Reality Rumors

Tila Tequila blames the media and her paramour’s interest in self-promotion for her breakup, and says she was much more guarded during her second “Shot at Love” on MTV.

Tequila told The Associated Press in a recent interview that first-season winner Bobby Banhart never met her parents and the two steadily fell out of touch. She announced their breakup last December.

“I felt like he was starting to get caught up more in the Hollywood world,” said the diminutive MySpace and reality star. “Because when we were talking, he was just talking about meeting with agents and getting his own reality show, and meeting with managers. Of course I was happy for him, but at the same time I thought that was really weird. Because if that’s what you were doing, then why didn’t you mention that while we were shooting? It was just odd to me. Unfortunately it didn’t work out.”

Tequila, whose real last name is Nguyen, said that “the media also makes it hard on us. The media says something about him, and he retaliates, and I’m like ‘That’s not how it was.’ And it ends up being, like, unfortunate.”

New episodes of “A Shot at Love II with Tila Tequila” are now airing Tuesdays on MTV.

Tequila told AP that at first she didn’t want to shoot a second season, “because I was still healing.”

“But at the same time, I felt like, well in order to get over stuff, it’s kind of good to start socializing again, and not give up. I don’t want to close up my heart. It’s good to keep it open.

“It took me so long to open up like that. My whole life I’ve been closed up. It feels good. Even though you get your heart broken, it’s good to be in touch with your feelings.”

Tequila said she’s been bisexual her whole life, and the show features 16 men (often with their shirts off) and 16 women (often in skimpy outfits) competing in stunts to win Tequila’s affection.

Tequila said she’s more cautious now about their motives.

“This time around, I’m a lot more guarded. I’m a lot more observant of everyone and what they’re doing here,” she said. “Last season I was a lot more nicer, and this time I’ll tell you, ‘If you’re not here for the right reasons, get the hell out. Stop wasting my time.’ Because I really am not putting up with that this season.”

Source: AP News

The blame game is still going on, but Tila Tequila’s relationship with A Shot of Love winner Bobby Banhart is over, conveniently clearing the way for Tequila to star in a second season of the hit reality dating series, MTV confirmed Tuesday.

Prior selecting Banhart, a 25-year-old film student, as A Shot at Love’s winner during the show’s finale last month, Tequila had told TV Guide she felt like she “found love” during filming and had no intentions of “doing another season.”

“I definitely found love,” Tequila told TV Guide in the magazine’s December 2 issue. “But we can’t be seen out together, so we only talk on the phone. It’s pretty hard.”

However Tequila did leave the door slightly ajar, adding “if this relationship doesn’t work out, then I’ll definitely go back and look for love again.” And according to her, that’s what happened.

“[Banhart] called me up recently… and he broke up with me,” Tequila told new Total Request Live co-host Lyndsey Rodrigues during Monday night’s live broadcast of Tila Tequila’s New Year’s Eve Masquerade on MTV. “It was definitely a total shock because that’s not what I was looking for. I was looking for love and I wasn’t expecting him to break up with me.”

Then, shortly before midnight, Tequila revealed the “big announcement” that she’d been teasing throughout the broadcast.

“I have a special New Year’s resolution — for 2008, this time I want to find love for real,” Tequila said. “I’m really happy to announce that MTV is going to give me that second chance so I’m taking another Shot at Love and it can’t start soon enough because apparently I’m here on New Year’s Eve alone.”

After her New Year’s partying ended, Tequila revealed more about her breakup with Banhart in an early Tuesday morning posting on her MySpace blog.

“The night was amazing except for the fact that Bobby had broken up with me a few days before all of this went down,” Tequila wrote.

“I wasn’t expecting it at all because I thought I had finally found someone that I was compatible with, but I guess I was wrong. My hectic schedule was really hard on him and we both were getting frustrated, but at the same time… I just wanted to find someone who would understand what a crazy lifestyle I have so it’s too bad that things didn’t work out between us. With that said I just want to make it known that I still think Bobby is a great guy and I wish him the best.”

