The Oprah’s Lifeclass Ticket Requests Are Pouring In

Photo by George Burns/Harpo Inc. 

Apparently we’re not the only ones who are excited to see season two of Oprah’s Lifeclass in person. Less than a week after ticket availability was announced, Oprah.com was flooded with more than 55,000 ticket requests for the four upcoming specials.

Devotees who aren’t lucky enough to gain access to the Peabody Opera House in St. Louis on March 26 or Radio City Music Hall in New York on April 2 shouldn’t despair. They’ll be able to catch the premiere episode of Oprah's Lifeclass: The Tour on Monday, March 26 from 8 to 10 p.m. EST/7 to 9 p.m. Central on OWN.

As for us, our countdown to Oprah continues. We’re just 25 days away from our trip to St. Louis and we’ll be cranking up the coverage. So stay tuned and drop us an email or post on our Facebook wall if there’s anything you’d like us to keep our eyes open for during our own Oprah tour.

To learn more about the NAACP Image Award winning show for Outstanding Talk Series, visit the official website, follow @OprahLifeclass on Twitter and join the conversation using #OprahsLifeclass.

Jessica Simpson Draws Inspiration from Fashion Star Designers

  John Russo/NBC 

 

Jessica Simpson has come a long way from Newlyweds “buffalo wings” days. The mother to be has turned a pop career and reality TV show into a brand that includes a clothing line. So she was an obvious choice for Fashion Star Executive Producer Ben Silverman when he was looking for mentors for his new design show. In a recent conference call interview, Jessica talked about the new series.

Jessica explained why she chose to participate, “I was on [the producers] radar because of being involved with fashion and developing the Jessica Simpson Collection from the ground up. And now it’s got amazing legs to run on and I’ve had such a great time just diving in and seeing what I can do and what I can make of it.”

The 31-year-old star feels like she’s found a good home for her interests. She acknowledged, “Me teaming up with this show was a perfect fit. I couldn’t turn it down because I felt like it was great for my collection, but it was also important for me to talk to these up and coming designers and mentor them and kind of show them the ropes and really try and lead them in the right direction.”

The Biggest Loser's Daphne Dortch Feels Like Dorothy from Oz

Photo by Tyler Golden/NBC

Daphne Dortch and her brother Adrian were doomed from day one on the ranch on The Biggest Loser. They lost the very first challenge and were sent home without even unpacking their bags. When they were allowed to return to the game a month later, the other players did not exactly welcome them with open arms. They were both voted out at the first possible opportunity. But despite the difficulties placed in her path, Daphne had plenty of positive things to say about her Biggest Loser experience in a recent conference call interview.

She did admit to being thrown by all of the drama saying, "Never in a million years did I envision my experience would be what it was. I had watched previous seasons but it seemed like every time I turned on the TV I was watching people just being weighed in. I had no clue about the game that everyone was playing."

Before signing up for the show, Daphne's health problems were so serious she moved in with her mother. She had been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and sleep apnea and was afraid to sleep without someone nearby to care for her in case her heart failed. She did not join The Biggest Loser to win the prize. She went on the show to gain her independence. "I didn’t care about the money. I didn’t care about the game. I just felt like every day was like I was taking a chance and I felt like I was dying. And I just want to save my life so I could be around for my kids… I just wanted to get healthy so I could stop living with this deep worry of, 'Is today going to be my last day?'"

She continued, "For god’s sake, I’m 37 years old, I was at home living with my parents. Not because I didn’t have money, not because I couldn’t live on my own. But I feared. I was living in fear every day. I thought every day that I was going to die."

The Cast of Kickin’ It Talks About Their Characters

Photo by Adam Rose/Disney XD  

We’ve been covering a lot of teen topics lately but we have to admit that we were really impressed with the young cast of Disney XD’s series Kickin’ It. Not only are the stars polite and poised, as only kids from the Mouse House can be, but this group also knows how to take care of business. That’s because they’re all in various stage of honing their martial arts skills. At a recent press event we talked with them about how they’re like their characters.

