Victoria "Tori" Spelling and husband Dean McDermott have been working the reality show circuit for years now. Although the series on the Oxygen Network was titled Tori & Dean: Inn Love for the first two seasons centering around a bed & breakfast, the third season was renamed Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood, complete with a move to California. Now in its sixth season, the show shakes it up by opening a new furniture business called InvenTORI.
Growing up the daughter of Candy and Aaron Spelling has kept Tori in the public eye with television shows such as The Love Boat, Saved by the Bell and Beverly Hills, 90210. She went after a movie career with Trick and House of Yes, but ultimately found her niche on her own show, So NoTORIous, on VH1.
We caught up to the happy couple just before the debut of their newest endeavor.
Windy City Times: Hello, Tori and Dean. I know this is a big day for you both, with tons of press the day before the show debuts.
Tori Spelling: A little bit, not that much. We are very particular, just the ones we want to do—like you.
WCT: That's good to hear. I'm excited to talk to you because you have been such a great gay supporter.
TS: Oh my gosh, thank you!
WCT: I loved you in the movie Trick. Tell me about the gay uncles, or the "guncles." Where did you meet?
TS: What came first, the chicken or the egg? Bill Horn came first. Bill used to be in public relations. We did a press event in Turks and Caicos. Unfortunately, we were together during 9/11 in Turks and Caicos. If you had to be stuck somewhere, that was the place to be. We were both missing our families and worried about people back in the states. We bonded and became best friends.
Shortly thereafter, he met Scout Masterson and we have been best friends ever since. Since our kids were born, they have been uncles to them and are part of our family.
WCT: On the show, it is obvious you are very close. You were very emotional with their baby.
TS: I'm going to start crying. It was a long time in the making. They are very much in love and they wanted to be parents more than anything. The adoption process was long and arduous. It took a long time. We were with them every step of the way from the very beginning. There was something really magical about wanting a baby so bad and having to wait as long as they did. When Simone was born... we are the godparents of her; she is part of our family, cousins to the kids and another one of my own, basically. I was so happy for them and all of their dreams came true on the day she was born.
WCT: The baby shower looked fun, with Tabatha Coffey and Denise Richards there.
TS: Oh, yeah; any excuse to throw a party. I was really excited to throw her baby shower.
WCT: Home Sweet Hollywood moves very fast from scene to scene. It is not like many reality shows, where it takes a while for things to happen.
Dean McDermott: That's our life!
TS: Yes, exactly. That is simply because we have so much going on that they have to edit it. We have hours and hours of footage that never gets used. We want to share all of the exciting stuff with our fans so we have to cut it down and move fast during an episode.
WCT: That's a good thing to have a lot going on.
TS: Absolutely; we are grateful.
WCT: Let's talk about this new business.
TS: It is going great. InvenTORI was something we discussed for years because I have so much in storage and Dean is always asking what I am going to do with all of it. He jokingly thought we could open a store with everything. Then, we actually did. [Laughs]
WCT: Black Friday was busy, right?
TS: We had a great Black Friday. You know we are small business so we had Small Business Saturday, which was great, too. It was our first Black Friday and a lot of people came out. That was really fun.
WCT: How was filming Trainspotting 2, Dean?
DM: It was great. I really enjoyed it. Being a part of an Irvine Welsh novel was amazing. I got to meet him. The movie turned out really well.
WCT: With all the reality television out there, what sets this show apart?
TS: Our show is as real as it gets. We don't plan anything. We don't have storylines. Whatever is happening in front of the cameras we just go with the flow. We have no idea. When we think ahead to what the season is about we think about opening a new business, or Dean's in culinary school, the kids are adorable, then boom we get hit with Hattie so it shifted focus a lot towards the pregnancy. Now it's about how two other children are dealing with it. It was pretty good timing on Hattie's part, just kidding! She wasn't planned at all.
WCT: Are you going to write more books?
TS: Yes, I have my first party planning book coming out in April called CelebraTORI that I am very excited about. I have also have my fourth memoir coming out in fall of 2012 so I will starting to write that as soon as I get out of newborn mode.
WCT: Will you come to Chicago to promote the book? I have never seen you here.
TS: I would love to come to Chicago. I have actually only been to Chicago one time, my plane was delayed so I spent the night. I haven't been able to experience it. I want to eat and shop so I would love to.
WCT: We could hit the gay bar and meet some of your gay fans.
TS: Fabulous! I would love that.
WCT: Anything else about this season of Tori & Dean?
DM: We have great parties. [Both laugh.] We explore culinary school a little bit. Of course, there's the discovery of [baby daughter] Hattie, and Tori being pregnant. The kids are always great. They are a real riot this season.
TS: It is really cool that we are doing something new this year. Tomorrow night during the season premiere, Oxygen is doing a live feed straight from our home. The viewers all get to meet Hattie during the season premiere during one of the commercials.
WCT: That's adorable.
TS: It's her debut. She's very nervous—just kidding!
WCT: She will be tweeting live?
TS: Yeah, right! [Laughs]
For shopping visit www.inventori.com . Tori's online magazine ediTORIal can be read at www.torispelling.com . Life in the fast lane with Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood just debuted on Oxygen, check tori-and-dean.oxygen.com for listings and details.
