Tori Spelling and Spouse Get Real(ity)
Celebrity Couple Show the Inns and Outs of Entrepreneurship in Their New Reality Series
The best part of Tori & Dean: Inn Love, the new six-episode reality series highlighting the business skills of the late Aaron Spelling’s 33-year-old daughter Tori Spelling and her 40-year-old husband Dean McDermott, is that Beverly Hills, 90210 fans have a worthy reason to be happy as they watch one of the show’s most prominent icons. The worst part is that you have to be among the select few who receive—or are aware that you receive—cable’s female-oriented Oxygen network in order to partake of it. If you’re among the proud ranks who do, Tori, who just gave birth to son Liam Aaron McDermott on March 13, will be back in action on TV tonight for your viewing pleasure.
The series follows the celebrity and her actor spouse as they attempt to establish a successful bed & breakfast near Southern California’s wine vineyards, financed by the recent $800,000 inheritance from her father. At the time of filming, Tori was eight months pregnant, lending a greater sense of urgency to the whole “escape from your old life” vibe that underscores the changes the couple experience as they try to adapt to a new life away from Hollywood, while also maintaining their individual entertainment careers. In the first episode, “Dump Everything You Can Dump!,” the pair get rid of their excess belongings at an estate sale to produce yet more capital to fund their B&B dream.
Says The Hollywood Reporter‘s Ray Richmond in his March 19 review:
“Tori & Dean: Inn Love” is roughly as banal as one might expect the opening installment of a series focusing on how Spelling is blowing her $800,000 inheritance to be. She: shallow, materialistic, spoiled, annoying. He: put-upon, feckless, devoted, clueless. Together, they prove a prince and princess of unabashed entitlement, and the urge to strangle them both oft proves overwhelming.
It’s all very lighthearted, lightweight and lightheaded, which is hardly a news flash. More surprising is the fact it’s executive produced in tandem with master documentarians Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey, who clearly are slumming between real gigs.
Ouch. I’m not really into reality TV that revolves around quasi celebrities, but you’ve gotta give points to Tori for allowing herself to be followed around incessantly on camera when she looks like she’s about to burst at any moment. I do wonder, however, what was on her mind when she decided to plop down over three-quarters of a million dollars of her own money to create what is essentially temporary housing for a revolving lineup of guests. Good luck with that … and the TV show. [On TV: Tuesday, 20 March 2007, Oxygen, 10:30pm EST]
Other Good Stuff on TV Tonight
- Independent Lens—STOLEN: Documentary-style examination of two lone men’s 1990 theft of thirteen invaluable art works from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. [PBS/10:00*]
- Iraq in Fragments: Director James Longley’s winning documentary at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival offers three perspectives—Kurdish, Shiite, and Sunni—from residents of war-torn, U.S.-occupied Iraq. [Cinemax/7:00]
- Spider-Man 2: Spidey takes on Tentacle Man, also known as Doc Ock, less than two months before his third adventure arrives on the big screen. Beware of the three-hour length with commercials included, however. [FX/7:00]
- The Whitest Kids U’Know: Only watch the latest musical sketch-comedy concoction from Jim Biederman, who also executive produced the TV version of Canada’s The Kids in the Hall, if you can fully appreciate the New York comedy troupe’s odd and ribald humor. [Series Debut/Fuse/11:00]
- Work Out: Trainer-to-the-stars Jackie Warner returns for a second six-episode season focused on her professional and personal affairs, including the sundry hardbodies that slave away in her high-class Los Angeles gym. [2nd-Season Premiere/Bravo/11:00]
*PBS times may vary—Check your local listings to verify them
All times are PM and EST/Eastern Standard Time
Tori & Dean: Inn Love photo courtesy of Oxygen
