BridalStars Celebrity Weddings: 90608: “Survivor: Gabon” Contestant Jessica Kiper’s Wedding

Reality star Jessica Kiper, who battles both the elements and fellow castaways on the 17th edition of the CBS reality series Survivor Gabon: Earth’s Last Eden, has found her own personal paradise with movie director John Lands, who became her husband on August 23, 2008. Confiding to her fans on her MySpace page, the pin-up model/actress (TV buffs may remember her stints on Gilmore Girls and For Your Love) confessed that the couple’s 11-day courtship led to Las Vegas vows and a honeymoon stay in a Treasure Island Resort suite.

A retro romantic, the bride was a vintage-style vision on her wedding day, walking down the aisle in a pair of black stilettos on the arm of an Elvis impersonator who serenaded the lovebirds with “Fools Rush In.” A photo taken later outside of the Christian Audigier nightclub shows the newly-pronounced Mrs. in a short, strapless black dress accented with a white sash at the waist, while an elbow-length veil provided a nostalgic nod to tradition.

The newlyweds are planning to celebrate their union with family and friends in Louisiana on September 6th, and drink toasts to their happiness at a Survivor premiere party in Los Angeles on September 25th.

Unscripted ‘Shark Tank’ adapted from a Japanese format

ABC is taking a dive into Mark Burnett’s “The Shark Tank.”

The network has handed out a pilot order to the unscripted project, an adaptation of the Japanese reality format “Dragon’s Den.”

Sony Pictures TV is producing the show, which features aspiring entrepreneurs pitching their business ideas to moguls, aka the “Sharks,” in hopes of landing investment funds.

This is the second reality competition series for budding entrepreneurs at ABC. The network aired two seasons of “American Inventor,” a brainchild of Simon Cowell and Peter Jones. Jones is one of the “Dragons,” the wealthy judges on the successful British version of “Dragon’s Den,” which aired its sixth cycle this summer.

The arena of business-themed reality shows is a familiar one for Burnett, who also created and is executive producing “The Apprentice,” which returns with a second celebrity edition in January.

reality blurred + the reality TV news digest

Kelly Czarnecki, the 22-year-old jean salesperson and student from Chicago, was recruited for Survivor Gabon via her MySpace page, and even more unsurprisingly but still shockingly, revealed that “my page was private so they only saw my picture.” Yes, casting producers contacted her based upon a single photograph, which may explain why it was so difficult to have a conversation with her.

Kelly ranks at the bottom of my likability list because she was so extremely inaccessible and difficult to talk to—especially after my three pleasant, interesting conversations with Danny/GC Brown, Bob Crowley, and Susie Smith. Kelly never took off her oversized, Paris Hilton sunglasses, and I became increasingly convinced that she was utterly bored and staring at the ground. I laughed nervously throughout the whole interview after she’d make some kind of outrageous or nonsensical declarative statement that I had no response to. There was a lot of dead air as she’d just be done with a question even though she hadn’t even started to really answer it; sometimes she’d just say single words as answers.

Kelly sells jeans and says she’s “one of the top salespeople at my work,” E Street Denim in Chicago, and said she is “consistently exceeding sales; I manipulate people instead of buying the $40 jean to like the $400 jean.” That skill didn’t exactly come across in our interview, but maybe it’ll work for her in the game.

reality blurred + Susie Smith: “I certainly don’t plan on apologizing every time I screw up”

Survivor Gabon has a fantastic character and perhaps a very strong player in Susie Smith, who won me over instantly. She was the first cast member to use my name and engage me in her answers, rather than sounding like she was saying the same things to yet another stranger; a strategy, perhaps, but it didn’t seem at all artificial. (And I certainly can’t blame many of the others for giving rote answers considering how many interviews they’d been through by the time they talked with me, sitting in a plastic chair overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.)

Susie has a high school age son, and said family is “everything,” she said. “This is the most selfish thing I’ve ever done. I have never been away from my family for seven weeks.” She’s also committed to trying things for herself, and convincing the world that everyone else needs to literally just try things. “I cannot believe people do not know what the word ‘try’ means—T R Y,” she said.

Susie’s likability—and warmth and clear devotion to her family—is matched, as you can see, by clear conviction and confidence, which would come off as arrogant in someone who wasn’t as thoroughly nice as she is. She’s also fiercely competitive, and said she couldn’t really understand people who lack competitiveness even in everyday games. I really think she has the combination of skills to win the game without anyone noticing that she’s won.

She loves to talk, although unlike Bob Crowley, she didn’t tell long, lingering stories, but jumped from idea to idea to idea. It makes sense, then, that’s she’s a teacher—she teaches students for whom English is a second language, and English is her second language, even though she grew up in Iowa. Susie is also a hairdresser, the profession CBS is using to identify her. And she also worked for a nonprofit organization where she worked with the elderly.

reality blurred + Bob Crowley: “I’m not playing the game, I’m here to have a good time”

Bow-tie wearing high school teacher Robert Crowley was a likable guy, but like a few too many other Survivor Gabon contestants, I couldn’t decide whether or not he’d be a good player—especially when he said he’s not really interested in the money.

