Today I had brunch at Pastis with Tiffany Koury. Having not seen her in forever, I was really looking forward to the reunion. A last minute addition to the brunch was a mystery man named Andrew Baldwin. I had some idea who Andrew was thanks to the brief description provided via text message (“I invited my friend Andrew. He’s great - You’ll adore him”) but had never met him before. Tiffany was right - Andrew was incredibly polite and the conversation unfolded naturally. I also suspect he may have been the actual prototype for Mattell when building the Ken Doll.
About halfway through brunch, Andrew and Tiffany attempted to convince me that he had posed naked for Playgirl. Let me be the first to admit that I am notoriously gullible. However, defenses up, I refused to believe such ridiculousness. Yet, as I looked around the room I did notice that most of the women raised a brow at him as they entered the restaurant. I attributed this to his all-American appearance and dismissed the Playgirl nonsense. I then demanded to know what was actually going on. Andrew looked uncomfortable, shrugged and then handed me the latest issue of InTouch magazine. The article within it explained that I was not only sitting next to America’s most recent star of a reality (I use this word loosely) show called “The Bachelor” but also Micha Barton’s allegedly soon-to-be flame.
As you can imagine, this was quite an abundance of information to process over my beloved eggs benedict. According to Andy, the look on my face after looking up from reading the magazine was “priceless”. Having never seen The Bachelor I was unprepared. I knew the general treatment of the show but I don’t actually know anyone who had been part of it (which, given my embarrassing intertwine of friends and reality shows is shocking). This led to a rapid fire question session with Andy. His answers were surprisingly honest - he had done the show because apparently being a Doctor in the Navy doesn’t provide the ideal dating opportunities one might imagine. Without launching into a dissertation on Andy’s personal life I will simply say the following: I do not doubt that Andy met someone on the show that he fell head over heels for, which to me is far more relevant to write about than the events which proceeded the filming of the show. In some weird way, I find the notion of sincerity and reality are still mixing on some level to be a relief - even if that level is limited. I also find hearing man saying with pride that he found love nothing short of incredible (and rare).
Thanks to Google there are all sorts of cheesy pictures I could put up with this post but I think the clip above is the most accurate portrayal of the Andy I have gotten to know thus far. Enjoy.