Young Conan O’Brien look alike Dylan Riley Snyder talked about the reason the actors can all connect to their roles on a unique level. He revealed, “The executive producer, Jim O'Doherty, wrote it that way so we would have our characters close to us. Literally we would talk to him about and be like, ‘How can we make our characters more like us?’ So we worked on keeping them as close as possible.”

That’s why Dylan has an understanding of the awkward teen, Milton Krupnick. He described his alter ego, “He’s not nerdy but he’s very intelligent… But he lacks social skills and he gets confidence, that builds him up, from karate. And so adding all that together you get this little guy who can conquer anything. And that’s one of the amazing qualities about Milton.”

This Week's Inspirational Pop Culture Moment: The Biggest Loser

Photo by Trae Patton/NBC 

This week on The Biggest Loser Roy Pickler, better known as Santa for his snow-white beard and stout frame, was sent home. The 63-year-old from Middlebury, Indiana, was caught off guard by his teammates' vote, but grateful for the experience and happy to be continuing his journey at home.


And true to his appearance, part of what he was going back to was his work playing Santa for a local Boys and Girls Club. In a recent conference call interview, Roy told us how he got involved with the role.

He explained, "A number of years ago I was working for a company here in Elkhart and I was leading devotionals… At the same time I was at home that evening preparing for that… my wife brought up the fact that there was a Christmas party that they had in previous years and companies had offered up presents for kids in disadvantaged groups and did I have any ideas how we might be able to have a Christmas party for disadvantaged kids… I thought well maybe I could bring it up in a devotional and get some support."

And so he did. Then the people involved asked if he would play Santa for the party. He recalled, "I said, 'Well sure, I’ll do that.' And I had to rent a costume and a beard and I enjoyed it so much that later on when I was asked again to play the role I started growing my beard out and then I found out I had a curly white beard that fit the image exactly. So that’s how it all happened. It was kind of coincidental."

Sadly, this yearly costume also led to his weight gain. "That was my excuse coming onto the ranch. I could always eat because I was building the Santa persona. But on the other hand, now that The Biggest Loser has gotten hold of me and I have lost some weight, now I’m going to be portrayed as the healthy Santa. And since they have helped publicize that I’m just thankful for that and now I’m going to do a long life healthy Santa."

Hal Sparks on Lab Rats, Working with Kids and Magic

Photo by Pop Culture Passionistas

Hal Sparks has had a very diverse career since he started performing comedy as a teenager. He trained with Chicago's Second City Comedy Troupe, hosted E!'s Talk Soup, starred in Showtime's Queer as Folk, regularly appeared on VH1's I Love the… series and played Zoltan the cult leader in Dude, Where's My Car. Now Sparks is giving family sitcoms a go playing the dad on the new Disney XD show Lab Rats.

Lab Rats is about a 14-year-old boy named Leo, who moves in with his new inventor step-dad and quickly discovers three superhuman bionic teens hidden in his house. We spoke with Hal at a recent press event about playing the inventor, Donald Davenport.

He joked, "They talk about actors in the context that there's a role they were born to play. And genius, billionaire, inventor, adventure man is pretty much what I do every day. It was very simple. They were like, 'Get Sparks.' Everybody has that button in Hollywood, because I've been around long enough now that there's a 'Get Sparks' button on everybody's phone."

The "they" he referred to are Lab Rats executive producers Chris Peterson and Bryan Moore, who also created That '70s Show. Hal explained his connection to the duo. "I have an odd, barnacled relationship with That '70s Show, which I was never on. I'm friends with Kurtwood Smith. I did Dude, Where's My Car?, which was written by Philip Stark and starred Ashton [Kutcher]. This episode we're filming is called 'Dude, Where's My Lab,' and the writer who wrote it on the show had no idea I was in Dude, Where's My Car?... So it's an odd little twist… But they’re great. The nice thing is they’re aiming at a family sitcom, less a show on cable for kids."

On the show, Hal's character has one stepson and has also created three bionic superhuman kids that he treats like family. He talked about working with the young actors. He joked that they are unlike some child stars, "The other ones have been spit-polished until there's nothing left. There's no individuality. There's nothing. These kids are wacky and fun and actually have hope for the future. That's the difference between them and most children."

The Passionistas Hit the Road with Oprah

Photo by George Burns/Harpo Inc. 

