In her memoir The Love Producer, a former producer on The Bachelor spills tea on hooking up with the lead and her own romantic fantasy for them
It is a truth universally acknowledged (well, at Capsule anyway) that I know far too much about all things Bachelor. Hence I could bring you the update on Taylor Frankie Paul‘s (cancelled at least for now) season and start my deep dive into the story behind the podcast Love Trapped.
Now Julie LaPlaca has entered the chat. She’s just released her memoir ‘The Love Producer: My Unscripted Journey From a Reality TV Career to My Own Happily Ever After’. So, naturally, I pre-ordered a copy. The book doesn’t betray literary genius, but it’s an interesting, engaging read if you’re a Bachelor or reality-TV fan – especially if you wondered whether those rumours about Peter Weber and his producer were true.
Julie charts her life so far. Originally a country girl, she worked her way up from the bottom to become a producer in the TV industry. She landed a dream job on The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, enjoying coming up with interesting date ideas. Then she was promoted to a coveted role: producer for the lead. This meant she went everywhere with them, flew with them between cities and countries, prepped them for dates, got them to express their feelings in ITMs (in-the-moment interviews) etcetera: a literal fulltime job and then some. Julie started with Hannah Brown. She says Hannah was a bit mean at first but their relationship improved.
Hannah eliminated Peter Weber in third place, after they had sex (four times!) in a windmill on their overnight date. Unfortunately for her, Hannah chose dog-jingle guitarist Jed Wyatt; they split after she found out he had a girlfriend back home. No woman will ever understand why she didn’t choose runner-up Tyler Cameron, so beloved and insanely hot that he didn’t need to be The Bachelor.
The show should have selected Mike Johnson – a handsome, engaging black candidate from Hannah’s season – for the next Bachelor. I didn’t think Peter was a great choice. He definitely didn’t give off ready-to-be-engaged vibes, and at 28 still lived with his parents.
The Messiest Season Ever!
Pilot Pete’s season was, and still is, the season that keeps on giving. There were entertaining women. There was drama. There was mess. Front-runner Madison Prewett self-eliminated (when she was one of two ladies left) because she and Peter were too different – she was ultra-religious and saving herself for marriage – and Peter was, well, the opposite. Madison was not happy that Peter slept with Hannah Ann Sluss and Victoria Fuller on their overnight dates. After Madison left, Peter got somewhat unconvincingly engaged to Hannah Ann, perhaps feeling pressure to provide a happy ending.
Julie was Peter’s producer throughout all this. They clicked immediately, quickly becoming besties. Julie was with Peter almost every waking hour: getting him to open up during ITMs, singing while driving between locations, flying long-distance together, star-gazing one night over a glass of wine, debating whether God exists. They both believed in the power to manifest dreams into existence. Well, Julie was doing some serious manifesting.
When Peter was still engaged to Hannah Ann secretly, because the finale hadn’t screened, there was a social-media photo of him and Julie ringing in the new year together (because he had a press appearance). So a rumour started doing the rounds: that Peter ends up with his producer, with Good Morning America running a segment on it. Julie loved this. “Could it be so real that the universe was conspiring to make it happen, with seemingly the whole world rooting for us?” This girl believes in signs from the universe big-time.
She certainly wasn’t upset that Peter broke up with Hannah Ann. While Julie and Peter were watching the episode where Madison self-eliminated, hands started wandering. Yes, wild timing. Peter invited her into his room and, well, the rest technically stays between them, but not really. Julie’s Imaginary Fantasy Suite Card reads, very unsexily, “in Peter’s room, in his parents’ house”. (Julie presumably didn’t know that Hannah Brown banged Peter there around this time. Ouch.)
Here’s where Julie goes all rom-com. Writing a multi-page scene called “My Fantasy Bachelor Finale”, Julie imagined an After The Final Rose (live finale) where Peter would propose to her onstage. “There you have it! That is the delusional dialogue of a crazy producer’s mind that lives in a world of writing love stories and making up fairy tales. That makes me a good producer for a dating show, right? Or does it make me a terrible producer and a totally ridiculous, crazy person? This is where the real mind fuckery started to heighten. This is where it got messy and confusing… producers producing, humans feeling – what’s right, what’s wrong? What’s real and what’s reality TV?”
