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'Pumkin': Charm School Dropout
Topics: Pumkin, Brooke, Thompson, Bakersfield, Bakotopia, Flavor of Love, Flav, Charm School, blog, Reality, tv, Celebreality, Shafter, Street Smarts, Podcast, csub, Hollywood, Spit, New York
Posted by matt Thu Jul 12, 2007 11:21:38 PDT
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<<<HEAR THE COMPLETE 'PUMKIN' INTERVIEW!

'Pumkin': Charm School Dropout
Actually, Bakersfield native gets the boot from VH-1 reality show, but SO WHAT?

By Matt Munoz, Bakotopia.com Editor

It was the shot felt around the world.

Pumkin of VH-1 “Flavor of Love” takes aim, spitting a generous helping of DNA onto the chin of fellow suitor, and loud-mouthed drama queen, New York, after going toe-to-toe during one of the show's elimination rounds.

Eww!

<<See the infamous shot!

As gross as it sounds, it should come as no surprise that the early 2006 incident turned New York and Pumkin, a Bakersfield native, into celebrities overnight and catapulted the episode into VH-1's 40 Greatest Reality TV Moments.

“Pumkin,” whose real name is Brooke Thompson, doesn't regret the spitting moment in the reality show’s first season debut. Instead she's decided to embrace what some might call her “discharge of destiny.”

“I wouldn't take the spit back,” said Thompson, 27, via telephone after a photo shoot for an upcoming 2008 calendar in Las Vegas. “And you know what the crazy thing is? I don't think New York would either ’cause that made her even more popular.”


(New York (left,) and Pumkin (right)

“Popular” is an understatement . Try internationally known. Reality TV makes up the bulk of cable channel VH-1's regular programming with the first season of Flavor of Love bringing the network a big chunk of weekly viewers - all to see who would be the next Ms. Flavor Flav. The show only lasted two seasons but it also led to other reality spinoff’s, including the recent “Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School,” which Pumkin also starred in.

Chances are you've seen one of Flavor’s show or overheard your co-workers talk about “Pumkin” over cubicle walls. If you say you haven't, you're probably lying. This ghetto-fabulous version of “The Bachelor” was a hit too hard to ignore.

“It's weird,” said Thompson. “I mean, I have 80 year-old women that are like, ‘Yeah Pumkin, that was so cool when you spit on her. The people that you wouldn't expect to watch it, do’.”

With shows like “Survivor” and “The Real World” ruling the network and cable airwaves, the Bakersfield native joins an entire sub-family of TV's most famous, and infamous - as a “celeb-reality” star, where success relies on individual outrageousness. Lie, cheat, steal or spit. If it makes for good ratings, you'll probably stick around.

“You can be a sweetheart 75 percent of the time, and you can be a real bitch 25 percent of the time,” she said. “But if they want you to be the bitch of the show, they're gonna just show that 25 percent.”

While Thompson's Hollywood tale of how she landed on a show to vie for the love of a rap music icon should raise a few brows, what makes it even more interesting is how a simple girl from Bakersfield went from teaching kids in school to going back to school herself.

Born an only child in a single-parent household, Thompson's humble Bakersfield beginnings could belong to anyone. An all-American gal with blond hair, bright smile and a wit to match, she enjoyed the spotlight that comes with being an only child.

Attending Laurelglen Elementary and Rosedale schools, her upbringing was firm.

“Well, it was just me and my mom growing up, so I was definitely used to getting a lot of attention,” she said. “Then my mom met my stepdad, and he was really strict, and I think he held me back from doing a lot of things like, ‘No phone calls after 8 p.m.,’ ‘Don't go out on a school night,’ and I think like he just locked me in so much, that once I finally got out, I was like, ‘Girls Gone Wild,’ you know?,” Thompson laughed.

But before setting out for wilder Hollywood life, Thompson was active in high school, excelling scholastically and on the football field as a cheerleader at Shafter High.

“I cheered all four years; I swam. I did the Junior Miss Pageant,” she said. “I graduated with like a 3.9. I didn't want anybody to know I got good grades. I wanted them to think I was stupid.”

After high school, Thompson then entered CSUB, earning her bachelor's degree in business with a concentration in marketing - a degree that would ultimately benefit her in the future.

