(If case you're not familiar with this hot new reality series, try this primer from Episode 1:
http://independentrage.blogspot.com/2010/06/episode-1-tonight-of-hot-new-vh1.html).
(And read more specifically about the participating Nine Ladies at this link:
http://www.vh1.com/shows/youre_cut_off/cast.jhtml)
Nutshell synopsis of Episode 2: As the ladies are forced to perform household chores around their own house as well as at the house of
The Apprentice's "Celebrity Super Diva," Omarosa, it starts to become clear whom the
real bad girls are in this spoiled rotten group. And even among the bad girl faction, an "Old Money versus New Money" rift emerges!
Segment 1: At end of Episode 1, Bad Attitude Gia was beatin' the hell out of Jacqueline with a pillow. The next morning, Jaqueline has a headache and says that Gia also called her a "fat slut" the previous night. "I hate Gia," says Jaqueline. Then group moderator Laura Baron enters the house to have a meeting with the nine ladies. She tells them that any further violent acts such as The Pillow Incident will not be tolerated and will result in someone being sent home (and still cut off). Laura tells the ladies that this week's theme is "Respect," and she informs them that they will have to perform a variety of household chores. The ladies will receive $200 a week (for the entire group) if they complete all chores, but will lose $25 for each chore not performed. The completely gorgeous yet breezy Erica chimes in that she does not know how to make a bed and has never, tried as she might, been able to figure it out. Meantime Gia foreshadows later events by saying that will not clean up after anyone. Busty blonde and southern belle Amber remarks that she has never done laundry in her entire life. Needless to say, these ladies are not too happy about the prospect of having to do housework.
Laura then brings in Sylvia, whom Laura says is a professional cleaning lady who will help the ladies with their chores. Erica says that she would prefer to have her own maids -- Maria and Carmen -- around here instead of Sylvia. Then sassy Chrissy from LA asks Sylvia to help Chrissy with turning on the vacuum cleaner. Chrissy then has Sylvia vacuum the room, with Chrissy slinking off to the comfort of a couch, where she puts up her feet. In contrast, Amber and Pam are actually working in the kitchen on getting it cleaned up.
Next up, Erica's bigoted streak, which reared its ugly head in Episode 1, once again exhibits itself. Even though Sylvia has been speaking English to the ladies, Erica -- apparently thinking that all cleaning ladies primarily speak Spanish -- starts talking to Sylvia in Spanish ("Yo hablo espanol," spouts Erica). Erica then remarks, "Of course I know Spanish -- how else would I communicate with my maids?" Erica then pulls a Chrissy and has Sylvia mow the yard and perform all of the yardwork that Erica is supposed to be doing.
Then all of the ladies are driven to a mansion. Surprise Time: Laura reveals to the ladies that Sylvia is not really a maid at all, but instead is an entrepreneur who owns her own housecleaning company that services the rich and famous of Hollywood. Now the ladies will be working for Sylvia.
Segment 2: Still at the mansion, the ladies are informed that they will now have to clean it, as employees of Sylvia, and that there was just a huge party there the prior evening (so have fun cleanin')! They are asked to put on a modern maid outfit (cotton collar shirt, loose khacki pants and tennis shoes -- an outfit despised by all). Gia is still being problematic, refusing to put on the uniform and again saying that she won't do housework ("I'm a princess! -- my hands were just made to have diamonds on them and to look pretty"). Erica resolves that since Gia refuses to clean, then Erica won't either.
But freaky hot blonde Leanne and Italian firebrand Jessica are working. They get living room detail, and are quickly repulsed to find vomit there that they must clean up. Worse yet: Amber, Jaqueline and leggy North Carolina beauty queen Courtnee are assigned to clean the bathoom, which they quickly find to be strewn with hair weave all over the floor and with a nasty toilet containing Lord Knows What (appears to be hair weave, puke and $hit, truth be told). Chrissy and Pam drew kitchen assignment. Pam gets to work, but Chrissy pulls a repeat of her earlier performance, sitting her ass down on a chair and putting her feet up. Sylvia tells Chrissy that she's making Sylvia look bad, and Chrissy storms out in a huff.
Then Surprise # 2: Down the mansion's staircase struts none other than Omarosa. This is her mansion! Jessica gets a load of Omarosa, is clearly intimidated, and proclaims that she now wants to back out of this job because she's scared to death. Omarosa complains that she's been forced to come downstairs due to all the noise and ruckus ("what ruckus, can you describe the ruckus, sir?") being stirred up by the "cleaning" ladies. Omarosa quickly takes notice that Jessica wants to find a scraper to take some wax off of a table. Omarosa grabs Sylvia: "You aren't thinking about scraping my European marble table, are you?" Sylvia quickly puts the kibosh on Jessica's efforts, but not before taking a healthy dose of Jessica's verbal abuse and back-talk. "When did the help start talking to you like that?," asks Omarosa. Omarosa then heads back upstairs.
