While the Big Brotherhood is causing ripples of tension in the house, campaigners on the outside have accused Channel 4 of exploiting housemate Pete. Big Brother exploiting someone as a figure of fun just to push up audience numbers? Surely not ...
Pete, a rock singer from Brighton, has Tourette Syndrome, apparently diagnosed when he was 14 years old, and the Tourette Association has said he could suffer in the house as a result.
Watching a guy twitch and swear uncontrollably will be, to some viewers and housemates, comic. When she first met him and witnessed his erratic behaviour, Bonnie asked Pete in giggles what he had been taking, while the others have been a mix of sympathetic, nonchalant and patronising.
So is Big Brother exploiting Pete just for the entertainment factor? He is clearly showing moments of vulnerability - this morning, shots show Pete frowning, looking confused and a little lost. But then you could say the same about all of the housemates. I feel a bit guilty for blogging on the launch night that he would end up being the most annoying of all the housemates - his over-the-top exuberance and showman-like entrance into the house got on my nerves - but maybe such guilt is patronising. Pete made the decision to enter the house, after all.
And the bookies clearly love him and his prospects - William Hill had him as an early favourite to win the contest, with top odds of 4/1, and they've just moved him to 3/1. If he won tomorrow, William Hill said, it would be £50,000 down.
In an attempted damage limitation project on Big Brother's Little Brother this afternoon, a child psychologist explained what the condition is and said that while anxiety and arousal can heighten the symptoms of Tourette's, it wouldn't do Pete any harm. Tourette's is only part of who Pete is, the psychologist said. Fair enough.
So will giving such a public, intimate viewing to an often-misinterpreted condition help people look at the person Pete is, as opposed to judging him negatively for having Tourette's? Stereotypes have been challenged in the house before, such as with transsexual Nadia. And as Pete told Shahbaz: "You'll get to know me and then you'll know what Tourette's is."
