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Will Gentry 'survive'?
Courtland High graduate Adam Gentry shows he's both a good kisser and an able politician on 'Survivor: Cook Islands'
Date published: 12/13/2006
By MICHAEL ZITZ
Former Courtland High School basketball star Adam Gentry is displaying impressive political savvy--and kissing skills--on "Survivor: Cook Islands."
Cagey maneuvering has placed the 28-year-old former Spotsylvanian in the final six out of 20 cast members.
Tomorrow on CBS, the cast will be whittled down to five, and the remaining members will move on to a two-hour season finale Sunday.
Gentry's chances seem as good as anyone's.
The most recent episode saw Gentry's archrival on the show, Jonathan Penner, become the 15th person to be voted off the island.
"Survivor" producer Jeff Probst surprised the final seven by flying in loved ones to help them.
Adam's father, George Gentry, who lives in Richmond, helped him in a "bucket brigade" reward challenge.
Parvati Shallow won the contest, and her father, Mike, was given the right to choose two other Survivors to join her in a feast on another island. He picked Gentry and Sundra Oakley.
Gentry and Shallow scored political points by bringing food back from their picnic and sharing it.
Then, during the show's tribal council, Gentry lambasted Penner for switching tribes--and, along with Shallow--convinced the other members to vote Penner off the island.
In an episode two weeks ago, a buzz was created when Candice Woodcock, a Georgetown University grad student, was voted off the show and gave Gentry a passionate parting kiss.
But Woodcock told TVGuide.com there won't be any relationship between her and Gentry off the island.
"We are very different people and very different personalities," she said. "In the game, you have only a few people to choose from to work with, and we got along, and he trusted me. I don't know why he decided to trust me, but he did, and I knew that, and I knew he wasn't going to turn his back on me, and that's a great thing to have in a game."
Friends have said that Gentry, who grew up in Spotsylvania's Fox Point subdivision, was a shy kid who didn't like to be the center of attention.
But he's thriving in the spotlight of the CBS series.
Gentry, who headed to Virginia Tech after high school, has lived in San Diego since 2002, working as a copier salesman and a model.
He was a good enough basketball player to be named to the The Free Lance-Star's All-Area team in 1996, the year he graduated from Courtland.
His mother, Beth Gentry, works for MediCorp and lives in Spotsylvania's Lee's Hill South subdivision.
This is the 13th installment of the biannual show, which debuted in the summer of 2000 and was such a hit that it's credited with starting the competitive reality-show genre.
In August, Probst generated a huge flap by announcing the cast was being divided along racial lines for the first time. But the controversy quickly died down once the season began.
To reach MICHAEL ZITZ: 540/374-5408
Email: mikez@freelancestar.com
Date published: 12/13/2006
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