Big Brother Blogs: Day 6

Last night’s highlights show saw Alexandra making vicious attacks on Rebecca, Rachel and Stephanie (in other words, everyone who dared to open their mouths). The forums are screaming ‘Get Alex Out’ and ‘What a bitch’, and they do have a point. To quote the lady herself, Alexandra is ‘not ready – just remember I told you that.’

It’s good Alexandra wasn’t trying to be aggressive. I understand that she has struggled a lot in life (although I’m not quite convinced by her claim that she ‘found herself pregnant’ at 16 - surely there was a bit more to it than that!). It’s understandable that she’s ‘protective’ of herself. But it doesn’t mean she should be allowed to go around talking to people like that, and it’s a bit worrying that someone who doesn’t seem to be able to understand or control her own behaviour has been put into a stressful situation like the Big Brother house.

The stressful situation in question was - Rebecca burned the chips. Apparently, it was the utmost thoughtlessness for Rebecca to be cooking at all when professional chef Rex is in the house. Sweet Rachel tries to stand up for Rebecca, saying that it was really kind of Rebecca to help, but Alexandra’s response reduced Rachel to tears.

Stephanie gets into the argument by telling Alexandra she shouldn’t talk to people like that. But Alexandra claims it’s Stephanie’s fault the argument is still going on because if Stephanie hadn’t made a comment, Alexandra wouldn’t have had to respond to it. “If someone asks you something, you answer back, don’t you?” says Alexandra.

The question on many people’s lips is, who is Alexandra trying to be? Makosi? Jade? Charley Aisleyne? The question I have to ask is, why would Alexandra want to be like them? Jade might have been popular in BB3, but she received almost 50% of the votes for the Worst Housemate Ever. And I’m not being funny, right, but Charley’s a bit of a joke now. (Who’s Gandhi? Is he hot?) Makosi managed third place in BB6, and is probably the most memorable housemate of BB6, but the negative response from the crowd left her feeling threatened.

Aisleyne, who also finished third, is probably the only one of the four who emerged from the house with a shred of dignity – presumably the shred that was covered by her thong – but she needed what was effectively two weeks’ immunity from eviction in order to turn public opinion around. Alexandra will be lucky to survive that long. The only question is whether she will be evicted or ejected.

But if Alexandra can turn herself into one of those girls, it will be an improvement. She currently has considerably less chance of winning than Charley ever did.

So, do I want Alexandra evicted at the earliest opportunity? I’m not sure. I am a bit worried about the people who have to share a house with her, and Big Brother’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy has already been exposed as pretty nonexistent. But I don’t want to let the poor girl out into the world. Everyone hates her. Some vulnerable people like Nikki and Lea do well in the house because they’re so used to feeling vulnerable, it’s not such a shock when they get into – and out of – the house. But other people can’t deal with it at all, and that could include Alexandra. Some might argue that she deserves everything she gets, but will being nationally reviled actually help her? It does seem to have helped housemates like Jade and Grace – even though public reaction did go too far - but it seems much more important that Alexandra is given the chance to understand and learn from her mistakes. Big Brother should at least make an attempt to explain to Alexandra why her behaviour could be perceived as wrong. I don’t think she really understands at the moment.

Alexandra did make at least one good point during the argument. It is not unreasonable for her to be concerned when the group are on rations and Rebecca has burned the chips. Perhaps it was necessary to address it, and she is quite right that, once the situation has been dealt with, and it’s been agreed that Rex will cook in future, they do need to move on and forget about it. But what seems to have escaped Alexandra is that she doesn’t need to have the last word. She might have called the meeting and elected herself chairman, but she’s not in charge. A good chairman would have listened to what Rebecca had to say (if she had, Rachel and Stephanie would probably have kept quiet), and then forgotten about it.

Alexandra is not without good qualities. She would probably have dealt with Rebecca very effectively if Rebecca really had been trying to cause trouble. (Sylvia even had the nerve to suggest that Rebecca had burned the chips on purpose – silly cow!) But Alexandra’s own insecurities, probably a result of her difficulties growing up, are so strong, she doesn’t seem to realise that most people who have different opinions from her aren’t actually attacking her.

However, Alexandra wasn’t the only person who came off badly during the argument. Apart from Rex, who meekly agreed he should do all the cooking from now on, none of the guys said anything. However, Rex, Dale, Darnell, Dennis and Mohamed have hardly said anything on any subject, and lovely Luke is mostly silent outside the Diary Room. Inside, on the other hand, not only his opinions come out, but also his claws.

Sylvia also showed what many have perceived as two-faced spinelessness by agreeing with Alexandra to her face, and slagging her off behind her back – but I would say this is no more than good old-fashioned survival instinct. Having already aligned herself with Alexandra, she probably feels as though she can’t back out of the friendship now. Alexandra would make things very difficult for her if she did, and I can’t blame Sylvia for wanting to avoid that. I don’t like her, though.

But the three girls who did stand up to Alexandra came over very well. Rebecca was shocked and bewildered, but remained gentle and polite, and tried not to let Alexandra’s behaviour bother her – which can’t have been easy. Rachel has been criticised for crying, but she did it very quietly when she was with the group – we might not even have noticed if Big Brother hadn’t kept pointing the camera at her – and it didn’t stop her from standing up for Rebecca. And everyone cries in the Diary Room, although not many people make such generous and intelligent observations as Rachel at the same time.

As for Stephanie, her surprisingly sensitive and mature way of talking to Alexandra about the incident has probably gone some way towards saving her from being evicted on Friday. Stephanie made a very bad impression over the first couple of days –but the task was very unfair. Mario and Lisa are now officially the most nauseating couple in history (scenes like Mario’s birthday party could be seen as discriminating against emetophobics – maybe I should call Ofcom!). They did have some advantages entering as a couple, so a twist for them might have evened things up a bit. But Stephanie and Luke were deliberately selected to participate by Big Brother, and had no choice but to go along with it.

I can see that it would have been difficult to choose Mario’s fake girlfriend randomly, as would usually happen in a twist like this – but Stephanie is the last person they should have chosen. She’s a lovely, bubbly and actually quite intelligent housemate who was always going to make a strong impression – she didn’t need a task to help her. Someone like Rachel (a former actress) or Rebecca would have entered into the task with far more enthusiasm and humour, and might have welcomed the chance to stand out a bit more. Or maybe one of the guys could have been Lisa’s fake toy boy – she is extremely sexy and young-looking, so a relationship with Dale, Luke, Darnell, Rex or even gay Dennis would have been interesting and not that unbelievable - Dennis having so far shown no inclination for anyone other than himself.

But Mario and Stephanie – could any couple be more ridiculous? He’s old enough to be her father, and although that wouldn’t always matter, they very clearly seem to be part of a different generation. Stephanie is only nineteen – she’s the youngest member of the house, and Mario is the oldest - and while she probably isn’t an innocent virgin, it did seem a bit inappropriate to force them into a fake relationship.

Stephanie naturally found the whole experience of snuggling up to mooby Mario distasteful and upsetting, particularly once she was told she had to marry the guy. This led to arguments, which led to the failure of the task – but that wasn’t all Stephanie’s fault. While Alexandra did suspect the relationship was a fake, it didn’t seem to occur to anyone that Mario and Lisa had a prior acquaintance – at least not until Big Brother told the housemates there was a secret couple in the house. So of course they chose the two oldest housemates.

A few people have suspected Mikey of being Big Brother’s Chosen one - the latest version of BB7’s Pete. Mikey has been blind since an operation went wrong ten years ago, and this is just the kind of sob story that might appeal to Big Brother. I really like Mikey because he’s a really brave and intelligent guy who is already astonishingly independent in his new house. In some ways, he does have an advantage over his other housemates in that everything he does is interesting and often moving. I wouldn’t have liked it if his disability was his only interesting quality, but he is a strong character who isn’t afraid to give his opinions – and, in their turn, his housemates aren’t afraid to tell him when he’s doing something wrong. Only monstrous Mario patronises him, and this seems to be more out of a desire to make himself good than to help Mikey.

Kathreya seems very warm and lovely, and I love her Thai accent. She is another who made some attempt to calm Alexandra down during the argument, but, it has to be said, she didn’t try very hard. Maybe it’s just that her voice is very soft, and wasn’t heard over Alexandra’s strident tones; maybe she was too scared to say anything more productive than a gentle ‘Calm down’. But maybe she is trying to make herself look good by appearing to try to help, whilst being careful not to be so forceful, she actually stops the dramas from progressing further. I’m inclined to think she’s just nice, but Kathreya is still a bit of a mystery.

A few words of advice for the housemates:

Dale and Jennifer - Being beautiful isn’t an alternative to having a personality.

Mario – put a shirt on.

Darnell, Dennis, Rex – do something. Anything.

Alexandra – I don’t think you’re ready.