But Banhart’s telling a different tale. According to him, Tequila was the one who chose to “end” the couple’s relationship — and she did it by never contacting him after the show’s finale was filmed.

“She never called me after the last show and no one would give me her number so pretty much I feel like and ass but we are not 2gather,” Banhart wrote on his own MySpace blog the day before Tequila’s New Year’s Eve comments on MTV. “U cant have a relationship bye urself ya know.”

While at least one of the parties is obviously lying about the extent of the couple’s post-show relationship, Banhart’s statement seems to support some of the claims a source “close to the show” had told the New York Post in November, including that Tequila “arrives late,” “doesn’t talk to any of the contestants between takes” and “complains she has too much going on.” Tequila had subsequently denied those allegations in a subsequent MySpace blog posting.

A Shot at Love’s 10-episode second season is scheduled to premiere in the spring, according to MTV, and will follow a similar format to the show’s first season as Tequila whittles a group of suitors — including both straight men and gay women — who will live together and compete against one another in challenges to win her heart.

If MTV plans on doing a second season of its A Shot at Love bi-sexual reality dating series, it will apparently have to be without the show’s first season star Tila Tequila.

“I feel like I found love and right now don’t feel like doing another season,” Tequila told TV Guide in the magazine’s December 2 issue. “If this relationship doesn’t work out, then I’ll definitely go back and look for love again. But right now I’m happy where I am, sitting in my sweatpants and looking at the sun outside.”

The 25-year-old bisexual model — whose MySpace profile is billed as having the most friends in the history of the social-networking website — is currently starring in A Shot at Love, which premiered last month. A Shot at Love follows Tequila as she whittles down a group of 32 suitors — 16 straight men and 16 gay women — who live together and compete against one another in challenges to win her heart.

“We finished wrapping, and I definitely found love,” Tequila told TV Guide. “But we can’t be seen out together, so we only talk on the phone. It’s pretty hard.”

“I knew that working hard would pay off,” Tequila told TV Guide about her celebrity status. “But it’s mostly my fans helping me get there. They’ve known me for so long, it’s like seeing their best friend succeed. My friends and people who know of my character want to see me become more successful.”

Tequila apparently viewed A Shot at Love — MTV’s first serialized reality dating show — as a good platform to increase her celebrity status.

“I don’t care about fame,” she told TV Guide. “I turn down a lot, like record deals and TV shows. But the media twists it into, ‘Tila Tequila’s fired because she’s talent-less!’ But it’s like, I’m the one who quit!”

Tequila is ultimately unsure about whether her A Shot at Love persona is really real, claiming she’d be “a little more feisty” on the show if she wasn’t playing a character.

“Sometimes I just want to scream at everybody and say, ‘Shut the f**k up!’” she told TV Guide. “But I’m not [VH1's I Love New York star Tiffany "New York" Pollard]. I have a little more class than that. So I let the contestants speak their peace.”

MTV has announced A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila, a new bisexual reality dating show.

Tila Tequila, a 25-year-old bisexual model whose MySpace profile is billed as having the most friends in the history of the social-networking website, will serve as the object of affection on A Shot at Love, which will premiere Tuesday, October 9 at 10PM ET/PT, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

A Shot at Love will reportedly follow Tequila as she whittles down a group of 32 suitors — 16 straight men and 16 gay women — who will live together and compete against one another in challenges to win her heart.

In addition, each half-hour installment of the 10-episode series will end with an elimination ceremony, according to Daily Variety.

“Tila Tequila made a name for herself by doing things her way, captivating legions of fans online, both men and women,” Tony DiSanto, MTV’s executive vice president of series development and programming, told The Reporter. “Now she is taking that attitude and sex appeal to her own TV series where she is looking for a mate — by again captivating a group of both men and women. The show is a roller-coaster ride of drama, conflict and emotion, busting stereotypes and challenging the norm.”

A Shot at Love is reportedly being produced by 495 Productions and MTV, with Sally Ann Salsano serving as executive producer and Joel Zimmer serving as co-executive producer.