That's a wrap: Fallbrook bids Tori Spelling goodbye

By: TOM PFINGSTEN - Staff Writer
'Inn Love' site will not be around for a third season | Thursday, January 17, 2008 1:38 AM PST ∞

FALLBROOK -- When Tori Spelling waltzed into Fallbrook a year ago with plans for a reality TV show on a bed and breakfast, her entrance was billed as a boon for this small community trying to put itself on the map as a tourist destination.

Now it appears that Fallbrook has seen the last of Spelling and her husband, Dean McDermott. The bed and breakfast that they had dubbed "Chateau La Rue" is back to its old self as Oak Creek Manor, owned and operated by residents Christopher and Patricia King.

Producers of Spelling's show said this week that if there is a third season of "Inn Love," it will not be filmed in Fallbrook.

"At this point, there has been no decision made about a third season," said Jason Shumaker, a spokesman for the Oxygen Network, which ran the first two seasons of "Inn Love."

Meanwhile, the 4,500 square-foot inn where the show was filmed is for sale with an asking price of $2.3 million.

Spelling's publicist did not return calls seeking comment about her decision to close up shop in Fallbrook.

Patricia King, the property owner, suggested that Fallbrook may too big a commute from Spelling's Hollywood home.

"The location was so far away from L.A.," King said.

"On the last episode, they even toured some boutique hotels on Hollywood Boulevard," apparently checking out potential venues for a third season, King added.

Local pundits said all along that there seemed to be a disconnect between reality and the network's marketing efforts.

On Wednesday, a link remained on the show's Web site, www.oxygen.com/innlove, asking visitors, "Should Tori and Dean keep the B&B? Hash it out in our forum." The couple never owned the 8-acre Olive Hill Road site.

The network also pitched the show as one in which the former "Beverly Hills 90210" starlet would cash in her inheritance to buy the bed and breakfast in a do-or-die effort at making her way in the hospitality business.

However, Patricia King said that the show was leasing the inn for 90 days at a time, and that the property was for sale during the filming.

One early critic of the show was downtown businesswoman Rhonda Reinke, who was serving as Fallbrook's honorary mayor when "Inn Love" announced its intentions to film here. (Reinke is the wife of Claude Reinke, publisher of The Californian, an edition of the North County Times.)

Rhonda Reinke drew fire when she wrote a column criticizing Spelling and the show for "portraying Fallbrook in a less-than-flattering way."

On Wednesday, Reinke said she was not surprised when she heard the show had rolled up the red carpet and left town for good.

"They were doing what everyone else was doing -- they came up with an idea for a reality show, they found a little place and ran with it," she said. "It was under some false pretenses, but if you look at other reality shows, most of them are."

To be fair, King said, the perception that Spelling and McDermott were only in Fallbrook when the cameras were rolling was not completely accurate.

"They gave it a go, that's for sure," she said.

She also said she didn't have any problems with the TV show during filming.

"They were excellent tenants," said King. "Mostly, I worked with the producers. I met Tori and worked with her, but my contacts were at World of Wonder productions, and they were excellent to work with."

Today, the quiet neighborhood that once hosted two seasons of reality TV is back to normal, and King said the inn will continue as before.

"I think the people we're getting are wanting to stay at Oak Creek Manor, not at Chateau La Rue," she said.

-- Contact staff writer Tom Pfingsten at (760) 740-3516 or tpfingsten@nctimes.com.