Reality TV goes bad

A Florida-based reality show producer of Pauper to Princess has been arrested for false imprisonment after the show’s contestants said a producer wouldn’t let them leave the house where they were being filmed. The women claim they had to escape after they weren’t paid, according to news reports.

The Orland Sentinel writes about the reality show gone bad: “Shattered dreams, not riches beyond their wildest dreams, are the all that Pauper to Princess contestants took from the aborted reality show.”

According to police and a neighbor’s account, Marc Brilleman, 33, held the women against their will and prevented them from calling their families.

But Jim Johnson, the executive producer of the show and owner of the house, denied the allegations and said the women who asked to leave were allowed to do so.

“Nobody was being held against their will at any time,” Johnson said. “This show was an honorable show. We took them to the opera, we took them to fashion shows, we took them to modeling training and we took them to etiquette training.”

Reports ABC News in “Reality TV Wannabe Arrested in Kidnap“:

The dream of four self-described “paupers” to learn how to become a princess on a reality TV show turned into a nightmare after the director was arrested for allegedly keeping the contestants in a Florida house against their will.

Marc Brilleman, the 33-year-old director of the reality TV pilot “Paupers to Princess” and executive… Expand
Marc Brilleman, the 33-year-old director of the reality TV pilot “Paupers to Princess” and executive with Dream House Productions, was arrested Saturday by police in Apopka, Fla., and charged with false imprisonment of an adult, a third-degree felony. Four women contestant in the pilot say Brilleman attempted to hold them in the house against their will.

Marc Brilleman, the 33-year-old director of the reality TV pilot “Pauper to Princess,” was arrested Saturday by police in Apopka, Fla., and charged with kidnap-false imprisonment of an adult, a third-degree felony. He was freed on $3,000 bond.

Video: Pauper To Princess Producer Wouldn’t Let Us Out

Video: Pauper To Princess Producer Arrested

Technorati Tags: arrest, crime, princess to pauper, producer, reality television

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