Crews from several makeover shows draw on local shops, hotel.
By: Aleen Crispino
What do Spa Therapia, b&b Color Studio, The Westin Princeton at the Forrestal Center, and Theo’s Salon have in common?
They have all been visited by reality TV shows this summer.
When a crew from "In a Fix," the combination home repair and makeover show, arrived at The Westin Princeton at the Forrestal Center on Thursday, it was not reality TV’s first venture into the Princeton area.
It started on June 8 when Marty O’Kane and Audrey Devine-Eller, co-workers and instructors at The Princeton Review, which prepares students for the SAT test, were selected as subjects for "A Makeover Story" episode scheduled to be broadcast in September on TLC. They were taken to Spa Therapia on Route 206 in Montgomery for manicures, facials and eyebrow sculpting, while staff of b&b Color Studio, of Route 206 in Princeton Township, were called in to cut and color their hair.
On July 7, Fox TV’s "Ambush Makeover" brought a female employee of The Princeton University Store to Theo’s Salon, on the corner of Nassau and Chestnut streets. She was given a haircut by salon owner Theodora Codrington, with salon staff performing hair coloring and makeup.
As the show has not yet been aired, there has been no change so far in the number of people visiting her salon, Ms. Codrington said.
Ms. Codrington said that having the show filmed in her salon, which has been open for two years, was "pretty cool" and that she "wouldn’t mind at all" going through the experience again.
"It’s good exposure," she said. "But, I would want to know in advance. They (the show’s producers) called me the day before."
Once again on July 8, a television crew from Fox Network came to b&b Color Studio to film a different episode of "Ambush Makeover," this time bringing in a woman approached randomly on the street for a haircut and color, with makeup by Spa Therapia.
On to Thursday, and the taping of "In a Fix" at The Westin Princeton at Forrestal Village. A cameraman filmed the fountain and the front entrance to the hotel, followed by a re-enactment with Tina Brice of Broomfield, makeover subject, checking in at the desk in the luxurious, paneled, palm-filled lobby and being brought up to the Presidential suite.
The premise of the show, said Janene Balado, associate producer at North South Productions, producers of "In a Fix" for TLC, is that Ms. Brice asked the show to send a designer and crew of four carpenters to her home for three days to assist her husband in completing several long-overdue renovation projects.
"I e-mailed my application to the show," said Ms. Brice, "and I just got lucky."
While her husband toiled for the past two days with the carpenters, Ms. Brice was treated to a shopping trip, a massage at Spa Therapia and time to relax at the pool at The Westin, which she described as "gorgeous," with her sister and two children, ages 1 and 8.
Diane Fortier, publicist at Hollyrock/Miller Marketing Communications, which represents The Westin (as well as Spa Therapia and b&b Color Studio) described the benefits to her clients of taking part in recent reality TV shoots.
"They get national exposure and will be seen in places where they’re not normally seen," she said.
Ms. Balado chose to come to Princeton because North South Productions, which has offices in New York City and Florida, often films in the New York area and particularly wanted to film in a Westin hotel, having had good experiences with Westin Diplomat hotels in Florida, Ms. Balado said. She was also attracted to The Westin Princeton by its Web site.
"We really like them to stay in nice hotels," she said. "The hotel looked gorgeous on the Internet." She was willing to travel a one-hour drive from the home renovation site just to film at The Westin, she said.
Ms. Balado and her crew left with Ms. Brice for Spa Therapia, where another re-enactment took place for the cameras of her previous day’s massage.
Denise Briant, manager of Spa Therapia, explained why so many reality TV shows have chosen to come to the day spa.
"It’s a one-of-a-kind spa," she said, "owned and operated by a plastic surgeon." She said other attributes of Spa Therapia that may have attracted TV producers are a "warm atmosphere" and that it is a "large facility that presents well."
Finally, why have so many reality TV shows come to the Princeton area?
"Princeton has a broad scope of peoplepeople commuting to the city, the academic influence, college-age people," Ms. Briant said. "It has that hometown USA feel to it a family atmosphere plus culture."