Washington woman in 'Real World'

ABERDEEN — This is the true story of a woman from Raymond picked to live in a Las Vegas hotel suite to find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real on MTV's "The Real World."

Selected from 48,000 contestants, Brynn Smith, a striking 21-year-old who graduated from Raymond High School in 1999, can be seen on MTV every Tuesday at 10 p.m.

Brynn is one of seven cast members in the latest edition of the show, an international hit.

"She's a very open and honest person, and she loves attention, negative or otherwise," Kim Ruddell, Brynn's mother, said. "Every time I watch it, I have a knot in my stomach, like, 'What is she going to do that's out there?'

"I'm hooked now. I can't not watch it."

Now in its 12th season, "The Real World" pushed reality-based programming to a new level by grouping beautiful strangers in a swanky abode to live and work together for five months — all while being constantly videotaped by an MTV crew.

Took some encouragement

At the urging of a friend, the dental assistant submitted the required videotape of herself, saying why she should be cast, according to her father, Doug Smith of Raymond.

Producers pick seven people, ages 18 to 24, who have enormous, outrageous, unique and sometimes just plain crude personalities to entertain viewers for the season. "Puck," the singularly obnoxious bicycle messenger from the San Francisco season, is now legendary.

Upcoming episodes of the Las Vegas "Real World" won't disappoint.

Personalities clash as arguments break out, romances blossom, wither and die and people live their unscripted lives as they cohabitate and work as party planners.

But the astonishment of seeing Brynn on TV for the first time still surprises her mother.

"We just sat here with our mouths hanging open, like 'I can't believe she said that — did that,' " Ruddell said. "But knowing Brynn, it wasn't that shocking."

MTV bills Brynn as being from Portland, where she went to dental-assistant school, but Smith was born and raised in Pacific County. Ruddell said her daughter listed Portland as her hometown to protect her family in the close-knit community.

Brynn prepared her mom for the previews that were broadcast at the end of the first episode: footage of Brynn kissing another woman and crying after throwing a fork at a roommate during a heated argument.

"She called me and said, 'Mom, you don't hate me, do you?' " said Ruddell, a staff assistant at the chemical dependency unit of Grays Harbor Community Hospital. "I said, 'No, sweetheart, I love you no matter what.' "

Brynn's parents were divorced in 1987 but remain close to their daughter, whom they describe as "loving, caring, open and honest."

"I wish I could be more like that," Smith's mother said. "She says exactly what she's thinking or feeling, and there aren't a lot of people like that."

On "The Real World," Brynn is depicted more as a bad girl, but that isn't the whole Brynn, Ruddell emphasized.

"Brynn shocks people sometimes because she's so open and honest, but that's the way she is," her mother said, adding that "her sisters (Jennifer Smith, 19, and Allison Buchanan, 24) are totally not like her."

Every season seems to have a first — the first gay cast member, the first AIDS-infected cast member, the first bisexual twin, the first Mormon — and the Las Vegas season will have its own breakthrough moment, too.

Viewers in Pacific County "might find out more than they care to know" about his life, Brynn's dad said.

"I have the stigma of being the first gay parent, which is odd in a small community," the Willapa Harbor Port Commissioner said.

Doug Smith says he didn't come to terms with his sexuality until about four years ago, and joked that having his sexual orientation broadcast on international television is "one way to out yourself."

"It was scary," Brynn's father said about giving his daughter the go ahead to tell producers that he is gay.

"At first, I thought, 'Is it time to put a "For Sale" sign on the house and get out of Dodge?' " he said. "It could be interesting. Could a gay man get elected in Pacific County? I've been elected (as a port commissioner) three times before with no problems."

Might have been a factor

But he says he believes it will all work out for the best, adding that his sexual orientation may have given Brynn a boost in the selection process.

"I know that had a little bit to do with it. (The producers) like some drama in the story line," Doug Smith said.

He even stayed at the plush digs with his daughter for a week, the longest a "Real World" parent has visited.

"It was top notch," he said. "Everything was designer this or that. They didn't know how to make coffee and had all these designer coffee machines."

Brynn's mom didn't want to be on television and chose not to visit, but said that her voice will be on TV giving "motherly advice."

The show's taping ended months ago, and Brynn is now moving to Hermosa Beach, Calif., where she and several cast members from "The Real World" and "Road Rules," MTV's motor-home version of the popular reality show, will work at the Saddle Club cafe and bar.

"I don't know if it's a requirement, but they seem to have quite a few people from both shows who work there," Brynn's mom said with a laugh.

And when the season is over, Ruddell hopes "people can keep an open mind and not judge. She's on a TV show. This is my only opinion: I believe the whole thing is not real, that some of it has to be acting.

"I think that's why 'The Real World' (producers) pick the cast — to mold them.

"If it's not interesting, people aren't going to watch."