Big Brother Croatia Update: December Surprise

Big Brother has chosen a weekly task quite appropriate for this stage of the game. Housemates appear anxious before the last nominations. Building carpentry is a task that preoccupies most of their time and leaves them physically exhausted, therefore unlikely to concentrate on scheming or, which could have been case with Antonija and Valentina, feeling sorry for themselves.

That solves one problem for RTL Televizija, but also creates another. Footage of six people making furniture isn't likely to fill 50 minutes of TV daily summary. So, the production team has to come with some creative and interesting daily tasks to be performed in the evening. Last night they almost failed the daily task – when asked to perform comic stand-up routine, housemates had to struggle with physical exhaustion, hunger and lack of inspiration. In the end, they opted for parody version of Srcolovka, RTL Televizija's dating game show – one those television products that didn't need any parody. That allowed for some 30 minutes of footage in which Saša (Sasa) playing a woman of Zdravko's dreams was the best and the only reason to laugh.

Until recently, RTL Televizija didn't have to worry much about show getting boring, but now Big Brother Croatia might get serious competition. Couple of local TV stations all over Croatia have begun to air To sam ja – reality show best known as ex-YU Big Brother. Needless to say, that show turned out to have exactly what Big Brother sorely missed – fights between contestants and explicitly sexual content which even included the actual act recorded on camera. Although local TV stations can't compete with national network, some of the ratings are going to be lost.

Desperate measures require desperate action. RTL Televizija announced that it would mark Saša's birthday on Saturday with something unprecedented. For the first time, Big Brother House is going to have celebrity guests. One of them would be Mirela Anić (Mirela Anic), Playboy Croatia model, who is supposed to leap out of Saša's birthday cake as a surprise. Another is Salome, Croatia's best known transvestite.

While most housemates in their Confessions Room statements are talking about nice family atmosphere, their own families in real world have discarded all diplomatic niceties and went into full-scale propaganda warfare. Jagoda Miliša (Jagoda Milisa), Antonija's mother (whose face in last week's live show clearly shown whom of housemates she least liked) allowed her feelings towards Marina to be known to the public and called her "perfidious hypocrite" for trying to win favour of both male and female section of House. When asked about this statement, Mirjana Bajlo, Marina's mother said that she was "above those kinds of comments".

It does appear that Bajlo family is trying to cut their media appearances to a minimum, apparently aware that at this stage of the game every word could be taken out of context and used against them and their daughter. And their comments on Alen, whatever they may be, might be counterproductive in the situation when something previously seen as sweet and romantic suddenly gained unpleasant and sinister dimension. It could be argued, for example, that Paola Bajlo indeed said that she would like to see Alen evicted from House when asked by Jutarnji list and only later realised that this expression of sisterly love could hurt Marina's long-term interests.

In the meantime, Filip Voloder, ex-housemate who is, according to statements in Confessions Room, most missed in the House, appears to handle post-House publicity the best. He confirmed continuation of the relationship with Sanja, while parents announced that he would return to university and finish his study of economics.