Sarah Kozer Exclusive
By Ryan Conner
Broadside Staff Writers

George Mason University has a short, but very distinguished list of universally successful alumni and faculty. It is home to two Nobel laureates, a former Virginia governor, the Senior Advisor to President Bush, Karl Rove, countless published authors, a world-renowned orchestra conductor and a Playboy cover girl. Which one do you think this article is going to be about?

That's right, it's time for another essay on everyone's favorite political juggernaut, KARL ROVE! Sorry to get your hopes up, but that was sarcasm. Instead it's time to cut into reality TV's most recent star's 15 minutes of fame. That star is none other than Mason alumni Sarah Kozer. You may know her from Joe Millionaire or as the subject of your latest lavatory excursion, thanks to Playboy.

Most suggest that she only has a few more seconds of her 15 minutes remaining. However, there are others who believe that this newfound media sub-darling's penetration into our media market has only just begun. She is already a Broadcaster with Extra, a journalist with US Weekly, and a soon to be a published author. Judging by Sarah's personality and demeanor alone, she can make it as far as she wants. In her Playboy interview, Sarah made one of the most bold, and seemingly unbelievable statements in the history of mankind; aside from all of Hitler's empty promises of prosperity (You just couldn't trust that guy!)

When asked about accusations of being a gold-digger, she responded by saying that she prefers house painters and guys who are unemployed and need to sleep on her couch. (Note: There was no typo in the previous sentence.)

This statement alone makes her seem like a dream come true... Or a pathological liar. Either way, I recently had the privilege of speaking with Sarah about this quote, reality TV, her Playboy pictorial, and reminded her that I can quit my job at any time if she's serious about what she said in Playboy.

I read that you are a very proud Mason graduate and that you praise Mason whenever asked about your experiences there. Now, is this George Mason that you're talking about right?

Right, here's my take on Mason: Most of the professors I had at Mason were fabulous and helped to shape my life and my views. But I think the administration at Mason is kind of a business-type pain in the butt. I almost didn't graduate because I owed $30 for a parking ticket or something.

Yeah. Same here for a $4 library fee.

So, I had a few b.s. problems with them, but overall, I think the professors were top quality.

When were you at Mason?

I believe I started Spring of 93 and I graduated in 98.
And you studied philosophy…
Philosophy, Communication and Women's Studies.

Are you originally from Northern Virginia?

I'm from Pennsylvania.

So how did you decide to go to Mason?

Right after I graduated from high school I moved to Ocean City, Maryland with two of my best girlfriends. Then I met a bunch of people who went to Mason. And I fell in love and transferred schools.

And then right after graduation you moved to LA?

No. I went to Spain and did a lot of traveling. I lived in Spain during my last year of college and then during the summers. Then I worked in DC for probably 6 months, then I moved out here for law school.

Was your goal when you went out there to do the traditional LA thing of becoming a movie star?

Not at all. I went out there for law school and spent my first year at Southwestern School of Law. I went to law school and was also interested in writing. But I did not want to move to LA and try to wing it. I thought I would have time in Law School to do both. Of course I did not.

What type of writing are you interested in?

I've always been interested in creative writing. I can't do screenwriting, but I figured that while I'm out here I should try to learn how to. I had always imagined getting a hosting job for a television network or writing for a sitcom. Those are some of the things that I had on my mind secondarily when I was attending law school.

Did you ever resent moving to LA?

I wouldn't say that I resented it, but I was fairly unhappy for my first 2 years out here just because I had enjoyed my life on the east coast. I had a wonderful group of friends. And I loved the weather and my family was there. I've always felt like I'd be able to make it wherever I lived. So I came to LA with a lot of confidence and it didn't take long for that confidence to be shattered. The people out here are very different. And not in a good way.

I read that when you went out to France for Joe Millionaire, you didn't know what was going to happen…

They told us it was going to be 20 single women…like sex and the city in France. Adventure and romance…that was it.

Did you know what was going to happen when you showed up for the foot fetish videos, because I saw a clip and it looked like you would have had to have been tricked into that.

You know what? It wasn't necessarily being tricked. I had a friend who referred it to me and it was through a legitimate modeling agency. It was a modeling job. And the videos are b.s. The photo shoot was taped and if you had a video I would be on it for like 45 seconds. And that kind of bothered me, because it was a misconception of what it really was. But you know you're in LA and you have no money and I had 50,000 in school loans to pay back and someone is going to pay me "x" amount of dollars to do this ridiculous stuff. It just seemed like "Why not?" I knew a lot of models in the business that were doing it. And I knew people who were doing much worse. I had all my clothes on. I looked like an idiot, but sometimes you have to make a fool out of yourself.

