] As "reality" television's newest couple stood in the
] ballroom, stunned into silence by their newfound wealth
] and, presumably, newfound love, fans were force-fed a
] fairy tale ending nobody really wanted.]
] We were promised a trainwreck, but given a pony ride. And
] so last night's two-hour finale of the smash-hit Joe
] Millionaire quickly degenerated into a shameless exercise
] in viewer manipulation.]
] Going into the finale, Evan Wallace Marriott, the dim,
] husky-voiced star of Joe Millionaire, had whittled his
] pool of 20 shallow women down to two contenders: Zora
] Andrich and Sarah Kozer, both 29, both Sagittarius.]
] But early on, given the cloying narration and selective
] editing, the women were deliberately presented as
] opposites. And, quite suddenly, the rush toward a safe
] Cinderella ending was cast with contrived Hollywood
] precision.]
] Zora, a substitute teacher who also works with the
] elderly, was "modest," "humble," "down-to-earth" and
] "small-town." Sarah was "sophisticated" and "seductive"
] %u2014 a woman as comfortable starring in bondage-fetish
] films as she is working for a mortgage broker.