News

One on One with Alex Jacobs from The Mole Friday, July 18 2008

Alex Jacobs aka Peter Alexander Rockwell Jacobs took some time out of his busy music schedule to talk to RealityBug.com about the rumors of romance and alcoholism swirling around his stint on The Mole -- cut short by his execution last episode.

An adventurous sort, 31 years old and unmarried, Alex said he wanted to be on The Mole to challenge himself. “For me it was something else new and crazy to do … but this whole reality TV thing, I don’t know about that,” he told RealityBug.com in a phone interview from his Haverford, Penn. home. “I was given the opportunity so I thought I might as well take it.”

Take it, he did, and with charm most of game. Some could say he was too charming, but more about that later.

He almost lost his cool, however, when it came to jumping off a bridge 90-feet down over the Mendoza River. “I had told my parents I would rather jump out of a plane than bungee jump,” he said when he knew he’d be on the show – then there he was – getting ready to jump. “I’m not afraid of heights but standing on an 8-inch plank … I made the mistake of looking down and I said to myself, ‘There’s no way I’m doing this.’”

But the pressure of about 100 people looking on, including the tough crew that set the players up to jump, was too much for Alex and he felt there was no way to back out. So, shaky knees and all he went off the bridge, the only one to actually hit the target with a tea bag, which added $4,000 to the game’s jackpot. (The winner owes him dinner at least, don’t you think?)

Being a self-professed techno-gadget geek, he said the other mission that was his favorite was The Grapes of Cash, in which he was able to use a GPS navigational tool and cell phone. “Here we were – secluded – cut off from everyone and put on ice half the time (code for don’t talk to anyone when the cameras are off) and they give us some technology to work with,” he said.

We asked Alex what the real scoop was on his “propensity to drink alcohol” as Clay so eloquently put it. “Yeah, that was cute,” he laughed. “You know, you’d be sitting around, doing production and there’s no food but there’s beer in the fridge – where else can you get carbs?”

“I’m a musician, I can hold my own when I’m drinking,” he explained of the constant focus on his alcohol consumption in his last episode. “It was a ploy, I was like, ‘thanks guys’ … no one knew when it was four in the morning after being out all night freezing.”

Alright, so he doesn’t need to start going to AA meetings, but what about this rumor of “showmance” started by an ABC production insider. Did he really get intimate with Nicole?

“They said there was an on-air romance between Nicole and myself … that was cute, that was fun,” he said with a chuckle.

“That’s hilarious, that’s just funny,” he sputtered, explaining that he was using a “keep your enemies close” strategy. The kind of strategy that would explain a little extra attention, subtle glances and playful interaction … right.

Okay…so, is it true? His response, “I’ll just let you have fun with that.”

Maybe the fans will find out more at the show’s finale reunion in August.

All the fanfare hasn’t hurt his music career either. His MySpace is off the hook, he said. And right now, he’s in the studio working with some great musicians on music with a bluesy-rock sound, he said. “It’s kinda like Jack Johnson meets Jimi Hendrix, something cool and hip.” He’s also a music teacher at a real “school of rock,” he said.


Alex said he would be sure to keep RealityBug.com apprised of any new CD releases. And of course if he sees Nicole again, we want the scoop. We’ll be waiting, Alex.