I can't blame you at all. When I was at Mason, it got so bad one time that I picked up a flier at SUB II for a cryogenic bank to do …you know… and I actually considered it. Then I remembered that my Mom does my taxes and that would get a little weird.

Hahaha. Exactly. Living in LA for four years and that's the worst thing they can come up with? I'm still proud of myself, because you get crazy offers out here.

Do you attribute your current status as a celebrity to Joe Millionaire or do you think your foot fetish videos finally got in the hands of the right people?

No, certainly not. I think it adds an element of scandal to everything, but I made it to the end of the show on my own.

When Evan tried to mount his horse on the first show, he hit his face on the horse. Then the girls proceeded to compliment him, completely ignoring the fact that he hit his face on a horse…something that has never been done before… by anyone. What was going on in your mind at that time?

I remember that. It's really weird, because I had never watched reality TV and didn't know anyone who was on it. But we gave interviews everyday at the chateau for about 2 hours, and they cut pieces. I remember one thing that made me so mad. They had me saying, "I know exactly what I would do with $50 million." They cut and the next sentence out of my mouth is, "Buy my husband a new house… have a baby… I would donate to charity." You know what I mean? They manipulated everything. And I remember everyone calling and teasing me because in one of the clips they had me saying, "Oh, Evan is such a good dancer!" and he obviously wasn't. So I was obviously making fun of him in my interview. I was like, "Wow, Evan's such a great dancer." making fun of him, but they edit it so they can do whatever they want.

The producer's can have you play any role that they choose.

Absolutely. Most of it is scripted. They turned that whole series out in a month. I believe they had it scripted when I went, and they just wanted to get enough footage to get the characters established how they wanted them. There's no way they could just tape randomly for 24 hours and then decide what the storyline was gonna be and pull that all together. They had the first episode finished before we were even finished filming.

I told a guy at work that I was going to interview you today, and he said, "oh, the gold digger!" I'm sure it doesn't bother you that some random guy thinks this, but does it bother you that the Producers portrayed you in this light?

It bothers me like you couldn't imagine. During the filming of this I can't even tell you how hostile I was. I spent the entire like 6 or 7 weeks screaming at anyone who would answer the phone at FOX. Because we didn't know what we were getting into. It's not like they couldn't have gotten 20 girls who would have gone and chased a millionaire in France. That's no problem. So they set us up that way. Then we get there and we were pretty mistreated on the set. You have no control over anything. You're set up all the time. And they are portraying you as a character in a completely inaccurate way. And when people watch a reality show, they think that's what you're like and it's disparaging. I lost my job at a mortgage company because I was portrayed as a gold-digger. You know, it's dangerous. And we had doctors and bankers with us, so it's just morally reprehensible in that way. So I don't care about what people think of me. People who know me, know differently. And the fact that they did it with such total disregard to the consequences is what bothers me the most.

Did it seem that they did that with the other girls too?

Some of them they edited better. Mojo was horrifying, and they had to edit out some of her stuff to make her look decent.

In order to fill her roll…

Right. And any of the rolls could have been interchanged. You realize you're gonna get a character, and I thought I was going to get "small-town girl" because Evan kept making such a big deal the whole time about me being from this small town and then I started to see where they were going with it and I was like, "Oh shit!"

They see blonde girl, looks like a model, let's make her this girl…

And the fact of the matter is that could have been any of us. Nobody slept with Evan. Zora and I were both worried about it because of the whole scene in the woods, I knew was a set-up and as soon as the camera guys weren't with us, I was like, "Oh Shit! I know exactly what they are trying to do here." And I said something to the producers and they said, "Oh, we would never do that. We would never make you look bad. We would never set it up."

So you're saying that that scene was set up by the producer? Because when I saw it, I assumed it was set up by you and Evan.

This is what I found out afterwards. Evan was instructed to get me off camera and kill time for a couple minutes. And the rest of that is edited to the point that where I said, "It would work better lying down." I swear, and I don't even talk about it because when you defend yourself too hard it's suspicious, so I don't even bring it up. But seriously, that's from a conversation I had two days earlier with Melissa. That's how bad their editing was.

Does it seem that you've had to get a lot of counter publicity to erase this image from people's minds?

Right. And I had to fight FOX. They had me on gag order. I wasn't allowed to do interviews because they didn't want me in the public showing a different character than what they were portraying. So I literally had to take money out of my pocket to go to the show. I used my savings to cover my bills when I went and then I got fired when I got home. And then I had to use my own money to hire lawyers and publicists to battle FOX so that I could defend myself.

Did you have a hard time getting work once you got back?

I haven't worked since. 100% of my time has been dealing with the media, dealing with publicity. And obviously now I'm trying to spin it so hopefully it will open other doors for me, but for 6 months it was a nightmare. And I couldn't go to work because I had reporters in my bushes.

