BB FANS

http://www.behindbigbrother.com/showart ... icleID=934


Ashley and John have been escorted from the Big Brother house by security guards after sexually assaulting Camilla.

The incident occured Friday night at 4.30am when John held Camilla down in bed and Ashley rubbed his ***** on her.

This behaviour has happened in past seasons of Big Brother and has gained the slang term "turkey slap".

Last year housemate Michael's similar behaviour prompted investigations into Big Brother: Uncut.

Producers have refused to comment officially as to why the pair were kicked out.

Shocking really. I am a week or so behind so had no idea this was going on, I usually avoid spoilers like the plague but I HAD to find out what this was about!

Knowing Ash and John I am sure they just thought it was a joke and meant no real harm, but I am glad BB took it seriously and removed them...it was out of order, however it was intended.

Housemates' shock eviction
By Paul Weston
02jul06

TWO male housemates were thrown off Channel Ten's reality program Big Brother late yesterday after the alleged sexual assault of a female contestant.

The future of the controversial top-rating show is now in serious jeopardy with influential SA Federal MP Trish Draper calling for it to be taken off air immediately.

Twenty-year-old Ash, whose real name is Michael Cox, of Perth, and John, who is 21-year-old Michael Bric, of Melbourne, were escorted off the compound at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast late yesterday afternoon after 70 days in the house.

The alleged incident occurred at 5.30am (AEST). Footage shows John and Ash getting into bed with Camilla Halliwell, 22, of Victoria. John lies beside Camilla and holds her while a half-dressed Ash kneels over her, the footage shows.

"I think the Minister (for Communications, Helen Coonan) should intervene," Ms Draper said last night.

"The incident should be placed in the hands of the police.

"Apart from being seriously disturbed by this turn of events, I believe there were signs that this program had already gone too far - Channel Ten are culpable."

Ms Draper is chairwoman of a Classification Issues Group in the Coalition, made up of about 40 MPs.

Big Brother's producers, Southern Star Endemol, released a statement last night confirming the men were removed from the program.

It described the matter as "serious"' and did not disclose the official reason for removing the housemates.

"The producers Endemol Southern Star and Network Ten deemed their actions were grounds for their removal from the show," the statement said.

Footage of the alleged incident obtained by the Sunday Mail from the program's live internet stream clearly showed what occurred in Camilla's bed.

John's father said last night his son would not be involved in any sexual misconduct.

Hermann Bric, of The Basin in Melbourne, said he had not been able to reach his son.

"I cannot believe that my son would be involved in anything like that," Mr Bric said. "He is not an aggressive person. He is very controlled."

Mr Bric said he had no idea of what was going on.

"A friend of his called me after he saw it on the news," he said.

"But if he has been taken out of the house they will be debriefing him and I don't expect to hear from him until tomorrow.

"I will wait to see what's going on first before I say anything further."

In a joint statement made after they were thrown out, Ash and John said: "We had a great time in the house. It is unfortunate it had to end this way.

"But Big Brother has rules and regulations and we broke them.

"We are all very close in the house and we would never do anything to offend our fellow housemates."

Big Brother has come under sustained criticism in Federal Parliament and last week canned its Monday night Adults Only show just one day after being told by Coalition MPs, including Makin MP Trish Draper, the show was damaging the TV network's push for key media reforms.

Ms Coonan said last night the Government would not take any immediate action against Ten.

"Assault is very serious and is a matter for Queensland police," her spokeswoman said.

"As for Big Brother, it will still be subject to the existing content restrictions."

Gold Coast police said last night no charges had been laid. "There has been nothing that we are aware of," a spokesman said. Yesterday Big Brother closed its website forums in the wake of the controversial eviction, an Adelaide-based subscriber to the site's "Premium" content said.

Anne, 60, of Burnside, a self-confessed "Big Brother tragic" said the forums had been abuzz with details of the alleged assault.

"I was really surprised," Anne said last night.

"But the forums were closed down. Big Brother posted a warning that if there were any comments about the incident on the site, the forums will be closed down completely."

