www.roanoke.com

I was kind of surprised Kenley won this week's runway challenge with the bubble-butt purple poof thing .... but she's still my favorite nonetheless. Love, love, the 1940s pin-up style.
The biggest surprise, though, was Jerell's dress ---- were you as shocked as I was when his glorious tower of green ruffles came down the runway? I don't remember him AT ALL during the entire episode, and then this ball gown magically appears. I'd wear that one.

But I have to admit ... overall, the season is striking me as ho-hum. There have been a couple of comments posted about this already (thanks, Roanoke RnR) --- and even season four winner Christian Siriano said the same thing last week (well, actually he point-blank said it "sucks").
I'm anxious for the designers to get narrowed down ---- 16 is way too many to keep up with.
In the meantime, is anyone else as fascinated with the Parade of Plastic Surgery (or Botox, or insane teeth whitening) on the rest of Bravo? Is this really our new standard of beauty? To look like we're all made by Mattel? Scary!
Pictured are: Jeff Lewis and Ryan Brown from "Flipping Out"; and Jaclyn Smith and Kim Vo from "Shear Genius"

I really don't know where CBS finds the people who design the games played by the houseguests in Big Brother. Wherever it is, it's a scary place that should be avoided.

Sometimes it's painful to watch these folks, no matter how irritating and annoying they are (and I mean you, Jesse) be tortured and humiliated. And last night's veto competition managed to do both.

Keesha is HOH this week and from the editing of Sunday's and Tuesday's shows appears to be spending the entire time entertaining whiners in her HOH bedroom and sharing her thoughts about the game with almost everyone and asking them not to repeat it. Oh, Keesha. That never works.

Jesse is quite bent out of shape that he is nominated for eviction, and continues to whine that it's just not fair that Keesha is holding him responsible for Steven's eviction last week. I swear all Angie, the other nominee, has to do is keep her mouth shut and Jessie will dig his own grave.

Which brings us to the veto comp, which had the six competing houseguests looking very much like they were in their own shallow graves.

After they were dressed in green leotards and donned flower petal halos around their heads, the half dozen victims proceed to the backyard where they are told to lie down in a box filled with dirt. While they are prone in their flower beds, water drips down on their faces.

Apparently international laws about torture are not applicable to reality television show contestants. And rightly so in most cases (and I mean you, Jessie.)

Each houseguest is to remain in his or her flower bed for as long as they can stand it. The houseguest who stays planted closest to 60 minutes without going past the one-hour mark wins the veto.

And just to add to the creepy factor, because this is BB after all, at the 15 minute mark the other houseguests poured a bucket of the biggest earthworms I have ever seen over the faux-flowers. Ewwwwwww....

Keesha was the first to jump at 22 minutes into the challenge. That's seven minutes after she was covered in worms and about six and a half minutes longer than I would have made it.

Everyone else hung in there past the 45 minute mark, when they had stinking compost piled on them. Something tells me those costumes won't be recycled.

Libra was the next to ditch, followed by Jessie, Ollie, Angie and finally, Memphis. Who was the closest to 60 minutes without going over? Keesha. Everyone else stayed in their torture chamber for more than an hour.

Time apparently flies when you are covered in worms and rotting garbage.

Keesha decided to let her original nominations stand, leaving Jessie and Angie on the block for the new eviction night on Thursday.

Jessie continued to behave like a tool, babbling on about how unfair it is that he is nominated and basically making himself an almost irresistible target. I can only hope there are no last-minute deals to save him. He just has to go.

I realize that often what we see on BB episodes on CBS is heavily edited, and done deliberately to build drama and make viewers think the houseguests are seriously deliberating on whom to send out the door on eviction night.

If you have ever seen the live feeds, read the blogs on the live feeds, or watched Showtime After Dark, then you know that most people have their minds set long before Julie Chen calls them into the diary room. Real surprises are rare (Dustin and Jessica in Season 8 are two that come to mind.)

And speaking of Chen, what was that tangerine nightmare of a pantsuit she had on last night? Did she rummage through Renny's closet? But I digress.

So it appeared that Steven, who could never really shake the stink of Smug Brian, was making headway with Libra, Ollie, April and their new buddy Keesha, convincing them that Dan's loyalty will go to the alliance of Jessie, Michelle, Memphis and Angie. (Nevermind how two-faced that was since Steven tried to convince Jessie and Michelle to use the veto put Libra on the block.)

If Libra and Company had convinced one other person, like, oh let's say Renny, to vote to evict Dan, who reeks of the stink of Smug Brian and who voted to evict Renny the week before, the power would shift from Body Builder Boy's side of the house to them.

At least that's the way it appeared through the art of editing.

Read more »

Talking about yourself in the third person is so annoying, I can't even muster it beyond the headline.

So Suede, with his fetish for using the third-person AND black jelly bracelets from the 1980s, wins this week's challenge with his strange Billy Idol Ballet dress.
I guess it's OK. Not something I would ever wear. But I would definitely pay for Kenley's elegant ivory number with the black belt. Much more my style. She's shaping up to be my early favorite. Any idea who will turn into the Season 5 Villain?

Read more »

Last night we got to see a few more sides of Renny, and I must say the woman is starting to grow on me.

She shared survivor stories of Hurricane Katrina with Steven, talked Keesha into confronting other houseguests for gossiping after the veto competition, and from the way the scene was edited, appeared to get Jerry to go off on Libra for bad-mouthing him and Renny in the food competition.

All this, she said in her diary room session, is planned to divert attention away from her and make other folks bigger targets. That's not a bad strategy for the crazy lady in the funny clothes. If the other houseguests don't catch on soon, Renny could be there for long time.

At least Renny's under-the-radar-pot-stirring strategy makes more sense than Dan's decision to play dead in the veto competition to make himself look weak to the other houseguests and keep the heat on fellow nominee Steven.

As far as I know, no one has ever won a game by playing like a wuss.

I was a little disappointed in Angie for making a tentative alignment with Memphis and Jessie, simply because I really can't stand Jessie.

I give credit to Michelle, who resisted the plea of Steven and Jessie to use the Power of Veto on either Steven or Dan, thus allowing Jessie to nominate Libra, who seems to be systematically ticking off everyone in the house. Why should she do Jessie's dirty work?

So who do you think gets their eviction notice tonight? Can Steven talk his way into staying, or did Lame Duck Dan do a good enough job convincing everyone he is not a threat?

Last night we learned that a couple of houseguests have sensitive sides, and that Jesse is not one of them. We also got to see the early division of the house: those who liked Brian and those who did not.

The Brian-Haters are Memphis, Libra, Michelle, April and this week's HOH, Jesse. The Friends of Brian are Dan, Steven and Angie. Since the Haters are in charge, the FOB's were scrambling to save their necks from the chopping block.

Jesse really wanted to put Renny on the block, but the rest of the Haters were opposed to this idea. Libra, Michelle and April were pushing hard to get him to nominate Angie and Steven.

Jesse took great offense that Steven did not rush up to see Jesse's personalized HOH bedroom. By personalized, I mean decorated with pictures of Jesse in body-building poses that made me feel a little ill.

Angie visited Jesse in the HOH room to try to explain that she just enjoyed Brian's company and really did not campaign on his behalf to offend Jesse. Muscle-boy was having none of that and really gave her a hard time about being a Friend of Brian.

It was not looking good for Angie, our girl from Virginia Beach, especially when fellow FOB Dan seemed to win Jessie over after a heartfelt, I-was-just-being-loyal-to-Brain-and-now-I-can-be-loyal-to-you speech. OMG, what a suck up that guy is.

In the end, Angie squeaked by and Steven and Dan were put on the block. Power of Veto competition and ceremony are on Tuesday, elimination is on Wednesday.

I only caught the highlights of "Big Brother 10" last night while I was attending Stephanie's "Project Runway" party.

Good times, Steph, thanks!

But this is my impression of what I saw with almost no volume:

Julie Chen recapped the goings on in the house. Blah blah blah.

The nominees get to speak. I couldn't hear them, but it did appear as though Renny has switched from channeling Mrs. Roper to channeling a bad impersonation of Joan Crawford in "Sunset Boulevard."

It looked like Brian was as smug as ever.

Houseguests voted, and Brian went out the door to a live audience (?) to meet and greet Chen.

Moron Jessie emerged victorious in the HOH competition. Since we all know he is none too fond of Renny or whomever she is channeling at the moment, it's probably a smart bet she goes up on the block this week. Or at least spends time whining and sweating about it.

Did I get it right? Fill me in on any details I missed.

Ahhh, yes. We can always count on Michael Kors to provide the catty. The handiwipe comment was about the first loser, Jerry, whose ridiculous shower-curtain-turned-raincoat (with yellow cleaning gloves) made the model look like she was part of a HAZMAT crew.
Everyone at my Project Sundae party knew the handiwipe was going to be in the bottom three before it even made it to the runway.

Read more »

I've been preparing for my Project Runway premiere party tonight ... a handful of gal pals are going to toast the new season with champagne and build-your-own sundaes. Figured multiple toppings would bring out our inner designers ... plus, the sugar buzz should fuel some creative commentary. Come back and join the fray! Show starts earlier than usual ... new time is 9 p.m. on Bravo.

We join the houseguests pretty much where we left them on Sunday night, reacting to the nomination ceremony. Mrs. Roper, uh, Renny is sniping at Jessie, calling him a punk and blaming him for their nomination.

Jessie whines to Grandpa Jerry. Grandpa uses the biblical story of Solomon to explain his choice for nominees to Jessie and Michelle.

Jessie, who apparently never attended Sunday school, misses the point completely. I admit, it's a thin comparison here. But Jessie can't even remember the name Solomon when questioned about it in the diary room. Way to reinforce the stereotype of the dumb jock, muscle-bound moron, Jessie.

Meanwhile, Brian spends his diary room time congratulating himself for being the puppet master in the house and getting Jerry to do his bidding.

We see more sniping between Jessie the Moron and Mrs. Roper, who gets even more annoying after a glass of wine. Hate people who can’t hold their booze.

Then we get lots of foreshadowing from the BB editors. We see Brian approaching Angie and Steven, promising them protection for a favor to be named later. But Memphis doesn’t kiss Godfather Brian’s ring, instantly putting him on the radar as a threat.

It’s never a good idea to reveal yourself to be a player this early in the game, Brian. But you would know that if you had ever watched this show even once.

Read more »