Evan Marriott told people magazine, "The premise of the show was to find a girl that I thought was into me for me." I thought this was very naive to think that the show was about him finding someone. It seemed obvious that the main hook for the show was the question of, will the women be shallow and turn on him when they find out that he has no money, or would they stay with him anyway. Evan was simply a marionette for the network. I can't understand why anyone would expect the women not to turn on him though? The fundamental concept of the show made absolutely no sense. "We're going to see if these women are superficial by lying to them." That's like saying, "I want to find out if my dad is violent, so I'm going to take a dump in his shoes."

I agree. It was completely set up like that. And also you have to take in consideration the fact that first of all, none of us ever thought Evan had any money from the second week. And Evan screwed up his story. But the fact of the matter is, how can we be gold-diggers when we didn't know there was going to be any money involved? I'm a big enough gold-digger that I used my own money to go on the show! It makes no sense. And I think that's what they were trying to get, and they certainly tapped that audience, because everyone wants to see that. But my biggest premise is, in Beverly Hills, if I wanted to find a big dumb millionaire, I would just go to the grocery store. I don't need to call FOX.

So at the end of the show, the general consensus was just, "Oh Well."?

We knew what was going to happen. We were just riding it out.

I have a $50 bet with a friend that the butler on the show isn't really British. Who wins?

He's Australian.

In the same interview with People magazine, Evan Marriott said "Sarah and I got along like gangbusters …What is a gangbuster?

I don't know. I'm assuming that he meant we got along well, but with Evan you never quite know what he's trying to say.

Did they try to spin his character so that he's seen as a more positive character than he really is?

Absolutely. The truth of it is that none of us were all that into Evan. We spent most of the hours at the chateau kind of joking him, because he was just funny. He was this big oaf. We called him Baby Huey. And he would do so many horrifying things on our dates. He was in the pool and I was sitting on the ledge and he was spitting loogies in the pool. And there just so many times that we were just like, "Oh God!" It was just us playing along. We never thought that Evan was who they said he was. They were trying to convince us that Evan is buying us jewelry. And we were like, yeah right. If it was up to Evan, we would be at Hooters while he's hitting on the waitresses.

I noticed that in the first episode, someone asked him his middle name and he couldn't think of a name or any word to tell her. So it seemed like they should have gotten a better actor.

Yeah, but at the same time, who would do that? They tricked us into playing along by saying that we were going on this really outstanding show, and they had to let Evan believe that it was all about him in order for him to go along with it. Who is going to be on a show where the premise is, "By the way, I'm a big loser!"?

Exactly. Then he went on to make the whole gold digger insinuation, which you responded to in your Playboy interview, where you said that you prefer painters and unemployed guys who need to sleep on your couch.

When this whole gold-digger thing came out, my boss was like, "This is such a joke, because you're the patron saint of loser guys." I have girlfriends in LA who have never paid a dime of rent. They don't pay their car payments. I've had those opportunities and I have always paid my own way. Even going so far as to do stupid fetish modeling to pay my bills.

I even read that you refuse to let guys buy you drinks. That's admirable.

I do. If it's a boyfriend, then it's different. But my thing is if I pay my own way, then I don't ever have to worry about what I'm saying. I have a girlfriend who would never pay for anything herself. Literally, if you're dating her, she has her bills sent to you. And that's kind of the norm in Los Angeles. And I always tell her, "If you paid your own rent, then you could tell the guy to screw off when you wanted to and not have to operate under those constrictions."

It's like they are relying on chivalry, but they are completely taking advantage of it.

Right, but in LA that's acceptable. They don't even question it here

Do you watch any reality TV at all?

I never had before, and I haven't since. I just hate it.

Do you feel that reality TV is dumbing down America?

I think it's a step above Jerry Springer.

Do you believe in the idea that everyone gets their 15 minutes of fame?

I don't know. I don't necessarily know if that's true. I mean, having lived it maybe changes my perspective.

How much longer do you believe you'll be in the limelight?

I'm hoping not much longer. But it changes everything. You have to change accordingly. I had never imagined having this amount of attention. And it certainly wasn't welcome attention when I got it. And that's been difficult too, because I think that… keep in mind that I didn't go on the show to be an actress. I think a lot of people did that, Evan included. And I remember being at the chateau having a conversation about it and some of the girls were like, "Do you think people will give us acting jobs?" I was just like, "Are you serious? Name one reality TV person who has an acting career. How can you be so naïve? I think living in Los Angeles has given me a more realistic view of that. It doesn't happen like that. If I was at all serious about acting, I would never come on a show like that." And forks dropped all across the table. They were like, "What do you mean?"
Some of the girls are like, "Great you're getting all this attention." I said, "Anytime you want to trade places…This isn't fun." I'm not one of the masses that goes along with the theory that any publicity is good publicity, and that's why the whole process has been so upsetting. I spent a long portion of my life trying to have a credible reputation. I've spent $100,000 on my education. I've supported myself. I'm honest with people. I have good business references. And you have one thing like this that gets sensationalized and destroys everything.

