News: The Moment Of Truth - Real Or Fake? Or Just Good TV?

Was it real? That’s the question people are buzzing about nearly a week after Fox’s squirmy hit The Moment of Truth showed hairdresser-actress-model Lauren Cleri admitting in front of her husband, Frank, that she slept with another man during their marriage. To some, it seemed to creepy and contrived with money at stake to be real. To others, it just seemed creepy. So was it real? “We kept asking if it was real or were people pulling wool over our eyes,” says a source close to the show who was at the taping. “You approach it with the expectation that it’s real, but how on earth do you know? When all was said and done, it seemed real.”

“I didn’t want there to be any embarrassment on the show for anybody,” Lauren told Access Hollywood. But her husband is way past embarrassment. “I think when we figure it out, it’ll be better for the both of us — whether we stay together or, you know, go our separate ways,” he told Access. And the other man in this mess? Frank Nardi told the New York post that he “really just wants all of this to be over.”

(To enhance understanding of this story, watch full episodes of this controversial show on Fancast by clicking here — and read more on the jump.)

“The story is changing minute by minute,” says the source close to the show. “Before she did the show, she said she was going to move out to the West Coast. After the show, she wasn’t sure if that’s what she was going to do. At one point, she said she didn’t want anything to do with either one. The next thing she said she was trying to make it work with her husband. We heard that Frank the former boyfriend had a rough time afterward. He sent an email that he had gotten spit on by someone on the street.”

Yesterday nationally syndicated radio host Tom Leykis postulated the show might have been faked. That prompted executive producer Howard Schultz to call in and deny it. “People can’t believe that someone would go on nation TV and admit to having relations with another man, to taking off the wedding ring to appear single, and basically just shove her marriage down the drain,” says a TV insider. The irony is that Cleri had won $100,000, then chose to go for $200,000. But she lost it when asked if she believed she was a good person and she answered yes. “I am a good person,” she told the Post. “I’m not a murderer, I’m not a serial killer.” Whether or not she is telling the truth, let’s hope the show is.