[Update. For the latest post-show updates, click: David Smith, Joe Millionaire 2 - Post Show Update]
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Today's Midland Reporter Telegram contains a profile by Georgia Temple, entertainment editor, of David Smith, the former Midlander who is the new Joe Millionaire on the Fox tv show. Ms. Temple provided some information obtained from a Houston Chronicle article of October 20, but she also did some first hand reporting of information from Mr. Smith's friend Nick Benevedes who is a teacher in Lubbock. Here are a few qoutes from the article:
"I was shocked," said longtime friend Nick Benevedes, who teaches school in Lubbock. "I was aware he was going to be in a reality show. He had called me before he left and said if I tried to call him and all I got was his e-mail, that he would be gone for six to eight weeks filming the show. He didn't know what the show was. All we knew was that it was a reality show and that it was with Fox."Smith was approached the evening "he won the Mesquite rodeo," Benevedes said. "He called me that night. Two females approached him and asked him several questions. 'Are you married? Single? Have any kids?' 'What is this all about,' David asked. They stepped back and took his picture. Then they asked, 'Would you be interested in being on a reality TV show?' He asked, 'What is it all about?"'
When Smith was in Los Angeles, "there were tons of interviewers interviewing thousands of guys," said Benevedes. "We were assuming it was going to be something like a 'Survivor.' After he got picked, he knew where he was going, but he couldn't tell me."
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"If you know David the way we do, knowing he's a great person, it's hard for him to go in there and portray the guy he is right now and keep a straight face. He's going to be in for the long haul. He's going to end up getting hurt himself because it's going to hurt him to do what he's doing, to lie to those women."
"David's like a guy you'd want your daughter to marry," said Nick Benevedes. "He's a good guy. He's always been straight forward, a good Christian. He's a guy that I've always been able to depend on. If I've needed anything at all, I've been able to call on Dave."
Nick Benevedes also remembered Smith as a "guy that succeeded in everything. I remember as a kid he'd win bowling tournaments and he'd win the junior golf for younger kids in the city. He's always been successful in everything he did. His first hit in high school was a home run."
Monday on Fox at 7:00 p.m. C.S.T.
Update 10/28/03: Last night's show was pretty good. David Smith is a husky, good looking guy who has a lot of mannerisms characteristic of west Texans. There was one scene during which he met each one of the women contestants, but there were not enough chairs for them all. So, David strode across the room, picked up a love seat, hoisted it over his head and carried it back across the room setting it down so that all of the women could have a place to sit. That looked like a fairly normal thing to do. But the British butler rolled his eyes, and another servant shrugged his shoulders. One could get the impression that the European servants are not accustomed to seeing the elites actually exert themselves.
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