'Gastineau Girls.' star is AL ZTA

[hoosier]

Mon, Mar. 21, 2005

Former UA broadcast major star of reality TV show

RENEE BUSBY
Associated Press


MOBILE, Ala. - Lisa Gastineau always wanted a job in broadcasting. Now the former model and ex-wife of former New York Jets defensive lineman Mark Gastineau is a TV regular. But the New York City socialite with the famous last name isn't sitting behind an anchor desk reporting the news or out pounding the streets for news stories.

Instead, this former University of Alabama broadcast major and her daughter Brittny Gastineau - who spent three years as a student at Alabama before leaving for a modeling career - are the latest pair to have their own reality TV show. "Gastineau Girls," which airs at 9 p.m. Tuesdays in the Mobile area on the E! cable channel, shows the behind-the-scenes lives of the mother-daughter duo. The Gastineaus live in an apartment in Manhattan and jet-set from New York to Aspen, with their celebrity friends.

The cameras follow the glitzy glamorous pair as they shop for diamonds and furs. It also chronicles their quest for love. The E! channel bills the relationship as "a true to life cross between the 'Gilmore Girls' and the ladies of 'Sex and the City.'"

"They are billing us as 'Sex and the City,'" Lisa Gastineau said during an interview from her apartment in New York City. "It's sexless in the city because truthfully it's been hard to get a date."

That hasn't always been the case for the former University of Alabama sorority girl. Former boyfriends include "Rocky" star Sylvester Stallone and infamous mob boss John Gotti.

When asked about Gotti, Lisa said they never dated, although her reality show promotes her as one of Gotti's former girlfriends.

In the interview, the mother-daughter duo talked about how they ended up at the University of Alabama.

"I wanted to go some place warm and Southern and with a big-time sports program," said Lisa, who refuses to reveal her age, even though she admitted she was 19 in 1979 when she left the university to marry Gastineau.

Interested in pursuing a major in broadcast journalism, the New York native said she heard Alabama had a good communications program, so she headed south.

Later she had a career in broadcasting, working for Fox's "Good Day New York." During her three years at Alabama, Lisa was in Zeta Tau Alpha sorority and served as one of the school's official hostesses. When she met Gastineau, she left Alabama and returned to New York to marry the former NFL star.

Brittny is the couple's only child. After nine years of marriage, they divorced when the former Jets player went public with his engagement to actress and Stallone ex-wife Brigitte Nielsen. He was still married to Lisa at the time.

The mother and daughter said they have no contact with Gastineau these days.

So what do they think of the reality shows "Growing Up Gotti" with Gotti's family and "Strange Love" with Nielsen?

"We wish them luck," Lisa said. "They are doing good without our opinions."

Following in her mother's footsteps, Brittny Gastineau spent three years at Alabama studying interior design before she left Tuscaloosa last spring.

"I came home for the summer and was approached by a photographer to do a photo shoot and I just started modeling," said Brittny, who said she loved Tuscaloosa, the people there and the football atmosphere. "I'm a country girl."

The Gastineaus live together in a Manhattan apartment with Lisa's Chihuahua, Harry, and a dog Brittny found in Tuscaloosa. He's a Chesapeake Bay Retriever name Buck. Lisa still keeps in touch with college friends and sorority sisters in Tuscaloosa.

Up until about a year ago, she still visited Tuscaloosa often. While most episodes of "Gastineau Girls" have been filmed in Palm Beach, Miami, New York and an upcoming episode on the red carpet at the Oscars, Lisa hopes they'll do a show on a reunion with her friends in Tuscaloosa.

"I'm actually going there to kill my friends who let all these boxes come up to my living room," joked Lisa.

In one episode, a delivery truck arrives at her apartment with dozens of moving boxes shipped to Brittny from Tuscaloosa. One of Lisa's friends had been storing the boxes in a barn.

"We have such a special place for Alabama," said Lisa, who hopes to come back next fall for football games. "My best friends in life are in Tuscaloosa. The only guy Brittny ever wanted me to marry is a fellow I dated at Alabama who is a doctor."

She still keeps in touch with him and he phoned her after the first show aired.

"He loved it," Lisa said.

She said she and her daughter were looking for a way to promote their new merchandising and cosmetic line when they were approached by a production company with the idea of a reality series trailing their lives.

"Brittny had her own idea that she was going to try to marry me off," said Lisa. "She was tired of the bozos I was going out with."

Lisa said the show is pretty true to life.

"Some things will be highlighted and some things will be downplayed," Lisa said. "They are making us characters.

"If they find out I'm the kind of person who is running late constantly, then when they get to the final editing, they are going to have the clock running."

The Gastineaus said they don't regret doing the show, even though some TV critics have panned it.

"How many people get to do a reality show based on them?" said the 22-year-old Brittny, who signed a modeling deal with Elite Modeling Agency. "Not many people get to work with their mom. It's just fun, but my mom can be crazy at times."

"We love doing the show," said Lisa, who doesn't let negative publicity bother her. "When I get a critic who is writing about a show and calls us superficial, superficial is something we're not. I know I've been a great mother, daughter and friend. I feel there isn't a charity or any cause I wouldn't participate in."

Besides, she said, they are supposed to be "over the top" in the show.

"What we have is a real special bond," said Lisa. "We may argue about how sloppy she is, but we'll go to the mat with each other each day."

The Gastineaus hope the show will be picked up for a second season.

"We're not supposed to say, but when we were in Los Angeles they had great ideas for a season two," Lisa said. "We feel there's a lot more left of the 'Gastineau Girls.'"