We could not be more excited. We have been invited to be part of the VIP Press Corps for Oprah's Lifeclass: The Tour.

The kind people at OWN are bringing us along on Oprah's tour starting in St. Louis on March 26 for the premiere of season two of the series. We will have access to rehearsals, tapings and the goings on behind the scenes at several amazing locations nationwide.

Season two of Oprah's Lifeclass will feature top notch guests and, of course, Oprah herself. She will take the stage with hand-picked experts sure to educate and inspire the in-studio audience and the TV viewers, as well as the participants logged on to the live digital classroom for the companion coursework. Oprah will be filming the season in three cities nationwide, so to find out how to get tickets in a city near you visit the Oprah's Lifeclass website.

Be sure to check back often for more details about the cities, the dates and the guests as they unfold and for live posts while we are on the road with Oprah!

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Wipeout’s John Henson Has a Lot of Irons in the Fire

Photo by ABC/Craig Sjodin

If you had asked us when we first saw John Henson perform in the Boston University improv group Spontaneous Combustion, we could have told you that some day he’d be a star. And we were right. Not only did he go on to a successful stand-up career, he became host of Talk Soup and The John Henson Project. These days he can be heard commentating on the insane obstacle course show Wipeout. In a recent exclusive interview John talked everything he’s got going on.

John looked back at his experience in B.U. in the comedy troupe Spontaneous Combustion, saying, “I was in the founding members of that group… I thought, ‘Wow our humbling beginnings playing in the cafeteria have led to a group that’s lasted more than 20 years.’”

He talked about how that experience helped him set off on a very particular path. John recounted, “I did about two years of improv at B.U. And then I actually left Boston University to pursue a career in stand-up comedy. And I did about eight years of stand-up comedy before I was lucky enough to land the job on Talk Soup. And that improv base led to a lot of improvising in my stand-up act.”

A.J. Langer Gives Advice to Her Young Co-Star on Private Practice

Photo by Adam Larkey/ABC

A.J. Langer has been acting since the age of thirteen. She was a teenager when she appeared on shows like Blossom, The Wonder Years, Baywatch, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper and Drexell's Class. And she was just 20 when she starred in My So-Called Life as Rayanne Graff. So she knows a thing or two about starting out in the business at an early age. Now as a recurring guest on Private Practice, playing Cooper's old flame Erica, mother to his son Mason, she can pass her wisdom on to her twelve year-old co-star. In a recent exclusive interview, she told us about getting the part on Private Practice and working with Griffin Gluck who plays her son.

A.J. informed us that after working for close to two decades, she had taken a long period of time off to begin a family and was unsure what direction her life was headed. "I had taken four or five years off to have babies… and also to get healthy and figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, not knowing if I wanted to get back into acting. And then decided I'd get back into classes. And see what happens."

She said she studied for a bout a year and "decided this is what I do and where I need to be." And so she began auditioning again. She stated, "I was very reassured that people remembered and were enthusiastic about having me."

When she got the part of Erica on Private Practice she figured it was fate, "I said that I wasn't going to put any pressure on myself to work until my son was two and that was the week of my son's second birthday."

Maxime Brulein Brings Royal Watchers to Arch Knockardy

Photo by  Milan Bhatt

 
With the Wills and Kate hoopla behind them, it’s time for royal watchers to turn their attention to the little talked about sovereigns of Arch Knockardy. At least that’s what the public relations firm of Law & Menin will hope they’ll do. The PR masterminds have a very simple mission — to make Arch Knockardy the hottest holiday destination in the Pacific. Never heard of Law & Menin or Prince Marco? That’s because they are all the product of writer-director Maxime Brulein’s imagination and the subject of his next film project, Postcard from the Palace.

Brulein explained how he got the idea for the monarch mockumentary, “The concept of the movie started many years ago, when my best friend in high school and I would write little short stories about an island called Arch Knockardy. The name of the island was based on one of our friends, whose last name was Knockaert and who we loved making fun of. One of these short stories involved a 12-step program in which ordinary people were taught how to become an instant celebrity.”

