds, I started getting pretty conFident.”
On abc.com, in Phillips' weekly post-show diary, she said she
could hardly look at Lanny after not giving him a rose.
“I told Lanny how I felt. I definitely wanted him to know it
wasn't about living in Texas and being on the ranch, because I
could deal with the horses,” Phillips wrote. “It was about not
having enough time. He isn't a huge communicator, and neither
am I.”
Even though Lawrence said he remembers trying not to look
See 'Bachelorette' on page 4
N
\ .
f /
IBP®'
Muslim Students’ Association at Texas A&M
In commemoration of
Black History Month
u Struggling for Truth and Justice”
The Legacy of Malcolm X
A Lecture by African American Muslim Leader
Siraj Wahhaj
Wednesday, February 25 th at 7:30 pm
Wehner 159
Co-sponsors: VP of Student Affairs, L. T. Jordan Institute,
Dept, of Multicultural Services