5:50PM, Jul 24, 2009
After Big Brother's stunt-heavy birthday celebrations, we were expecting the pace to flag a little.
Yet, if anything, it's just got crazier, with heartbreak, romance and a full-on break-out amongst the quieter goings on this week.
As everyone knows, Big Bro drew its party to a close last Friday by shoving five new housemates into the house and amusingly booting Karly out mere moments after her boyfriend Kenneth entered the house.
Bea, Hira, Tom and David have certainly done their fair share of attempting to spice up events in the house, but it's 'international playboy' Kenneth who caused Tsunami-level waves of disgruntlement amongst the housemates and viewing public.
From his comments that Sophie was 'dull' and 'fat' to his delightfully warm method of greeting people by swearing in their face (apparently a simple 'hello' would do for Bea), Kenneth was one of those housemates that was instantly polarising and controversial.
So following a week or whining, swearing and arrogant posturing, it came as no surprise to see that rather than face the indignity of being evicted by the public (let's face it, there was no way he was going to survive the vote), Kenneth legged it up and over the house walls and escaped to freedom.
If that wasn't shocking enough, Big Brother then announced that they would cancel this Friday's eviction as a result, and that if viewers wanted to get their money back, they could do so by going through the not-at-all-annoyingly-drawn-out process of submitting phone bills to recoup their losses.
As Big Brother fandom blew up around itself in a fiery flush of righteous fury (i.e., a few forum trolls posted a snarky comment here and there), Davina contributed further to the outcry by calling Kenneth a 'quitter' on her Twitter page, acknowledging that he was the most likely to have been evicted on Friday.
But rejoice, for Davina also twittered that she's set to interview Ken this evening, and that she's intending to 'grill him'. Oo-er.
New housemate to replace Ken?
So, the eviction's off, but tonight's programme is still on. What could they fill the space with?
According to the Daily Star, yet another housemate!
While we're keen to know where the hell they're keeping them all and quite how many they have on standby at all times (TV Towers envisages a shipping container drip fed with water, Heat magazine and nibbles in some dank hideaway), we'd certainly be intrigued to see if this is true.
The newspaper reports that the decision was taken late last night after producers spent hours arguing over how they should deal with the standbys.
When questioned, a Channel 4 spokesman towed the predictable and somewhat unexciting company line that viewers should 'expect the unexpected'.
Shock romances rock the house
As well as sparking arguments and controversy, the introduction of the new housemates also seems to have energised the housemates' libidos.
Marcus' testosterone finally overwhelmed the remaining rational brain cells left fighting for survival against Noirin's all-encompassing boob offensive, and his 'friendship' with the Irish beauty finally hit breaking point.
After weeks of nonchalant come-ons and misread signals, Marcus' patience ran out and he had a big old barney with Noirin over eggs.
And considering his infatuation, surprisingly it wasn't her internal ones.
Noirin grumbled that she could "slap Marcus", while Marcus barked that Noirin treats him like he has "no f**king manners."
Delightful.
The two soon made up, but the rift was opened and Siavash was there to fill the gap. Late last night the couple managed to steal a brief illicit (and what sounded like sloppy) kiss under the duvets in the bedroom. Didn't see that one coming did you?
They're not the only ones though. Bea and Freddie may have been dancing around each other in a whirlwind of innocent flirtiness, but if Charlie's to be believed it's David and Rodrigo who we should be keeping an eye on.
In a Diary Room confessional, the geordie said that he thinks Rodrigo is falling for David and is too worried about what his family may think to do anything about it.
Aaaaw, after weeks of bickering, it's nice to see a little love being shared around the house.
