“They tried to make me go to rehab, but I said no, no, no.” – Amy Winehouse, “Rehab”
We open with Patti Stanger broadcasting from a radio studio. She says, “This is P.S. I Love You, live on the Pink Channel XM 24 and Mix XM 22.”
Check out our full and snark-tastic Millionaire Matchmaker episode guide and updates! Trash and treasure in equal increments, we promise.
As my man Ryen Russillo from The Ringer would say: shout out.
Patti goes onto explain that she has an advice show on Sirius XM and, along with staffers Destin and Rachel, they take calls from listeners and dole out advice… Patti style, of course.
“The best part about it: it’s racy,” Patti notes.
As example, I guess, a woman calls in and says that her husband thinks that she’s “boring” after six years together. Patti advises her to have more sex and give “a good BJ” every once in a while, and sends her on her way.
The Millionaire Matchmaker, “Jason & David”: the clients and intro videos
Patti shows up at The Millionaire Club’s office and announces that she’s getting over a cold. Destin declares that the two clients that they’re working with represent “Prince Valient & The Douchebag.”
The Douchebag, as Destin tells it, is Jason Davis, “eccentric” and very wealthy because of his ties to the Davis oil family.
Patti says “Gummi Bear…” with a kind of glazed look in her eyes, and we go on to find out that the gang believes Jason to be “totally messed up, wasted.”
They did not however discuss that it’s possible for them to not take on certain clients at The Millionaire’s Club that they don’t want to work with.
The nickname Gummi Bear is explained as what the tabloids labeled him as, and we see images displayed of a heavyset dude partying it up in various sunny locales.
The gang then discusses that Jason has “assured” them that he is no longer on drugs, and that’s when it clicked that I totally recognized Jason Davis from his stint on VH1’s Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. From that point forward, my entire viewpoint on this episode changed. More on this below after the recap sections.
As soon as Jason appears in his intro video, you can tell that he looks a lot thinner than he was in the tabloid photos. But he also looks bad. Like bad in the way that he’s been into partying and substances of some sort. Going hard, as they say. Too hard.
He also tells us that he’s “almost 25,” which also seems shocking given his appearance. And… he’s sporting kind of a gold-colored vinyl material jacket, and a cane. He says that he wants a blonde with big… you fill in the blanks, “a Stepford wife.” The whole thing seems like a put on, and honestly you just want this guy to get help of the kind that Patti Stanger and crew are not equipped to give him.
Patti, Destin, and Rachel take all of this in… and clinically declare that their client needs to get cleaned up appearance-wise if he’s got any shot of landing the kind of lady he’s looking for.
I need a mental palette cleanser right here, so I’m going to take this moment to note that Destin is wearing a black button-down shirt with “Mi Vida Psycho” written across the front of it.
The gang then pivots to “hot” 50-year-old David Sheltraw, and this guy looks like he rolled out of central casting for a TV show about hot lawyers doing hot lawyer stuff. In fact though he’s in finance. He says he’s worth $3.5 million, and he’s divorced. Patti and crew like him and his “good energy.” David quotes Sleepless in Seattle and Patti melts. “We all want that, get in line,” she says of David’s desire for love and romance.
Patti’s also determined to find out what’s “wrong” with perfect-seeming David.
The Millionaire Matchmaker, “Jason & David”: Patti meets the clients
We also learn that David splits time between Miami and Marina Del Rey in LA, and he was a high jumper and decathlete in college. He says that he was also an actor and model for 15 years (“ah of course he was,” I thought at this bit).
Patti meets David, and wants to hook him up with Matt Bennett: Life Coach, who will teach David how to talk to women, as David says he’s shy about this after having been married for a long time.
Patti then heads over to meet Jason/Gummi Bear, “who needs one hell of a makeover.”
Jason meanwhile explains that his grandfather, Marvin Davis, owned 20th Century Fox and the Beverly Hills Hotel… for starters. We see Jason hanging out with a bunch of celebrities, including the great Chris Farley, who died tragically at the age of 33. Jason explains that he was into drugs, but no longer.
Jason looks somewhat healthier and coherent versus his intro video, but he has a strange, shambling demeanor that could be an extreme affect or a put on or just be about him being under the influence of controlled substances.
Jason tells Patti that he’s never hurt a woman, but he’s had his heart broken and been cheated on. Patti feels this is the key to finding Jason’s lifelong love. She also feels his “eccentric” appearance is a “defense mechanism.”
