'Trading Spaces' plays house in Twin Cities
By Neal Justin When Genevieve Gorder and Doug Wilson slap paint on your living-room walls, it's like the New York Yankees pounding homers over your back-yard fence or U2 jamming in your basement. If you don't know them, maybe you've been living in a cave — or someplace that looks like one. These two interior decorators belong to the very savvy, very sexy, very sweaty cast of cable TV's wildly popular "Trading Spaces," a series that has managed to turn mundane housework into hypnotizing television. After three years, 150 episodes, 30 other locations and 695 crushes on hottie decorator Vern Yip, the gang is finally in the Twin Cities to tape three episodes for the Learning Channel (TLC). They tore through two homes in south Minneapolis this week and will work on houses in Blaine and Eagan before packing up next Friday for Louisville, Ky. For Gorder, who grew up in Minnesota, this stop is a homecoming. For host Paige Davis, it's a sentimental journey, back to the place where she fell in love with husband Patrick Page nine years ago, while they were appearing on stage in the Broadway-bound musical "Beauty and the Beast." But for Jessica Plourde, 28, and Corinne Bryand, 27, die-hard friends and die-hard fans of the show, it was a chance to play house with their favorite TV stars — and show off their city. "I want the world to see us," said Bryand, who lives in south Minneapolis, just a block from Plourde. "I travel a lot, and not everyone has such a favorable opinion of Minneapolis. I want them to see this is a cool place and that it has cool houses." It's even cooler now that Gorder and Wilson have had their way with us. Under their guidance, Bryand and Plourde redid each other's living rooms in less than 48 hours. Late Thursday, with champagne waiting, the two young women, along with two best friends who helped scrape, sew and Spackle, checked out the results. Sound dull? Well, keep in mind that the decorators have only $1,000 to work with — and a somewhat twisted sense of style. They're more likely to stick a candle in a watermelon than buy a lamp from Pier 1. Gorder walks around barefoot in a black dress that looks more appropriate for downing cocktails than framing photos. (The crew nicknamed her "Sex and the City.") Carpenter Amy Wynn Pastor playfully jousts with a tape measure in the driveway. Crew members break into a boogie at the drop of a nail. These aren't models who pose with hammers when the camera is on, then retire to the porch for lemonade. They really work. Pastor, who majored in carpentry and theater at Penn State University, built two entertainment centers for the first show. Gorder bought material from the ReUse Center, a salvage store on E. Lake Street, while Wilson's shopping spree at the Salvation Army took a bizarre twist. For Bryand's home, he bought a couch (for less than $10), which he planned to slipcover. When it was delivered, a locally hired cameraman, Darrell Brand, did a double take. It belonged to his mother, and he'd given it away the day before. "I couldn't get rid of those ugly couches," he said. "Now, I could probably sell them on eBay." Adding to the show's addictive nature is the homeowners, who are usually bubbly enough to merit their own sitcoms. The south Minneapolis women lived up to expectations. Bryand and her friend Amy Bowar danced to Prince music while painting with Gorder. Plourde and her buddy, Erin Krohn, started teasing Wilson within minutes of his first order. When the show was done on Thursday, almost everyone headed to Bar Abilene in Uptown to close the place. "I think you have to let your personality show," said Wilson, while his team hurled good-natured insults behind him. "They're feisty." Home-style 'Smackdown'The combination of out-of-this-world designers and down-to-earth homeowners have made "Trading Spaces" one of cable's most popular series, second only to wrestling shows. Although the show wasn't an instant hit when it made its debut in September 2000, it's now a phenomenon with about 3 million viewers, a string of tied-in merchandise and several copycat shows — which is only fair because "Trading Spaces" is based on a British hit. "It's like a sporting event and soap opera all in one," Davis said. It's no surprise that the combination is appealing to women, who like the competitiveness and suspense, without all the broken bones. According to executive producer Kathy Davidov, about 70 percent of the audience is female. What is surprising is that a growing number of that audience is girls under 17. "Trading Spaces" has doubled its viewership in the last year among those aged 6 to 17, which is why TLC is debuting a spinoff, "Trading Spaces: Family," in which the whole clan gets in on the action. But you didn't need Nielsen numbers to recognize the show's popularity with youngsters. While the address of the south Minneapolis "switch" was kept a secret (no, we're not going to tell where the next two sites are, but check out the accompanying box), at least 70 people figured it out, many of them kids. Kristen Sering, 13, of Mahtomedi, almost started crying when she got to the set. Three preteen girls staked out the site, rarely straying from the taped-off area around the houses. One even brought Pastor a coupon from Domino's Pizza, where her mother works. They also brought pillows, which they asked everyone and anyone around the set to sign. The moment of truthBut not even the show's biggest fans were allowed in to "reveal" — the moment when homeowners are led back into their places to see how they've been transformed. At Bryand's home, the crew and even the decorators crammed into the dining room to see what she thought. "It's an intimate thing," Gorder said. "It's not something you just write off. It's creative." We won't ruin the episodes, which will air in August, by sharing the full reactions. We will tell you that no one was strangled or kicked in the shins. In fact, during Plourde's "reveal," Davis had a problem getting any sort of reaction from the usually chatty homeowner. As she looked around her new room, bathed in wasabi green with storm windows hanging on the walls, all she could keep saying was a low-toned: "Cooooo-ahhhhl." "Uh, what do you think other than cool?" said Davis, hoping for a bit more drama. So Plourde complied. She stuck her fist in the air and screamed out an obscenity that had the crew roaring, but will certainly be nixed by the network. Maybe Minneapolis isn't ready for prime time after all. |
