Early impressions of the women in the cast.

Allison (Pictured left) is the “pharmaceutical sales rep” that every reality show has in spades. Honestly, who ever knew that so many pharmaceuticals were being consumed in the U.S, that they would need so much repping? I find her bio interesting, in that there are a lot of elements that I’m not surprised to see in a BB houseguest (has dated two men at a time, recovering gambling addict) but others that are a little more unusual (has worked in Mother Teresa’s orphanages, reads books). She strikes me as being a little less likely than some of the others to be at the center of drama. She’s the prettiest of the group so selfishly I hope she both sticks around for a while, and is not a complete idiot.

Amanda, we are told, “sends her friends a daily motivational quote of the day [sic] by text message.” That’s the sort of behavior that would motivate me to make her my ex-friend. It’s a positive that she likes to cook, since the kitchen is always a good central place to be in the house. All in all, she seems sort of dopey and harmless. That’s the type you always have to watch for, you know.

Is it just me, or does Chelsia look a lot older than her stated age of 21? Maybe the multiple piercings she says she has causes one to look like they walked off the Dynasty set. It’s interesting that she majors in German at Northern Iowa, but other than that she seems like the garden variety BB party animal who will be led to her slaughter halfway through by the people who are actually playing the game. I doubt she’s going to do anything memorable, unless the Wehrmacht attacks the house and she’s needed to translate for the prisoners of war.

Well, Jen definitely picked the right time of year to get out of Columbus, Ohio. I just don’t know what to make of a grown woman who describes one of her favorite activites as “tanning” and lists her favorite magazines as Us Weekly, People, In Touch, and Cosmo. I’m guessing she didn’t bother to mail in her absentee ballot for the Ohio primary. She has a special ed background–er, teaching it, I mean–so there’s at least some semblance of depth, but I wouldn’t expect much interesting from her once she’s more than five feet away from the hot tub.

Ah, our infamous “bikini barista,” Natalie. Hey, at least it’s a job, and this show casts an average of four unemployable people every year. Natalie lets us know she’s religious, which surely explains why we can see as much of her as we can in that picture. I have a sense she’s going to have some difficulty fitting in. Hopefully the weather will afford us some views of the bikini before she leaves us. Maybe once this is over, she can look into whether Mike Boogie is going to expand his reality restaurant empire to include coffeehouses.

A blonde from Kansas with a family connection to the military…sounds familiar. Sharon is described as a realtor and a restaurant hostess, which means she is a restaurant hostess. She’s another one with tattoos, trash magazine reading habits, and tanning as a hobby. Telling all these girls apart is going to be a blast for the first week, huh? I’m amused that Sharon “has been in a 12-year on/off relationship with a guy who followed her home in the 8th grade.” So obviously she doesn’t mind stalkers that much, good preparation for this show.

Sheila is the first person to enter the Big Brother house who has achieved a semblance of fame outside of it (Dick would probably disagree), as she was the Penthouse Pet of the Year in 1984, back when that still meant something (between Sheila and Jeana on The Real Housewives of Orange County, this is turning into quite a comeback era for some of the first women I ever saw naked). She’s substantially older than everyone else in the house, and although her background probably gives her some advantages in relating to the younger crowd, I would have to think her age won’t be an asset in the game. Women over 35 don’t get cast often enough to draw a lot of conclusions about their track record in BB.