Ingrid Wiese was in elementary school when Marshall Crenshaw recorded "Cynical Girl," but 20-plus years later, it almost sounds like he's talking about her.

The song contains this verse, which pretty well describes Wiese's increasing skepticism about what's going on around her in the fake-reality-show world of Spike TV's "Joe Schmo 2": Well I hate TV/There's gotta be somebody other than me/Who's ready to write it off immediately/I'm lookin' for a cynical girl.

Wiese doesn't hate TV, but she says knowing that everything she said while the "Joe Schmo" cameras were rolling earlier this year could be edited and broadcast heightened her sensitivity to her surroundings.

"I'm learning all kinds of new things about myself after watching the show, one of which may be that I am a skeptical person," Wiese says. "But I don't know if I'm that way most of the time. I think with the show I was ultra-sensitive, and it really came out under those circumstances."

Wiese first expressed doubts about the realness of "Last Chance for Love," "Joe's" show within the show, in the premiere episode two weeks ago. After making it through last week's episode with their illusion intact, the producers face a big challenge in the next show, when Wiese's suspicions keep mounting.

The episode's title, "The Crisis," sums things up pretty well: As Wiese suspects more and more that "Last Chance for Love" isn't real, they scramble to keep the facade from crumbling and their other mark, Tim Walsh, focused on the game. The episode ends on a cliffhanger.

Some of Wiese's skepticism may have stemmed from the fact that she could hardly believe the "Schmo" producers wanted her in the first place.

A casting agent with the show first stopped her outside a bar in Washington, D.C., where she lives and works as a consultant in international relations. She figured it would be a good story to tell her friends, so she did a short interview on camera.

"Then I was shocked ... when, the following week, I got a call from a casting agent in L.A.," she recalls. "It just made the joke even funnier. ... Then they kept calling back. Every time I [met with] or talked to someone, I was sure it was going to be the last time, right up to the moment when I was on the show, and I was convinced every day was my last day."

Wiese is now largely back to her regular life, looking for the next job opportunity in her field and enjoying the occasional bit of celebrity. "I was out with a friend of mine last weekend, and I did get recognized," she says. "It was kind of a fun experience, I have to guiltily admit. But it was fleeting ... my 15 minutes are on their 14th, I think."

Which, one presumes, leaves her more time to learn about herself while watching the show.

"I'm doing a lot of self-examination," she says, laughing, about what it's like to see her TV self. "I'll have to get back to you on that."