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Navy doc goes from magazine cutie to TV’s latest ‘Bachelor’

Navy Lt. Andy Baldwin, TV’s latest “Bachelor” reality star, seemed headed for a steady, stable life.

He was on a farm near Lancaster, Pa. “I grew up with a family with modest means,” he says. “Our neighbors were Amish.”

Life moved at a peaceful pace. Then his world expanded.

Baldwin, 30. has gone from Pearl Harbor to the Persian Gulf, from mountain villages in Laos to a “50 hottest bachelors” spread in Cosmopolitan. And now he’s the next “The Bachelor” on ABC.

“I had no idea how difficult (it is),” Baldwin says. “I’ve done the Iron Man six times, but this is hard.”

Well, in a pleasant way. Baldwin grinned as he met 25 young women ranging from a 22-year-old student to a 33-year-old lawyer.

The latter is also a body-builder who soon did push-ups alongside him. Baldwin didn’t seem intimidated.

“I like to be challenged; bring it on,” he would recall later. “That’s more of a turn-on than anything.”

He has every reason to be confident. Baldwin is an impossibly handsome guy with a classic physique. In high school, he was an All-American swimmer. Now he’s a doctor and a Navy lieutenant, caring for divers in Pearl Harbor.

One assumes he could attract a woman without the help of a reality show. Still, Baldwin says this is logical. “There are people falling in love in stranger ways.”

The track record for the show has been mixed so far:

• There were three “Bachelorette” editions. One brought the marriage of Trista Rehn and Ryan Sutter.

• There have been nine “Bachelor” editions but only two are still together. Charlie O’Connell (the brother of actor Jerry O’Connell) is still with Sarah Brice, producer Mike Fleiss says. Byron Velvick and Mary Delgado will marry this spring, he says.

Those are two of the more-recent couples from the sixth and seventh editions. “We’re on a hot streak,” Fleiss insists.

And now he feels he has a marrying kind of guy.

“What really shaped me was my family and the values they have,” Baldwin says. “I really want to emulate that kind of family.”

His father was one of seven children and his mother was one of three, he says. Baldwin had a brother and a sister, growing up on a farm in the New Holland area, near Lancaster. He was high school valedictorian went on to Duke and stayed sort of rooted. “The first time I went out of the country was when I went to the Persian Gulf when I was 20.”

He accepted a Navy offer that sent him to medical school. Now he’s finishing a hitch at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii with plans for another.

There have been a couple two-year romances, he says, including one to a tri-athlete. One complication, he says, was when women didn’t share his desire to soon start a family.

The hot-bachelor list in Cosmo may have led to the “Bachelor” push. Baldwin got approval from his commanding officer then agreed to do the show.

It was a hectic first night with him meeting:

• Tina (the show doesn’t give last names for the women), 26, a med student in Hollywood, who serenaded him with the National Anthem.

• Linda, a lawyer from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, did the push-ups.

• Stephanie W., 23, a project manager from Overland Park, Kan., did back flips in her evening gown, ending up gracefully seated on a bench.

Baldwin seemed to remain unflustered. “I have a lot of respect for somebody - especially a woman - who’s in great shape,” he says.

He specified non-smokers but apparently didn’t mention non-drinkers. As the night wore on one woman fell down; another challenged her to a fight and proclaimed that the woman who won the first impression rose was “hideous.”

It was a boisterous night. Baldwin seemed to take that in stride, after all, he’s in the Navy.

On the tube:

• What: “The Bachelor”

• When: Mondays, for eight weeks. The opener, April 2, airs 9:45-11 p.m.; others are 9:30-11.

• Where: ABC.

• Did you know?: Only two of the 25 women are in their 30s; they are 32 and 33. The others are in their 20s. The list includes three lawyers, a med student, three financial analysts and a clinic research coordinator; it also includes a waitress and a sorority recruiter.

Mike Hughes covers television for the Lansing (Mich.) State Journal and Gannett News Service.

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Navy doc goes from magazine cutie to TV’s latest ‘Bachelor’