Big Brother 6 – House Calls, October 3rd – A Celebration of Blondesby Carrie
Happy Monday! That's how we're greeted this week by both Gretchen and Marcellas, who both seem to be very chipper this week. This week Janelle is joining them by phone to take calls and answer some questions.
Gretchen mentions that she's been doing some research. When Janelle entered the house, there were two schools of thought; the men were thinking "hubba hubba" because she's stunning, and the women were thinking "I hate that bitch" for the very same reason. So their theme today is going to be beauty and blondeness. Marcellas adds that Janie had to work hard to get past the preconceived notion that, because she's blonde and buxom, she must also be a man-hungry bimbo.
Gretchen invites blondes to call in, tell stories, and even make blonde jokes. Um, okay. I guess every show needs a theme, so let's go with it. Marcellas says it will be a celebration of blondes with Janelle, the ultimate blonde.
Janelle is on the phone, and says that she got back to Miami two days ago and it feels great. She went to Minnesota first to see her family, and they threw her a welcome home party. She's been recognized at airports and shopping malls; in fact the other day when she was out with Ashlea, a group of guys asked to take her picture. They realized after the fact that Ashlea had been on BB as well. Marcellas can relate to this, saying that he'd go out shopping with Lisa and people would be like "Marcellas!!", and then they'd look at Lisa and say "Oh yeah, you won right?"
Marcellas wants to know if Janie has bumped into any fellow Miama cast members since she's been home. She says that she's talked to Beau. The conversation went well, and he's trying to be friends with her. Heehee – I'll bet he is. Janelle adds that Howie called her at 3 in the morning, and Marcellas says that he got a similar phone call. Speaking of Howie, he'll be live in studio for next week's House Calls.
It's time to take some calls, and Debbie is the first one through. She says that she heard that there was going to be a gathering at Janelle's apartment in two weeks, and wonders if that's still on and if they're planning to watch the tapes during the party. Interesting question – there's got to be a point where get-togethers are just that, and not time to watch tapes of BB. Janelle seems a bit weirded out by the question and says that Michael will be there in about a week, and she'll be visiting with Howie and Ashlea as well. After that James and Sarah are due for a visit. Debbie says that she thought Rachel was going as well, and Janie is definitely a bit freaked out now, as are Marcellas and Gretchen. Janelle just says that they are all going to keep in touch.
Debbie isn't finished, however. She wants to tell Marcellas that she read something he had written about knowing how the nerd herd feels now (after coming under fire from viewers who wanted to see him call the herd out on their behaviour). Debbie wants him to know that there are so many fans out here that love him that it completely overshadows any trash talking. Marcellas thanks her and says that she has no idea how important that was for him to hear.
If I may veer off course here for a moment, I'd like to add my own two cents. The whole situation got out of hand as far as I'm concerned. Viewers wanted to see Maggie (and the rest of them, but mostly Maggie) admit that she wasn't as pure and moral as she claimed to be. That's fine. And Marcellas did say that he was ready to call her out. He didn't. For whatever reasons, he chose not to. Big deal. I'm no Maggie fan, but I don't think for a minute that she's not paying for her actions in the BB house. She may not read or watch anything, but people are absolutely saying things to her. Hopefully someone close to her will help her to see why there is such a harsh backlash against her, and why we're not singing the praises of this season's winner. And if not, if she continues to deny that she did anything wrong, then who's really losing out here? We aren't – Maggie will be long forgotten by the time BB7 rolls around, if not sooner. We don't have to live in denial; Maggie does. So let it go. Marcellas is free to conduct himself in any manner he choses as long as it fits in with what CBS expects of him. We don't have to like it or agree with it, but we should respect it.
Anyhoo, Marcellas explains that people do things in the house that we may not like, but these people are human and the game is over. They want to be forgiven. In this case, he doesn't know if it's all about forgiveness for Maggie. He feels that she should apologize to Janelle and that the nerd herd needs to apologize to each other, but they don't need to contantly be mea culpa-ing to the public. Maybe not constantly, but once would be nice.
Gretchen changes the subject and ask Janelle if she's watched the tapes of the season yet, and if so, what has surprised her. Janelle says that she's seen some of the shows, and she's most surprised by Ivette's comment that Janie has the worst soul of anyone she's ever met. Janelle is also surprised that Maggie seemed to be the ringleader of all the Janelle-bashing on the live feeds. Marcellas says that it surprises him too, because Maggie never attempted to have any conversations with her. Janelle can't believe the stuff that she got bashed over – she made a comment about selling something on eBay and suddenly she's a horrible person because she didn't drop it off at the Goodwill.
Marcellas asks what Janelle needs from Maggie and Ivette, and if it would make her feel better to get an apology from them. Janelle says that she doesn't want an apology from Maggie at all; she doesn't want anything from her. Ivette has kind of apologized already. Janie adds that Ivette is realizing that she yapped too much and said some horrible things. "The thing is," Janelle says, "Ivette sort of apologized, but Maggie doesn't even realize that she said anything wrong. She's still the high and mighty one." Gretchen agrees that a little accountability would go a long way.
Time for another call, whose name completely escaped me. She loves Janie and the S6. She says that the fiendship was obsessed with bashing Janelle 24/7, and was going to ask if they ever apologized. Since that's already been addressed, nameless caller wants to know if Janelle knew about them tearing her underwear and hiding her things.
Janelle says that someone had called in on the Fish Bowl show and told her about all of that. She thinks it's ridiculous, and they haven't apologized for that specific incident at all. Janie is also surprised that the BB staff didn't step in and stop them. Marcellas agrees. Gretchen says it was just weird, and she would be embarassed about looking like a fool if she had done something like that. She wonders if they have a panty fetish. (Hey, I just recap it folks.)
John calls in and tells Janie not to think twice about Ivette's "worst soul" comment, because "we all" think she has a beautiful soul. He wants to know if Janelle has read Ivette's post on her website (side note: I think he's referring to her Yahoo fan group, but I could be wrong), and if so, how does she feel about it. Janelle says again that Ivette is sort of trying to apologize but she can't do it. She can't just say "okay, I was wrong" – she's still justifying it and saying that there was a reason for everything.
Chandra calls and she's the first to pick up on the theme. She says that when someone like Janelle comes along, less attractive women are intimidated and it brings out insecurities that they project onto the object of their intimidation. She thinks that Janelle handled it all very well. Chandra herself is a blonde and says that she has more problems with women thinking that she can't be smart or offer anything of substance than with men thinking anything like that. Gretchen talks about a study she read about, where a group of business folks looked at resumes from equally qualified people, and these resumes had photos attached. The study found that, across the board, the exec types offered lower salaries to the blondes. Janelle finally gets to speak, and she says that people assume blondes are dumb, easier, and slutty, and that brunettes are more corporate. I'm a redhead – I wonder where I fit in.
Marcellas asks Janelle why she went blonde, since she's a natural brunette. She says that it started out with just getting highlights, and eventually, three years later, she was completely blonde. She adds that it helps her career to be blonde, and that it fits her bubbly personality more. She read somewhere that guys are attracted to blondes because it reminds them of youth.
Vicki, who is a hairdresser, calls to say that blondes get more attention because the light shines off their heads. (oh look, shiny things ...) She's done an experiment that was inspired by Janelle – she went to a store looking grubby, and no one wanted to help her. She went home, got gussied up, and returned; surprise, the people fell all over themselves to serve her. I'm not sure this is all that ground-breaking – we all know we get treated better when we look good. And how it was inspired by Janie I'll never know. But anyway ... Marcellas wants to know how prevalent women wanting to go blonde is in Vicki's business. Vicki says that she does a lot of tin foil highlights because blonde pops. She quickly adds, "No offence Gretchen, you're gorgeous!"
Marcellas asks Janelle to "put something random out there in the cosmos". Janelle says "Cosmo? It's too early for cosmos!" Heehee. Marcellas tells her she just had a blonde moment, then asks if that's her dog he heard in the background. I sure hope it was. Yup, it was Cupcake.
Time for another caller. Carly wants to know how Janie kept her hair so blonde in the house. You know, since the lighting made Maggie's hair sprout roots and change color and all. Janelle likes this question, and says that since she knew she'd be there for three months, she got touch-up kits from her hairdresser. She did her roots every three weeks. Gretchen is surprised and wonders if we ever saw that on the live feeds. Not too sure about "we", but I sure did. Marcellas wonders if it was invasive, doing personal upkeep stuff like that on camera. He felt that way when he had to shave his head in the house. Janelle agrees that she was a bit embarassed the first time. She had gone up to the HoH room when Kaysar was HoH, because she wanted to avoid the others thinking they would pick on her for it. Kaysar helped her with the root touch-up, and then declared her high-maintenance. I remember that!
Another called named Vicki is on the line, and she says that she learned an important lesson thanks to Janelle. Vicki is blonde and hates that people judge her on her hair colour, but she did the very same thing when she saw Janelle, thinking she was just another "dumb blonde" and only on the show for eye candy. She adds that it didn't take her long to figure out that Janelle is brilliant, and she's glad that America got a chance to know her. Marcellas wonders if Vicki assumed that Janelle was going to be like Holly, who obviously had a different blonde agenda.
Marcellas wants to talk seriously for a minute now. He asks Janelle if she wants to address any of the mean things she said about Ivette in the house. Hold on here – if it's okay to ask Janelle, why isn't it okay to ask Ivette and Maggie? I'm just sayin'. Maybe he just feels more comfortable with Janie or something. Anyway, Janelle admits that she did say some terrible things. She says that in the house, when you don't like someone, it's almost a good feeling to bash them. She thinks that happened a lot this season. "It was pretty bad, and I do apologize for everything that I said," she adds. She feels especially bad for what she said about Ivette's girlfriend because it was so mean.
Marcellas agrees again, and says that what is said in the house doesn't necessarily reflect the person who said it. Janelle says not at all – you're just so upset sometimes that you just say something. The things she said about Ivette don't reflect how she really feels about her, just how she felt at that particular moment.
Susie calls in to ask, for her daughter, what the label is on Janie's lavender shirt/sweater combo. Janelle says that it's Arden B and Betsy Johnson, and Marcellas freaks out saying that this isn't a commercial.
Dennis gets the last call today, and asks if Janelle had any influence on how the jury voted. Janie says that they weren't supposed to talk about it, but that the other houseguests really didn't want Ivette to win. She brings up Ivette's good-bye message to Rachel, and says that there's no way Rachel could have voted for someone who called her a bad person and a poor sport. Marcellas says that Ivette even had a chance to atone for that with the jury questions, but she never did.
Now it's time to say good-bye to Janelle and wrap things up for the week. Marcellas asks Janie to stay on the line because he has to give her someone's number. Hmm. Anyway, Howie will be there next week in studio, so that should be a lot of fun. I loves me some Hurricane Howie!
Questions or comments? Love 'em! Hit me up at carrie@realityshack.com.
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