A few years ago the inside joke took a more public turn. Brulein recounted, “My friend came to visit me in California. We decided, as a joke, to make official looking photos of her and HRH Prince Marco of Arch Knockardy. She posted these on her travel blog with a whole article about her visit to the ‘island.’ The pictures and the text were so believable, that people started to email her, asking her how the hell she personally knew a royal. The joke was pushed further when HRH Prince Marco had his very own Facebook page.”

Jordis Unga's Journey from Rock Star: INXS to The Voice

Photo by Lewis Jacobs/NBC 

If you're a fan of reality competition shows, chances are you watched last week's episode of The Voice and listened to Jordis Unga sing "Maybe I'm Amazed" and thought, "She looks awfully familiar to me." There's a slight possibility you recognize her from an appearance as a young girl on Star Search, when Dweezil Zappa gave her three out of ten stars. But more likely you rooted for her on Rock Star: INXS in the summer of 2005. She made it all the way to fifth place but the title eventually went to J.D. Fortune.

In a recent conference call interview Jordis admitted that in her time since appearing on Rock Star she's had some highs and lows. She stated, "All those years in between Rock Star and The Voice there were ups and downs. There were record deals. There weren't. There were poor jobs. It's been such a journey for me to keep doing this for a living. Not a lot of people get as many chances as I've gotten."

She continued, "To be in this position again, I'm so thankful and overwhelmed and it means a lot to me to be here. It means a lot to people who have followed me throughout the years and all my successes, all my failures. I'm just holding on tight to this one and take it as far as I can for sure."

The singer said a lot has changed – from her music to her hairstyle — since her first reality competition series. "I was really young when I did Rock Star. I think I was 22. And it's been a lot of years. There's been a lot of growth. There's been a lot of changes. I've experimented with different types of music and different genres, different looks. Everybody's wondering where the dreads are? I haven't had those in years. I don't think the core of what I do as a vocalist has changed."

Chris Harrison Says Courtney Is Playing a Good Game on The Bachelor

ABC/Ron Koeberer  

There’s no doubt about it, Courtney Robertson may go down as the most controversial Bachelor villainess in history. But in a recent conference call interview, host Chris Harrison cautioned that fans shouldn’t snap to any quick decisions about the model who seems to have skinny-dipped her way into Ben Flajnik’s heart.

Chris warned that it might not be fair to judge Courtney based on the fact that she’s been aggressive with Ben. “I've been doing this for years, and nothing is that simple when it comes to anything, especially relationships. And the fact that Courtney is playing this game — and love is a game, there's a certain game element to it.”

But he defended the Scottsdale, Arizona, native, saying, “This is the way that Courtney plays. And again, it's not just to win. I don't think. And it's not just to play a game for her. I think she does have feelings for Ben. I think she very, very much cares for him. But I also think that, from her experience in her life, this is the way she goes about it.”

The Biggest Loser's Adrian Dortch Talks About His Non-Profit Work

Photo by Trae Patton/NBC

Adrian Dortch found himself in an especially tough spot on The Biggest Loser. The very first night he and his sister, Daphne, were sent home without stepping one foot inside the gates of the famed ranch. They were given one month to lose 50 pounds on their own to regain a spot in the game. And they proceeded to shock everyone by doing that and more.

But the players were not what you would call welcoming to their new teammates. In fact they made Adrian's short time on the ranch down right miserable and voted him off the first chance they got. But viewers everywhere were feeling for the guy, taking his side in the battle against The Biggest Loser mean girls. And in a recent conference call interview the eliminated contestant shined a light on where his good attitude and zest for life comes from — giving back.

At home in Evanston, Illinois, Adrian runs a non-profit called Entrepreneur Endeavors, an organization he started in 1997. Having grown up in a rough neighborhood, Adrian credits two music producers with turning his life around. "Jim Tullio and Butch Stewart — they do commercials and jingles, and they actually did Oprah’s 'Run On' song in the year before that — they were my mentors… I wasn’t into singing or producing, but they pulled me to the side and they seen I had a voice. They seen I had talent. So it pretty much saved me from my community. And at the time… there were some guys that I probably shouldn’t have been hanging around, so they pretty much saved me. So music saved me and then showing me not only music but the business part of it saved me."