Another evening, Peter asked Julie to stay over, but she declined because (unbeknown to Peter), the show’s host Chris Harrison had flown to fetch Madison, hoping for a reunion that would provide the requisite happy ending. Peter and Madison decided to take it day by day, and Julie went home in tears. Peter and Madison lasted only two days after the finale.
Peter and Julie had two more ‘Fantasy Suites’. Then Julie saw a photo of Peter and Kelley Flanagan, his fifth-place finisher. He’d reunited with Kelley without telling Julie, who felt crushed and humiliated. She eventually asked him to phone, and he apologised for handling it wrong. Kelley didn’t want Peter to stay in touch with Julie. Fair enough. Peter and Kelley dated on and off for years.
Julie writes about running into Peter twice when he was single – and, man, she was still in her feelings for him. He was a little touchy-feely one night but nothing happened.
Did they ever have a serious conversation about their ‘Fantasy Suites’ or any romantic feelings? Not that Julie discloses.
Crossing Boundaries?
Some podcasters say that Julie having sex with Peter was unethical, wrong, an abuse of power. I understand the argument that Julie shouldn’t have gone there. As she writes, “I should have known better. How horrible of a producer could I be? I literally went and f**ked the first male contestant I produced.” But hey, she was in love (she thinks), Peter instigated the sex, and I don’t think he’s great with boundaries.
I think the bigger overstep is making their hook-ups a hook for a book (though we naturally appreciate the goss). She told him about the book, he wasn’t happy, and they haven’t spoken since.
Peter posted the following under a podcaster’s Instagram post. “I’ve moved on from this period of my life and I’m ultimately responsible for my choices. What I’ll say is this; I asked Julie on multiple occasions to please keep private, intimate details, private. This wasn’t about a TV show anymore.” But Pete, this is the season that never ends!
Some Bachelor fans, having heard Julie on recent podcasts, think she was a little delusional to believe she and Peter could have become a couple, or that she would ever have become the Bachelorette. But she was considered for the lead, because the ‘Peter-and-his-producer’ rumour could work as a storyline. (The execs probably didn’t know there was some truth to that.) They decided that casting a producer wouldn’t feel authentic. Julie was devastated when, instead, she became lead producer to the next Bachelorette.
Any More Tea?
I naturally appreciated the Peter goss. I was also hoping Julie would spill some behind-the-scenes info about how the sausage is made. But she can’t say too much, telling a podcaster that there’s a kind of permanent NDA.
Here’s what she writes in the book: “I’ve seen the memes: the devil works hard, but The Bachelor producers work harder. But here’s the thing. I was a hopeless romantic producer, not a pot-stirring, drama-causing producer. As producers, we unofficially got put into categories depending on our specialty. Hopeless romantic producer is good at connecting with the cast members on a human level, getting excited about the love story, crying with them, swooning over the Neil Lane rings, the stories they’ll tell their grandchildren Monday, keeping the fantasy alive… because we believe in the fantasy. I thrive at it because I myself LIVE IN MY OWN FANTASY WORLD. I’m always writing potential rom-coms of my life in my head, craving main character energy. But alas, perhaps I was distant to remain in the supporting character role.”
A year after Peter’s season, Julie quit, burned out by a job with frenetic schedules allowing little sleep. She also felt her biological clock ticking, and being away so much had affected a previous long-term relationship.
Julie writes on her website that “somewhere between the fairytale dates and the heartbreak goodbyes, I realized I’d been neglecting my own heart. I was burnt out and left wondering, what would it take for me to find love? A mid-thirties meltdown turned into an awakening. I quit my job, flipped the script, and began my own healing journey.”
“Now, as a certified life coach and certified hypnotherapist, I guide women to break free from old scripts, embody their truth, and open their hearts to the love they desire.” She runs one-on-one sessions, and workshops through her Leading Lady Collective. Through the Hypnosis Motivation Institute, she also has certificates in Love Sex & Intimacy, and Hypnosis & the Law of Attraction.
And who could know more about that than a literal love producer?