Do you want to continue to work in the media, but at a respectable level?

Absolutely. I've turned down offers that have been… you know… I got offered to host a reality show on another network that was a similar genre, like tricking people and setting them up. But I could never be a part of something like that.

If it weren't for Joe Millionaire, where would you be now?

I'd be finishing my book and working at the mortgage company, while still pursuing the same things. That's just it. The things I'm trying to do now are the same things I was trying to do then. So if there is any positive side of this experience, it's that maybe I'll get some attention for the novel that I've written, which may not have been the case if it weren't for Joe Millionaire.

You do agree that it has given you some additional leverage, right?

Yes, but at the same time it's debilitating as well, especially in Los Angeles because there is such a professional bias against reality TV people. I can't get an agent. I'm being offered commercials, but I can't get representation even though I'm bringing money in.

You turned down Playboy the first two times they approached you. But the third time you changed your mind with the condition that there be no full-frontal nudity. I read a quote where you supposedly justified it by saying, "I was a women's studies major.''

That's another quote that's been taken completely out of context. It's from an earlier interview and it makes no sense that that would affect it. I said that because I felt that the pictorial was an empowering experience. I had been skeptical as a feminist. I don't know, Playboy, whatever. And it ended up being really empowering as a woman, because I had a group of really supportive people who made me look as good as I can. And it's positive. It was a great experience for me. As far as the nudity, I had never posed nude. And I wouldn't have imagined that I would have been comfortable with full nudity. And I had never read Playboy, so I didn't know that there was anything but [full nudity]. After I turned it down the first two times, my publicist was joking around and said, "I'll bet they call back and offer partial." And I had never imagined that that was even considerable. I said that if they make an offer for just topless, I'd be insane not to accept it. It's something I'm more comfortable with. I've gone topless on the beaches of Europe So that was something I'd be willing to do because that was within the realm of what I'd be comfortable with.

If Playboy had approached you to be a centerfold, which provides less money, but you'd be doing the same thing, would you do it?

No, because, I had actually been approached when I was in law school. I had been going to the Playboy Mansion for parties since I was in law school, so I'm kind of familiar with the company. I've met Hef several times, and it had come up before, years ago and the only reason I did it now is because I was doing it as a personality. Instead of being a Playmate, I was doing it as myself.

So there's something behind the pictures…

Right. It's me doing it as Sarah. Not me doing it as a Playmate, which to me is different. I didn't want to be Playmate.

So you've been to parties at the Playboy Mansion?

Yeah.

Were they anything like my dreams?

It's not as crazy as you'd imagine. Maybe if it were the '70's or 80's it would be a different story, but…

Okay, let's talk about something else, because I've got dreams.

Ha-hah

Have you tried to venture into acting for TV?

I can't really act. So I think that if I had an offer, it would have to be something like a guest starring role. I would love to do that. But I would never get in over my head and make a fool out of myself. I'm not a born actress.

There have been a lot of people from these reality shows who get a lot of media attention after their stint on the show. Then it seems that all of them say that they want to be movie stars. Do you feel that it is fair they get pushed to the forefront and get automatic auditions when legitimate actors are being denied because they don't bring an audience with them?

Honestly I think there's room for everyone. And I feel strongly that I've worked extremely hard. I may not have the training, so I'm not going to get any award winning movie roles. If you look at it like you have to pay dues, I think I've paid them. And if that ends up with me getting a commercial or a guest starring role, I have no problem with that. However, I do think that in general, reality TV is taking part of the market from legitimate, trained actors. And I think there's nothing that can be done about it. It's a supply and demand business, but I just don't get it because I would always prefer to watch a trained actor entertain me that somebody that just kind of stumbled onto reality TV.

My mom says that I need a haircut. What do you think?

No, your hair is great. Keep it like it is.

Where do you see yourself a couple years from now?

One thing I've learned is that you can never predict where life will take you. But I feel confident that I'll be doing something that I like, because at this point I feel like I have nothing to lose. I have a family that supports me. I have great friends. I have, thankfully, a little money in the bank so I can pay off my school loans. So if this ends up dying down and I end up living a normal life, and I get my job back at the realty company, that would be fine. If I end up having a couple books published and maybe a clothing line, that would be ideal. I'm going to take it as it comes. I can't imagine how I'm going to finish.