And so he was inspired to give back. "I started volunteering for not-for-profits. And then, I said, 'Hey. I can probably do this myself.' So I started my own not-for-profit in 1997 called Entrepreneur Endeavors. And the basis of this is to bring all kids in any kind of walk of life. Any kid. It’s beautiful because no matter color, race, what have you, everybody loves to do this. So that’s the foundation to get them in, to come in to see what’s happening. Then I figure out individually what they love doing. And so if one likes to be a doctor, I’ll find a doctor and reference them to a doctor and they’ll go and they’ll have an experience with that doctor and come back."

Adam Wylie: The Actor Who Never Grows Up

Photo by Rick Rowell/Disney Junior

You may remember Adam Wylie as the youngest kid on the TV series Picket Fences back in the '90s. Or maybe you saw him on Broadway in Into the Woods. Personally, our favorite Adam roles were the Skinny Kid God in Joan of Arcadia and Brad Langford on The Gilmore Girls. But despite numerous juicy roles and 23 years in the business (he started acting when he was four), there is one character Adam always dreamed of playing — Peter Pan.

Well now Adam is getting that chance. Tonight Jake and the Never Land Pirates: Peter Pan Returns premieres on the Disney Channel and Adam is voicing the iconic boy who never grew up. In a recent exclusive interview Adam talked about being the boy who never grew up on TV and in real life.

Having tried out for the role once before and losing to Lost's Matthew Fox, Adam feared this audition might not pay off either. He described walking in to the audition room, "I remember being in there and seeing some really, really top notch guys in the waiting room going, 'Oh my god, they're perfect. Dang it... There's no way that I'm going to have a shot at this.'"

Still he gave it his all and was happy with his audition. But he said that when the producers are watching you from behind their glass wall, "You can never tell." He explained, "They're discussing how much they don’t like you — that's what's going through your head." But in reality they were very impressed with him. He recalled, "Two days later I found I was going to be Peter Pan on Jake and the Never Land Pirates and I was super excited because it was a dream come true."

But even though he had hoped to play Peter Pan for a long time, Adam approached this audition in the same way he does every try out. "You need to go into an audition thinking it’s another chance to perform material and have fun and see where it goes from there and see if something happens. I think of every audition as a one-time show, if you will. If I get to do a second performance, or more performances, then fantastic."

The Stars of Body of Proof Share Their Autopsy Experiences

  ABC/Richard Foreman 

Body of Proof’s Dana Delany, Nicholas Bishop, Geoffrey Arend and Windell D. Middlebrooks are living most actors’ dreams — starring in a hit TV series with a really easy-going and fun-loving team. But there is one thing that some might consider a drawback for the talent on the show. The cast had to participate in real-life autopsies to research their parts. At a recent press event they talked about their experiences.

Nicholas, who plays medical investigator Peter Dunlop, recounted, “We were totally suited up in the stuff that we wear on the show. So you’ve got triple gloves and you’ve got the suit and you’ve got all that stuff because you can’t have any contamination or anything. But I did have my Starbuck’s with me.”

The off-camera staff tried to prepare them for what was about to happen. Nicholas noted, “They did warn us that when they… cut the stomach open that’s going to be really bad. But apart from that you’re so overwhelmed by what’s actually happening in front of you that I didn’t really get emotionally attached or involved. It was just like watching someone take apart a brilliant piece of machinery.”

CELEBRITY SIBLINGS: The Scali Sisters of Jersey Couture

Photo by Pop Culture Passionistas

The new season of Jersey Couture began last night and we are happy to have the Scalis back on our TV sets. Last year the series debuted and we fell in love with the family from New Jersey. Mom, Diane, owns a dress shop called Diane & Co., and daughters, Kimberly Gambale and Christina Scali, work with her. Together they make women all over the New Jersey area feel like princesses for all sorts of occasions — from sweet 16 parties to proms to weddings and much more.

The Scali woman know that every occasion needs the perfect dress and they will stop at nothing to help her find it. On a recent conference call interview we spoke with Kimberly about how the show has affected business and what it's like working with her sister.

