By now, however, their relationship has become "a cartoon of itself," he said, "at which point I don't think it's believable."
Viewers of course are well aware that reality television manipulates reality in its casting, editing and coaching of cast members. But there is a line between inflating reality and inventing it, and suspicions about the Flav-Nielson romance raise the possibility that Strange Love could backfire on its producers.
Fans, especially on the Internet, are quick to ridicule reality shows that seem to be hiding something, like Fox's recent Who's Your Daddy?, which reunited with her biological father a woman who was linked last week by the Web site Gawker.com to a soft-core porn film.
Ben Silverman, a producer of reality shows including The Restaurant, said that Strange Love should not be taken too seriously.
"Like Paris Hilton," he said, Nielson and Flav "are so larger than life they're almost caricatures of themselves. Any sense that their show should be real should already be dismissed."
But don't tell that to Flav. On a recent snowy afternoon in Manhattan, he showed up at the Viacom building in Times Square, home of VH1 and MTV, to set things straight.
"Whatever y'all saw between me and Brigitte was all real, nothing phony," Flav declared in an interview in a VH1 office. "That's why they call it reality TV." He paused. "Well, OK, there's a lot of people that do act phony on reality TV, but not me and Brigitte."
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