‘Tool’ time therapy for couple

Shouting out her hotel room number to a pool full of bikini-clad women, Newport Beach native Courtney Barcellos thought she was entering a contest to become the “party ambassador” at an upscale resort in Cancun, Mexico. Little did she know, her girlfriend had really set her up to be a contestant on Season 3 of the VH1 reality show “Tool Academy.”

The show claims to reform bad boyfriends and girlfriends, or “tools,” through group counseling sessions and boot-camp-like challenges, all in front of the cameras. The last couple standing at the end of the season wins $100,000.

Barcellos and the other contestants were tricked by their significant others and the show’s producers into believing they were really signing up for a contest for hard-partying flirts in Cancun.

Barcellos and her girlfriend Cheron Wilson are the first same-sex couple to appear on the show, which debuts Sunday.

“I was actually shocked and upset because clearly that’s somebody calling me a [expletive] on TV, and I flew you to Mexico to tell you that you are a tool,” Barcellos said.

Barcellos was born at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian and spent part of her childhood in Newport Beach, but she and Wilson now live in San Pedro.

The couple had been dating for eight months when Wilson lured Barcellos into signing up for the show under the guise of an alcohol-drenched trip to Cancun.

“We were having a lot of problems, and I had a feeling she was cheating on me, just lying and stuff like that,” Wilson said. “When we went out, she had a tendency to flirt and kind of ignore me.”

VH1 sent out a casting call for season three of the show in search of “‘tools’ — the narcissistic, self important, egocentric self-satisfied men and women who believe their greatest contribution to the world is themselves.”

On the show, Barcellos is dubbed the “Lady Lovin’ Tool,” for her constant flirting with other women.

“She is a tool, and she needs to change her toolish ways,” Wilson said on the first episode of the show, which shows Barcellos bragging about her romantic exploits with other women.

Barcellos and Wilson aren’t allowed to say if they will be together Valentine’s Day to watch the season premiere of the show. Viewers will have to tune in to see if the couple stay together.

Since being on the show, Barcellos said she has changed her hard-partying, two-timing ways.

“I actually learned a lot about myself,” she said. “I learned how to talk better, communicate better. I kind of came into my own. Now I’m more of the real me.”