Tori Spelling's Friends: Who Are These People?

If you're like me, you watch celebrity reality shows with some kind of personal agenda to keep things interesting. After all, one can only learn so many details about Scott Baio before the eyes begin to glaze over and there's no real reason to care. The same is true, of course, for Tori Spelling and the televised ode to her adulterous-tryst-turned-committed-marriage. So, about halfway through the second season of the show that is now titled "Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood," I devised a viewing strategy: count the number of people on the show whose screen title reads "Tori's Friend," and then try to figure out who the hell these people are (and how they became friends with Tori Spelling). What did I learn?

To begin, I counted instances of nine people who are credited onscreen simply as "Tori's friend." Obviously, there's room for human error there, so if anyone else counted less or more, I don't claim this to be scientific. What I found odd, though, was that while someone who hangs out in the McDermott living room may be featured as "Tori's Friend," that same person is nowhere to be seen at her press-friendly baby shower, or Liam's birthday party for that matter (although Denise Richards, who didn't seem to know Tori very well and I'm guessing was there by way of her publicist, got a good two minutes of camera time). So, are these unknowns real friends who were excluded from events where US Weekly was present, or was Tori told she should rustle up some telegenic "buddies" to look more normal? Who knows. Either way, viewers were introduced to a couple of believable Friends of Tori (F.O.T.), and this is what we know about them:

First up, Suzanne McFarlane, who Tori says she "won in the divorce" from first husband Charlie (whatever that means). But just who is this lady? By her familiar looks and the sound of her name, I could have sworn she was a soap opera actress of early-nineties fame. Alas, a grueling search revealed no such credits. It has been stated on the show that Suzanne has a background in design, and in scenes where her help was enlisted to decorate and renovate Tori and Dean's new home, she appeared to know what she was doing; then again, we know that with the reality genre, appearances are deceiving. Not that it matters.

On to Scout Masterson, who like Suzanne appears to have an authentically close relationship with Tori (mostly based on my observation that baby Liam doesn't scream when Scout carries him around). I still can't pinpoint the circumstances by which he and Tori hooked up (her recent gay icon status may or may not have anything to do with their friendship). What I do know is that Scout works in casting, according to his myspace page and other sources. A more intense search seemed to indicate that he works in an L.A. office adjacent to Scott Free Productions, Ridley Scott's company. Not sure about that one, though, so if anyone is looking to get casted, find him on myspace before you go a-stalking. Seriously.

Finally, there's Mehran Farhat, who is not featured as prominently as Suzanne or Scout but is perhaps the most believable as a F.O.T. in their scenes together. Because of the tasks he performs (list-taking, phone call-making, etc.), it seems likely that Mehran is on Tori's payroll - but, further investigation also revealed that he is, in fact, a carry-over pal from high school. Who knew Tori had actual friends in high school? I almost forgot that West Beverly wasn't real.