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| 26 May 2002 |
| 26 May 2002 Shannon Shines Outside SHE has only been out of the house a minute, but already Big Brother's towering blonde inferno, fitness instructor Shannon Cleary, is cutting a swathe through the media. And it is an instant mutual love affair. "I have an ambition to be a lifestyle presenter," says the 177cm Cleary, and it is easy to see why. "My whole idea for going in (to the house) was to weigh up perception versus reality. "I mean I'm nearly 32. I haven't got time to go to university and study psychology. And I think I'm a presentable, marketable commodity." Bert Newton obviously agreed. He was the first to publicly flirt with the beauty on his Good Morning Australia when she hit Melbourne this week. Then it was radio's turn to lap up liberal servings of that hoarse, sexy, albeit incessant voice. "I do have a voice that does not always sound of the feminine persuasion," she says. Then adds with a laugh: "I've even been asked if it's because I've been on steroids." Nothing fazes the lady. "My game plan's out there," she says. "The win situation (despite being evicted) is also out there." How's that? "Because I've come out with not too much trash attached. And I have the will to do something about it," she says. There is no doubt Cleary, an in-your-face, teasing, energetic, super fit, highly entertaining gypsy of a woman, is on the road to her own special brand of stardom. (Some fashion label should adopt her, by the way.) Although the fourth person voted out of the Big Brother house, watching the way Cleary is recognised and greeted in the street makes you wonder who voted for her eviction? But the lady was hardly surprised. She admits that for days before the advent of the first intruders she had retreated from her loud, gregarious and prominent persona, so obvious in the first couple of weeks. "I wasn't going to pretend," she says. "It was exactly how I felt at the time." And what about men? Her pre-BB psychological assessment described her as: "Having a strong need for attention and affiliation and, as a result, she may be perceived by others as controlling." So, except for her tipsy pash with Brodie in the spa, did she intimidate the men? "To be honest, no one there was doing it for me," she says. Then adds more succinctly: "Sexually, I wasn't attracted to anyone." Cleary's younger brother, and best mate, Damian, (they are two of five siblings) flew back from his working holiday in London for her eviction. They make a very humorous double-act. "I'm here to co-ordinate her return to society," he jokes. And that big throaty laugh signals that Cleary enjoys the joke. Article from Sunday Herald Sun |