Channel 9
Viewers can’t help wondering whether this year’s contestants might not be all that they seem.
This year’s MAFS participants are a wild bunch. So much so, it’s hard to believe some in the cast aren’t actually hired actors!Not so, says the show’s resident ‘expert,’ Mel Schilling.
“I can put my hand on my heart and say there are no actors,” she recently told the Chrissy, Sam and Brownie show on NOVA radio, before conceding, “There may be people who have had experience acting in the past – as do I.”
One participant, she may be referring to Mike Gunner, paired with Heidi Latcham on this year’s series.
It recently emerged the 44-year-old has done some acting work in the past after shots surfaced on Instagram. But, as he exclusively told WHO, he wasn’t paid to behave a certain way on the show.
“I don’t like to talk about it. But I did do the runway modelling thing overseas. I’ve done TV ads and I’ve done a bit of acting,” he admitted. ‘I’ve done some stuff here but nothing that hit the big time. A few short films a few various bits and pieces.”
And he’s not the only one – Dino Hira is pictured on his Instagram, wearing what looks to be stage makeup (he’s sporting a rather fetching gunshot wound to the head), while his “wife” Melissa Lucarelli raised eyebrows when photos emerged of her wearing what looked to be a Summer Bay police uniform.
But perhaps the participant causing most of the chatter is 29-year-old, self-confessed ‘virgin’, Matthew Bennett. Many viewers simply refuse to believe that someone, as reserved as the Queensland-based videographer, would volunteer for a show like MAFS.
“I think Matt is one of the most surprising and interesting people I have ever seen in six experiments,” she told Nova. “He looks at fear in the face and jumps in feet first.”
As for Bennett, he’s addressed the rumours head-on.
“I can understand people thinking that, but then why would someone go on national TV and declare themselves the 29-year-old virgin, not a 29-year-old virgin? I am now the 29-year-old virgin,” he told a newspaper recently.
“I am not an actor – I chose a career on the other side of the camera.”
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