LT Andy Baldwin: What's He Really Like?

Oddly, I know two people who went to school with LT Andy Baldwin. One of these guys I know very well. So I had to ask, "What's he really like?" Over and over again I'm told, "Andy's a good guy."

Although we have become a nation that loves to dish about celebrities and their dirty laundry, at some point we must acquiesce that more than a few of these regular-people-turned-instant-celebrities are actually "good guys."

As someone who has sometimes (Oh, alright, often) been the target of message-board fodder and ridicule, I can tell you there is a huge disconnect between what the public sees/hears and what is really going on. Too often we base our opinions about people we don't even know on edited material we've seen in newspapers and magazines, and also on television.

Monday night, as my husband, Dustin, and I watched the second episode of The Bachelor: An Officer and a Gentleman, we both cringed when LT Andy Baldwin said something to the effect of, "I'm a doctor and a healer." We weren't cringing at Baldwin's words exactly; we flinched because we knew all too well how the public would perceive it.

"How many times is he going to point out that he's a doctor?" people would say. And, "I'm a 'healer'? Who says that?"

Several months ago, Dustin and I were interviewed for a documentary that is included on the soon-to-be-released An Officer and a Gentleman collector's DVD. I've become used to the interview process, but for Dustin, it was a first. When the producers said something like, "So, Dustin, what did you think when you first met Sarah again?" Dustin would say, "That she was alot different from the way I remembered her when we were kids." (Dustin and I have known each other since our moms were members of the same Navy spouse club the year I was born.)

But the producers couldn't use Dustin's response the way he said it because the finished product will not show the interviewer. No one would know that someone had asked, "What did you think when you first met Sarah again?" before he said, ""That she was alot different from the way I remembered her when we were kids."

So Dustin had to answer again, this time saying something like, "When I first met Sarah again after ten years of not seeing each other....."

This isn't the way my husband usually speaks. It is stilted and formal. But that's the way you often have to talk for interviews, or else the audience would be confused and nothing would make any sense.

When Andy Baldwin said, "I'm a doctor and a healer..." perhaps the producers had told him, "Answer that question again, but this time remind the viewers that you are a doctor...."

I don't know that this is how it happened. I'm just trying to make a point.

When the bachelor and the bachelorettes are doing interviews directly into the camera, don't forget that an interviewer is on the other side prompting them with questions. ("Do you think Andy is sexy?" "How did you feel when he didn't give you alone time?" etc.)

The people who know Andy say he's a great guy. Some people who don't know him, those who have only seen his taped interviews and television appearances, disagree.

I don't know about you guys, but I think I'm going to trust the former.