Will Ali Be the Next Bachelorette?

Oh, you sneaky Bachelor producers. Thanks to your crafty editing, we thought Vienna was the insane one, but it turns out it's Ali!

How else would you explain Ali telling Ellen DeGeneres that she expected Jake—whom she straight-up abandoned on the show—to fly back to her? "I thought if this is love and he really cares about me," Ali says on today's Ellen, "then he is going to come and find me. He's a pilot. Like, fly to get me."

Someone's been eating the Crazy Puffs—and watching too much Pretty Woman—which makes her just about perfect to be next season's leading lady, right? So is it true that Ali is going to be the next Bachelorette? Here's the scoop:

"I would think about it," Ali says coyly when asked by Ellen if it's true she's being considered as the next Bachelorette.

According to my inside sources at ABC, "it's true" that "there is talk" of Ali becoming the next star.

"When they realized it wasn't going to work out with Jake," one mole tells me, "the producers started talking about [Ali] doing [The Bachelorette]."

You have to wonder, how can Ali even "think about" signing on to The Bachelorette when she had to go AWOL from the current season because she almost lost a job she didn't want to lose?

"That's one of the things I love about our show is that there are no rules," Bachelor host Chris Harrison tells me of the Ali sitch. "There are no binding contracts that say this or that or that you will stay for this long. I think part of our show, and part of the genius of the show, is that for lack of a better word, s--t happens!"

When you're a contestant, perhaps. But if she were the rose-giver, clearly Ali would have to stick around. And naturally, would be better compensated to do so.

Harrison, for the record, says he understood Ali's motives in leaving the current season. "People in a crappy economy are dealing with trying to keep a job. And you know as well as anybody how hard is to find a great career, and she feels like she has. So you can't fault her for choosing a career."

OK. But can we fault her for choosing a career…then backsliding and choosing "love" when it comes with more screen time? Mayhaps!

Would you like Ali to be the next Bachelorette? Or would Tenley or Vienna (whoever loses) be the better choice? Vote and comment below!

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Follow Kristin Dos Santos on Twitter, @kristinalert.