By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Last night, a story I wrote a couple of months ago about Andi Dorfman book suddenly blew up. I wondered if Dorfman had showed up on "Bachelor in Paradise." But no. It was her ex Josh Murray who made a surprise appearance.
Yup, Atlanta's own Josh Murray can't avoid the TV cameras. He has most recently been on "Famously Single" on E! in which an expert gathered a bunch of celebrities and barely celebrities to teach them how to find a mate. His presence on the show, based on the times I watched, was modest at best. He is not a natural reality show star like castmates Aubrey O'Day or Brandi Glanville, who can jimmy up drama with a blink of an eye.
On "Famously Single," Murray, on camera, comes across as very pleasant but cautious when it came to women. That's not a recipe for airtime. The producers focused instead on the cast members who hooked up with each other like O'Day and "Jersey Shore" star Pauly D. He was one of the few cast members who stayed dutifully single, which meant he was a bit player in the end.
Josh told me before the debut of that show that he is seriously looking for a life partner. But he clearly likes the attention TV gives him because he's now back on ABC on "Bachelor in Paradise."
Maybe for Josh, the second time's a charm. He almost immediately hooked up with actress Amanda Stanton, who was on "The Bachelor" earlier this year, finishing fourth. What makes it even more delicious? He was competing for Amanda's affection with Nick Viall, the pouty, annoying, intense contestant from the 2014 "Bachelorette" with Dorfman.
Apparently, the other contestants were well aware of Dorfman's tell-all book in which she called Murray an "emotional abuser" who off camera was insecure and jealous with anger issues. He declined to address those issues specifically to me, just calling them "fiction." He did the same on the show.
He offered: "I can't comment on any kind of things in a book that my ex has written about me, because it's a fictional story."
Amanda, I fathom, hasn't read the book and is going with the flow.
Murray, if anything, is helping place dollars into Dorfman's pocket. Her book "It's Not Okay," which came out in May, is now at No. 16 on the Amazon sales list as of 1 p.m. on Tuesday, August 9. I bet it was even higher last night.
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