Celebrity Big Brother (Kind Of)

It was Thursday evening. A fly began to buzz. “Fireworks!” it said.

By Fly, I mean Fly on the Wall Productions, which is the company that produces Big Brother every summer on CBS. Fans around the world were suddenly woke, wondering what news would be dropping about the next season, “Big Brother 19.” News had been almost non-existent so everyone was ravenous.

Then, a woman called Katy Perry tweeted out a video showing a bunch of monitors that displayed video feeds of a house.

8PM PDT❗️https://t.co/tiEjd4ncWZ pic.twitter.com/CJXcCxADzn

— KATY PERRY (@katyperry) June 8, 2017

“OMG!” went the Big Brother fanbase: What does it mean? Is she in the house? Is she going to be a cast member? Is she filming a music video for her new album? What?

Later that evening, a live stream began on Perry's Youtube channel. The best detectives had looked for clues as to what this would be, but no one could find any information.

And then, our adventure began.

In a small room surrounded in curtains, Perry stood in front a microphone, with her band behind her and about 8 or so fans. A little concert apparently.

Perry began to sing songs from her new album, “Witness”, and she took questions from the fans after each song.

 Out in cyberspace, Katy Perry fans were meeting Big Brother fans and it was like two alien species meeting each other. “Who are you and what are you doing here?” The Big Brother fans were trying to find any clue as to if Perry was in the big brother house, but we weren't quite sure.

After about an hour, there was a sound of an air horn. The concert was over and Katy plugged her album, as it was now available for purchase. Things appeared to be winding down. It was neat, but, it appeared that Big Brother was not connected in anyway other than the production company.

But then, as Katy got ready to leave the concert area, the cameras followed. She walked into a home where people were waiting. There was champagne, cheese and crackers. Katy began talking about her album and its creation. And the people around her were producers and fellow song writers that assisted her.

I was glued to the screen and I had no idea what I was watching.

About half an hour later, Perry wanders into the bathroom to wash her face. As we watch her, a woman who appears to be her handler comes into the room. Perry looks at her. “Should we tell them?”

Them?

Perry revealed that for the next four days, she was going to live stream her life, as that was the overall theme of her album, “Witness” : Being present, but also being under a microscope.

As we came to learn, Perry had 'events' scheduled every day. And my goodness, was it exciting.

She had a cooking lesson with Gordon Ramsey, She did yoga with Jesse Tyler Ferguson, She played games with James Cordon--- it was a trip!

But, there are a few events I wanted to discuss.

On the second day, Perry let us watch a real therapy session. Now, granted, this was a session with a “TV therapist” but as the session began it was clear that both therapist and client were taking it very seriously.

The one hour session revealed Perry felt pressure to “be” Katy Perry all the time when in fact, she just wanted to be Katherine Hudson, the little girl from Santa Barbara. Perry shed tears as she also talked about her hair, that was now short, when it had been long up to this point. Again, her hair being long was “Katy” and not “Katherine” and Perry felt the universe had pushed her to cut it after a dyeing mishap.

As the session concluded, Perry picked from a bowl of angel cards. The belief is a person will pull a card that the angels want them to, to offer guidance. Perry pulled “Freedom” which had echoed the entire session. It was a powerful moment.

The next day, Perry had a dinner party. Guest included actress Amanda Seales, Political commentators Van Jones and Ana Navarro as well as Reality Tv Star and Trans Advocate, Caitlyn Jenner.  And just what was the dinner conversation? Politics.

The almost two hour dinner was the most riveting thing I had ever seen. If you told me two weeks ago that I would be able to watch high profile celebrities discuss the current political climate, I would have not have believed you.

In so many words, Perry explained that everyone needed a seat at the table because if those with opposing viewpoints couldn't have a conversation, nothing would change.

Jenner found herself the lone Trump voter and at one point declared the dinner 'hostile', when Seales, a black woman, compared Trump to Hitler. Seales also at one point told Jenner, “You have to realize... as a trans woman... the government didn't show up for your community until like two o clock today!”

As of this writing, the dinner was available to watch in full, but had audio issues. It was taken down, but I assume it will return.

There was many, many more things that happened over the four days. It was fascinating. And while it wasn't 'Big Brother' per say, it was probably the closest the United States will ever get to a 'Celebrity Big Brother.'

I do hope that this event might spark interest in the concept of Celebrities playing Big Brother, a much shorter version, of course.