Best friends from CA.

Nice to see a co-ed best friends team. Those have been sorely lacking since the early seasons. I like them already.

I'm getting a (decidedly unpleasant) Aaron and Arianne vibe from these two. According to their CBS profile, "Ari describes himself as mean, rude and hilarious and enjoys dancing and talking trash to people." Ruh roh.

Although it might be neat if he does all his trash talking WHILE dancing. I could get on board for that...

I'm wrong, yeah that was the vibe I got. I get the feeling Ari might be a big source of Ugly American moments

Rude + Hilarious = Asshole

Oh boy. Aaron & Arianne 2.0 these two are. And Netfoot is right: Ari is going to be an asshole. I just know it.

Dear CBS Web Blurb Writer,

We prefer "Friend of Dorothy" to "catty". Thanks.



Sheesh. Has there ever been a non-bitchy gay man on this show?

Yeah -- the lovely Ken from TAR3.

Staella? What's with the names on this show? Kynt, Vyxsin, TK and now Madame de Staella.

On the one hand, I'm really happy about a co-ed friends team. On the other hand, I agree about the Aaron & Arianne vibes. Though it all seems to be coming from him. He reminds me of Survivor's Todd, minus his better qualities that make him bearable to watch.

I don't want to speculate about anybody's sexual identity, but I also see the Aahab parallels as I mentioned in the Meet the Racer thread.

Not 'cause they may or may not be working the evil Will and Grace dynamic. They just seem like another team way too in love with how smart, cool, witty and meta they are. When in reality . . .not.

I do not get a good vibe from them, especially because she claims to want to "flirt her way to the front of the pack" and he claims to be "catty."

Flirting your way to the front of the pack has never worked, unless you count Eric and Pink flirting in their own season leading to her disastrous casting in All-Stars and then winning.

Yeah, I also got Aaron/Arianne vibes from this team. Combind that with the Heave vibes from Shana/Jennifer, and it's S3 over again.

Judging from their descriptions, it looks like Ari will be the mean one, while Staella will attempt to be the good cop, since she's suppose to be "honest, trustworthy, and caring." Or she's just lieing, and both are going to be asses.

Their bio says that they met eight years ago and were instantly best friends. Eight years ago, Ari was 13 and Staella was 16. So, a 16 year old girl really had a 13 year old boy as her best friend?

And I thought we'd dodged a bullet when Aaron and Arianne weren't invited to All-Stars. Didn't like them the first time they were on, don't care for them now.

Yeah, these guys are really going to need to prove their not-Aahabness. I'm not optimistic. Although Ari sort of reminds me more of a Lynn/Alex hybrid than he reminds me of Aaron.

Seriously. They should do an All-Star: Non-Standard Names Edition. Then we'd get to see Vipul & Arti again.

Not only has it never worked, I've never even seen it happen, outside Danielle & Danis' attempts to get the guys in Brazil to fix their motorcycle for them. Outside of some girls wearing short tops I really don't remember much flirting going on. Except when Kami & Karli interacted with guys perfectly normally and then squealed like they'd just pimped themselves out.

It's like it's mandatory for pretty young women to say that particular line on the race. It's rather sad.

I'm dissapointed in this team two-fold. Firstly because we get another "hilariously catty" proud to be rude gay guy. And secondly because from their publicity photo I was hoping that we might have stunt-cast the very first pair of mixed-sex conjoined twins in TAR history. Or in history history.

I'm guessing it must be the Greek spelling? Their full names are Ari Bonias and Staella Gianakakos.



Well, they're 21 and 23 now. So they would have been 13 and 15 when they first met. I don't think two years is too much of an age difference for best friendship. Maybe they met at middle/high school, or, since they're both Greek, maybe at church.

Says she's 24 on the website:

http://alpha.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_rac...i_staella.shtml

The age difference isn't anything big now but as teenagers, it's a little weird for a best friendship. 16 is probably a junior in high school, 13 would be eighth grade in middle school. You just don't really see a best friendshp with that age difference as a teenager.

I found several links that say she's 23, but who knows... Maybe she was 23 when the show was filmed and is 24 now.



Well, maybe one of them skipped a grade or got held back a year. Or maybe they went to a school that incorporated all the middle/high school grades together. Or maybe they met at church or around the neighborhood and hit it off. I really don't think it's too weird to have a two (or even three, if it is three) year age difference between best friends.

It could just be something like when they first met they just got along well. I've followed these CBS bios enough to know not to take everything at face value, so they may not have been 'instant best friends' although it sounds better to say something like that to appeal to the show/audience. Or they really may have been best friends right off the bat, I don't think a three year age gap is too big a deal, but YMMV.

It worked for the Barbies when wanted it to work.

Chip & Reichen weren't necessarily catty. They may have been a lot of things, but not catty.

Not feeling this couple though. How obnoxious.

Well most of the best friend teams get eliminated quick, first team muslim, then John and Scott, then Ryan and Chuck. Miss anyone? I wonder if these two are finally gonna break the trend.

