ABC has announced that The Bachelor: Rome, the formal title for the ninth edition of the network's long-running The Bachelor reality dating series, will premiere on Monday, October 2 at 9PM ET/PT with a special two-hour episode.
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After The Bachelor: Rome's two-hour premiere, one-hour episodes of the show will air regularly in the show's new Monday 9PM ET/PT time period. Unlike last season -- in which ABC yanked its Emily's Reasons Why Not/Jake In Progress comedy combo after only a single January broadcast and repeats of The Bachelor: Paris' previous week's episodes ended up serving as the 9PM ET/PT lead-in to the show's regular 10PM time period -- The Bachelor: Rome should have a staple lead-in. New third season episodes of Wife Swap, which has aired in the Mondays at 8PM ET/PT time period since last fall, will begin airing in the same time period beginning September 18.
Beginning October 9, What About Brian -- last spring's JJ Abrams-created drama that aired an extremely brief five-episode late spring run in The Bachelor: Paris' Monday 10PM ET/PT time period after The Bachelor's eighth edition ended its own eight week winter run in the time period -- will return for its first full season. After The Bachelor's ninth edition finishes its fall run, the new season of Supernanny will take its place.
As previously announced, The Bachelor: Rome will take place in Rome, Italy and star Prince Lorenzo Borghese, a real Italian prince that ABC's initial May announcement described as simply "a handsome 33-year-old cosmetics entrepreneur."
However despite ABC's despite "cosmetics entrepreneur" billing, a quick Google search revealed that Prince Lorenzo might actually be a publicity-seeking frog. While he is a member of the Roman noble family, Borghese's current business venture isn't in what one would normally consider to part of the cosmetics industry -- instead he operates GetRoyalTreatment.com, an Internet retailer of canine "bath and body" products.
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Billing himself as following in his family's tradition of "offering their cosmetics to the world," Borghese created Royal Treatment, a "prestigious line of all-natural, human-grade, gentle and effective bath and body pet products." According to the website, Royal Treatment has one goal -- to offer "the world's finest products for your royal pet." Among the products produced by the company are "SoLongStinky Odor Neutralizer Gel" and "SoLongStinky Scented Sachet." Borghese, who also sells his Royal Treatment products via QVC, lists Belle, his own black labrador who "smelled like a dog," as the reason his started the product line.
Clearly, being a prince is no longer what it used to be.
Borghese is the grandson of cosmetics creator Princess Marcella Borghese. Born Marcella Fazi, she became part of the Roman noble family when she married Prince Paolo Borghese, the Duke of Bomarzo, in 1937. The family had used custom-made cosmetics, made mostly from fruits and other natural ingredients, for generations.
In 1956, Princess Marcella -- who had taken to making her own lipsticks that color-coordinated with her wardrobe -- traveled to the United States and teamed with Revlon to start Princess Marcella Borghese Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Revlon Inc. Revlon sold the company, which produces upscale skin and cosmetics products that are sold in some of the world's most exclusive department stores, to Saudi investors in 1991.
Princess Marcella died in 2002 at age 90. She is buried in the Borghese family chapel in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.