Two housemates were unceremoniously evicted from the Australian Big Brother house on Saturday afternoon amid claims of inappropriate sexual activity. John (Michael Bric, 21, of Melbourne, Vic) and Ashley (Michael Cox, 20, of Perth, WA) were removed from the Big Brother compound at Dreamworld, on the Queensland Gold Coast, by security guards early Saturday evening. The no-vote eviction followed an undisclosed incident in which a short statement on the official Big Brother website referred to the issue as a “serious matter”.
The producers of the high-ratings reality television show, now in its sixth season, provided no official reason for the removal of the housemates, stating they “will not be commenting any further”. The official website forums have been closed in light of events that were described to other housemates as “seriously breaching the BB rules”, when they were informed of the pair’s expulsion at 8:10 pm on Saturday, July 1, 2006.
Big Brother’s attempt to censor the incident has not stopped early morning viewers of the live online streaming video content from revealing on unofficial Big Brother fan-sites the possible reason for the untimely eviction of the two young men from the house.
It is claimed that on Saturday morning at 4:30 am, Ashley and John were seen to get into bed with 22-year-old female contestant Camilla Halliwell of Victoria. John allegedly held her down while Ashley proceeded to rub his penis in her face, in what has become known as a “turkey slap” after similar actions performed by housemates during previous series. Many viewers took screenshots which are now circulating on the Internet, and state Camilla was heard to say, “That’s not cool” as the two performed their alleged lewd act.
The resulting uproar has even rated a mention in Parliament, with calls to have the show cancelled by Federal MP Trish Draper. Australian Media & Communications Minister Helen Coonan has declared the government would take no immediate action against Network Ten or show producers, while her spokeswoman was quoted in an interview with the Sunday Times, “As for Big Brother, it will still be subject to the existing content restrictions.”
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Eric Olsen
excellent job PM, super reporting and coverage - thanks!
2 - PoizonMyst
Many thanks Eric ... the article was quite difficult to write as various new developments came to light while I was trying to cover the story for Blogcritics.
I really appreciate the time spent by the editor on this piece, and as I write more articles for Blogcritics I will undoubtedly improve in both technique and quality of content. The experience has given me a new perspective on journalistic structure when reporting such events.
Thanks again for your encouraging comment.
3 - Eric Olsen
very professional! Lisa McKay and Justene contributed the editing expertise
4 - Duke De Mondo
Great work, PM! This is all very bizarre. is the issue here that there was some sorta near-rape type horrors goin on, or that there was sexual conduct at all? the BB UK show (which, i might add, is the very best anywhere in the world, far as i've seen) positively encourages such debauchery. tween consenting adults, mind.
5 - Snarkattack
Great article, yet somewhat horrific, you will agree. Why on earth is this series still on?! Why are people still watching it?! Someone, please kill this programme!
6 - Jet in Columbus
Those damned heterosexuals, there aught to be a law!!!
7 - darkbhudda
Saw this mentioned in a newspaper and the writer said shows men have to change their attitudes about women.
This followed straight on from a story about a women who skinned and cooked her boyfriend and tried to feed him to his kids.
Maybe women need to change their attitudes.
8 - Bryan McKay
Maybe women need to change their attitudes.
You're absolutely right. Every guy has the right to forcefully shove his dick in the face of any babe he wants. If she can't take it, that's her problem.
9 - ash
The boys got kicked out, and as much as i hate to see entertaining boys go (well, as entertaining as a reality show can get) they deserved to be kicked out. But the way people are handling this is getting alittle over the top. These 20 year old boys made a bloody stupid mistake while drunk. People are treating them like they are evil men that only have one thing in mind. If camilla had been extremely hurt and effected seriously by this incident It would be different but the fact is she wasn't. If it was up to her thje boys wouldn't have been punished further than a slap on the wrist. They stopped when they heard her so no.
By all means prosicute these boys for the crime at hand but don't prosicute them based on over the top reports and don't make the punishment larger than it needs to be.
10 - aaron
camila is a turky slap
11 - chocolate110
woooooooooooo hoooooooooooooooo i can't wait til big brother gets axed!!!. As soon as i heard that a house mate had been sexually abused, i knew that this would be the final big brother. I just hope they bring back seinfeld back into the time slot that big brother covered. woooo hoooo
12 - robot
Amen to that! Bring back Seinfeld!
13 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Great piece, Poizonmyst. I wonder what is next for reality TV? Snuff It Out? Murder for fun and pleasure?
What a sick turkey slap of a culture.