Last year the program was pilloried for a series of lewd acts which were shown on air, particularly one incident when Michael rubbed himself on fellow housemate Gianna's shoulder while giving her a massage.

This year's version had been much tamer.

The housemates have been provided with less alcohol and opportunities to party, but late last week Ten broadcast a special Thursday night episode after throwing a dance party for the contestants to celebrate Jamie Brooksby's 23rd birthday.

Housemates danced and drank through the party and Ash made advances toward another housemate, Claire Madden, 22, of Queensland.

Earlier at the party, Ten broadcast footage of Camilla telling several housemates she wanted to "pash Ash".

She later told housemates she was embarrassed by her actions.

Despite yesterday's dramatic events, it is believed remaining housemates were still thrown a party last night at which a band performed.

John is a media and communication student and Ash is a bricklayer who is fond of V8 cars.

theMercury

I have just seen the video, talk about blowing something out of proportion!!

If you have newsgroup access then there is a capture from the Live feed ,plus a report from Channel 7 News.

*sniggers*








I think this is my first post in this bit, but I thought it was funny, but then I'm so uncouth, I could almost be Australian

John and Ashley aren't their real names??? What is that all about?

They are both called Michael, and there was another Michael in there also...like with UKBB if HMs have the same or similar names they just have them change em!

Australian PM savages Big Brother after sex attack claim


Prime minister John Howard called today for the Australian version of Big Brother to be axed after a woman on the show claimed two male contestants sexually assaulted her.

The centre-right government has referred Network 10’s Big Brother – a fly-on-the wall series in which a group of strangers live together and compete for a cash prize – to the television standards watchdog over the incident on Saturday, communications minister Helen Coonan’s office said.

On a Sunday broadcast, the 22-year-old woman contestant was shown tearfully telling her housemates that one of the men held her arms while the other rubbed his groin in her face, although it did not broadcast footage of the alleged incident.

But footage was sent to police and the three people involved were questioned, Queensland state police said. The woman did not make an official complaint and no further police action was planned, police said.

Howard appealed to the youth-oriented network, formerly called Channel 10, to cut the long-running programme, which has been subject to complaints of poor taste in the past.

“I don’t like heavy-handed regulation. The business community is always saying to me, ‘let us self regulate’,” Howard told Sydney Radio 2GB. “Well, here’s a great opportunity for Channel 10 to do a bit of self regulation and get this stupid programme off the air.”

Sydney’s Daily Telegraph also criticised the network.

“The alleged sexual assault of a female housemate on Big Brother marks another new low in what constitutes entertainment in the modern age,” the newspaper said in an editorial.

But network and programme producers issued a statement today that “reaffirmed their commitment to the highly popular television programme”.

“Big Brother is very popular, as evidenced by the strong and broad audiences it draws every night of the week, and will remain on air,” Network 10 said.

It added that the two men accused over the incident had been pulled from the show “because they broke the rules of housemate conduct”.
breakingnews

***update from Oz - from Felicity the foreign correspondent***

and here's me who never even watches BB in the UK literally glued to the screen during all this carry-on..........

the 'what actually happened in the bed' is a big thing over here, albeit blown a bit out of proportion. Even the prime minister has appeared on tv saying his piece. General feeling though is that it makes a mockery out of the trauma some women go through when they are seriously assualted.

On a more general note, the thing that has struck me about the housemates here is that they all seem relatively 'normal' - not an unhinged one in sight

over and out from Sydney x x

'Sexual harassment is nothing new in Big Brother'

These two men have been evicted from Australia's Big Brother house after an alleged sex attack on a housemate. We may never know exactly what happened, writes Germaine Greer, but it's the programme makers, not the contestants, we should be angry with


When housemate John held down housemate Camilla on Australian Big Brother so that housemate Ashley could pull his ***** out of his underpants and push it in her face, Endemol Southern Star and Network Ten hugged themselves with glee and streamed the video uncut on the internet. Not that you could see much; just a back, and a pair of underpants with a fist in them in close proximity to a face. No waving, no gobbling; it wasn't quite a "turkey slap". But the non-event was top story on Channel Ten news for two nights in a row.

