Gay uncles (Guncles) are often very savvy “aunties” to the children in their lives. And no two Guncles represent the value of love and positive influence in the Family Village more so than Bill Horn and Scout Masterson who are real-life Guncles to Liam and Stella McDermott. These aren’t just any nephew and niece either; Liam and Stella are the children of Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott and appear, along with “The Guncles” in the Oxygen network’s Tori and Dean’s: Home Sweet Hollywood.

The Guncles are among Tori and Dean’s closest friends and are truly part of the family both on and off the screen. Billy and Scouty are also trying to adopt a child of their own and start their own family. In our interview, The Guncles share their thoughts on Gunclehood, reveal their biggest Guncle mistake, and tell us how they really feel about Tori and Dean.

SA: It’s easy to tell from “Tori and Dean’s Home Sweet Hollywood” that you are very close with Tori, Dean and of course, Liam and Stella.

Guncles: Thanks! We’re very close to Liam and Stella. They light up our lives every day that we see them.

SA: What’s the best part about being Guncles?

Guncles: The best part is spending as much quality time with the kids as possible and being able to experience Liam and Stella and watch them grow and help shape who they are. For us, it’s a taste of what it’s like to have kids. It’s an indescribable experience. Plus, both of our families are on the East Coast, so Tori and Dean and the kids are our family here in California. Being Long Distance Guncles (LDG) is tough but we think of Tori and Dean and the family as the family that God has gifted us with; this is the family we’ve chosen.

SA: That’s just beautiful. And each of you contributes something special to the family. What are your Guncle talents?

Bill: Well I’m really good at changing diapers! I’m not afraid to roll up my sleeves and get in there (laughs…). I’m also the entertainer. While Scout is in the kitchen cooking a holiday dinner with Tori, Dean and I are keeping the kids entertained - even though Dean is an amazing cook in his own right. (Scout: Billy has infinite amounts of energy!)
Scout: I love helping to make the snacks and baking for school activities and for the holidays. I also love doing all the arts and crafts projects with the kids. I’m the crafty one.

SA: So Bill, you’re not afraid of the poop, huh?

Bill: Well when two people really want to become parents like Scout and I do, you can romanticize it all. But once you’re changing poopy diapers, the romance is gone. It keeps us real. Even celebrity kids poop!

SA: Okay, so changing diapers is not the most enjoyable activity. It begs the question though: What are the most fun activities you’ve done with Liam and Stella?

Guncles: If Tori and Dean need to be somewhere and can’t take the kids, we love to babysit. It’s so much fun. (Scout: I love the part when we get up in the morning and make this big breakfast – pancakes or waffles, fruit and eggs… for me, it’s a lot of fun.) During the day, we’ll take them out for a simple lunch at one of those restaurants where they provide crayons and the kids get to draw on the paper table cloth, then we’ll go to the playground and play. We send photos throughout the day to Tori and Dean because we know they would want to see what we’re all up to.

SA: That is so thoughtful of you guys. Since you’re having so much fun with the kids, are you ever tempted to break the rules?
Guncles: Not really. We’re pretty good at adhering to whatever Tori and Dean think is best for the kids. At the end of the day, they are the parents. If we let the kids get away with something, they’ll end up taking it out on the parents later on. (Bill: Actually when the kids are with us, they actually volunteer to go to bed more often. They know we have a tight schedule of fun stuff ahead so when we say: “It’s time for bed!” off they go! It’s amazing!)

SA: Seems like they respect your authority as Guncles. That’s great! Guarding the parents’ rules is a Savvy Auntie principle, so we love that you do. Now what’s your take on spoiling the kids?

Guncles: Well we admit that we always have something for them when we see them, but it’s often a small gift that costs $5.00 or less. We give them books, crayons, stickers (Scout: Stella loves stickers!), maybe a cupcake. These are just cool treats. (Scout: I remember when I was a kid, my relatives would bring me a little treat whenever they saw me. I felt very loved.)

SA: That’s so sweet! Well on to the bigger gifts now. We suspect you’ve given Liam and Stella some pretty stellar gifts.

Guncles: We bought Stella her first Barbie. It’s a Jonathan Adler Barbie, so it’s very special. We also got her some of the furniture to go along with it. For Liam, we were once at the mall and we saw this really cool cable-knit sweater with this band going around it that had this classy skull and bones pattern on it. We found it at H&M and thought it was the cutest sweater ever. We had to get it!