Gia and Erica have scurried off to a bedroom to hang out since they've both resolved to do absolutely no housework in the mansion. These two very high-strung divas, who would typically be at each other's throats, are actually getting along at the moment as they are united in their common purpose of performing no work. (As an interlude, it's revealed that Amber, Jaqueline and Courtnee have done a nice job cleaning the bathroom. Jacqueline, despite saying that she has "never cleaned before in my life," actually scrubbed and cleaned up that nasty toilet.)
Then Gia and Erica head outside to sit beside Omarosa's pool and hot tub. Omarosa sees them through a window and gives them a very dirty look. Gia takes offense, saying that she "will slap that attitude out of her face -- I don't care who the hell you think you are, nobody gives Gia the stink eye" (nice reference to herself in the third person, BTW!). Gia (with Erica in tow) then marches up to Omarosa's bedroom to confront her. Omarosa immediately gets all in Gia's face, and Gia tells her that "if you're gonna get that much in my face, you need to stick some gum in your mouth." Still though, Gia seems a bit flustered in Omarosa's presence, and Omarosa's very strong personality seems to win out in this verbal altercation. Omarosa tells Gia that she's "on very thin ice" as we head to commercial.
Segment 3: Following the "thin ice" comment, Gia moves away down the hall with a worried look on her face. Omarosa, obviously irrate, heads back into her bedroom. Erica off-camera states the obvious: "Even though Gia thinks she's really tough, she is no match for Omarosa." Then all the ladies are gathered to receive a performance review from Sylvia: A "good" review goes to Pam, Leanne, Jaqueline, Courtnee, Jessica and Amber. Receiving a negative review, of course, are the three emerging truly bad girls of this motley crew of spoiled rotten brats -- Erica, Gia and Chrissy. It's revealed that as a reward, the six ladies who received a positive performance review will tomorrow get a massage at a popular LA day spa.
Back at the ladies' modest living quarters, a note from Laura Baron reveals that since the ladies have been assigned double the typical amount of chores this week, their full take is $400 but that after deductions for the three ladies who refused to work, they still only get $200! (BTW, is this a Full Metal Jacket-like motivational ploy, i.e. penalize the performing people for the poor performance of the three bad ones until the good folks are ultimately driven to beat the hell out of Erica, Gia and Chrissy in the middle of the night with soap bars tucked into socks? Stay tuned...). OK, I digress. Laura's note also asks for four volunteers to go grocery shopping that night for the group (they will be limited by their $200 budget). Four of the not-so-bad ladies -- Courtnee, Jaqueline (now being referred to as "Jackie"), Amber and Pam -- volunteer to go.
The grocery shopping trip gets off to a rocky start when the ladies seem disoriented once inside the grocery store, not really knowing (likely never having been in a grocery store before) where to go or what to do. But alas, they catch on and start tossing anything and everything in their cart (apparently forgetting their $200 budget). Girl-next-door-in-looks-only Pam personally offends me as they march down the liquor aisle, remarking: "I Don't Like Beer!" But she redeems herself when she and Jackie actually pick out some dog treats for Gia to consume back at the house ("What flavor does she like?," posits Pam). Meantime, two of the southern ladies -- Amber and Courtnee -- are visibly shaken and scared at the sight of packaged chicken breast ("I'm scared of salmonella," cries Courtnee). Amber also finds balonie "disgusting," and outright starts shrieking when the group spots some pickled pigs feet in one aisle!
That was the last straw for the ladies, as they make a quick beeline for the check-out counter. There, they encounter even more bad news, and they've run up a tab that's $80 over budget. Jackie takes command, telling the others that they need to "prioritize" ("I never thought I'd use that word in my life," notes Jackie) and select the items they need the least so that those can be given back in order to reduce the bill. Once they get the tab down to $199.74, they have met their budget and are ready for someone to sack up their groceries. There being no bagger at their line at that moment, Jackie gets on the store's loud speaker and puts out the call: "We need a professional bagger." For good measure, Amber gets on speaker and shouts at a passing customer, "Sir, would you like to bag our groceries?" It's now shown who actually bagged the groceries, but the ladies are next shown driving back home, all complaining about how tired they are from their rather exhaustive grocery trip.