Australia's prime minister, John Howard, sensing a heaven-sent opportunity to be seen leading the nation, provided the inevitable comment: "I think it is just a question of good taste. Here is a great opportunity for Channel Ten to do a bit of self-regulation and get this stupid programme off the air." As if. This pious hope was converted by the media into the PM "demanding a ban" on Big Brother. The tabloids pretended that they believed that Howard actually knew what he was talking about.

"The PM watches Big Brother online!" they squealed. Of course he doesn't - but Big Brother was back on top as market leader, with spin-offs whizzing out into infinity.

Two weeks before, Endemol Southern Star, which makes the BB series in Australia, had suffered a serious blow when its adults-only version of the show was taken off air, apparently, after complaints about "excessive nudity". Endemol does not respond to complaints from viewers; it was probably the advertisers who pulled the plug.

A phony scandal of the sort provided by John, Camilla and Ashley was just what was needed to pump up viewing figures for the tamer version of the show. Big Brother swiftly evicted John (real name Michael Cric) and Ashley (real name Michael Cox) and Endemol "proactively invited the Queensland police to view the footage and they subsequently interviewed housemate Camilla who said she did not wish to take the matter forward", according to its official statement.

It is not easy now to judge what really happened. Apparently Camilla got into bed with John and Ashley and they were just horsing around. When Camilla heard that Ashley and John had been evicted, her response was baffling. "I'm really sorry, guys," she wept. "I feel so bad."

According to the pioneering Australian feminist Eva Cox, "If it was an assault, it was a minor one ... they waved their private parts and she told them to put [them] away." Cox obviously hadn't seen the footage either. Nobody waved anything.

Helen Coonan, Australia's federal communications minister, has asked for an investigation into whether internet service providers have breached the code of the Online Content Scheme, in which case they would be liable for fines of up to A$27,500 (£11,115) per day. (Gee.) Meanwhile federal sexual discrimination commissioner Pru Goward seems convinced that a crime has been committed. She is clearly right that sexual harassment in the workplace is a crime and that most of its victims are as unwilling as Camilla to admit that an offence may have been committed against them.

But then sexual harassment is nothing new to Australian Big Brother. In last year's series a housemate reportedly rubbed his naked ***** on an uppity female housemate's naked back by way of pretending to give her a massage. This piece of nastiness went to air uncut, as this year's will not. Last September, Big Brother was found to have breached broadcast standards for the massage footage. Network Ten responded by announcing that "this year's housemates will be taught how to avoid sexual harassment and bullying". Words, like everything else on Big Brother, are cheap.

What makes it unlikely that Big Brother will be taken off the air, abroad or back home in Britain, is the tentacular spread of its revenue-generating potential. Reality television is both the cheapest to make and the biggest potential earner for its co-producers, not to mention the communications companies and ISPs. One of the mysteries of Big Brother is just how much money is made by telephone voting and who really gets it. In February this year, Endemol UK signed a new deal with BT. If telephone votes for evictions are electronically logged it should be possible to see the progress of voting day by day, but the producers choose not to make any part of the process public.

The Advertising Standards Authority is reported to be investigating the circumstances in which Suzie Verrico got into this year's British Big Brother house. Endemol and Nestlé collaborated on a four-week golden ticket campaign which persuaded buyers of KitKat chocolate bars that if they found one of 100 tickets hidden in the packaging they could win entry into the Big Brother house. The housemates themselves got the impression that the election of Verrico from among the golden ticket holders was engineered. The ASA report will probably not be ready till months after the series has finished, and when it is published no one will give a damn.

In Britain, Ofcom dealt with dozens of complaints about last year's Big Brother and found the producers at fault only for minor instances of watershed violation. In its defence, Ofcom points out that "much of television is artificial". Indeed, but Big Brother is supposed not to be.

Ofcom makes the point that people in the Big Brother house are there of their own accord and that the producers cannot provide images of actions if the housemates haven't first performed them. This is, of course, true, but the producers can and do elide behaviour which does not fit the image of the individual that fits their brief.

