Filming is officially underway for one TV’s most anticipated reality shows, The Golden Bachelor.
However the production, which is pitted as a mature spin on The Bachelor, hasn’t had the easiest of starts, with a last minute Bachelor throwing the show in total disarray!
Woman’s Day reveals that production company Warner Bros had been eyeing off an older bachelor for the season, and had already cast a list of lovely ladies for him, but when things fell over at the 11th hour, a new, younger bachelor, Sydney’s Barry Myrden, was whisked in.
GOLDEN BACHELOR REVEALED!
While the 50-something hunky tech professional has the ladies lining up around the block for him, his particular tastes left the casting department scrambling to find suitable suitoresses that were a little more Real Housewives and a little less Golden Girls.
“We were talking about ladies between 60 and 75, so the age bracket definitely had to be broadened,” says the source.
As well as the cast, we hear all departments were subjected to some last minute alterations, with the romantic dates and challenges in particular needing to be changed to better reflect their ages.
LEFT IN THE LURCH
“It has been chaos changing the creative so close to filming,” the source adds.
While Barry’s age tastes were taken into account, production stuck to their guns and assured him that if he wants an authentic love story, then he has to be open to dating a woman of any age – after all, it’s chemistry that counts.
The last minute casting flip threw a spanner in the works for production given they had already chosen a group of ladies for the original bachelor.
However, as images of the cast leak, it appears Barry is going to have a throng of varied and glamorous ladies to choose from.
Among the cast, notable faces such as radio legend Bianca Dye, 51, and Abbie Chatfield’s mother Laura, 65, have been spotted outside the $120 million inner-Sydney mansion, where the show is filming.
ALL ABOUT BARRY
Since images emerged of Barry jetting into Sydney harbour on a speedboat, presumably filming the show’s promo, everyone wants to know more about the silver fox who’s set to don the tux this year.
According to the Daily Mail, Barry works in Data Management for Woolworths Group in Sydney and is a gym junkie and passionate sailor – he’s even competed in the Sydney to Hobart!
A father to three boys, Barry also tragically lost his wife Audrey to a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer in 2011.
Since then, he’s been casually dating, with a friend close to Barry saying his sons often say that he is “bringing around the wrong kind of girls that are just too young and hot for him”, the publication states.
The Golden Bachelor will be hosted by Samantha Armytage and is set to land on our screens later this year.
