If you run into "Bachelor" Ben Flajnik this weekend at Sundance, don't ask him if he's in love.
"I can't answer that," said Flajnik, who's at the center of the current season of the ABC dating/reality show. "And I just wish some people would come up with an original question."
Of course, the people who approach him are "mostly the 15- to 17-year-old girl segment, but every once in a while there's someone else."
Bachelor Ben is making a return trip to Park City. He was here in October to shoot an episode of "The Bachelor," which airs Monday at 7 p.m. MT on ABC/Ch. 4.
"I was really taken aback by all of Park City's beauty," said Flajnik, whose previous trips here were during ski season. "The leaves were changing colors. At the end of our stay, we ended up getting the first snowfall of the season."
In Monday's episode, Flajnik and the 13 remaining women check into the Waldorf Astoria Park City Canyons Resort and the the fun begins. There's helicopter rides, kayaking, horseback riding, fly-fishing, pool parties, rappelling and a concert by country music singer Clay Walker.
Oh, and lots of drama involving the women, who get all dramatic pretty much all the time. Which Ben is getting to witness only now as episodes air.
"It's interesting because I don't get to see the women interact with each other, so I'm kind of taken aback by some of the ladies' behavior, to be honest with you," he said.
The surprises included the behavior of Utahn Monica Spannbauer, who appeared more interested in some of the other women than in Ben in the season premiere.
"You've got girl-on-girl Monica to write about." Flajnik said with a laugh. And he didn't venture an opinion as to how much of that was acting for TV or alcohol or something else.
"I'm sure it's a little bit of everything, my friend." he said, laughing again.
Flajnik cannot, of course, discuss the outcome of this season. Did he propose to one of the women? Did she accept?
That's coming in the season finale.
In the meantime, he's enjoying his first trip to the Sundance Film Festival.
"It's incredible," he said. "I wouldn't consider myself a film critic by any means, but we went and saw 'Wish You Were Here' last night and it was phenomenal."
- Scott D. Pierce