Every picture tells a story, but no picture tells the whole story. No word is more abused by Big Brother producers than "live", unless it is "uncut". Perhaps universities should start running courses on how to watch Big Brother, teaching students to discern how, when and where the mix is being manipulated, and what insultingly tatty television it is, in terms of production values. Huge amounts of money are being made by a galaxy of corporations, merchandising and re-merchandising slipshod trash. One or two housemates might end up making money too, but it will be a smidgen in comparison. Most housemates will simply be used, paid off and forgotten.

Sexual harassment is a part of daily reality; it might have been more useful to have allowed Australian Big Brother viewers to see how housemates coped with it, instead of slinging the perpetrators out holus-bolus. When Pete was sexually harassed by a woman in the current series of British BB nobody thought it anything but funny. Nobody seems to regard the British women's unremitting sexual display as harassment of the men (who seem, it must be said, unmoved). Meanwhile, much is made of the vulnerability of certain of the housemates who are thought to be mentally ill, when in fact all the housemates are being driven crazy.

There are serious ethical issues involved in reality television, and in particular in Big Brother, but I think they are far more to do with manipulation of the public than they are with the trivial adventures of the housemates. guardian

Bric bat for Big Brother

Luke Dennehy
10jul06

VICTORIAN Michael "John" Bric has attacked his treatment by Big Brother since he was evicted from the house last week.

Bric, 21, told the Herald Sun he felt like he had been used by the producers, especially as Channel 10 announced yesterday two male replacement housemates would enter the house tomorrow.
"I think it's a joke," Bric said.

"I think it is ratings driven when they put in replacements for me and Ash, and it makes me think I was a publicity stunt for more viewers.

"I feel defamed and this is the biggest issue of my life and the hardest thing I have come across.

"In my opinion they have chosen little care of compassion to us, cut their ties and expect us to wear it."

Bric, a media student, said he was virtually broke after the show, as he has no part-time job and was not eligible for prizes. He said he would talk to Camilla Halliwell, 22, when she left the house.

"I will talk to her and if she is offended, I will offer the most sincere apology to her and those close to her," he said.

Bric said the biggest issue he has with the show is that the producers did not release more information about the incident when it occured, which led to headlines saying the men sexually assaulted Camilla.

"They didn't explain the circumstances to the audience in greater details," he said.

"They pretty much labelled it sexual assault.

"I've never spoken to a policeman, so that proves it was not sexual assault, and obviously Camilla has said she wasn't offended."

Producers also kept Bric and Michael "Ashley" Cox in lockdown for two days after being kicked out, and they were not allowed to defend themselves other than a managed interview with Gretel Killeen last Monday night.

Bric also said he thought some of the tasks housemates had to do -- such as Camilla being told to kiss every house mate and the truth or dare game -- encouraged a sexual environment.

"I think they should look at how they do things more seriously," he said.

Since being kicked out of the house, Bric said he had rarely gone out in public and contemplated heading overseas.

"But I'm not going to run away from this and I want to deal with it myself and change people's perception of me," he said.

On reports he and Cox would sue the producers, Bric said: "It's too early to talk about these things.

"All I will say is that I'm not happy about how I've been treated."

HeraldSun

Big Brother - Housemates Banned

Australian Big Brother housemates Michael "John" Bric and Michael "Ashley" Cox have been banned from attending the Big Brother finale and after-party at Queensland's Dream World on Monday night.

Channel 10 yesterday confirmed the two boys were not welcome at the gala bash. They were ejected from the program after Ashley allegedly rubbed his crotch in the face of housemate Camilla while John held her down.

All the other 21 housemates of the 2006 series will be reunited at the finale.

"John and Ashley will not be part of the Big Brother finale for the same reason they were removed from the show - they broke the code of conduct," a Ten spokeswoman said yesterday.

"It's the first time in the Australian history of the programme that's happened, and just as the boys received no prizes they similarly have not been invited to the finale."

The two disgraced housemates were informed of their latest plight by producers of the reality series earlier this week and did not try to contest the decision.

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