E!Online article - After Big Brother

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Saturday, October 07, 2000 - 12:14 pm Click here to edit this post

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After "Big Brother": 10 More Out-of-Work Actors?
by Mark Armstrong
Oct 7, 2000, 9:30 AM PT

You gotta wonder why shows like Survivor and The Real World even list the occupations of their contestants. Everyone knows what they'll be doing when the show ends.

After all, Hollywood beckons.

So with CBS' Big Brother now just a big, messy memory, it's not hard to guess the fate of its 10 houseguests.

Eddie McGee, the tough-talking, 21-year-old grand-prizewinner, says he'd like to exploit his "five minutes of fame"--perhaps already cognizant that Big Brother houseguests might not even get the customary 15. "I was at a couple parties and picked up some cards from talent agencies," he said. "I'll finish my school and get my degree, but when is uncertain. There may be some prospects, and I'd like to see if I can do something career-wise."

He's not the only one. Wild-haired roommate Brittany Petros already moved to Los Angeles and signed with a talent agent. Jean Jordan, going the intellectual route, signed with a literary agent and is working on a book about her life as an exotic dancer. Goofy family guy and "Chicken Man" George Boswell openly advertised that he's looking for a new job (how about some lucrative paid appearances at KFC, Boston Market or Koo Koo Roo?).

And beauty queen Jamie Kern is ditching her acceptance to grad school at Yale and Columbia for--what else?--a chance to go Hollywood.

"I thought long and hard about it while I was on the show," said the 23-year-old Miss Washington, just days after her banishment. "I spent the last four years of my life just focused on finishing college with a 4.0 and getting into [schools], so I have that to fall back on. But I've always said life is short, and I don't want to have any regrets."

But while it might seem laughable to watch reality-show contestants earnestly drop their work-a-day lives for acting careers, who wouldn't try to milk the opportunity for all it's worth? Take that cheap hosting gig? The guest appearance on UPN? The stale walk-on part on Guiding Light?

Aren't they just doing what every red-blooded American is taught to do--milk an opportunity for all it's worth?

During Big Brother's grand finale, it was hard not to get caught up in the buzz: Even Will "Mega" Collins, the pot-stirring houseguest who slammed the show and rolled his eyes at fellow houseguests, seemed caught up in the specter of a career in show biz. CBS employees told him he had "the look" that could score him acting work, and his eyes lit up. Soon, he was interrogating them for names and casting contacts.

Josh Souza, with just two quarters of classes left before he graduates with an engineering degree, is putting off school until January. He'd like to see what work he can muster up in Hollywood, and he scheduled a meeting with William Morris, the agency du jour for this latest crop of reality show graduates. (The firm's clientele also includes Survivor castaways Gervase Peterson and Kelly Wiglesworth.)

"They came to me the day after I got out of the house," says Souza, who won $100,000 as a Big Brother runner-up. "Maybe I can get some acting, some modeling--who knows?"

William Morris reps declined to discuss their new clients' plans, or their strategies for building showbiz careers out of reality-show contestants.

It's been a running joke that the best they can hope for would be a short hosting stint, maybe a few cameo appearances on television. But even that has now changed, as bug-bitten Survivor pixie Colleen Haskell has managed to do what few reality-show veterans have been able to: nab a costarring role in a major motion picture, playing someone other than herself.

Sure it's opposite Rob Schneider, but it's a coup nonetheless.

Survivor host Jeff Probst says it's simple: She had what casting agents were looking for, and the show got her foot in the door. "Colleen, of all people was the one saying, 'I don't really wanna do anything, I just want to go back to school.' Yeah, sure, Haskell.

"But this is a full-on, big deal," he adds. "It's not a walk-on. I love Gervase--but it's not The Hughleys. This is a motion picture from a major company, and I honestly think Colleen's going to do great.

"She's just naturally likeable, and that's half the battle."