BB evictee just wants to 'move on'
6th May 2008, 8:15 WST
Three years after his stint as a Big Brother housemate
Tim Brunero still can’t escape the public glare that comes with being in a “fish bowl” reality television series.
The 30-year-old was runner up in the 2005 series and while he never regretted entering the house, he was still amazed people continue to recognise him on the street.
“It’s actually quite an interesting phenomenon in itself because some people know the name, some people know your face and some people think they know you, so it is varying degrees,” Mr Brunero said.
“Sometimes people don’t want to admit they know you from Big Brother, they want you to say it. I think they are embarrassed to come and talk to you.”
Mr Brunero, who featured on Monday night’s new Big Brother Big Mouth show, said he did not mind the public recognition as it was far less exhausting than when he first came out of the house.
He was now trying to rebrand himself so that he was recognised for his work as a journalist and writer – a job he said gave him “incredible artistic licence”.
“I want to move on from that but I will always be the Big Brother guy, there is no escaping that.”
Since the show, he has focused on his journalism, opinion writing and producing weekly video podcasts for livenews.com in Sydney.
He has also been a blogger for a magazine and The Chaser and has done a documentary in East Timor.
And while there are some things he wished he had not done on national television – like having a crush on a housemate who did not share the same feelings – Mr Brunero said he wouldn’t swap the time for anything.
“When I watch the show there is really little that I cringe at. I was always aware of what I was doing at the time.”
Mr Brunero, who only keeps in touch with a few of his former housemates these days, said the Big Brother experience had definitely helped his career and opened up doors.
“It helped with opportunities but also just the confidence and it means I can write differently now… I have moved from being a journalist to a columnist.
“The Sydney media market is very tight, I have been doing my best but I would like to be a household name on TV everynight.”
He even penned words about the Big Brother show and believed that this year’s bunch of contestants was desperately needed to lift ratings.
“I think the housemates that are in there at the moment are exactly what was needed for a couple of years, people complained about the show being a ‘bogans Olympics’ with beautiful but boring people from a very narrow group of young people and I don’t think that was representative of the Australian community.
“People like (Melbourne party boy) Corey (Worthington)…what we are going to see is Corey crumble, just his whole façade is going to disappear… it is exactly the way it needs to be going because the show was getting a little stale.”
PERTH
KAREN HODGE
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