Celebrity Big Brother 2009

 Continued from here (i.e. BB Summer 2008):

http://weirdmonger.blogdrive.com/archive/294.html

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My on-going comments from the interactive forum here:

http://www.ttapress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=182

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And you were incredibly accurate with your list, Marion. I half expected you to turn up!

A motley group, indeed. Very tantalising. Mutya! Mutya!

Didn't Passe-Partout Verne write Around The World in 80 Days!

I can't imagine Tony Sheridan pretending to be a pussy cat like Geoge Galloway!

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If they have to pair off by alphabetical proximity, who out of Ulrika and Verne would survive limpeting!

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You don't have to be mad to watch this....


Actually, it's an all round intresteing and nice crowd - so far!

La Toya has impressed me a lot in a positive way, more than all of them.

Fireworks expected from Ulrika and Tommy and perhaps Terry...

Verne makes me feel the vulnerability of being a human being...

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An interesting heart-to-heart between Latoyah and Tina on level terms until, sadly, Tina let herself down by showing how awestruck she was in talking to a Jackson.
I'm really warming to Latoyah.
The others are much of a muchness, but can't help being fascinated by the phenomenon of Verne. Did he actually go to bed and start sleeping at 8.30pm!
I'm sure there is something significant about the pair of right-handed yellow gloves. Not sure what yet, but should become clearer (like a symbol in 8½).

Terry (so far) reminds me of Stephen Jones. But I reserve judgement to change my mind.

Ulrika is the weakest link (as Terry correctly identified). I hope she doesn't do a wobbly like that large lady in the first celebrity big brother whose name I forget.

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Well, Marion, I'm still warming to Terry 'SJ' Christian. He's made the two best choices for eviction - although on the night Verne was probably the least talented as Romeo but the sight of him acting to Tina's Juliet was priceless. His talent is his size and squeaky voice, not his acting per se. Felt sorry for him.

A lot of action tonight with the 'Talent' show. I thought Mutya the best. Coolio Loolio - I've always liked his Gangstas Paradise - was next best. Ben was not bad. Michelle started off well.

Coolio's description of his youthful 'penetrations' earlier in the show coincided with a view of Tina stuffing a chicken! And her later rendition of his borderline insane behaviour was priceless.

The Shrek thingie was also a wonderful BB moment. Could have kicked off into a proper Jade rant and rave ... but tempers are simmering....

Tommy's dubbya rant was another poetntiall kicking off.

Tina - a mix of Bex and Carole?

I think I'm in love with Latoyah Jackson!

The ensemble teeters...

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Well, I'm not stopping up for the later show. Maybe see it tomrrow.

The first prgramme was full of incident and particularly enjoyed the imitation pairs, especially Verne as Coolio. And Tommy almost did a George Galloway pussy-cat with his imitation of Latoyah!

Some interesting long speeches from Verne (about Heath Ledger) and Latoyah (about an abusive relationship). Indeed, this set of people seem to be brimming with soliloquys.

Michelle versus Coolio. An interesting dynamic. (Ben was a bit wimpish in that situation.)

Terry again handled the eviction task very well.

Who out of Ulrika, Ben and Lucy? Lucy, I feel.

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Yes, Tommy and Michelle come up trumps. Latoya, too.

Coolio is the pantomime villain. All pantomimes need a villain.

I think Lucy will go. She is an innocent abroad, strange as that may seem bearing in mind her job!

I wouldn't have saved Ben. He is too 'innocently' self-aware of his perceived modern good looks for my taste.

I presume Terry's tenebrous nonchalance will pay off. Nobody will blame him and his reputation will be enhanced in and out of the house. But remains to be seen.

PS: I might have to miss the next two episodes.

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I've just managed to see last night's episode.
I loved it for all the reasons you gave, Marion. Thanks for that meaty summary.
A classic BB.
And the yellow rubber gloves symbolic motif came up again out of the usual context of yellow rubber gloves. Perhaps this will be explained one day by a retrospective critique or filmography of the 'drama'.

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Marion, you are the One and Only Big Brother columnist for me. And you chase Coolio through the celebrity tunnel with your lightning strikes.

Just managed to watch last night's episode. And what a genuine classic of BB history. And the whole kaleidoscope of personality currently in the House is contributory to that fact. The Chesney Hawkes cult was so utterrly SATIRICAL. BB has become as ground-breaking as 'That Was The Week That Was' was in the sixties. Coolio justifying his behaviour as a Game Plan is like many a politician explaining their policies. Ulrika and Verne as clumsily symbiotic songthrushes was so exquistely painful and so 'Theatre of the Absurd', one wonders if this episode can be topped. The raising and lowering of so-called celebrities between Hell and Heaven beyond the wall. I spy with my little eye someone who once had a record at no. 96 in the top 100 in 1978. And Terry is the David Frost in his prime of this TW3....

All that plus the heartfelt monologues on abuse and religion.... seriousness trickling down into the Absurdity. It is a shame that people miss BB because they think it rubbish.

When will Tommy take flight, though, as the hawk you led us to believe he was, Marion?

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Wasn't that Mutya whose ears Coolio was sniffing?

I was rather refreshed by Lucy's whole attitude in the eviction interview. Good for her. The Intentional Fallacy sort of borne out by her being not at all like her job.

Ulrika now looks spaced out. She no longer knows where she is. A zombie (from Dead Set or Thriller?).
Latoyah is taking her over .... gradually .... with a Jackson madness? I'm surprised she didn't hang one of Benchelle's babies out of the window...


I didn't think the salt and pepper ice-skating was at all succesful.

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Fame or lack of it being relevant to what I said about Lucy's brand of Intentional Fallacy. Like a Horror Writer isn't necessarily Horrid!

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Hilarious with Coolio (using the symbolic yellow gloves in dramatic swinging motions) planning to be like a blend of Margaret Thatcher, George Bush etc if he was made HoH. A Dick-tatorship of the first water.

Tina is an excellent head of the Knit and Knatter group. PMT-ridden Mutya is a kindred spirit, someone who will grow up like Tina. Ulrika the uptight laid-back Lady of the Paradox. Michelle ever waiting to have the next minor grievance that she'll only half-express.

Strange Lucy is now the reputed Prude. Hard for a Page 3 girl to be saddled with that, I imagine, but a reputation she has somehow succeeded in adopting. Fascinating.

Verne is sweet when he sits in bed and rolls his eyes innocently.

Meanwhile, the zombies gather outside....

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Much fun instilled by seeing ashen-faced Terry and Tina as bad children in the class - and by the tenebrous nonchalance of Terry versus the laid-back up-tightness of Ulrika developing.


Ulrika was, meanwhile, doing a good act pretending to be Tommy as choreographer scolding Coolio in an imaginary scenario....

Still not sure Tommy has really flighted his arrows yet...


The actual fitness things wasn't very good and they didn't really deserve three tokens for it.

Not a classic episode.

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Tina is indeed the dark horse for true BB notoriety I feel. I'm told by someone who should know that - based on this evidence - she actually played herself in 'Brookside'.

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Coolio in a kilt, Latoya bearing the yellow glove, Verne a Fantasy Elf on a Mastermind chair, the others getting the ECT that all glossy celebrities badly need.

Is Michelle infatuated with Ben, or are the others simply infatuated with reading between the lines to give the audience their moneysworth?

Tina in love with Coolio? Coolio wanting to fulfil his manly duties...

Ulrika thinks she is better than the rest - she just doesn't lke being told that she thinks this! I've never known someone paradoxically so laid-back and up-tight at the same time ...

Terry's tenebrous nonchalance is fraying at the edges. He's got some of his lines in his game plan wrong... or they came out wrong. He's a worried man. Only visually like SJ, not intrinsically. Although he's probably read the Mammoth Book of Horror Stories. He was the compere of The Word after all.

The zombies are waiting for more to fall off the barge...

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Tina wasn't biting her toenails, but simply communicating with them.
The Foot-Whisperer.

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I am with Coolio in his rationale of the Michelle/Ben situation - *if* one remembers BB is a game and *if* one accepts his presumably normal trademark Coolioish behaviour (which may also be accentuated by the BB context).

I'm sure Michelle is uncontrollably infatuated with Ben. Otherwise, Coolio's taunts wouldn't work.

Tina suprprised me by nominating Ben and Michelle, but, really, it makes common sense.

Michelle, I think. was momentarily awestruck when she suddenly found herself receiving a girlie comforting cuddle from Latoyah Jackson.

Tina was more appealing tonight.

Terry and Ulrika continue their designer nonchalance.

Verne is a cute cookie.

Mutya is probably the most boring if one assume Ben is only bland because of the Coolio jibes.

Latoyah to win. She looked good in yellow tonight.

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Michelle makes a pleasant change - not being a brash girl full of swear words. Having said that, as far as game plans are concerned, I feel she and Coolio are as bad as each other. Latoyah spotted that.

Ben is a wet fish.

Beginning to like Tina more.

Mutya feels she's is being exploited for the sake of entertaining the public. Well? What did she expect? I think she will go.

The tasks were never meant to be easy. Enjoyable or easy tasks don't fit BB's game plan. If we decry BB's game plans, we should vote with our feet.

Is anyone out there reading this thread because they watch BB, too, and enjoy feedback on it but would not actually admit to watching it? (Come on, don't worry, there's only me, Marion, Mike A and Gary C reading this thread. We won't tell).

Dave M said somewhere above that he thought 'BB' to be "cruel". I think it could be argued that the Summer Big Brother can be 'cruel', but not CBB, surely. The celebrities are earning money to appear on it and potentially to rejig their careers as well as temporarily to suffer during their stay in the BB house, like all manner of people working in difficult jobs.

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Ulrika the Huntress.

Terry also looked like something out of Lord of The Rings in his hood watching the archery.

The wet fish succeeded in his damp squib task ... technically. (More like a Public Schoolboy playing a prank). Ulrika wasn't really frightened. Just impulse acting.

Verne thowing himself at Michelle... probably on the rebound.


Coolio's Kitchen - is that going to be a new Ch 4 daytime show?

The kids are future BB Housemates in 2020+... retrospective ghosts of themselves in Verne-like miniature.

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Yes, as I said before - beginning to warm to Tina...

Then, Zut!

Coolio is just that - Coolio. There does seem some hypocrisy by BB in what behaviour is allowed and what not.

BB - however badly run - makes one think about why and how it's so badly run. A social study in TV making. Why it is so demeaning at times and so constructively provocative at others. Why we feel this and that about certain insults and something different about other insults. Politically (in)correct or simply uncivilised. Demeaning to participant and audience alike. Or entertainment (game) where certain things can be excused?
Yes, Tommy is a big disappointment.
Verne is inscrutably untrustworthy - a loose pistol.
Now for Tina's interview in 5 minutes....

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Latoya talks a lot of sense about Michelle and the whole situation - including that this is essentially a game. By saying that, she is playing it, too, an interesting, clever paradox. However, she is playing with fire - vis a vis Coolio. It may blow up in her face. Interesting to see what happens. Who's the sting and who's the stingee? Perhaps one person is both.

I think Terry and Tommy react the way they do, because they, too, have the Latoya view - as I think I do, too (so far). But of course I've only seen the edited highlights. (I don't like Coolio, though. Not my sort of person).

The tarantula role-play was filmed like the Blair Witch Project. Fascinating.

And Michelle still believes there are 352 days in a year!

Mutya is no loss. How does one heighten a profile - by rebelling like this with apparent rectitude or having an interview with Davina in the normal course of events?

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I hope everyone noticed the subliminal close-up of the symbolic yellow glove...

'Pensive' Tommy had a new verb: "have went" - is that a Scottish idiom?
Also he said: "This is not reality, so take things less seriously" - but later Eureka seriously bugged him, it seemed!

A happier day. A lousy song and performance. And Michelle and Coolio prepare to be the new Romantic couple: Coochellio?

At lease Michelle didn't spell 8 as 'ate'!

Surprise eviction tomorrow. Oops. Well it would have been a surprise.

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Michelle to go! gamester supreme.
& chili-temptress!

Tommy is the 'badder wolf' - according to Michelle - and Michelle's hoping to be the new Dr Who's girl assistant...

Latoya was brave with the chili. Ben was the star chili-popper. But Ben is still bland.

Coolio is a soft pussy at heart.

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Well, BB did the chili-temptress a favour by decking her out in an elegant white gown for the surprise eviction. She looked radiant ... and still scheming...
Good interview.

I think Terry might have won if he hadn't suddenly said that BB votesrs are as thick as Michelle. But actually Verne was always going to be the winner.

Tommy has lost his personality. Official.

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Verne in a tantrum was like something out of Eraserhead in the high chair or out of Twin Peaks...
& Ulrika from an arty Ingemar Bergman film ...

Things are tailng off ... going through the paces...

Can only get boring from now on in....

Quite liked Tommy politicking on one foot.

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I thought Latoya did a good interview and I think she suffered by having a private bedroom and going to bed early every night.

Verne will win as the novelty candidate.

But yes, Ulrika is probably my favourite now. You describe her beautifully.

Tommy, a bloke's bloke, will eventually be forgettable.

Coolio's demons. A gangsta in denial about his feminine side? Paradise Lost?

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The Dares were a freak show, later countered by some steady self-philosophication by Verne. The stuff of BB.

Terry smokes and talks like a trooper.

I hope Terry (sometimes constructively like Stephen Jones (except for the smoking)) wins.
Ulrika second.
But it'll probably be Verne.

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Watching Verne and Ulrika at the dinner when the others were smoking, I said to my daughter (who happens to be staying): they're being Pinteresque.
She replied: Pinter-boring, more like!

Ben's interview was as with a the Head Boy of a Public School...

Coolio 3rd. He would have won if he hadn't broken the chauvinism tolerance level on occasions.

Verne's interview showed why he didn't win. There's something which one can't put one's finger on that does not hit the right note. Not his size or voice. But his wavering sense of intention. He was a loose pistol.

So it's the tenebrous nonchalance of Terry or the laid-back up-tightness of Ulrika.

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Weird and wonderful, Ulrika says. And BB wins because it is always so bad and because it so good. A mixture of real and fabricated behaviour - realler than reality, more fantastic than fantasy, touching as well as freakish, repulsive and beautiful, cynical and genuine...

From the depths of Winter, here's to the summer....

CONTINUED HERE: http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2009/06/big-brother-summer-2009.html

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