Jul
14
Mikey V. Dumped from “Design Star”
July 14, 2008 |
Last week the gay blogosphere was atwitter over the revelation that Mikey Verdugo, a contestant on HGTV’s Design Star, had filmed a scorchingly hot B/D flick for Tom “Ropes” McGurk way back in 1996 (click here for the full story). It was titled ROPE RITUALS, apparently never made the transfer to DVD, and was eventually repackaged with TRAINED TO OBEY as TOM “ROPES” MCGURK PRESENTS: CLASSICS, VOL. 2 (click here for an XTube snippet). Talented and crazy sexy, Mr. Verdugo, 34, hammered and drywalled his way to the final five, but on last night’s episode (07/13) he was eliminated. During his exit interview he said he’d return to his day job as a police officer. “Interesting, how this didn’t get out until the week he was sent home,” blogs director Joe Gage. “Could HGTV have known about it for a while and…ahem, sat on it?” The timing seems coincidental, but who knows? [Image © HGTV.]
Comments
6 Comments so far
I commented over the weekend that these reality TV shows know all about the past transgressions of its contestants and they use it as PR to promote their shows. That’s how Hollywood works. Blogs and websites think they are “breaking major news” when in fact the TV shows and studios want you to believe that you are because it plays right into their hands.
Thanks for the spoiler for those of us who haven’t watched the episode yet thanks to our TiVo’s.
You couldn’t have SPOILERIZED the entry JC?
I’ve watched every season of this show, and Mikey was their token sexy guy, except he only took his shirt off sporadically. Ever since David Bromstad won, his half-naked strategy has been repeated.
That being said, Mikey seemed like a genuinely nice guy and actually talented, but he just didn’t have the stuff for on-camera hosting. At least not yet, anyway. I would definitely hire him as a carpenter or designer for someone else’s show, where he wasn’t required to carry the whole thing.
For some reason I think this was coincidental, the news breaking about the ONE porno he did 12 years ago. Where did it break first, on Atkol or some gossip blog? If it was the latter, then yes I would say they leaked it. Otherwise, HGTV is aimed towards Middle America and I can’t imagine they would cast someone who said, yes, I did a bondage porno when I was 22.
“Dumped” in the headline led me to believe they’d gotten rid of him because of his past. I think “eliminated” would have been better, under the circumstances. . .
Anonymous, 10:55 — I felt since the episode had already aired that talking about the results was fair game. But, you’re right, I could have just hidden the outcome behind a link. I hate being spoiled like that, too. Apologies, and I’ll remember next time (which should be any day now, given how often our boys turn up on reality TV).
Will — The headline was chosen because it was alliterative and fit onto one line. But thanks for keeping us honest.
Regards,
JCA
UPDATE: According to The Sword, he’s been suspended from his job as police officer pending an investigation of his porn career.