TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Will Tampa Salesman Have Most 'TrueBeauty'?

ABC

Joel Rush, 27, a model, actor and sales representative from Tampa, may win “True Beauty” tonight.

ADVERTISEMENT

By WALT BELCHER wbelcher

@tampatrib.com

Published: February 23, 2009

Tonight, the ABC reality series "True Beauty" crowns a winner and Joel Rush, a medical software salesman from Tampa, could be taking home top honors and a $100,000 prize.

Rush, 27, is one of three finalists left on the series that has attempted to measure the character as well as the physical appearance of 10 beautiful people.

Whatever the outcome, life has already changed for Rush, who has given up his job as health care business development manager at Pegasus Imaging Corporation and moved to Los Angeles.

"A lot of good things have been happening since the show started," he said in a telephone interview Friday. "I've signed with major modeling agencies in New York and Los Angeles. I can't say who wins the show but my modeling has taken off and I'm closer to my dream of becoming an actor."

Also still in the hunt for the cash prize and spot in People magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People issue are Chippendale dancer Billy Jeffrey, a 31-year-old vitamin shop owner from Idaho, and Julia Anderson, a 23-year-old dancer, magician's assistant and beauty queen from Texas.

Rush says that he feels Julia is the one who really has the most "inner beauty" in the competition.

"Julia is a good friend now, but when the show started I was the first to think that she was a big fake," he says. "But once you get to truly know her, she is a class act. She's had a lot of personal struggle in life, having to raise her brother and sister. She's been through a lot and she still shows the world this happy smile."

Created by Ashton Kutcher and Tyra Banks, "True Beauty" rounded up six attractive women and four hunky men and set them up in a posh Los Angeles mansion.

The group thought they were being judged on their looks but they faced challenges that also involved tests of honesty, ethics, fair play and kindness.

Rush sailed through the first four challenges but twice he came close to being sent home. "Those were like wake-up calls for me to refocus, change my game plan, stop getting a big head and do my best," he says.

Although the contestants were never told that "inner beauty" was important, Rush says he began to suspect early on during one of the challenges.

Ratings have been good enough for a renewal but finding another batch of beautiful people who aren't clued in on the "secret" measure of inner beauty might be a problem.

'EASTBOUND' HEADED UP: HBO may have a new hit in its lineup with "Eastbound & Down," a raunchy comedy that's generating a lot of word-of-mouth buzz since its Feb. 15 debut.

Hollywood newcomer Danny McBride ("Tropic Thunder" and "Pineapple Express") stars as obnoxious, foul-mouthed, racist, sexist, has-been baseball player Kenny Powers.

After destroying his career with drugs, an ego run amok and political incorrectness, Kenny is reduced to coaching at his old high school.

This crude interpretation of the macho American male comes from McBride and executive producers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, the team behind "Talladega Nights," "Anchorman," and "Step Brothers."

New episodes debut at 10:30 p.m. Sundays with repeats throughout the week.

TUNE IN TONIGHT

"House," 9 p.m. Fox

Something is wrong. House starts acting nice. And the case this week involves a sick teen who has male and female DNA.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT