love in the air at burnett

The love bug has struck with a vengeance at Leo Burnett, and it ain’t no computer virus.

In the same week that account supervisor Birgit Wendt graced a portion of the cover of Chicago magazine as one of the city’s most eligible singles, agency producer Juan Woodbury and account executive Damaris Rivera were tapped as one of four finalist couples in NBC’s “Today Throws a Wedding” contest.

Wendt says the response to her two-page photo in the magazine has been overwhelming. Since the issue hit newsstands a few weeks back, she’s received flowers, love poems and voicemails from so many potential suitors that she might have to hire Skip Pile to sort it all out.

“It’s been an absolute riot, but my somewhat normal life has been overturned,” she admits. “The irony of this whole thing is, I love being single.”

Not so for Woodbury and Rivera. If selected by viewers (voting ends this week at the Today section of MSNBC.com), the couple will have their entire wedding preparations docu mented by the morning news program and will exchange their vows on national TV this fall.

“Some people want to keep it personal, but this is the way I choose to express my love,” Woodbury says. Rivera takes a more practical view: “At the rate we were going with entry-level positions in advertising, we wouldn’t be able to have the big wedding we want.”