“I’m not playing the game, I’m here to have a good time, I’m here to experience—Christ, I’ve already won the game. I’ve got a free trip to Africa, I have got two free trips to L.A. And a million dollars only buys you friends you don’t need and tempts you with sins you shouldn’t be committing anyway. So, I’ve already won,” he told me.

If it’s not already obvious, Bob Crowley told me he was recruited for the show, and has only seen the show “a couple of times.” He said he was concerned most about the wildlife, building a shelter, and then the other contestants, in that order. “I’m in it for the adventure, so it doesn’t really matter which challenge I’m up against, since they’re all going to be fun to deal with,” he said, and that, never mind placing the social game last, makes him sound like a player who’s going home sooner than later.

Despite his apparent lack of interest in the social game, he also had a good understanding of some fundamental parts of it. “I am clever; I’m good at figuring stuff out. I think I do well at entertaining people at being pleasant. And I’ve noticed in the show, you don’t want to stand out, you don’t be somebody that’s a threat. And I’m pretty non-threatening,” Bob said. “I have a habit of talking, I have a habit of being honest.” That is true: he does love to talk, telling long and detailed stories to answer simple questions.

reality blurred + Danny/GC: “Any way I can get in there to get that million, I’m trying to do it”

Danny “GC” Brown was the first Survivor Gabon contestant I talked to, and I was the first reporter he talked to (there were a total of six media outlets there, including CBS’ official publicity crew). Danny is apparently going by “GC” on the show, although in our conversation he referred to himself as “DB” at least once. In some ways, that seems to reflect his search for identity, both in the game and otherwise. He does maintenance for an apartment complex in Portland, Oregon, but he told me that his true passion is music. “I produce beats, I rap, write raps, I record other people. But, that’s really my main passion. I would like to get in the music industry one day,” he said.

As to the game, he didn’t seem to have a clear strategy at all, which is arguably the best strategy for Survivor, but he also doesn’t really seem to have a day-one strategy, which could be problematic. “I’m going to try every angle I can, man. I’m not limiting myself to just one thing. Any way I can get in there to get that million, I’m trying to do it,” he said.

The cast of the new season of Survivor has been announced, and it looks like Boston reality TV fans have got another local to root for. Dan Kay, a 32-year-old Boston lawyer born and raised in Walpole is among the show’s 18 contestants. To be honest, I don’t know much about Survivor, but I hear it can be fairly cut throat. Dan looks like a pretty nice guy in the video footage that’s been released, but maybe he’ll use some clever lawyer tactics to win the game. What do you think?

Survivor: Gabon premieres Thursday, September 25 at 8 pm on CBS.

Good luck, Dan!

A Pine Forest High School graduate and gold medalist from the 2004 summer Olympic Games was announced today as a competitor in the next season of Survivor.

The show will debut on Sept. 25 for a two-hour premiere at 8 p.m. on CBS.

Crystal Cox, who struck track gold in the women’s 4×400 relay in the Athens Olympics, is one of 19 contestants in “Survivor: Gabon.” She now lives in Durham.

Cox, the first track and field athlete who competed in high school in North Carolina to win an Olympic gold medal in track, is the third person with a Fayetteville connection to appear on the popular reality show, which is entering its 17th season.

In 2006, Candice Woodcock, a graduate of Terry Sanford High School and UNC Morehead scholar, was in the cast of the 13th season in Cook Islands.

Sandra Diaz-Twine won the seventh season in Pearl Islands. Diaz-Twine had lived in Fayetteville when her husband was stationed here, but was living in Fort Lewis, Wash., at the time of the taping. She has since returned to Fayetteville.

She can sell you on a cute top, but can Kelly Czarnecki wangle her way to $1 million on “Survivor”?

The 22-year-old fashionista from Buffalo Grove was revealed Wednesday as one of the 18 cutthroats competing on “Survivor: Gabon — Earth’s Last Eden.”

A fitness buff and former cheerleader, she’s now the sales manager at an unidentified Chicago boutique. CBS said she’s “a hell of a salesperson and can talk anyone into anything.”

The new “Survivor” season, shot in an African wilderness, debuts Sept. 25 on WBBM-Channel 2.

A Naples jeweler is among 18 contestants who will brave the 17th season of “Survivor,” premiering with a two-hour show on Sept. 25 on CBS.

Ace Gordon, 27, was born in New York City and raised in London. He is a fashion photographer and jewelry salesman.

He will be among a cast that includes a videographer, a model, a retired nurse, a physics teacher and others ranging in age from 22 to 61.

They’ll live in Gabon in west central Africa, a country bordering Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Republic of the Congo and the Gulf of Guinea.

Gabon was originally inhabited by Pygmy peoples. They were replaced and absorbed by Bantu tribes.

Gabon was settled by the French in the 15th century and gained its independence in 1960.