Kimberly is the oldest of Diane's two daughters and she is also the only one married. Last season viewers met her husband Jerome and their daughter Francesca. This time around they introduce the latest addition, their new son Lorenzo. But besides her two human children, Kimberly's third baby is Diane and Co. Her responsibilities at the shop include running the sales floor and the online business as well as the stores signature "Fluff Me" service. The sisters provide pampering from hair to make-up and more on the day of the customer's special event. Kimberly stated, "The reputation that we've had was always customer service and that's what we've pride ourselves on."

She told us that doing the series has definitely affected business. "We were a busy boutique to begin with before the show… Following of the show, we were just blessed to have a ton more customers from outside of our area, which makes it great. We had people fly in from Taiwan. We get people from the west coast."

But the popularity is not necessarily always a blessing. Kimberly divulged, "With the good also comes the bad. We love meeting the fans of the show and we love meeting people. But you still get the people that come in and say they need a dress, but they really just want to meet us and see the experience. They get the two hours of trying on, but they're really not interested in buying a dress."

She said to solve that problem they tell viewers, "Just take pictures with us and meet us as a fan. Don't play like you're not interested in meeting with us and just do it from behind the scenes." She continued, "We take our jobs very seriously. The show is secondary to our business and our family. It's an overall amazing experience. We are just blessed to have so many people that just love us for the family that we are. You can't ask for more than that."

As sisters ourselves, we are always curious to hear how siblings who work together get along. Kimberly admitted, "The hardest part I would have to say is we're both right. It's never like, 'Oh you're right' or 'You're right.' Everybody has to be right. In our family, whoever can scream the loudest wins."

The siblings do bicker quite a bit on the show, and it makes for very entertaining TV. But Kimberly assured us it is not played up for the audience. "What you see on our show, I can honestly say, is all reality. What you see is what you get. There is nothing sugar coated for the camera and we're just blessed to get along. We have our fights, we have our screaming matches, but at the end of the day, you suck it up and you start the day over the next day and you're over it. It's a great thing to work with your family, but it's not the easiest."

Tune in to Jersey Couture on Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. EST/ 9 p.m. Central on Oxygen.

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SallyAnn Salsano Is a Big Wig on the Jersey Shore


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The Real Housewives of O.C.: The Show Can Kill a Dying Relationship

Photo by Michael Rosenthal/Bravo  

Clearly there was a lot of relationship drama on the The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, which culminated in inexplicable tragedy. Luckily for the women of the first series in the franchise, life is a little less tragic in Orange County. Still stars Gretchen Rossi and Tamra Barney revealed in a recent conference call interview that being on Bravo’s reality show can impact their off-camera lives.

Tamra is one of several women in the Housewives family who have watched their marriages fall apart while filming. She acknowledged that filming a reality series can take its toll on an unstable couple, saying, “If you don't have a solid foundation you're going to crumble. And it does give some added stress to your life, your marriage.”

She admitted that there is an upside to watching your troubled relationship from a different perspective. “It's also [therapeutic], because you can see yourself from the outside on TV. And you can see what other people are seeing. And you can be like, ‘That's not right and that's not cool and I shouldn't have to deal with this.’”

Jennifer from The Bachelor on Courtney and Being the Best Kisser

Photo by Craig Sjodin/ABC

At the risk of sounding sarcastic, this season of The Bachelor may just be the most dramatic ever. Seriously. All thanks to a 28-year-old model from Arizona named Courtney Robertson. Because of her, nice, suitable, down-to-earth women are being sent home week after week as hurricane Courtney leaves a path of dejected bachelorettes in her wake. Last week she had the audacity to sneak off to Ben Flajnik's room and take him skinny-dipping. In the aftermath, the guilt-ridden bachelor was left to eliminate yet another promising prospect who was falling madly in love with him. The victim this rose ceremony was Jennifer Fritsch.

Jennifer, the red-headed accountant from Oklahoma, seemed to be a frontrunner for Ben's affections. Early on he named her the best kisser and their one-on-one date in Park City, Utah, was one of the most romantic so far. During the cocktail party before she was sent home, Ben and Jennifer shared a nice conversation about how she was feeling and some very passionate smooches.

