Madison Garton, model who walked off ‘The Bachelor,’ is shocked to discover show involves ‘strategizing’
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ABC’s over-the-top mating show, ‘The Bachelor,’ is now in its 15th cycle, and yet the producers still seem capable of finding attractive young women who don’t quite get the concept, or can at least pretend they don’t.
Take, for example, Madison Garton, a 25-year-old actress and model who has now entered the reality-TV hall of fame (hey, it’s a big hall) by walking off the show near the end of Monday’s third episode. Brad Womack, the titular bachelor who comes off less as a real person than as the hero’s somewhat slow-on-the-uptake buddy in an action movie, was in the middle of a rose ceremony meant to decide who was leaving the show when Madison suddenly strode off the set without a word.
Drama!
The official story was that Garton was so moved by hearing the tragic story of Emily, a rival for Womack’s hard-to-parse affections, that she just couldn’t take the chance of killing what might blossom into true love.
But the real story seems to be that Garton discovered the show is ... a bit of a sham!
No. Way.
‘It blows my mind,’ Garton told reporters (and yes, there were a lot of us on the phone call) Thursday morning. ‘It seems like some girls are really in it to win it. Winning ‘The Bachelor,’ you know. ... Girls are sort of strategizing and all of that. When you pull yourself back from it, you’re like, ‘Hey, what am I doing? I don’t even know this guy!’’
Um, Madison? Have you seen ‘The Bachelor’ before?
The plain truth is that things just weren’t clicking between her and Womack, a guy who might be hard to click with unless you’re also a character from a romance novel. ‘It just felt wrong to me,’ Garton explained. ‘I left when I felt I needed to.’
Granted, Garton herself might not be the most reliable judge of what feels right. She introduced herself to Womack wearing fake vampire teeth and is now known on the Internet as ‘Fang Girl.’
‘I’ve always had, yeah, the whole vampire thing, sort of into the darker side of things,’ she explained. ‘Loved the mystery and sexiness of the whole idea.’
Actually, there’s more mystery to Garton than first thought. According to imdb.com, her real name is Madison McKinley and she’s an actress who’s appeared on ’30 Rock’ and elsewhere. So, even more so than usual on ‘The Bachelor,’ there’s no telling where reality ends and real life begins.
Anyway, fangs for the memories, Madison!
What did you think of Garton and her walk-off?
-- Scott Collins
Twitter/@scottcollinsLAT
