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Survivors Erik Huffman, Peih-Gee Law, and Denise Martin (right) prepared for a challenge. (Jeffrey R. Staab/CBS) |
Denise Martin became a blue-collar folk hero on the television program "Survivor: China," selling herself as a hardworking lunch lady from Douglas who earned $7 an hour serving mystery meat in an elementary school cafeteria.
During the live broadcast of the show's finale Sunday, Martin's hard-luck story got a little harder: She described being demoted because she had become too popular at Douglas Intermediate Elementary School.
"They didn't give me my job back," said Martin, 40, who finished fourth in the reality show and missed the $1 million grand prize. "I'm a janitor now. I clean toilets. I wash the floors in the bathroom. I vacuum the kids' rugs."
The producer surprised Martin with $50,000 to help "get her life back," but her story is not sitting well in Douglas.
"None of that is true," said schools Superintendent Nancy T. Lane, who, like many in the rural town 50 miles southwest of Boston, had been faithfully watching the show. "It made me sit up on the couch . . . flabbergasted."
Lane said Martin was hired as a cafeteria worker at $7.37 an hour in 2004, but was promoted on March 30 this year to janitor, a job that now pays her more than $17 an hour. The promotion to janitor, Lane said, came before Martin even tried out for "Survivor."
Martin could not be reached yesterday for comment. Lane said Martin apologized yesterday by phone from Hollywood.
Since the finale aired on CBS, the computer server at the Douglas Public Schools office has crashed under thousands of "vitriolic" e-mails from as far away as South Korea.
Lane spent much of her day on the phone with a lawyer for CBS, but was given little solace.
"They did explain to me today that reality doesn't necessarily mean factual," she said.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
