When ABC announced that the second installment of The Bachelorette will premiere in January, the network neglected to mention an important detail about the program -- namely the identity of the bachelorette who will star in the series.
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In the absence of a formal announcement, the gossip mills quickly began churning, with media speculation centering on the idea that the woman's identity was not revealed because the show would feature the bachelorette finalist that Bob Guiney failed to select during the November 19 finale of his just-completed The Bachelor series. In fact, only two days before the finale, E! Online's "Watch With Kristen" gossip columnist not only stated that the series would star the runner-up of Guiney's series, but also that she strongly suspected Kelly Jo Kuharski, the 24-year old marketing analyst and Illinois native would be the woman to fail to win Guiney's final rose.
However, in her Friday colum that appeared after the Wednesday finale in which Guniey selected California mortgage broker Estella Gardinier. Kristen is now reporting that according to a "reliable source" of hers, the star of the next Bachelorette series will not be Kuharski, but will instead be the woman who finished fourth during Guiney's Bachelor edition -- Meredith Phillips.
Phillips, a 29-year-old model/ makeup artist currently residing in West Hollywood, CA, is a native of Beaverton, Oregon and graduate of Oregon State University. An aspiring chef hoping to attend culinary school, Meredith is likely best remembered for the scene in the third episode of Guiney's The Bachelor series in which she learned of her grandmother's passing only moments before her big solo date with Guiney.
Whether Kristen's information is any more accurate the second time around than it was the first, we can not say, however, given that the series is already in active production in order to be able to met its quickly-approaching January 14 premiere date, we would think the likelihood of Kristen receiving incorrect information twice to be remote.