ofni - 24/7/2007 13:52

Was Aisleyne "bullied" by "the whole house"?

Well, my answer is "no, not as such." (*sharp intake of breath all round*?). BUT - and it's quite a BIG but ..........

I take it the article is referring mainly to the last few weeks of BB7, and to the behaviour of the other 5 finalists in particular.

Any "bullying" of Aisleyne (ie premeditated and vindictive psychological warfare) I would lay fairly and squarely at the door of Big Brother/Endemol, with HMs acting as accomplices -either willing or unwitting.

I think the most distasteful and disgusting "all time low" of BB7 - or of any BB for that matter- was the lynch-mob BB organised to vote the returning HMs back into the HND, whereby the "platform" on which the candidates vied for votes was "who could utter the most hair-raising threat as to what they would do to Aisleyne". The chief stirrer in this coven wasn't Jade Goody remember, but Davina on orders from Endemol. This repulsive spectacle has never received the condemnation it deserved, in my view.

This obnoxious hatefest laid the foundation for several of the factors which caused Aisleyne such anguish in the final weeks of BB7, which were allowed to brew in the HND. Chiefly, of course the return of Nikki and Grace, and they way that they (along with Lea) bamboozled that dumbcluck Richard to turn him plastic. (Kudos to Imogen who I reckon did as much as self-preservation could allow to keep her integrity in there).

Everything Endemol did seemed geared to undermine and demoralise Aisleyne, not least the way they used the mach test to brand her as devious and manipulative in the eyes of the other HMs.

All of the other HMs were given some kind of "boost" to their morale and energy levels, chiefly of course Nikki who knew she was the Endemol Princess, with a prospective TV show in the bag; Richard got his "shot in the arm" from Nikki and Lea, Glyn from Grace, Pete from Nikki, Jennie was still relatively fresh. Ash had had just one kick in the teeth after another, and was visibly wilting under the strain.

So we come to the final week or so.

NIKKI certainly exploited every ounce of the huge advantage she had from her knowledge of the outside world and her "Endemol darling" status. She also did everything she could to make herself appear to be the victim and Aisleyne the aggressor, even though the actuality was quite the reverse. Aisleyne, however, stubbornly refused to play ball and was always supportive and kind towards Nikki (eg offering the award they jointly won) and indeed towards the "Pikki fairy tale" fiasco.

PETE really didn't help did he? His reaction to Aisleyne's "shy" speech on his behalf turned a non-event into a major crisis, and his general level of moral courage was never more exemplified than his reaction to Grace's 21 minute visit. I could say more, but he has clearly remained big mates with Aisleyne so I'll simply say he didn't bully her, but neither was he of much use to her when she needed him.

GLYN is also a mate of Ash, so I'll be kind to him too. He most certainly did NOT consciously bully Aisleyne that last week. His enthusiastic welcome of Grace also had the virtue that it gave Aisleyne breathing space to plan how she could tread the tightrope between bottling out on the one hand and "ruining Grace's birthday" on the other - a test she passed with flying colours of course, bless her. However, once again I have to say that Glyn let Aisleyne down by not being more positive towards her. I'll be charitable to both him and Jennie and put their joint failure down to youthful inexperience. Glyn was also heavily influenced by BB's mach-test smear and was clearly concerned not to be seen to be "taken in" by Ash's alleged "manipulativeness", when someone older and (irony!) WISER would have trusted their own instincts more.

JENNIE , oh Jennie, why did you let that lovely sisterly relationship you and Aisleyne had go all to pot? Youthful inexperience again! Again no bullying as such, but that grudge she nursed about the imagined effect on her boyfriend of some inconsequential conversation or action by Aisleyne led to Aisleyne's further isolation from those who should have been there for her when she needed them, as she always had been when they needed her.

RICHARD well I can't stand the bloke, but I'll try to remain objective. Did he bully Aisleyne? Well in effect yes he did, because he had been totally hoodwinked in the HND by Nikki, Grace and Lea, and was now convinced that Aisleyne was unpopular. Not very bright is our Richard, despite his smug self-image as a sharpwit (well he's half right). All of Richards "advice" to Aisleyne in that last week was based on that paradigm, so he was always (maybe unwittingly) "kicking her when she was down", but I'll again be charitable and put it down to sheer stupidity rather than overt malevolence. His "plasticisation" did cost him a place above Aisleyne in the final though, I reckon.

So there we are. Crikey, this post has turned into a PhD thesis. Sorry folks, but I supose this has all been lurking in the recesses of my brain for a year now. Better out than in I guess.