SA: H&M has great kid clothes! Those gifts seem like big hits. Ever have any misses? What’s the biggest mistake you ever made with the kids?

Guncles: Once we were in the grocery store with Liam and Stella and we all saw these really cute bright-colored Elmo and Cookie Monster cupcakes in the bakery section. You know - the kind with lots of food coloring in the icing? Well we didn’t realize quite how much food coloring was in those cupcakes. Later that night, poor Stella was feeling sick to her stomach and vomited pink stuff all over Tori and Dean’s white carpet and Liam’s poop was blue. Yuck! We’ll never buy those cupcakes again!

SA: Oh no! Well I bet Liam and Stella forgave you. They are great kids. What do you cherish most about them?
Bill: Liam is really funny! I love hearing what he has to say. He’s talking up a storm and he has this funny demeanor. He’s really a hilarious little kid. And Stella is pretty hilarious herself! We love how they say our names. It’s just too cute!
Scout: And Stella’s a total ‘girly-girl!’ She loves makeup and jewelry and shoes! And she’s obsessed with purses! She takes one with her everywhere she goes. Tori has this collection of little vintage purses that are the perfect size for Stella and she’s infatuated with them!

SA: One of my favorite episodes from last season of Tori and Dean was your commitment ceremony. You had asked if Liam could be the ring bearer and Tori and Dean warned you that things may not go as planned. You insisted he be a part of the ceremony and sure enough, Liam had no plans to come to you guys with the ring until you, Guncle Billy, said: “Look I have candy!” and he came running. That was very touching because you knew you wanted this little nephew to be part of the wedding more than you wanted the day to go perfectly. Tell us about that.

Guncles: Well first off, Dean gets the credit for the candy idea. Look, it’s kids, so something is going to go haywire, but it was more important for us that the kids be part of the ceremony. Stella was too little at the time, but we were determined to have Liam be a part of it, even if that meant going over and getting the rings from him! We’re so happy about how it all worked out. (Scout: I'm still a little sad that Stella was too young to be a part of the ceremony. Maybe we'll do a re-commitment ceremony in the future!)

SA: So are we! And congratulations again! Well this season starts off with a family road trip. Tori and Dean, Liam and Stella and The Guncles take a Winnebago to visit Patsy, the kids’ baby nurse and nanny who has also become an important part of the family. What was that trip really like?

Guncles: It was a long trip but we were very excited to spend all day with the family. But it was tricky to keep the kids entertained. Tori had put these Tupperware containers together for the kids that would keep them busy for an hour at a time. She made this great homemade play dough in the same colors as the “Yo Gabba Gabba” characters and we all sat around and made “Yo Gabba Gabba” people with pompoms, goofy eyes and pipe cleaners. The kids had so much fun doing that. And when that was done, we let them stick stickers all over Billy. (Bill: You get numb after a while so I don’t even realize they were all over me, which was a problem when we got to the truck stop and I walked into the store with stickers all over me. Oops.)

SA: Advice to the Guncles: Always look in the mirror before you go outside after playing with the kids! Any other advice for Savvy Aunties, Guncles and Uncles who are new to the role?

Guncles: Get lots of sleep before the nieces and nephews come into your lives! And spoil them rotten - with attention. And this is important: New parents burn out easily; taking care of babies is very time consuming and they will really want a night off. We can offer to babysit or take kids out since we’re more trusted than just about anyone else they know. And trust us, if you offer it, they will gratefully accept!

Finally, be the Fun Guncle! Whether we’re taking them to the zoo or just going to the house to cook dinner there (or even cooking dinner and bringing it over so there’s no stress and chaos prepping the meal), we just have fun. Enjoy all the quality time you have with them and make it all fun!

SA: I bet Tori and Dean really appreciate everything you do for them and their kids. I had the chance recently to ask Tori and Dean what you guys mean to them and Tori got so farklempt when talking about you that she needed tissues. She is so appreciative of what you do for her family. So what can you tell me about what Tori and Dean, Liam and Stella mean to you, The Guncles?

