ABC’s dating “reality” show Bachelor in Paradise has been shut down after things got a bit too real between two contestants, who allegedly engaged in unrestrained sex acts in a swimming pool while the cameras were rolling.
Lurid details of what allegedly unfolded after two of the contestants became overly amorous are now beginning to emerge.
Us Weekly magazine first broke the news that the show had been shut down, with producers Warner Bros. swiftly issuing a statement confirming that filming had been paused over “allegations of misconduct on the set of Bachelor in Paradise in Mexico.”
ADVERTISEMENT
It’s been left to gossip site TMZ to fill in the salacious detail, with the site saying that the production was halted after a producer complained about two contestants “getting extremely sexual in a swimming pool.”
The site says that its sources are connected to contestant DeMario Jackson, but adds the following caveat: “There are different versions and Warner Bros. has launched a full investigation.”
DeMario’s camp told TMZ that on the first day of production at a Mexican resort commandeered by the show, a spinoff of the popular Bachelor franchise, not itself immune to scandal, he and another contestant, Corinne Olympios, were told by producers one of the story lines would be the two of them hooking up.
This, as TMZ points out, was envisioned to be a particularly entertaining plot point “because both are considered villains from previous shows.”
After the two “met at the bar” and with “alcohol flowing,” DeMario alleges, TMZ claims, that Corinne “jumped in his lap and started making out with him.”
TMZ says there was lots of “intense rubbing” before they headed for the pool, where they stripped off and a series of sex acts allegedly unfolded. DeMario, TMZ reports, “says he was not able to engage in intercourse because of the alcohol.”
If you want to read the explicit detail, get on over to TMZ, but, suffice to say that genitals, faces, and licking are all mentioned.
And yes, the tape was rolling.
On Tuesday, TMZ reports, the pair were called in by the executive producer and told one of the show producers had seen the film, was “uncomfortable” with what was shot, and had “filed a formal complaint with Warner Bros.,” which immediately suspended production and “launched an investigation and released DeMario and Corrine.”
If this alleged sexual behavior between consenting adults was indeed unacceptable outrage rather than TV gold, one might of course question why one of the producers didn’t stop the alleged sex session at the time or at least turn the camera off?
This itself begs the question: Is this really the end of the road for DeMario and Corinne on Bachelor in Paradise? Or will they make a dramatic return to the set, buoyed up by the publicity around “scandal”?
Don’t rule it out.
