Chandler Fulton's southern charm wasn't enough

Chandler Fulton may find the woman of his dreams, but it's not going to happen on season four of ABC's "The Bachelorette."

Compared with the other 24 men trying to get attention, the handsome Virginia Beach native got a lot of camera time on Monday's season premiere. While the camera loved him, 26-year-old bachelorette DeAnna Pappas apparently didn't.

When choosing 15 of the 25 men from her suitor pool to compete on future episodes for a chance at marriage, Pappas decided against Fulton.

"I'm not really sure why," Fulton, 25, said in a phone interview from Richmond, where he works as an insurance underwriter. "I don't think I had a sufficient amount of time for her to get to know me."

Friends and family say they were surprised when Fulton first told them he was going to be on the show. After getting over their disbelief, though, they agreed he'd be a great catch.

"If she is looking for an adorable, personable, well-educated, athletic, sincere, handsome, family-oriented, Southern gentleman, then, yea! Her fairy tale just came true!" wrote longtime family friend Judi Godsey in an e-mail before the episode aired. Godsey works at Cape Henry Collegiate School in Virginia Beach, from which Fulton graduated.

He is the son of Connie and Dudley Fulton of Virginia Beach.

Fulton's involvement on "The Bachelorette" came via an application his younger twin sisters, Alex and Whitney, sent in without his knowledge in 2006. The effort was soon forgotten; producers waited almost two years, then called him a few months ago to see if he was still interested.

"I'm the type of guy who likes to step out of my comfort zone, who likes to take risks," he said. "And I might be your laid-back, kick-your-feet-up kind of guy, but I can't help but compete once I get in the water. I'm competitive by nature."

Based on what he found out about Pappas, Fulton liked his chances of connecting with her.

"I tend to go for the sweetheart type - sweet, Southern, the country type. There are many parts of DeAnna that I have in common with her."

Fulton had a strategy going in, and looked for chances to use it.

"We're both from the South so I thought we'd connect on that Southeast kind of lifestyle, and family is very important to me and I know it is to her, too," Fulton said. "I thought we'd connect on that. But then 'Abs Man' jumped in there..."

Brian W., aka "Abs Man," was paired with Fulton during a brief period when Pappas met with small groups of the men. As Fulton held Pappas' hand and began to implement his strategy - Brian lifted his shirt, grabbed Pappas' other hand, and forced her to feel his abs.

Pappas looked uncomfortable, Fulton irritated. Within seconds the scene got worse. The computer network consultant from Indiana grabbed the duck call Fulton had brought to get Pappas' attention.

"There's a time to be serious and a time to joke. I brought the duck call because it was funny on the show and it's a running joke with my friends from home."

Fulton had used it himself with Pappas earlier, getting a bemused reaction from the Georgia beauty. She looked less amused when Brian began blowing it.

"Who knows? Maybe she's a member of PETA," Fulton said.

Friends who were at a private screening party held Monday at the Princess Anne Country Club couldn't believe their man was eliminated.

"We thought for sure he'd get a rose," said Dex Auer, Fulton's friend since first grade at Cape Henry. "We were all pretty shocked when he didn't - people started yelling."

Auer said some people will recognize Fulton when he goes out now, but it shouldn't matter much in his quest for love.

"It might help him out some, but he doesn't really need it. Chandler's never had a problem getting girls."

Fulton said he is glad he went on the show.

"I went in thinking it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I'd ride the horse until it bucks me. It has been one heck of an experience."

He liked some of the men he was competing against, such as Luke, the oyster farmer from South Carolina who also got cut. Pappas, he thought, made at least one mistake in giving a rose- and thus a pass to remain in the running - to Twilley, a software programmer from Oklahoma.

"I think she blew her chance at love by eliminating me," he said with a laugh, adding more seriously, "I don't know if anyone can find true love in that short a period of time."

While Fulton is busy fielding calls and e-mails from people who saw him on TV Monday, the one question he's repeatedly asked deals with his final camera shot. In it, he proclaims his disappointment and appears to be holding back tears.

Were those tears real?

"If you look closely, you can see that little smirk," he said. "It was very late at that point in time, and I was ready to go home."

Correspondent Laine Mednick Rutherford, Laine.R@cox.net.