“I don't think I declared my major until my junior year,” she said. “I chose business and marketing because I like to talk, you know?”

Not pursuing a profession in business after college, it was during a trip with friends to Six Flags Magic Mountain, where her true calling began to manifest itself in the form of “reality game show contestant.”

“They were filming “Street Smarts,” so they started interviewing me to be one of the street people (contestants.) I answered the first three questions that they asked me right, and they said, ‘Oh you were too smart for this, we need dumb people,’ and I was like, ‘I can pretend I'm dumb’!”
 
  Her ability to “pretend” again came in handy when the acting bug bit her into auditioning for a number of other reality-based TV shows, including one with an all-too-familiar name, “The Bachelor.”

Thompson, who was a substitute teacher at the time, auditioned via the web.

“All I did was e-mail my picture, and then within 5 minutes, they called me back,” said Thompson. “I got done subbing, went straight there, and they interviewed me, and two days later they called me, and said, ‘You're in the top 50’.”

Caught up in the moment, Thompson continued following the producer's instructions, and “Pumkin,” a nicknamed coined by the Public Enemy rapper himself, was born.

 “They (the producers,) said, “You just gotta go through STD testing, the psychological background check, and then we're gonna narrow it down to 25 - then the next thing I knew, I was on Flavor of Love with Flavor Flav.”

Unlike her previous auditions, this version of “The Bachelor,” was too big an opportunity to pass up. Not quite prepared for her upcoming role, she was immediately taught a lesson in reality TV making - just go with flow.

“I went on a lot of little shows, but this is like a 10-week, major reality show,” she said. “I was like, ‘This is so cool, but wow, I have to pretend I like that?’ So, it was kinda hard,” adding that, “If I hadn't watched “The Surreal Life” (another VH-1 reality show,) I wouldn't have even known who he (Flavor Flav) was.”


(Flavor Flav)

Thompson's grin and bear it “faux-mance” managed to keep her on the show long enough to make a big splash - and spew, with fans of the show, and consequently with her students, who recognized her back on campus once the show aired. She would eventually lose her teaching job due to all the attention she received as Flav's Pumkin.

“The kids were like, “Oh my God, our teacher's Pumkin! The truth of the matter is, I was almost crying when I was trying to sub. I would have a role sheet of 30 kids, and I'd look out and there'd be like 80 students all claiming to be in that class,” she explained. “It would take 30 minutes of the period, just to get through roll. I wouldn't go back. It's kind of a relief that they fired me.”

Finding it difficult to find a regular job, Thompson turned back to television appearing on Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School, a spin-off of the original dating show. Thompson, along with 12 other previous 'Love contestants competed against each other in a series of comically-enhanced challenges to see who would “benefit” from the lessons taught and overseen by school headmaster / comedian, Mo'Nique Imes.


 
By the eighth episode, Thompson was once again eliminated, after being accused of being naughty with an ice sculpture — an accusation she firmly denies - Pumkin style.

“Well how else do you take a shot out of an ice sculpture without wrapping your lips around it, you know what I mean?,” she explained. “She is just straight up prejudiced against skinny people ... because the name of her cookbook is, ‘Skinny Cooks Can't Be Trusted,’ and she did not like me from day one.”

Now seeking to ride out her celeb-reality status post Flavor of Love and Charm School, Thompson has once again figured out a way to outsmart her critics by marketing the Pumkin brand to the masses with an upcoming 2008 calendar, jewelry line (“Brooke's Bling,”) and a soon to be classic T-shirt.

“We're having shirts made for my adult fans that say, “Pumkin spits, not swallows.”

FOR MORE PUMKIN, CLICK BELOW:


*Originally printed in Bakotopia Magazine, Issue 6, 7 - 13 - 07

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Comment From: AnnieLWhite

So stupid, i think flavor flav is so gross. and all those girls were skanky. and new york looks like a drag queen Comment From: matt

It's all showbiz. I can think of people that are way skankier than anyone on Flavor of Love. Lol.. Yeeeaaahhhhh Boyyyy! Comment From: AnnieLWhite

YES! matt i can to. Flava Flav is funny though, he is just soooooo skanky.. haha