This is what's currently on Feed 4 accompanied by a Sirius Radio classical romance music station. On the other feeds, there's news coverage. No, not BB9 news ... just news.
Tonight I'll be live-blogging the season premiere here as it airs in the NYC area. Everyone is welcome to comment!
Julie Chen was on Craig Ferguson (not in a sexual kind of way, of course) last night. But, as with Letterman, there was little insight into the season. I'm wondering a bit about how well thought-out this upcoming season is myself here. They've gone through a few different themes -- the "my dirty little secret" - soulmates, now 'til death do us part. I wish they'd make up their minds!
Julie Chen had another BB9 intro bit on The Early Show this morning -- letting us in on the new housepets, a pair of guinea pigs, as well as more house touring. The video is below.
Just hanging around waiting for Big Brother 9 to start! Or ... this is what happens when I'm left to my own devices alone in an examination room at the orthopedic surgeon's office. I guess I should be happy that he's not a brain surgeon. This guy looks like Sylar got to him.
On that front -- my knee problems aren't in my head. They're definitely in my knee ... or what's left of it. The visit held no surprises for me. I knew I was bone on bone without the x-rays. He said although I'm a bit young for the surgery (good to know I'm young for some things!), my knee is beyond ready for it. All I need to do is plan the time frame (after BB9, but at least a few weeks before BB10) and give him six weeks warning. On a weird note, the knee replacement will most likely be done at the same hospital where serial killer nurse Charles Cullen did the last of his evil deeds. I'm making a note now to beware of evil nurses.
In today's TV Newsy Bits:
- Did you catch the Grammy Awards last night? How about Tina Turner? Wow, she still has it! Alas, the same can't be said for Jerry Lee Lewis. He was a friend of my mother decades ago and I was shocked at how he's aged. Yes, his voice is still the same, but he barely moved. Sigh. I haven't seen him in person since the '70s. But he's a very sweet and modest man despite his wild persona of days gone by. I also actually liked Amy Winehouse's performance, something I didn't expect. I like the tone of her voice but I wouldn't give her troubles to a monkey on a rock as Letterman says.
- 14 table settings, 14 picture frames on the Memory Wall of the Big Brother 9 house. 16 houseguests. Obviously two don't stay for the first dinner. They might be the lucky ones to escape!
- EW.com has a new thing going this year with Survivor Talk video bits. The newest video has Jonny Fairplay defending his quit ... er, voting off from Survivor. He thinks he's a "cerebral assassin." Yeah, right.
- The Big Brother 9 Gossip blog has the probable pairings for the houseguests in their "Til Death Do You Part" adventures. I mentioned previously that James had broken off an engagement with an older women (or she broke it off, not sure), so it's not surprising me that they set him up with Sheila, the only older woman in the house.
Today's musical non-sequitur:
Jeremiah was a bullfrog
Was a good friend of mine
I never understood a single word he said
But I helped him to drink his wine
And he always had some mighty fine wine
-- "Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night
As I write this, the new hamsters should be in the house to gather fodder for Tuesday's season premiere.
The live feeds aren't on yet -- probably won't be until after Tuesday's show. But that doesn't mean there isn't any BB9 news out and about!
I scouted about the Internet and I'm here to give you the latest scuttlebutt on our own dirty little secret -- we're Big Brother fans!
- Big Brother Updates has an interview with houseguest Alex Coladonato's (did I say Donato in there? Yikes!) best friend and co-applicant to get on the show. The friend didn't make it in and when they schemed of strategies, the soulmates bit was an unknown. It's still an interesting read and a bit of insight into Alex.
- The rumor mill is going strong for the new cast. Apparently houseguests Jen and Ryan are already dating (or were before the show), and Jacob and Sharon were childhood sweethearts. Will they be paired with each other or will the show shake things up? The plot thickens.
- The Sun Sentinel out of Florida has an article about the house itself which has some interesting quotes from Allison Grodner about this year. An excerpt: The 16 guests, including a public relations professional from Delray Beach named Adam, will be paired off as couples. They will compete as couples, strategize as couples and, at least in the beginning, be voted off as couples.
They also will sleep in the same bed, which they were not told until they entered the house. (Grodner would not specify precisely when this happened.) She allowed that this might not sit well with all of the guests. Her reaction: too bad for them, great for the show. "If everyone accepts this, it wouldn't be interesting."
Big Brother consulted with a match-making service to arrange the couples, although there is a possibility some incompatibles will be paired for the sake of theater. - In the article above, I think it addresses speculation on the length of the season. Supposedly we have a full nearly three month season, but if 8 couples are voted off weekly, that's obviously only eight weeks. The key phrase is "at least in the beginning." The whole article is worth the read, so check it out!
- The Idol Thoughts site has the skinny on Jen and Ryan's MySpace friends links. Hometown sweethearts, eh? I predict BB isn't going to let that go on!
- The Herald Tribune site has the goods on drifting crazy boy James Zinkland. It seems that James might have exaggerated his circumstances just a bit.
- As I predicted in my introduction to the houseguests post, TMZ is delighted with their cast representative in the house -- paparazzo Parker! You can bet that we'll see a bit more TMZ coverage this season.
- According to this blurb, Joshuah's name is Joshuah Welch, the better for scouting around for Internet gossip on him since last names aren't listed on the CBS releases or website.
- Are you in Oregon? I actually had the chance to go to this via an invitation for my TV Squad work, but at my own expense going across country to Oregon just isn't in the cards.
- The Big Brother 9 Gossip blog has found some rather sexy photos of houseguest (and religious bikini barista) Natalie Cunial online.
- Evel Dick Donato will be co-hosting the online show House Calls twice a week. Love him or hate him, I bet he'll ask some good questions!
Today's musical non-sequitur:
I'll keep you my dirty little secret
(Dirty little secret)
Don't tell anyone or you'll be just another regret
(Just another regret)
-- "Dirty Little Secret" by The All-American Rejects
Wow ... new people! This was quite the episode and, while it didn't really answer that many questions (except about the new people), it definitely moved things forward. We met the freighter people (Freighties) -- Naomi's crew from the helicopter. Each new person came with some backstory, so I'll go into those first.
Daniel Faraday
Essex, MA: Daniel, a physicist, is watching the news footage of Oceanic 815 discovered underwater. For some unknown reason, he begins to tremble and tear up. When a woman with him asks him why he's so upset, he tells her he doesn't know. As the episode progressed, Daniel proves to be sort of an uncertain, but certainly not evil kind of guy.
Miles Straume
Inglewood, CA: Who you gonna call? Miles is a genuine ghostbuster kind of guy and a thief, too. We see him visit a woman who's grandson was murdered, presumably to remove the haunting and send him on his way. He has a ghostbusing helmet-looking noise-making machine and ends up grabbing the dead grandson's stash o' cash, then sending him on his way. Instead of giving the grandmother the money, he refunds her half of the fee he charged -- giving her a mere hundred bucks. As the show progressed, he proved to be intelligent, yet sneaky and excitable.
Charlotte Lewis
Medinine, Tunisia: Hey, it's a giant polar bear (like in season one) -- or, at least its bones. Charlotte is an anthropologist working on a dig, bribing a local, and she's mesmerized by the news of the sunken Oceanic 815. When she dug up the polar bear's collar, it was the Dharma logo. [Insert Lost clunk here] She smiled. She knows something.
Frank Lapidus
Eleuthera, Bahamas: Ah, he's the one who was supposed to pilot the Oceanic 815 the day it went down. Working as a tour pilot in the Bahamas, he watches a news report on the sunken Oceanic 815 and realizes the pilot pictured underwater dead isn't the pilot (Seth Norris) at all. He called to report it, but doesn't get anywhere. For the Freighties, he's the copter pilot.
The Stuff of the Episode
- There are still two groups, one led by Jack and the other by Locke.
- Jack and Kate, with the help of Sayid and Juliet, took Daniel and Miles (the latter is very uncooperative) to Naomi's body.
- Miles "talked" to Naomi to find out that neither Jack or Kate killed her and he knows there's another group on the island.
- Miles knew that Naomi was in danger when she called him due to a code phrase "tell my sister I love her."
- Frank saw a cow. Don't ask me why.
- Jack's bunch found Frank by following a flare he sent up.
- Frank landed the copter, didn't crash it. It still works.
- The Freighties didn't come to rescue the 815 survivors -- they thought they were dead. They came for Ben.
- Naomi was the leader of the crew and her boss was Major Daniels of The Wire ... er, Matthew Abbadon -- the one who visited Hurley in the institution last week.
- Sawyer had reason to beat up Ben twice during the episode.
- Sawyer enjoyed doing that.
- Locke's group (with Ben, Sawyer, etc.) snagged Charlotte.
- Ben shot Charlotte.
- She didn't die.
- Sawyer beat Ben.
- Locke said a taller Walter warned him that the freighter people were a danger.
- Locke showed them a through and through bullet wound he got when Ben shot him.
- Ben knows all about Charlotte and rattles of a "This is Your Life" bit on her to the amazement of Charlotte and all of the others.
- Ben said he knows it because he has a man on their ship.
Yikes. I can't wait until next week! A mass cover-up of the crash, dead bodies and all? Who would do that? Why? Why is Ben so important to Abbadon's mission? Abbadon doesn't seem to believe there were any survivors of 815 and is solely interested in Ben. Or ...?
I just don't know.
This is a real quick update --
Stephen Baldwin went to the women's team.
Hydra won again.
Omarosa was the PM. She brought Marilu Henner and Nely Galan to the boardroom. Trump finally got his way and fired Nely.
This is what's currently on Feed 4 accompanied by a Sirius Radio classical romance music station. On the other feeds, there's news coverage. No, not BB9 news ... just news.
