Bachelors put themselves on the block for cancer
By JAMIE WETHERBE Special to the Daily Press
One lucky woman has finally found her millionaire — even though he came second hand and at a price.
More than 20 of Los Angeles’ eligible bachelors — including Evan Marriott from the TV show “Joe Millionaire” — put themselves on the auction block last weekend for a cause. About 50 bidders competed Sunday for dates with 22 bachelors. With bids starting at $50, they raised nearly $5,000 for breast cancer research.
“A few (of the bachelors’) shirts came off,” said Andrea Mitchell, who organized the event at Lula’s Cocina Mexicana on Main Street. “But overall, we kept it pretty clean.”
“Joe Millionaire” went for a bargain of $1,200 to an unidentified woman. Marriott agreed to match the bid to benefit the Breast Cancer Foundation.
As for what to do on his date with the highest bidder, “depends on the woman,” Marriott said. “We’ve got to figure out what she likes to do.”
Mitchell said she’d like for the auction to become an annual event.
“I think the bachelors had a good time,” she said, but it’s yet to be seen if any love connections were made.
Mitchell said she and her friends a couple of years ago talked about a bachelor auction as a way to meet men, but then she decided to pursue the idea after cancer struck her family. “(Breast cancer) struck two members of my family in the same year,” Mitchell said. Her mother and aunt last year were both diagnosed with breast cancer but because of early detection, they are now survivors of the fatal disease.
Mitchell said selecting the bachelors was a grassroots effort — many are work colleagues of the organizers or are known through mutual friends.
Those up for bids included doctors, firefighters and a former pro-baseball player. But the main bachelor up for grabs almost didn’t make it on the auction block.
“I was gonna be a no-show,” said Marriott, 29, of Venice, having recently lost a family member. His aunt died of breast cancer on Feb. 2 — not even a week before the event.
He said he almost stayed in Virginia with his family, but “ I decided it’d be best if I came back to raise money” to help prevent another death from the disease.
Marriott said he wasn’t nervous about putting himself up for bids.
“It isn’t about me,” Marriott said. “It’s about people whose lives this disease affects.”
Cancer also has affected other bachelors. Patric Rayburn, 25, of Mar Vista, said he signed up because his sister almost lost her life and leg to bone cancer, adding she’s now in remission and just had her first baby.
Rayburn, a massage therapist, said his date could look forward to a night of dinner and theater.
One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer, according to the American Cancer Society, and more than 75 percent of women diagnosed with the disease are 50 years or older.
The foundation promotes methods to detect breast cancer early, including starting breast self-exams and mammograms as early as 20 years old. The foundation is the largest non-profit organization dedicated to funding innovative clinical and genetic research on the causes of and treatments for breast cancer, according to officials.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 11, 2004. Read the original PDF.