Difficult to distinguish between reality and fiction. Released on October 18 on Prime Video, the “Cult” series takes viewers behind the scenes and the manufacturing secrets of “Loft Story”. Among the characters, a revisited version of the famous producer Alexia Laroche-Joubert, called Isabelle de Rochechouart in fiction. For her part, Angela Lorente, presented as the popess of reality TV in France, is represented in the guise of a certain Elena Valente.
“We didn’t always agree, we were the yin and the yang”
“Honestly, it is well done, effective”, she admits about the series in an interview with “Parisien”. “It's a fiction about power in the world of television. But that's not reality, that's a partial vision, that's not what I experienced. Isabelle de Rochechouart is not Alexia Laroche-Joubert, and Elena Valente is not me, even if she is funny,” she explains. Back in 2001: Angela Lorente, already an experienced journalist, was recruited to join the production team of the very first large-scale French reality TV show. “At the time, I had eighteen years of career as a journalist, director of reports and documentaries. For 'Private Life, Public Life', the Mireille Dumas show, I went to Spain to doing one on 'Big Brother' I fell in love professionally.”
Thanks to a recommendation from Marie Genest, then a collaborator at Endemol, she joined the “Loft Story” project to work alongside Alexia Laroche-Joubert, as editor-in-chief. “We worked hand in hand. We didn’t always agree, we were yin and yang, but it really worked!” If she has often been presented as the cast of the “lofteurs”, Angela Lorente specifies: “I was editor-in-chief, not responsible for casting as has often been said or as suggested in the series. After scouting in Spain, I notably brought back the idea of recruiting screenwriters for editing daily broadcasts in the style of fiction.” So every day, “six journalists, called story editors, took turns watching the lofters all day long. They selected the important moments, the three screenwriters then constructed their story. I validated the final cut of the daily newspaper”, she explains.
“The real heroes of this story are the loft owners”
Angela Lorente
“Loft Story”a pioneering program, owes its success to a team of nearly “140 people“, recalls Angela Lorente. “First, the genius is John de Mol, the Dutch creator of 'Big Brother'. At the business level, they are the producers, Stéphane Courbit and Arthur. At M6, there was Louis-Alexis from Gemini, who defended the program. Then, it's Alexia and me, at the head of this barnum on a daily basis, and the whole team of journalists, technicians“, she assures. “But the real heroes of this story are the loft owners. They gave a part of their lives, they didn't do it for money or fame. They lived their lives, and we made a show of it.“Lofters” to whom she is still attached today. “I was also a bit like the boss of the loft owners. With my journalists, I was the only one to talk to them in the 'Loft'. They were kids! I was worried about them and that's why I I became like a surrogate mother. They called me 'mom', and they continue when they see me!” Angela Lorente, however, regrets their almost non-existent support after the end of the show. “The lofters, who were the heart of the system, were let go a little, even a lot,” she laments.
ALSO READ: “He’s someone execrable, who lacks humanism”: Several ex-candidates from “Loft Story” on M6 settle scores with Alexia Laroche-Joubert
Loana in particular quickly found herself submerged, at the center of a media whirlwind. “When I saw her, I fell in love at first sight and said to myself: We can't do without her“, she remembers. She remembers the emblematic scene of the swimming pool as if it were yesterday, while she was walking around the loft with a friend. “I see Loana and Jean-Édouard from afar in the pool. I say to the cameraman: 'They're cute, they're swimming.' And then he answers me: 'No, they don't swim, they fuck!'” The team then had to react quickly: “By the time I went back around and went to the control room, obviously, it had passed in live on TPS There, I call everyone including Alexia, who actually never came. It's true that she said: 'We'll have to change the water in the pool', that got me. makes you laugh a lot.“The production also had to face other moments of crisis, such as when Loana's private life became public after a publication of”France Sunday” about her maternity, quickly relayed by the press. A delicate situation, explains Lorente, who wanted to protect the participant: “The question was whether we told Loana or not. I didn’t want to, I really wanted to protect her.” However, she ends up giving in to the other members of the team and tells him the news herself, with the help of a psychologist and a lawyer to accompany her.
For Angela Lorente, “Loft Story“ was not just a professional adventure; this project truly marked his career, opening up new opportunities for him. Unlike the fictionalized version of “Cult“she was not returned. “On the contrary, I was poached by TF1, I had a golden bridge. I worked on 'Star Academy', I produced 'Temptation Island', 'Greg the Millionaire' , 'My incredible fiancé'… Then I quit reality TV because what I like about reality TV is reality, and that disappeared.” While Alexia Laroche-Joubert mentioned in “Le Figaro Madame” the possibility of a return of “Loft Story“Angela Lorente assures that she will not be there. “Why not, if there are people who want to do it, but I’m not interested in it. I don’t live on the past,” she concludes. There “true“reality TV, for her, is now on social networks, where everyone is free to “tell your life story” and directly.
