Off the market

Andrew Firestone, the man meat on ABC's dating show "The Bachelor" in 2003, is engaged to model-actress Ivana Bozilovic.

They plan to marry in the spring.

Firestone came to Wilmington in April 2006 and hosted a wine tasting at the now-closed Columbus Inn. It was pretty hilarious. There was more cleavage showing that night than at a Hooter's sports bar.

It was a day of wine, but no longer roses, for Freestone. He was living, quite happily, with Bozilovic, but that didn't stop more than 120 women from showing up to see him.

"I could care less about his wine. He's just hot," Michelle Schweizer said.

That was pretty much the sentiment that night and it made me wonder: Do all these women have Cinderella fantasies about some reality TV guy sweeping them off their feet and taking them to his California winery for a happily ever after ending?

While Firestone hails from the famous tire family, "The Bachelor" helped draw attention to the family's 35-year-old, relatively small estate winery, which produces about 150,000 cases each year.

We chatted for an hour before the event, and while I thought Firestone sometimes came across as smug on TV, in person, he was a nice and very interesting guy. We had a laugh about one of the contestants on the show saying Olive Garden was the best Italian restaurant ever. Then, I asked him if he still watched "The Bachelor." Firestone said that would be a big, fat no.

"It's like watching a child run with scissors. You know it's going to end badly," he said, laughing.