But when the roses were handed out, Jennifer was just as caught off guard as the rest of us that she did not receive one. "It was such a shocker for me to look back on it because everything was right. It seemed like the conversation was so easy. It was so natural. I’m thinking from my date last week and how I loved being in his environment in Puerto Rico playing baseball. He was great. And then he proceeded to kiss me. So definitely I walked away going, 'I got this in the bag. I’m getting a rose.'"

She said after her talk with him that evening she went and did a confessional interview where she "swore up and down there was no way I was going home." She stated, "I had the rug pulled out from under me for sure."

Jennifer admitted that she felt like she was in the top four all along. "I knew he had a connection with Courtney and Kacie B. and Lindzi, obviously. They were some of his favorites. I thought I was a favorite, too, but as I’m watching it now, I feel he sent me home when he did because maybe I was too real. I think he had feelings for me, but at the same time there were people there like Blakeley and Casey S. and Jaime who I think would be easier for him to let go in a couple more weeks versus letting me go in a couple more weeks when he would have to feel bad about it. That’s how I justify it in my mind."

This Week's Most Inspiring Pop Culture Moment: Wes Moore

Photo by ABC News 

Each week we take a look around our pop culture world and try to find one moment that stood out as the most inspiring. It might be a celebrity who is doing charitable things, a TV shows that inspires us to be better or a philosophy that we should all strive to live by. Here is this week's most inspiring pop culture moment.

Each week author and army veteran Wes Moore brings tales of mystery and miracles to OWN on Beyond Belief, the latest series to join the network's line-up. The news magazine, which originally aired on ABC, appears to be a better fit for Oprah Winfrey's channel. In a recent exclusive interview host Wes Moore told us why the show works on OWN and shared some inspiring stories from the series.

Beyond Belief originated on ABC and when OWN took over they extended the coverage of the original subjects and added many more new ones. Each episode delves deep into topics that are wondrous and inspiring. We asked Wes why the move from ABC to OWN seemed like the right one for the series. He replied, "OWN has a philosophy of being a network that really does change the way we think about ourselves and think about each other. And one of the really cool things about Beyond Belief, and one of the threads that really lines up a lot of the stories that we're trying to tell, a lot of the people we chose to have as subjects, is they really force you to think differently about yourself and think differently about others."

He added, "[These are] people who are in some cases everyday, average people — our neighbors, people who we go to work with, our colleagues. But from the moment they're called on just do some extraordinary things and have some extraordinary experiences. So that's why this show really fits perfectly into the type of messages and into the type of stories that OWN is hoping to share."

We asked Wes to describe some of the most inspiring stories he has done to date and he told us about two in particular. The first was about a woman named Danelle Ballengee, who was an endurance runner. Wes described her as "a person who literally spends her life pushing her body to the absolute limits of what it can do."

He told us that while out for a run in the Moab dessert, Danelle slipped and fell 60 feet off a cliff. Shattering her hip and parts of her leg. He revealed, "By just sheer will initially, and by sheer adrenaline, she's pulling herself, she's trying to get herself out, even though she really has no use of her legs whatsoever."

Martin Sheen Discovers Family Activists on Who Do You Think You Are?

  Photo by Lalo Villar/NBC 

Everyone knows Martin Sheen as the Emmy Award-winning star of The West Wing and a brilliant actor in films like Badlands and Apocalypse Now. And those that follow his off-screen life are aware that he’s not only Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen’s dad, he’s also an activist. In fact, Sheen told James Lipton on The Actors Studio that he’s been arrested over 60 times while protesting.

Sheen recently explored his ancestry for the season three premiere of the star-studded genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are? While it might come as no surprise that he had activists in his family, one relative made Martin take pause. In a recent conference call interview he shared his discoveries.

Sheen, born Ramon Estevez, is of Irish and Spanish descent. He talked about what he uncovered about his lineage. “I had two uncles on both sides of my parents' families. My uncle, [Michael Fieland] in Ireland, who was an Irish volunteer and fought in the War of Independence and then fought against the Free State in the Civil War from 1921 to '23. And on my father's side my father's brother, [Matias] had fought against Franco at the onset of his coup and spent an awful lot of time in jail and in fact received a life sentence that we finally rescinded in 1969. And I had just met him that year.”