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Hot propertyLast year, Carpentier was home in Milwaukee tooling through the TLC lineup when she spotted the show."I watched it once and got hooked," Carpentier said. "I would have to say that my favorite carpenter is Ty because, well, he's just so cute, and he knows what he's doing." Get in line. "It's getting very Tiger Beatish," Pennington said, a Cheshire cat grin almost audible over his cell phone as he called during a one-hour journey for lumber. With the new season kicking off this week, the Atlanta native and the rest of the crew already have filmed shows in Boston, Providence, Baltimore and Philadelphia. At Pennington's last shoot, the son of one of the homeowners in the show asked for six Ty autographs. The kid was selling them for $5 each. Pennington laughed. "I'm taken aback by it all," said the former male model and commercial actor. "It all" includes 121 e-mails in one day. Some come with X-rated photos. Many of them start the same way: "I know you're busy, but I have this prom coming up . . . " Two Ty fan Web sites have sprung up where fans chat about the color of his shirts and other Ty subjects. Pennington's girlfriend recently informed him that he beat out members of 'N Sync in a male pageant Web site competition. "It's really cute," Pennington said. It's also perplexing. "I could see them seeing the show when their parents saw it. but not on their own," he said. The OthersNot that Pennington hasn't seen a parental tie to the show. Mothers and daughters stop by shoots just to watch him build a set of shelves or a new countertop.This kind of notoriety is not lost on other cast members. Frank Bielec, for instance. Bielec, who describes himself as "a short, bald, round man from Katy, Texas," is one of six regular designers for the show. "Designer" is loosely defined at "Trading Spaces." Bielec was a florist running a crafts business when he was asked to try out for the show. His audition tape included two minutes of sanding wood. "Everybody who knows me is absolutely appalled that anyone would allow me in a house with a paint brush," Bielec said. An art school graduate, Bielec is known to draw palm trees freehand on a wall or turn sticks into decorative art pieces. In the new second season, he questions the need for people to hire interior decorators. He has his own fan base, including the burly guy who came up to him in an airport and thanked Bielec for giving him the courage to use lime green and hot pink paint in a bedroom. Other casty members - Pennington, for instance - are getting "rock star reactions," Bielec said. "They'll scream: 'Oh, it's Ty!' " And designer Genevieve Gorder "is extremely popular with young people," Bielec said in his Texas accent. It's hard to forget the designer who covered a bedroom wall with moss. Certainly the unhappy homeowner won't forget. Remodeling the castIn its first year, "Trading Spaces," an Americanized version of a British show called "Changing Rooms," spent time in suburbs and small towns. Toward the end of the season, fans would cause traffic jams trying to meet the cast.There are two designers and one carpenter assigned to each show, along with a large crew who travel with three or four Winnebagos. First-season host Alex McLeod has been replaced with Broadway-trained Paige Davis. Designers Bielec and Gorder are back, as are Hilda Santo-Tomas, Vern Yip, Laurie Smith, Doug Wilson and carpenter Amy Wynn Pastor. Dez Ryan, a designer used last season, is out. For the new crop of shows, "Trading Spaces" will visit bigger cities such as Chicago (it shoots there Oct. 13 to 22), San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles. Otherwise, the show's drama remains much the same. New host Davis already let slip that at least one pair of homeowners nearly cry when they see their white basement turned into a blue-and-white plaid room - all four walls and the ceiling. "The room was really awesome. Really cool. And really not to their taste," Davis said. For his part, Pennington said he's approaching the new season with a lighter attitude - and, he hopes, a lighter work load. "You're trying to get stuff done, and you keep getting called off your projects to film. They're following you around, and you get in such a rush and start making mistakes," he said. Instead, he has told the designer to hold off on so many carpentry assignments. His suggestion: "Use more fabric." Transcript appears courtesy of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, copyright 2001© All Rights Reserved
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Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel