20 May 2006
BIG BROTHER EXCLUSIVE: BIG BUDDIES
By Emily Nash And Cameron Robertson
BIG Brother contestants Grace and Nikki are keeping a secret - they've been buddies for ages, we can reveal.
They have worked together on the perfume counter at posh department store Harrods and often party at showbiz haunt Chinawhite.
It also emerged yesterday that wannabe IT girl Grace is "very good friends" with Calum Best and is being pestered for a date by Hollywood bad boy Christian Slater, who has even called her mum at home.
Her mum Alison revealed: "Some of her friends told me she knew Nikki from work.
"It will be nice for her to have someone who she knows in there, but I did think it was odd."
She added: "Grace knows so many people and everyone seems to fall in love with her.
"She's very good friends with Calum Best, but I know she hasn't slept with him - she would have told me."
Alison said 20-year-old Grace also caught the eye of star Christian Slater while he was starring in a West End play.
She said: "I think they met in a nightclub and he hasn't stopped phoning her since --he even called my house to try and speak to her."
But she dented her daughter's self-styled snobby high class image, revealing: "We're not posh, we're working class from Devon. Everything we've got, I worked hard for."
However, our revelation exposes Big Brother 7 as a sham by breaking the show's golden rule. The 14 contestants are supposed to be total strangers who meet for the first time in the house.
On last night's show, viewers saw Nikki, 24 - in sexy bunny outfit - squeal as she recognised Grace, her old department store colleague when they replayed the moment housemates entered the house. She shouted: "Oh my god, Grace - I can't believe it!"
An insider said: "If I was a viewer, I'd feel cheated. This goes against the very idea of the show - that nobody knows each other."
But a spokeswoman for Big Brother insisted show bosses did not know Nikki and Grace had worked together.
She said: "We are aware Nikki and Grace socialised in the same circles, such as Chinawhite, so they may have recognised each other's face. But we had no prior knowledge they worked together at Harrods." The row came as Nikki missed out on the chance to be immune from eviction after refusing to enter the diary room.
She and Lisa were nominated by the other housemates after an announcement from Big Brother.
But she was worried what lay in store - and Shahbaz took her place.
But it turned out that the pair were the lucky ones as they were appointed founding members of the "Big Brotherhood".
It means they won't face the boot next week, have won special privileges, got their suitcases instantly and, crucially, the ability to choose new members of the "cult" - who will also be safe from eviction.
Meanwhile, jobless Glaswegian Shahbaz, 37, guessed that rocker Pete, 24, has Tourette's Syndrome. When the others were told, Nikki giggled: "He's so funny. He shouts w***ers all the time!" Her puzzled pal Grace replied: "I just thought he was eccentric."
Pete - the bookies' hot favourite to win the show on odds of 10/3 from Paddy Power - explained: "It's a bit like a hiccup. They just come. You just have to do what it says."
But it was Welsh housemates Imogen, 23, and weedy lifeguard Glyn, 18, who ended up being gagged by Big Brother - with a ban on them speaking Welsh.
Glyn was called to the diary room and ordered not to speak Welsh during his time in the house. He protested: "But it's a British language." But Big Brother replied in a clear English accent: "It's not English... and could be considered to be talking in code".
But Welsh Assembly member Lisa Francis fumed: "It is outrageous.
"It is nothing short of an insult to the people of Wales."
Imogen was crowned Miss Wales in 2003.
Sunday Mirror
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