The Millionaire Matchmaker, “Jason & David”: the recruiting session
“Jason’s got a lot of problems with his physical appearance,” Patti says. That’s the easy part though, so says Patti. The harder problem is his “eccentricity.” And for the 50-year-old David, a 40-something gal is the gang’s target demo for him.
Patti, Destin, and Rachel chat with a bunch of ladies, including for David:
- Jessica – a PR rep. She’s heralded as ideal for David, wants to have kids (which is a must), with a bubbly personality
- Rayne – a CEO of a “green” company – Patti does a classic beat down of her when Rayne balks at the fact that David is 50. “Well that’s why you’re single,” Patti says. And: “You are a toad compared to him.” Also, because this makes sense: “This is the reason I hate red heads!”
And for Jason / Gummi:
- Stephanie – a “working” 25-year-old print model. Via Patti, she’s blonde, petite but not “airy fairy,” perky, effervescent, and dough eyed.
- Claudia – an “exotic”25-year-old waitress
- Susan – an RN from New York who has a “good job and is attractive”
- Stephanie – a fashion student. “Stephanie and gummi can mellow each other out,” Patti says. “They’ll do something… don’t know if it’s gonna be mellowing,” Destin says, implying that maybe she enjoys drugs. Stephanie asks if Jason is hot, and is told he’s “eccentric successful.” She says that she likes people who act like a boss and say, “I’m a boss.”
Patti adds that she may have a “trick up her sleave” for David at the mixer.
Sidenote that Destin has reached a new level of ridiculousness in this episode, wearing a bandana wrapped around his forehead with huge, spiked hair shooting out of the top.
The Millionaire Matchmaker, “Jason & David”: the mixer
Before the mixer, Destin takes Jason to the salon and spa at a fancy hotel to get him cleaned up. This is the first time I can recall Destin doing a solo mission like this. The only thing of note here is that we see Jason getting a spray tan… which is something that I’ll never be able to unsee.
Cut to the mixer at Les Deux, where Matt Bennett: Life Coach checks in with David to teach him to “pick up anyone in any situation”… which is something that I’ll never be able to unsee. Matt explains that the mixer will be “trial by fire” for David.
Finally we’re at the mixer proper, and Patti reveals her “ace in the hole” for David is a “millionairess client” of The Millionaire’s Club named Leslie, who is a real estate investor.
Jason looks remarkably better and cleaned up post-spa treatments, though he insists on wearing super dark sunglasses at the indoor event. Maybe in Hollywood that is more acceptable (but not likely).
Jason actually can hold his own talking about art styles with Stephanie, and it’s by far the most grounded and non-affected he’s seemed thus far.
One of the other girls, Susan, tells Jason a joke involving her “mouse tattoo” that I honestly can’t relate for fear of getting penalized by Google and other search engines.
For the mini-date lightning round, David picks Claudia, the young waitress who ostensibly is supposed to be there for Jason. Patti isn’t thrilled at this, but is delighted that he also selected her ace in the hole, Leslie. Jason selects Stephanie (the model, not the student) and “boobilicious” Susan, which Patti seems pleased with.
In the mini-dates, Jason is bored by Susan but intrigued by Stephanie, who shares her love for gambling. He also likes that “she’s this cutesy wootsie little girl.” For David, it’s clear that he’s much more in sync with Leslie versus the much younger Claudia, though he tells Patti he wants to date both of them.
David opts for Claudia, which displeases Patti, but through some “fun editing tricks” soon thereafter reveals that he’s going for Leslie. And Jason chooses Stephanie, to Patti’s delight.
I’ll note at this point that we can see Jason slipping in and out a persona. The persona is of a strung out, affected, deeply jaded LA a-hole. I expect that when he’s in that mode, many people are turned off by him, and those that aren’t can’t possibly do anything to pierce his cloak of personality armor. But when we see his “other,” more real (I’d wager) self, he’s thoughtful, articulate, and quite bright.
Oh yeah, and then Rayne ends up crashing the mixer, and Patti calls her “an ugly fire crotch b—-.” So that happened.
The Millionaire Matchmaker, “Jason & David”: David and Leslie’s first date
David rolls up in a Harley to pick up Leslie, which she seems to be excited about. We learn that the pick up spot is on Sunset in LA, and they’re headed to a restaurant in Malibu, which depending on traffic can be a very long ride.
