Dallas's most eligible bachelors :: they're not drilling oil

While some of us go weak in the knees in the presence of anyone from Australia or Italy or even the UK, there's also something undeniably sexy about a man with Southern Charm. The folks at Bravo, never one to miss out on a new angle for their string of popular docu-series, recently added "Most Eligible Dallas" to its schedule. The series, set in the bustling Texas city, follows six sexy Southern singles - three men and three women - who run with the high profile and trendy set while maneuvering their personal and professional lives.

The three hunky men on the series are the ripped-bodied football player Glenn Pakulak, former college football star and energy business exec Matt Nordgren and out and proud Drew Ginsburg, whose family runs a slew of high-end car dealerships in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Ginsburg is open on the show not only about his sexuality but also about having lost over 200 lbs via gastric bypass surgery, a chest and tummy tuck as well as his 500-calorie-a-day diet and regular injections of hormones to keep the pounds off. Healthy? Maybe not but that wouldn't make for much drama now, would it?

One refreshing element of the series is that while Ginsburg is the only gay regular in the series cast, it's clear that uber-testasteroned Pakulak and Nordgren have no problem calling him one of their best friends. EDGE's Jim Halterman sat down with Ginsburg and Nordgren in Beverly Hills recently to talk about their experience on the show and being gay/straight besties.

A lion’s den

EDGE: Reality shows are sometimes not the most flattering. Are you ready for people to comment on your lives?

Drew Ginsburg: I knew this walking into the show and I knew that I'd be walking into the lion's den so the only thing I have to have is a thicker skin.

Matt Nordgren: He's right, but you know that things are going to come up. People can write whatever they want and you have to be able to not look at it. The biggest piece of advice we always get is don't even look at those things but in life the higher you get up the food pole, the more you expose your butt, right? Be prepared if you do anything important in life you're going to have people criticize you. The President is the most powerful man in the entire world and has millions of people that put food on the table by criticizing him. The more important things you do and in life, the more you have to be prepared that.

EDGE: Drew, did you have to think long and hard about being out on camera? You really put all of your life out there in the series.

Drew Ginsburg: It was hesitation the first week and then it was gone.

EDGE: What made it go away?

Drew Ginsburg: It became comfortable for me...

Matt Nordgren: ...very comfortable! [laughs]

Drew Ginsburg: I became comfortable with the camera and the crew. I'm a guy who, if I'm cool with what's going on and if I feel comfortable, then I am 100 times better.

Story continues on following page.

Watch Drew Ginsberg talk about being gay in Dallas:

Breaking and entering

EDGE: What do we see on the show? Do we see you date?

Drew Ginsburg: You see me date, you see me in a relationship. You're going to see a lot of things. I'm even going to break the law! Breaking and entering.

EDGE: On a date?!

Drew Ginsburg: No!

EDGE: Oh, you help Tara [Harper, another cast member] with a dog rescue, right?

Drew Ginsburg: Yes! Actually, before we did that, I was calling the producer asking them...I'm a businessman at heart and so I was asking what's my legal liability. Am I going to jail? That was my first response.

EDGE: What's the gay life like in Dallas? It's Texas and there is a perception that gay life is not as out as other big cities.

Drew Ginsburg: There really isn't not that much of an issue. I used to live in Southern California and I came back about 3-and-a-half years ago to Dallas to work in the family business. I came back and forth about 10 times to see if I really wanted to come back and be a gay man living here. The defining moment was when I was in a part of Dallas called West Village and I saw two guys holding hands in the middle of the daylight in the afternoon. I thought 'I can be safe here. I can be a gay man in Dallas.'

Matt Nordgren: Just to go off on that a little bit. Glenn and I are football players and this show has been amazing. Drew and I have been friends for years but to be able to spend this much time and to be able to learn who Drew really is and really spend a lot of time with Drew is amazing to me. I hope when people watch this show they can see that two football players can be best friends with a gay man. To me, we always talk about relationships and it doesn't matter who he's dating or who I'm dating. What's the problem? You have a broken heart or they did this or they did that.

Drew Ginsburg: Just because I like dudes and he likes girls doesn't mean we're not going to get along.

Matt Nordgren: That's what this show really did. It's about these six people and everyone is so different from the other person when it comes to dating or philosophy or business or whatever. It's all us growing together and accepting each other and the ups and downs that go along with all those personalities.

EDGE: Do you think people will get a different perception of Texas from the show?

Matt Nordgren: Yeah, I think so. This isn't the TV show, "Dallas." This isn't the 80s. You're not going to see people running around in cowboy hats and boots and riding horses. Dallas is a very progressive city. It's a city of six-and-a-half million. It's clean and it's got a lot of positive momentum in terms of the future.

Drew Ginsburg: Nobody is drilling for oil on this show.

"Most Eligible Dallas" airs every Monday night at 10/9c on Bravo.

Watch this feature about Bravo's Most Eligible Dallas: