Candy Spelling, a panelist on E!’s new series, “Bank of Hollywood,” wants to help people realize their dreams by granting them much-needed cash.
As long as it’s not her cash — as it would be if she was a panelist on the British original, “Fortune: Million Pound Giveaway,” where celebrities cough up their own dough to help worthy contestants.
“I said [to producer Ryan Seacrest], ‘Let me tell you something. I don’t have to work. I’m not putting up my own money!’ ” says Spelling, the wife of late TV uberproducer Aaron Spelling and mother of Tori (“Tori & Dean“) and Randy.
“We all contributed our salaries, but I wasn’t going to pay [the contestants] to be on TV,” she says.
“I love giving of my time and money — I’m very charitable and sit on three nonprofit boards and two city boards as commissioner — but . . . then I would just be donating money and leaving it up to the contestants as to how it’s spent.
“We all felt a strong responsibility about how they would spend the money.”
On the show, premiering Monday (10 p.m.), Spelling and co-panelists Vanessa Rousso (poker pro), Sean Patterson (president of Wilhemina Models) and Pussycat Dolls singer Melody Thornton listen to contestants plead their cases for financial assistance.
The cases range from “the heart-wrenching to really ridiculous,” Spelling says. After hearing each case, the panelists confer and reach a consensus on whether or not to grant the asked-for bucks (of differing amounts).
“These are people that couldn’t go to a local charity or a church, people that really fall between the cracks,” says Spelling. “Sometimes you find out a back story by asking questions — that’s the important thing . . . it’s up to us to really question [the contestants] and find out everything we can before we make a decision.”
And, Spelling says, she’s one tough panelist.
“I’m older than the rest of the group and I’ve heard it all before,” she says. “I find myself a good listener — I’ve heard people ask for things from both my husband and myself, so I’m a little tougher than the other panelists.
“If I said ‘yes,’ it was for a good reason.”
Spelling says she unexpectedly bonded with her fellow panelists, none of whom she knew before meeting a week before shooting began.
“When we wrapped [production] I was like, ‘C’mon everybody, come back to my house’ and I woke someone up at home and told security and he was like ‘You’re kidding, right?’
“I never brought anyone back to my house in the middle of the night, it was around 12:30 a.m., but I was so sad it was ending.
“So we had a party and I felt like a little kid.”