Hollywood Notes: Knoxville healed; Mariah Carey sparkling

The song was she probably remembering during the interview is "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend."

-- It's easy to sit at home and make fun of how competitors on "The Bachelor" or "The Bachelorette" get so excited about getting a flower during the Rose Ceremony. It's very different when you are in one of the actual ceremonies.

Members of the press attended a party at the house -- miles outside Los Angeles -- that has been the location for numerous editions of the ABC competition series. It's a chance to talk with past competitors such as Jake Pavelka, Courtney Robertson and Trista Rehn Sutter, along with the current "Bachelor," Sean Lowe.

As part of the evening, 13 members of the press -- seven women and six men -- are selected to go through a Rose Ceremony. Since every rose has a thorn, I am selected to be part of the event.

Lowe's no fool. He quickly picks the women to get the first roses. Then he begins to select the men.

Suddenly, what seems like a harmless event becomes a serious competition. As the number of men dwindle and I am still left standing, every bad memory of junior high and high school dances come flooding back. What was once a wallflower has become a red rose.

It isn't as if the interviews will end should Lowe not hand me a rose, but the event has become a matter of pride. Four men left. Three. And, then two.

There we stand like the two last guys to get selected for a pick-up basketball game. One will be a winner. The other will forever be known as the loser of the press tour. Lowe looks back and forth, the same ploy he uses on the show so that the loser of the week doesn't see the end coming.

Lowe pauses and then says, "Rick."

Oh, joy! For a few seconds, I am not a loser. Then I realize only a loser would get so competitive about a fake rose ceremony.

But, I am a loser with a rose.