LEWISTON, Idaho — Going from small-town Idaho to national reality television isn't as far of a distance as some people might think.
Lewiston's Billy Scharnhorst, aka Billy Jeffrey, is one of 10 contestants on ABC's newest reality program, "True Beauty." The show features 10 beautiful people living in a Los Angeles mansion under the unblinking gaze of cameras while they vie for the title of Most Beautiful Person. They don't know they are being judged on their inner beauty.
As a world-touring Chippendales dancer and Lewiston business owner who has followed an out-of-the-ordinary career path, Jeffrey says: "I felt I've lived my life under a microscope a little bit. Going into the house wasn't really that big of a change in environment for me."
Coast to coast, 10,000 people auditioned for "True Beauty." Jeffrey, who uses his middle name for show-business purposes, got a call from a casting director for the program and wasn't told much before he was flown to an audition, "just that I'd been selected as one of, if you want to call it this, one of the hottest people in the country, to compete for $100,000 and a spot in People magazine."
"True Beauty" premieres at 10 p.m. Monday on ABC. After eight episodes, along with the cash prize, the winner will be featured in People magazine's 100 most beautiful people issue.
Ads for the show revel in contestants' vanity. "Sometimes when I walk into a room I feel like time freezes," one of the four men says about the impression he makes.
"It's very possible I might be the most beautiful person in the country," says one of the six women.
"People that were there were there to win," says Jeffrey, a 31-year-old tanned and muscled blond with a dimpled chin. "Some very interesting things are going to happen and some very interesting things did happen." He says contestants competed in some surprising challenges to prove their beauty.
"It is going to be different than any reality show you've seen before."
This isn't Jeffrey's first brush with fame. He was chosen by Cosmopolitan magazine as Idaho's most amazing bachelor in 2000 and competed on Fox TV for Sexiest Bachelor in America. With Chippendales' elite European and Las Vegas tour group, he recently performed on the "Ellen DeGeneres Show," "The View" and other programs. He was once a finalist for ABC's "The Bachelor" but let the opportunity slide.
"First, I wasn't interested in getting engaged on national TV. Second, I didn't want to send 15 girls back to their Lewiston, Idahos, to talk crap about me. That's not my style," he says.
Jeffrey says he never wanted to be an actor or model but he wanted to be in the spotlight. His ultimate goal is to have his own TV show or host a program built around helping people achieve their health and fitness goals.
Jeffrey says that as a teen he dreamed of being an NBA basketball player but at 17 realized it was impossible. His interests in health and fitness led the 1995 Lewiston High School graduate to owning a GNC store in the Lewiston Center Mall where he's known for telling it like it is.
"I'm famous for saying, 'I'm not a pat-on-the-back friend.' I've helped thousands of people lose weight, lower their blood pressure, get healthy, get their husband back, get their life back. I haven't gotten people to that goal by saying everything's OK."
Jeffrey got a foot in show business at age 23 when manager Lou Pearlman told him the truth.
He was scouted by the creator of the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync to be in a boy band, says Jeffrey. When the two met, Pearlman told him he was too old for a boy band but that he had something. Pearlman owned a percentage of Chippendales and in 2002 Jeffrey got a call asking him to audition for the group's European tour. Jeffrey "wasn't interested in dancing around in G-string" but agreed to consider it and watch the group's show in Las Vegas.
"I was floored at how much fun the show was, for the girls going crazy in the audience and the guys on stage," he says. He was among 500 men who auditioned the next day and one of five chosen. The group performs in European arenas to crowds of 1,200 to 5,800. He's traveled around the world nine times with the performers and can be found under January in Chippendales' 2009 calendar. He gets fan mail from women and men around the globe.
"The experience is really what it's all about, and being a part of pop culture," he says. "If it wasn't classy, if it wasn't professional, I wouldn't be doing it."
The same goes for "True Beauty," he says. In his head Jeffrey goes over things he said during the show's filming that could be used against him, but says he isn't worried because he knew what he was signing up for. The thing that concerns him is how his fame may affect others in his hometown. As his reputation has grown so have untrue rumors about him, he says. That's something anyone in entertainment deals with, he adds, but over Christmas friends and people in the community came up to him saying, "don't change and don't forget me."
"I'm most afraid of my own friends, family and hometown thinking I'm something I'm not," he says. "I'm still the same person. Don't let my celebrity, if that's what you think it is, change the way you view me."