Flo and Zach came as best friends and they won the whole thing. The original Frats and the first season winner were also pairs of best friends.

Hey! My initials are TK...

At first I was kind of excited that there was a guy-girl best friends team and that they've known each other for 8 years. Kind of reminds me of my own relationship with my best friend. Then I read on and get the feeling that they'll suck... personality-wise. Oh, well.

On the bright side, it's already been long enough after "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" so that we hopefully *fingers crossed* won't have to endure these two playing up their NiaVardalosity for the camera.

Hmmm. On the other hand, not optimistic, now that I think about it.

True Rei but that was a long time ago in the first three seasons. I can't wait for a change of trends.

Weren't the Hippies billed as best friends as well?

I'm in total agreement with the Aahab similarities. Add to the fact that Ari looks like a mash-up of Lynn and Adam and, well, I'm really not feeling them.

YES! "Karma bit us in the ass."

What a relief that they were eliminated.

I really didn't like how they delighted in taking Ronald & Christina's cab.

Karma did, indeed, bite them, and it was oh-so-sweet.

I'm actually a bit unhappy about Staella, but Ari can go.

I can't say I'm sorry they're gone, but it would have been more satisfying to have them eliminated in something other way than randomly picking an ornery donkey.

Yeah, I agree. That's the semi-sucky part of their Philimination.

While I agree it wasnt't fully their fault for picking the donkey, I'm thrilled that they are gone. Now, we don't have to spend weeks, watching Ari try to "backstab" everyone, and basically act like a prick. Too bad, guys. I guess you picked Karma's donkey, and the bitch owned you.

"Karma bit us in the ass"

Actually, I'd say karma bit them in the form of an ass.

I think randomly picking an ornery donkey is a more satisfying way to see someone exit than watching them not randomly find a red bean in a pile.

Because donkeys are funny.

I was a bit sad to see them go- because it seemed that unlike the other stuck couple (nathan and ?) they were TRYING to get the donkey to move. Of course, donkeys have souls too- and they weren't being very nice about it.

They could've tried giving it a little tap like Gretchen did in TAR7.

They almost did; it came in the form of Staella practically putting a chokehold on the donkey.

I liked that barely anything they did could get it to move. Even at the prospect of being fed, the donkey was like, "Dude, I am too good for this shit," and went back to staying still.

Ari and Staella, we hardly knew ye! Yay! (Or, Thank Goth!)



I dunno, I don't think it was all that random. The donkeys responded, positively or negatively, to the actions and the vibe of the team that picked them. A&S were too assy to move the ass.

Awwww these two were my favorite team out of the 11 cause of how dramatic they are, and how funny Ari is. I loved how he stole that father/daughter's team's Taxi, and in the end Ari was like "Karma bit us in the ass". Hahahaha, they were so much fun to watch, bitchy people can be funny to you know trust me I've known some. I'm so sad they were eliminated, they would have made great TV later on in the Race, *sigh* oh well. I'll get over it or something, until then go Sisters cause I think they're pretty and fun :D.

Ari was trying much too hard to be clever for television. He, like Lynn and Alex, was much too much of a desperate attempt to be the wacky, sassy gay man. I won't get into my reaction to his threatening to cut up and eat the donkey or kick the donkey's ass.

I'm happy he didn't last long enough to embarrass gay men, but I would've rather seen some of the dating couples go first.

Yeah, even Patrick knew how to be semi-clever with stubborn animals: "I will stand in front of your face, and you can blow me with as much snot as you want, if you get in your friggin' pen."


So would I, and it very well could've happened had they thought of pushing it just a little bit sooner.

Sadly, Ari didn't get the memo that his sexual orientation doesn't magically transform toolish behavior into non-toolish behavior.

I don't think they just happened to pick a bad donkey. I think Ari got on his donkey's nerves causing it to respond poorly; heaven knows he got on my nerves.

One last kick before they're gone:

I hope someone tells Staella that being obnoxious and loud isn't "telling it like it is." It's being a dick.

Good riddance. Looks like the donkey knew who was the jackass

First time in a long time the team I wanted to go first actually did! Go, Karma! Man, he was annoying.

Ari: I'm telling it like it is. Hey you, that makeup is sure fruity. And you can't even move that donkey.
Phil: Shut up, you're the ones who got kicked out first.
Ari: You don't have to tell it like it is, Phil.

Two words: Good riddance.

Hey Ari, guess who is the bigger bitch now? Oh I don't know. Could it be....KARMA?!?!?!

Dear God

Thank you for getting out of the tub to make sure these two jackasses were philiminated.

Your instrument of choice was particularly apt.

Can you step out of the tub again next week to get rid of Nathan/Jennifer?

Love
rbb


I was in the kitchen finishing up the dishes when I heard Ari speak in his interview. I had to run in from the kitchen to make sure that it wasn't Alex or Lynn on my TV because I swear he sounded just like Alex with a twist of Lynn.