The Salt Lake City woman who's on "The Bachelor: Rome" breaks a bunch of stereotypes.
I went into tonight's season premiere (8 p.m., ABC/Ch. 4) thinking that 22-year-old Desiree Valentin had been cast because she's a straight-laced Utahn. It's something reality shows like "Survivor" have done before.
Boy, was I wrong. None of the women seems less straight-laced than Valentin.
Valentin is, of course, in the artificial reality "Bachelor" creates. She's one of 25 American women competing for the attention of Lorenzo Borghese (an Italian "prince" who's neither), along with two Italian beauties, while cameras follow them.
As she exits the limo to meet Borghese, the first thing she does is adjust her low-cut, short dress and say, "You're so handsome." He replies, "You're so beautiful."
Not exactly witty repartee.
Valentin tells Borghese she's "just extremely excited" and, "Oh, yeah, baby, we'll bubble it up for sure."
Then she flings her arms up over her head, screams and giggles as she enters the 17th-century castle that once belonged to the Borgheses.
When she learns that a rose (given to women asked to stay on the show) includes a pair of diamond earrings, Valentin declares, "I'm just going to rock the charts and be myself, baby. I'm going to do everything in my power. I'm going to swoon him to get that rose."
She "steals" the "prince" away from two other women (royally ticking them off) for some alone time. After again gushing over his appearance, the subject turns to her dress.
"I went shopping in Viva Las Vegas, baby. You want me to shake it for you, baby?" she says. And then she does.
Maybe it had something to do with how much she'd been drinking. Maybe not. But it's laughably awful. And Valentin is oblivious to how this is going to play on TV.
"Look at me! I'm glowing! It went so good.... I'm not worried about (being eliminated) at all, baby," she says.
Critics weren't made privy to which 12 women advance to the second episode, but comments Borghese made about Valentin certainly don't make her seem like an obvious loser.
"Desiree," he said, sort of laughing and sighing. "Desiree, Desiree. Uh, she is the life of the party. Usually, I don't like girls that are forward, but she feels, obviously, very comfortable with me. She's calling me baby. I know there were 25 other girls here, but for some reason I was totally concentrating all my energy on Desiree."
This despite the fact that he seemed turned off by her attempt to kiss him.
"I don't want to just jump in and start kissing 25 girls," he says. "I don't want to start seeing a girl and making out with them, and that's one of the reasons why I said, 'Let's just hold off a bit."'
In an interview with critics after the show finished filming last week, Borghese did not get specific about any of the women. He did say he's in love with the woman he eventually picked and that marriage might be in the offing.
There's a 1-in-27 chance that woman is from Utah.
ABC MAKES MUCH of its "Bachelor" being an Italian prince, which he really is not. Borghese is a rich, handsome, successful executive who admits, "It's sort of funny, this whole prince thing."
First, Americans can't hold royal titles. He's American.
Second, the Borgheses were never Italian royalty. The title was granted by a member of the family who was pope in the early 1600s.
But "this whole prince thing" adds to the story line.
As Valentin says, "You've watched 'Cinderella.' You've watched 'Sleeping Beauty.' And you've always wanted to be a princess."
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com