Guncles: We just feel really fortunate and blessed to have them as our family and how Tori and Dean welcomed us and let us into the kids’ lives. They’re so busy but they make sure that we’re included in things like family dinners and the holidays. For us it’s been a pretty intense year getting our open adoption stuff in order and they went beyond the call of duty to help us with that. Dean was taking our adoption photos while Tori was writing our recommendation letters. To take that time… The feeling is so many things… They are always right there; they are always the very first people to have their arms open to be there for whatever we need. It’s a feeling you can’t even describe. There’s such love and that’s the way it is. No matter what comes up, they are going to be right there. For Tori for to plan our commitment ceremony the way she did with all the details, it was just above and beyond – and always is. Tori, Dean and the kids are our extended family and a lot closer to us than some of our own family. We love them.

(Scout: They mean a lot to our families too. The other day, Tori was on HSN with her jewelry line and she got a call from “Jackie from PA” and she had no idea it was my mom even though she knows my mom Jackie lives in PA. And then she heard: “Hey it’s Scout’s Mom!” and her face just lit up! My mom told Tori she would never miss watching her jewelry show and Tori teared up on TV. It was really touching for all of us.)

SA: Speaking of family, you are trying to adopt a baby through open adoption. Open adoption is when the birth-mother has an open relationship with the child so that the child always has their mother in their lives even though you are raising the child.

Guncles: We’re pretty savvy about the fact that the kid will look at us one day and know that neither of us birthed him or her. We want their birth-mother in our child’s life for that reason. As of today (April 9, 2010) we have not found a birth-mother match and are still very much actively looking. If Savvy Aunties know of a mother-to-be who is planning to offer her child to a fortunate family for adoption please let us know. You can learn more about us and our hope to adopt a baby at http://www.bill-scout.com.

In this season of Tori and Dean, you’ll see that it’s a very emotional season for us as we go through the process of trying to find a mother to match with us and adopt a baby.

SA: We wish you the very best with that. We know how much you want a baby and we want that for you. Speaking of the adoption process, we had a question from @caligirl06, a @SavvyAuntie Twitter Follower: “When Scout and Bill adopt, how they will balance business and raising a baby? Will they have a baby nurse?”

Guncles: That’s a great question @caligirl06. (Scout: I’m in casting and consulting, most often working from home a lot of time) (Bill: I’m in PR and able to make my own schedule. Becoming parents in our 30s, not 20s, gives me a different perspective on my career. I will be doing my best to work out a schedule lets me spend time at home. My dad came home at 7PM every night and I didn’t get to see much if him. I’m not putting him down, I’m just saying I don’t want to be that type of parent; I want to spend more time the kid.)

We’d love to have Patsy [Liam and Stella’s baby nurse] as our baby nurse. Nothing would make us happier. We know we can’t predict life too far in advance, but we realize our careers will change a little bit. Nevertheless, we’re more than ready to do that because family is more important to us. (Scout: Unless we win the Super Lotto so we can be home with our child all day, every day!)

SA: What else is coming up this season with The Guncles that Savvy Aunties should watch out for?

Guncles: This season is more about us as a family and the dynamics of the family. You’ll get a more intimate look and see how every family needs each other. And you’ll see how Tori and Dean help us prep physically and emotionally for adoption and parenthood.

SA: We look forward to it. And as a reminder, please check out http://www.bill-scout.com to learn more about The Guncles adoption process. And if you know anyone who might be a match, please contact them directly.

The new season of Tori and Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood airs on Monday nights at 10/9c on Oxygen. The Guncles will be hosting the 2nd episode live at http://www.oxygenlive.com on April 12th. At 9:30PM ET, Scout will be hosting and for those on the West Coast, join Bill at 9:30PM PST! You can chat with them live then! Plus, Savvy Auntie Founder, Melanie Notkin, will be hosting the 3rd episode of the show on Oxygen Live on Monday, April 19th also starting at 9:30PM ET. She’ll be sharing her comments on the show with video and you can chat with her and fans of the show too!

RSVP for Live events here: http://www.oxygenlive.com. And Follow Scout @ScoutMasterson and Bill @billhornWoHi on Twitter anytime.

Interview conducted by Melanie Notkin, Founder, Savvy Auntie

Photo: Malibu, Summer 2009 From Left to Right: Bill, Tori, Liam, Jack, Dean, Stella, Scout.