14 - wackywheelz
Instead of mindlessly carrying on over this "incident", watch the following video (link is below) showing the whole "incident" and all it's harmlessness.
If you watch the video and are still cynical, then damn you need to get a life and stop bitching. It was honest fun between friends, taken out of context and blown out of utter proportion by media and politicians alike, pure and simple. Does she honestly look scared, intimidated or like shes been sexually victimized?
Click here for the video (2 minutes / 3.46mb)
15 - Jet in Columbus
I still say banning immoral heterosexual activity would solve the problem more effectively
16 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
I watched the clip (w/o sound). I guess my big question is why was it on camera? What a sick culture if this is broadcast TV.
17 - wayne
i watched the clip with sound and i cant see what the fuss is about, she is laughin an jokin and knew it was gonna happen to her before he did it!
18 - reason
watch the clip with sound, she knows what is coming and partakes in it, just fooling around between friends, i think it should be up to the person who received the turkey slap to decide if anything improper happened from the clip its clear that everyone including her had a good laugh and didn't take it seriously.
19 - dave
i downloaded the vid. the day it happened - the issue that is; and you could see that it was a joke
she predicted it before it happened, she still got into their bed
if you watch the last bit, she then tries to help "john" out under the covers.
I know John from high school, hes not a bad guy but likes to have fun
20 - DayofCelebration
It wasn't broadcast on TV, nor will it on the channel that BB is on. The cameras are always on, so naturally, it is on tape. It leaked somehow, another channel got it and played it on the news.
Even the PM (Prime Minister, not Poizon Myst) is saying "we need to take this stupid program off".
He is worrying about this vaguely, blown out of proportion incedent, more than these new IR laws? That MORE people complain about? Seriously, there are good points to the show. Say what you will, but thanks to this show, it's helped me analyze body language a bit better. Don't be so judgemental and join the "Reality shows are crap" crowd.
21 - Hercules Rockefella
I bloody hate Big Brother! Now I'm no prude, I don't hate it for all the sexual content, I hate it because all the contestants are a bunch of dumbasses!
22 - Scott Butki
This is all too weird. I've been reading about this and was wondering what the behavior is so
thanks for the link.
I never fail to be amazed at how stupid people are - doing offensive things on camera!
23 - PoizonMyst
wackywheelz, thank you for finding a link to the video of this incident - a very useful addition to the discussion.
24 - wackywheelz
No problems!! I just thought people would like an incite into what the fuss is actually about, the media went silly over the "incident" when only 2 small (low res) frames from the footage got out. Then, slowly as the movie got out (I personally put it on 4 other sites) the media frenzy has died down - mainly because they all looked stupid for making a mountain out of a molehill, even politicians and Australia's prime minister made comments, now of which look unjust and dumb.
One of the main oppositions to BB is this retarded ultra-feminist retard politician (Helen Coonan) complains that the whole show is offensive, and could screw with young girls fragile minds -- wtf, seriously, what a crusader... you never see her any other time, shes in the spotlight for a few days trying to get Big Brother 06 taken off air completely, but has failed miserably.... stupid tard :D
Whats even crazier is that the footage never made TV on the station that broadcasts Aus BB06 (only the live video feed, at 4:30am), but two rival stations (7 and 9) have played the footage at 6:30pm for their news programs, so why are they in the sh*t?
I watched these guys for 70 days, while they weren't my favourite housemates overall they were still decent people, and after 70+ days of living with someone, 24hrs a day, there is a degree of comfort and trust, none of which was breached during the incident. She didnt claim she was a victim, but the media portrayed her to be - even going as far as to interview rape counsellers, who said Camilla was behaving like a "typical sexual assault victim"...
I'm just glad they had a chance to publicly clear up the incident, Channel 10 gave them a 5-10 minute slot, and it was a very telling interview, you could see they were nervous, coming out of 70+ days away from their normal lives and loved ones, only to be thrust into a huge sex scandal, all over the headlines... sure wouldnt want it to be me!!
25 - john
WACKYWHEELZ YOUR RIGHT ON THE MONEY IN ALL ASPECTS AND THANKS FOR THE FOOTAGE.I NOW KNOW IT WAS BLOWN OUT OF PROPORTION!AND TO ALL THE PEOPLE OUT THERE THAT DON'T LIKE THE SHOW AND COMPLAIN ABOUT IT(JUST DON'T WATCH IT)WE ALSO HAVE TO PUT UP WITH THE CRAP YOU LIKE ON TV!