14 DAY TRIAL // Another week, another episode of Tori Spelling’s True Tori docuseries on Lifetime, season 2, another hefty dose of “I can’t believe they really want us to believe this isn’t staged!” reactions on my part. Oh yes, I watch the show, but it’s not because I have an option: it’s my job to do so.
That said, I always loved to hate-watch Tori Spelling, be it in a very cringe-worthy made-for-TV movie, or “Beverly Hills 90210” or, as of late, this reality show. She has a certain theatricality about her that is so obviously fake that I find I simply can’t look away. So I just watch and mutter under my breath and roll my eyes, but I watch nonetheless.
I will start this by saying that I don’t believe Dean cheated on Tori last December: I am convinced that they made up the entire Emily Goodhand scandal just so they could get a new reality show, and once the first season of it was over, they just kept inventing problems just so they could have something to discuss on season 2.
If you’ve watched a single episode of this one, you know that they do close to nothing much else the entire day than sit around and talk about feelings, cry and curse.
But it’s not Tori I want to talk to you guys about today.
According to Dean, he’s helping mankind by doing a reality show
Until today, I thought Dean was more or less an unwilling participant in Tori’s drama, in the sense that she probably creates all this drama and insists on having cameras around to document it (after all, she earns a living from reality TV, so I don’t blame her) and he just agrees to be a part of it, but doesn’t actively contribute to it in any way.
I reached this conclusion by noticing that, throughout the year, Tori’s story changed considerably from week to week, whilst Dean’s remained the same. Not that he could say all that much: he was the guy who cheated, who had hidden his alcohol and drug addiction from his wife of almost a decade (!), who had relapsed, who came very close to destroying his family.
This morning, I stumbled across the video embedded below: an interview in which Dean is trying to defend himself against the haters, saying he shouldn’t be criticized like this when he’s actually doing “something good.”
He explained that the main goal of season 1 was to fix his marriage and share this experience with the fans. “The side benefit” of the show, he says, “was to share with our fans and help others” because he discussed his infidelity, his alcoholism, his drug addiction and his depression on camera.
The side benefit of the show wasn’t that he and Tori made more money than we only wish we could make in 6 months, it was that he was “helping others.” In Dean’s mind, by putting his life on camera, he’s doing “something good,” he’s not oversharing. So why are you hating on him?
Awareness helps, but actual help would help even more
The answer is simple: if Dean really wanted to help, he would do so. Raising awareness on such important issues like addiction and mental health is always a great thing because it gets the conversation going, but only talking about a problem isn’t a solution in itself.
Dean is trying to flip the tables: suspected that he’s been lying all along (on anything from his infidelity to his addiction problems), he’s painting himself into a victim by pointing out how selfless he is by putting it all out there for the greater good, when all he actually does is talk about it and get rich in the process.
If Dean really wanted to help, he’d get involved in a cause, put his name to a campaign, get people motivated to be more involved and share their story. Instead, he just talks about things that he might very well have made up, he agrees to do so for a paycheck and then laments that people don’t appreciate him for all his good work.
I’ve told you I watch the show, so I know that the only reason Tori and Dean did it is because they’re strapped for cash – Tori herself admitted to this on 2 separate occasions on the previous episode, the one before “A Tale of Two Husbands.” I find it infuriating that Dean is now trying to spin this differently.
Telling the story that is most convenient, more flattering to them
Perhaps Dean was hoping we’d forgotten about that, or perhaps he’s getting the hang of changing his story as he deems it most convenient. The downside to this, to singing a different tune depending on context, especially when there’s a thing out there called the Internet and even a reality show still airing, is that you come across as if you’re underestimating and even insulting the intelligence of your viewers.
Dean and Tori do this because, right now, this is the only way they can still get headlines and thus get people talking about the show. As a viewer of True Tori (not a fan, mind you), I found it very offensive: I know reality television is not “real,” I know all of this is staged, but unless you include a disclaimer in each episode, the least you can do is stay consistent.
Or learn to lie better, which means not changing your story each week.
Even in a context in which all viewers of True Tori are made aware that reality television in general is scripted and staged, having Dean claim he’s “helping others” with his (probably fictional) tale of woe feels detrimental to those who really do suffer from all these problems.
Such issues can do without the mockery of a reality show and especially without the hypocrisy of a reality star whose sole goal is to more make money.