Tough Love’s Natasha Has A New Show!

Everyone knows that when you get on a reality show once its done you then become a professional partier. You know, making appearances here and there for as long as your fifteen minutes of fame last. But recently it seems that people are going a different rout, the way of the internet TV show. From Big Brother’s Evel Dick to I Love Money 2’s Tailor Made and It everyone is getting in on the act. And VH1’s Tough Love’s Natasha Malinsky is most recent, but certainly not the last reality tv star to enter the internet tv show fray with her show ShopNYC. Below is episdoe 1.

The Dark Side of Reality Matchmaking

By Jim Kelly

Don’t get between competing reality show matchmakers, it can get ugly.

Steve Ward, the host of VH1’s relationship show “Tough Love,” told Fancast.com that fellow dating expert Patti Stanger, host of Bravo’s “Millionaire Matchmaker,” runs a “glorified escort service,” adding, “I only know of her by reputation, and her reputation isn’t very good in Hollywood or in the rest of the country.”

Stanger was incensed by Ward’s insinuation, telling Fancast, “I’m not an escort service, and if you look up the definition of prostitution, that would mean I’d have to pay my girls to go on a date to have sex. If you watch the show, you know I say ‘Don’t have sex unless you’re in a monogamous, committed relationship’ – and I certainly don’t pay my girls to go on dates.”

Stanger also shot back at Ward, telling the website, “He has a terrible reputation in our industry. If you go to Ripoffreport.com there are a million disgruntled clients.”

She accuses Ward of “taking money from women to manage if not service them,” and also claims he was tossed out of a matchmaking event last year for being disruptive. “Not true,” responds Ward, who does, however, admit he and his matchmaker mother JoAnn walked out of a conference in Miami because “we thought [it] was a joke, and we didn’t want to be affiliated with it.” Stanger also claims Ward copies her concept of a “singles boot camp,” which, she says, “was trademarked 10 years ago.” Ward retorts, “Really? Then she should file a lawsuit against VH1.”

Click here to read the full story.

Tough Love Season 2 Now Casting

Just a little bit over week since the first season’s finale and VH1 and it’s resident relationship girl Steven and his Master Matchmaker mother JoAnn Ward are looking for the next group girls to give some of their Tough Love. If you’re a single female 21 or over Steven wants to hear your story!  Head directly to their casting site and let them know you’re out there and you want some tough love.

Tough Love Season 2 Casting

Premier: Tough Love Boot Camp

Ah, VH1, you’ve done so much to help educate America as to the ways of love. How else would ex-strippers and teenage baby mamas learn to love aging rock stars if not for Rock of Love? How would aging rappers with dubious personal hygiene find love if not for Flavor of Love? And how, of how, would tool-worthy losers learn how to pick up drunk girls with low self-esteem if not for The Pick-Up Artist?

Yes, truly, VH1 has done much for the nation’s population of emotionally bankrupt, lost, deviant barelytwentisomethings. And now, maybe realizing there are only so many ways to humiliate girls in “competitions” before the audience cries sexism, VH1 has decided to give ladies the chance for self improvement by educating them as to what men want. Exit Mystery the Pickup Artist, enter Steve the Tough Love Doctor.

Steve Ward claims to be one of the nation’s most successful matchmakers. I’m going to buy it. You know why? Steve looks like a jerk, he dresses like a New Jersey homosexual (much love, Brian), he talks like a douchebag…yet despite this, I still dig him. Anyone who can be likeable with that many things stacked against him must know something about charisma.

The idea behind Tough Love is to take women who are unsuccessful with men and teach them over the course of 8 weeks how to be successful. The resulting training is a mash up of Pickup Artist tricks and Charm School common sense. In the premier, Steve makes the ladies go on a speed dating session, walk around the pool in front of a group of guys, and attend a party. Afterwards, they’re able to find out the impression they made.

The thing that makes Tough Love so entertaining has almost nothing to do with the women’s ability to learn and grow. We get the same old platitudes we get every time we invite horrible women on TV: “I’m confident with my body,” “You don’t know my situation,” “I’m a slut because my dad never loved me.” Nah, the real treat of Tough Love are the men they get to sit as judge and jury on these poor monomaniacal basket cases. Those, gorgeous, gorgeous men with their amazing hair and beautiful jackets. They give honest assessments of all of the women that manage to reaffirm some stereotypes (re: men are shallow), while at the same time shattering others (re: men aren’t perceptive). These men can size up these women remarkably fast and with remarkable accuracy, which is fascinating for those of us who were told by our mothers and aunts and older, more experienced female friends that men were blinded by looks and easily fooled. Turns out, even beautiful men can have emotional intelligence. Who knew?

Tough Love Boot Camp is surprisingly addictive. It’s refreshingly honest, shockingly tasteful, and lacks sexism entirely. And that’s sexism against men as well as that against women. The show refuses to hold women and men to unrealistic standards, and instead forces the participants to look objectively at the reality of the dating world, while holding themselves to a higher standard. But don’t worry–there are more than enough emotional train wrecks to keep things interesting. Without them, would it even be VH1?