H O O K E D - Cleo Bachelors Finals Party 2008

Cleo Bachelors Finals Party 2008 – School's out!

Written by Charmaine Tan & Joanne Lim

How the times have changed.

Men used to ogle over the ladies in skin tight outfits that best emphasized a woman's curves at one too many beauty pageants. Now the tables are turned with the line up of Cleo's 50 most eligible bachelors of 2008 sashaying down the catwalk to wolf whistles from the ladies, who gamely dressed according to the theme - School's out.

The queue outside was intimidating, winding along to accommodate the huge amounts of ladies waiting to enter, way before the event started.

With an event of hunks galore, it was inevitable for Zouk to be jam-packed with people that left the baggage counters full. For those who were tardy, getting near the stage to garner the best view of the bachelors was almost impossible with the minimal space for movement.

Cleo's headmistress-cum-editor Deborah Tan opened the event by thanking readers for making Cleo the number one magazine for young women. With an eye-catching event like this planned annually, it won't be surprising for more women to join the ranks of their readers.

Once the emcees introduced the 50 bachelors, those present, who were initially chitchatting among friends, shifted all their attention to the stage as the bachelors took turns to seduce the crowd with their pick-up lines.

Cheesiness aside, the ladies went wild with delight and cheered on their favorite bachelors. A little birdie told me that a thong was flung on stage at one of the boys. Ladies, hold your horses!

        What is a pageant without the baring of skin? The thing is, whether it's for men or women, there can never be too much meat.

        The emcees, along with the audience, coaxed the bachelors to remove their tops. Naturally, the men were expected to show off their toned, lithe bodies and flex their muscles to a largely adoring female audience that went especially wild, when a certain 'hot bod' took off his top to be "polished" as a trophy during the first competition.

skinnn         Of course, the zealous ladies in the audience were not about to miss any of the action that night. Some were able to have a few minutes of fame as they were invited on stage to join in the "classes" with the bachelors.

However, the spelling bee competition, which required each "student" to remove a piece of clothing for every wrongly spelt word, was especially wicked, since it was a blatant attempt to strip the bachelors by throwing them words that would require most of us to consult our dictionary for the proper spelling. The ladies, on the other hand, had it easy with much simpler words.

No prizes for guessing which item the guys had to remove!

These hunks not only have the charisma and looks that would put the average Joe to shame, but they are also talented in their own ways.

Some sang, while others played instruments to an appreciative audience. The vocalist-cum-guitarist Daren Tan, keyboarder David Thong and drummer Bryan De Silva were captivating on stage. Despite the sound system, the crowd cheered enthusiastically at the end of every song; pitch perfection was, of course, prized less than the stage charisma these hunks displayed.

Some subsidiary awards were given out in between the hormonal charging programmes of the night. One of the hot favourites who won the "Bachelor most likely to sizzle your screen" was 26-year-old Eddy Herbert, also known as the next Brad Pitt on screen. In case you want to know what type of girl Eddy would give a second glance to, he mentioned that his favourite actress was mediacorp artiste Jamie Yeo.

Eddy might have won the title, but many who were interviewed among the audience had their own hot favourites. Some even felt that the title should have been given to a bachelor who is local and of a more Asian ethnicity.

In the words of Tiffany Lim, 23, "It is so typical that such a title has been given to a Caucasian."

Nonetheless, it is still a pleasure to know that we would be catching a Brad Pitt look-alike on our local screens soon!

        So who made it through this competition? Which of them has emerged as THE hunk of all hunks?

    The Cleo Most Eligible Bachelor 2008 was, not very surprisingly, Daren Tan who coincidentally is also the recent winner of Project Superstar II, a national Chinese singing competition that concluded not too long ago.

        This heartthrob figure is no stranger to the local entertainment scene, thus leading to his high popularity among the ladies in this competition. Tall, handsome and talented, this bachelor is a real charmer, which explains the crowd's appetence for him.

On Daren winning the competition, one of the female party-goers who declined to be named said, " Daren is multi-talented and his chiseled looks drives me insane, so I'm very glad that he won."

Daren walked away with $3,800 in prizes from the sponsors Vagary, Brand's, Aldo and Energie, as well as an artiste contract.

As for us, we reckon our eyes had enough treat for the night! hooked

Photography by Alvin Zhang of the NUSSU Video and Photographic Society

Comments
flying thongs!
Written by Guest on 2008-03-31 07:40:02
i'll let u in on a lil' secret. the thongs were yellow and lacey
Written by Guest on 2008-04-02 12:17:25
my god he's the last person i would want him to win.
i told my fren about it..
he'd better not win and he did.
=______________________=

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