Nonetheless, the two seem to have a nice ride and take in an outdoor lunch at Neptune’s Net, a famous Malibu spot. I’ll mention here that David and Leslie appear to be way above average for The Millionaire Matchmaker in terms of being earnest and levelheaded participants. They also clearly seem to have a connection that has the potential to grow into some kind of mature adult relationship.
David tells Leslie that she has a “wonderful presence,” asks her about her kids, and she expresses that she wants more. This also jives with David’s wish list.
The pair take a sunset walk on the beach, and it looks phenomenal. Side note that I lived in southern California for many years, and it has lots of pluses and minuses, but the beach in Malibu is a huge plus – it is indeed every bit as great as it looks on television.
The Millionaire Matchmaker, “Jason & David”: Jason and Stephanie’s first date
Jason picks Stephanie up in a limo, and then pops some champagne. He then asks her in a British accent, “Are you a whore?” Which… I think maybe is a reference to the movie Arthur?
Stephanie says that Jason is “outlandish” and doesn’t take him too seriously. “Maybe we’ll get along,” she says. “You gotta throw jabs at girls,” Jason notes.
The pair end up at Jason’s house, where there’s a romantic set up with a violinist, roses… and a monkey. No word on whether Jason had binged out on Friends reruns on Netflix one too many times.
Jason’s “jabs” turn into him trying to order Stephanie to do things at dinner. It’s at this point that I’m reminded again of Chris Farley, who would famously and sadly self-sabotage with women he’d met (many of whom who were predisposed to love him because of his fame and how earnest and hilarious he was) because of how poorly he viewed himself.
It’s at this point where we see Jason without his glasses. He also looks a little sweaty, and seems like he could be altered on something beyond enjoying some champagne.
“I think Jason isn’t used to a girl like me,” Stephanie says, and claims to enjoy Jason’s “going with the flow.”
Then they share a kiss… which is honestly one of the more surprising moments that I’ve ever seen on The Millionaire Matchmaker.
The Millionaire Matchmaker, “Jason & David”: post-dates upshot
Also surprising: Patti checks in with David, who immediately says that Leslie is “not the right situation” for him. It’s because, he says, he thought she had one grown up kid, but instead she has three… all over 18.
“You’re gonna be in the nursing home at 75 being wheeled around by the cute orderly,” Patti tells him.
The “cute orderly” part cracked me up, I must admit. Why is the orderly cute in this hypothetical grim future for David?
Patti adds that David doesn’t want true love, “he wants a baby maker.”
Jason drops by the office… or more like shambles in with his cane. Jason says that while the first date with Stephanie went well, he then found out that she has a boyfriend.
Patti calls Stepanie, and the latter explains that she doesn’t have a boyfriend but is “going back and forth” with another guy. Patti hands the phone to Jason, who jokingly calls Patti a “whore” (he’s big with the whore talk, it seems) and then hangs up on Stephanie, and says “boring.” He’s big with the boring talk as well.
Patti wants to set Jason up with another girl, and we wrap another episode of TMM.
The end credit title sequence tells us that “Jason never talked to Stephanie again. He and the monkey remain single, and looking for love,” and, “David is still single and dating in Miami. He continues to hunt for the perfect baby maker.”
The Millionaire Matchmaker, “Jason & David”: where are they now?
So, while I recognized Jason Davis from his appearance on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew (which aired the same year as this episode of The Millionaire Matchmaker, in 2010), he actually has extensive IMDB credits, including voice work as Mikey Blumberg on 129 episodes of Recess from 1997-2001. Jason’s credits end in 2014 (an appearance on a TV show I haven’t heard of called The Bathroom Diaries).
Jason passed away in 2020 due to a fentanyl overdose.
Knowing that fact obviously altered my perception of this episode of an often silly and occasionally compelling reality TV show, and I hope that I gave Jason’s participation the proper perspective, as much as that’s possible and for what it’s worth.
As for David Sheltraw, not much seems to be known other than he’s still working in real estate.
Some stats and info about The Millionaire Matchmaker – “Jason & David”
TV SHOW – The Millionaire Matchmaker
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 3, Episode 5
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – Bravo
AIR DATE – February 16th, 2010
GENRE – Reality TV, Dating Shows, Trashtastic TV
STARS – Patti Stanger, Destin Pfaff, Rachel Federoff, Jason Davis, David Sheltraw
NETFLIX DESCRIPTION – With some reluctance, Patti takes on not one, but two troublesome clients. Does she have the skills to set them straight and help them find romance?