[EddyBee]

Taken from an article by Emma Hartley appearing on the 'Times Online' site. A good read ... rather interesting and entertaining ...

- Cherise Makubale from Zambia won pan-African Big Brother this year and received a diplomatic passport from President Levy Mwanawasa. “We are proud of you as a country,” he told her at a dinner in her honour. “Although some scenes in the house were not amusing, I’m glad they never involved Zambia. Your conduct was exemplary and encouraging. A Zambian woman must sweep and cook, and that is exactly what you did in the house.” The crowd applauded.

- In series four of Big Brother US, partly screened on E4 over here, 10 of the 13 “house guests” found themselves severely tested early on when they came face to face with one of their ex-partners: there were five former couples and three leftovers. This is what the wags at CBS had meant by the “X factor”. Sadists will be pleased to hear that in the case of one of the dodgy duos — Robert and Erika — they had not only undergone an acrimonious split-up but Erika had, by her own admission, subsequently been actively involved in Robert losing his job. Ouch. . .

- Miss Brazil, Joseane de Oliveira, illustrated the double-edged nature of fame during the third series last year. She turned herself into a laughing stock by answering a question about whether one of the other housemates was a good kisser by saying she didn’t know because the room had been dark.

- Series three of Gran Hermano (as BB is known in Argentina) was a deliberately stark contrast to series two, in which the contestants had been chosen mainly for their looks. The intervening eight months had seen the Argentinian economy collapse and bartering make a return as a legitimate form of economic activity. Chiming in with the sombre national mood, the housemates included a man whose family had been murdered and a prostitute, Viviana Colmenero, who went on to win. Maradona also made a morale-boosting appearance in the house during a football-related task.

- In the first series of Polish Big Brother 45-year-old Janusz Dzieciol romped away with the prize money despite being about 15 years older than everyone else in the house. He was the only housemate who didn’t smoke and, when the fags ran out in week two, Big Brother provoked a mutiny by announcing that there would be no more. As punishment for their bad behaviour Big Brother set a small fire in the compound but, astonishingly, the only person who could be bothered to get up and put it out was Janusz. Big Brother offered our hero a reward: either a phone call to his family, whom he was missing a great deal, or cigarettes for the rest of the house. No fool, he chose the fags and, out of gratitude, was never put forward for eviction by his housemates.

- Also from the first Polish series: another of the housemates, Sebastian Florek, stood for election three months after leaving the house in June 2001 and was duly elected as a Labour Union deputy to the Polish parliament. He is now a part of the ruling coalition and speaks regularly on education and farming. He has also gained a reputation as a feminist since putting his name to a list of mainly female deputies fighting for free contraception in the largely Catholic country.

- Hats off to Matías Fernández Monteverde, of the Spanish Big Brother house (Gran Hermano 2002). His easy-going surfer charm and classic Latino looks (he is actually Argentinian) won him the hearts of four out of five of the female contestants in the house. Two of them — Ana and Inma — he had “very warm encounters with” in the Jacuzzi, a third — Judith — threw herself at him but failed to get him into bed. However, he eventually fell for the lovely Rocio who, it seemed initially, wasn’t interested. They slept together inside the house and are still an item today.

- The producers of Belgian Big Brother were faced with a chilling decision back in September 2001, when one of the housemates, Irena Milano, lost a cousin in the destruction of the twin towers on September 11. The TV company was criticised in the Belgian media for not having told the house about the beginning of “World War Three”, as it was then being dubbed. A couple of days later Irena had the news broken to her in the privacy of the diary room by a psychologist, while the rest of the housemates were shown a news clip about the event on a television in the living room. Irena’s reactions were not broadcast and the Belgian media reported the loss of her cousin with no further comment.

- During the first Portuguese series of Big Brother back in 2000, one of the contestants, Marco, was expelled from the house for attacking a female housemate. The woman, Sonia, had shouted something along the lines of “Go to the whore that gave birth to you!” (a rough translation) after having creative differences with him during a film-making task. The charmer responded by kicking her in the face.

- There have been real weddings inside the houses in Norway, Portugal and Spain.

- The first all-Big Brother baby was conceived in the Danish house in November. Mother-to-be Sissel has been voted out of the house and is now looking forward to giving birth in July 2004, though she and her partner, housemate Robert, have no immediate plans to marry.

Taken from here.