LA County Sherriff Lee Bacca, Mitch Thrower and Andy Baldwin racing on a team in Los Angeles at the Malibu Celebrity Triathlon
The Bachelor finale is on tonight and from what I gather the super-buff triathlete pretty boy Andy is going to choose between Tessa and Bevin. Last week we caused some stir by publishing what some called a slanderous e-mail by a “friend” of the bachelor’s best friend, Gatsby, who appeared on the show last week. Our source claimed that Gatsby was a major player, that he and Andy were super-smooth womanizers, and that they must be punking ABC by acting so earnest about Andy’s search for a mate.

We also found a quickly-removed video of Gatsby partying at his place on Halloween with a bunch of semi-dressed hot chicks. The video was well edited and set to music, and the story seemed a lot more believable after viewing it.

Anyway Gatsby, real name Mitch Thrower, e-mailed me to let me know he is serious about helping Andy find a mate and that he’s not the slick creep that the source made him out to be:

After seeing the spiral out of control from the creative slander in the email sent to you, I thought I’d just take a moment to ping you directly. For the record, I actually did have a crazy Halloween party fundraiser, someone in my office posted it, when I saw that it was posted in your article, I sent a remove request.

Also, from all the subsequent threads that resulted from the posting, for the record: I’m not an alien, I don’t have any grey hair (yet, but one should show up any day now), I’m not gay, my dad passed away and is hence not still working for NBC, and there is no conspiracy or “punk’d” gig against ABC in the works. ABC has done a wonderful job with the show and I have heard that the ratings are off the charts, and tonight should be a wonderful Finale.

As for the womanizer part of the conspiracy theory, I’m friends with my X girlfriends – I’ve have had a series of several long term relationships, between which, I’ve done my share of dating, but I’ve always been looking for the right woman to spend the rest of my life with, and am very hopeful that my current girlfriend is her.

[sent via e-mail from Mitch Thrower]

Thrower also says that they tracked and discovered the source of the e-mail, and that the interaction that that person had with the show might motivate him to spread those type of rumors. Bachelor Andy is looking for love, he says, and you should tune into the finale tonight to see the results.

I was secretly hoping for some conspiracy theory, so you can understand my willingness to publish dirt on these guys. The Bachelor is a played-out concept and only one or two couples ever make it after all the public interest and money wasted on the series. If someone would take advantage of the set up, it would make for interesting “reality” television after all.

Here are some personal pictures that Mitch Thrower sent me, including a cute picture of Bachelor Andy checking out the stickers on a little girl at the Malibu Celebrity Triathlon