Then we get some mini-fireworks between a couple of the bad girls, Erica and Chrissy. Apparently Chrissy heard a mosquito in their bedroom and turned on the lights to try to find it. Erica, who was already sleeping, can't believe that the lights have been turned on (BTW, the sight of the ultra-aristocratic Erica sleeping on the top bunk of a bunk bed is truly a wonderful sight to behold! Not to mention that she's flat-out gorgeous doing so). These two ultra-divas then engage in a bona fide First Grade-style game of "Yes I am, No You're Not," as Erica repeatedly turns off the lights, only for Chrissy to turn them back on just out of spite. For all we know, this mindless exercise may have gone on for several hours!
Segment 4: Bad girls Erica and Chrissy are both still pissed from the night before. The light flickering incident kept Erica from getting her "beauty rest" and she & Chrissy squabble about closet space. Chrissy tells Erica that she "doesn't exist to me anymore," but yet Chrissy continues to engage Erica in derogatory conversation: "You got nice big boobs, but they hang low." Erica blasts back, "You need botox -- There's no excuse for your cellulite." Leanne meanwhile is tired of all the incessant Erica-Chrissy-Gia bickering and is excited for the other ladies' opportunity to get out of the house and to the day spa. But much to the ladies' chagrin, the day spa is not located in the ritziest of neighborhoods, and the ladies are horrified by the sight of some homeless men on the side of the street and -- get this -- some barbed wire on the top of one property's fence! (Oh, The Humanity!). Says Jackie: "We are, like, in a REALLY bad area. I'm scared for my life!"
The ladies then arrive at LA's Sunset Foot Spa, a joint which purports to practice "Ancient Chinese Foot Reflexology" and which serves many Hollywood A-Listers. The ladies are bit appalled by the neighborhood and by their first glance inside the day spa, but they lighten up when a note from Laura informs them of some of the very high-end celeb clientele that this joint brings in.
Back at the house, bad girls Erica, Gia and Chrissy are stuck home alone. Here it starts to become apparent that there is a clear rift in this faction between (1) "Old Money" Aristocrat Erica and (2) "New Money" Ultra-Divas Gia and Chrissy. It starts with Gia jokingly telling Chrissy (in Erica's presence) to be nice to Erica so that Erica will make them coffee. The three of them start bickering. Erica remarks that she "was born with a silver spoon in my mouth" and, off-camera, says that "there's definitely a difference between old money and new money -- Chrissy and Gia are new money, and that's why they're so trashy."
Now back to the day spa, where the six not-so-bad ladies share a champagne toast in celebration of being away from the house (and in a comment clearly aimed at the three bad girls and at the not-so-appreciated digs back at the house, the not-so-good Jessica remarks, "This toast is to hard working in a filthy, disgusting house!"). The ladies clearly enjoy their sessions with the Chinese masseurs, with Jackie taking a real liking to Peter "Master P", the zany Chinese masseur.
Back at the house, things get uglier between the three bad ladies, as the Old Money versus New Money Rift grows wider. Gia starts bringing up personal things about Erica, such as her confession in Episode 1 about some the really rotten things her old man tells her about her appearance. To add insult to injury, Gia tells Erica that she's an "ugly, stupid, whore" (BTW, who's Gia calling ugly!). Erica -- seemingly unable to get away from the bigotry as she sports a "JAP and Proud" T-Shirt -- largely takes the high road and lets Gia run her trap.
As the not-so-bad ladies leave the day spa, Amber says that "today I learned that you can spend less and get more -- it's not all about how much you pay for something." All of them then go back to the house, and Leanne starts a huge "popcorn fight" in the dining room, with Jackie and Erica participating (Erica sticking a glob of popcorn right down Leanne's bra is a special highlight). Afterward, Leanne and Jackie (and even Erica a little bit) realize they need to clean up the mess, which results in Leanne trying to run a vacuum on the top of the dining room table's tablecloth (which gets sucked up into the vacuum).
Then enters Jessica, who criticizes their trashing of the dining room as well as their cleanup efforts (don't set Jessica's ass loose on Obama & BP anytime soon, methinks). Suddenly, two of the not-so-bad girls -- Leanne and Jessica -- are ALL OVER each other's asses. As Jessica starts to exit, Erica chimes in to Jessica, "Take your tampon out your [rest inaudible]...." Jessica, hearing this blast, storms in and is IRRATE!
Next the end-of-the-episode Group Session between Laura Baron & The Ladies begins. Jessica immediately complains about the Popcorn Fight, but Leanne defends it as her attempt to finally have an ounce of fun in this high-strung house, and Leanne also notes that she and others were starting the cleanup process when Jessica bursted in and started ranting and raving. Jessica then launches into another screaming tirade (revealing herself, in my mind, as the solid middle ground between the three Bad Girls and the other Not-So-Bad Girls, since she exhibits a lot of traits of both sides).
Segment 5: Laura has to exert all efforts to calm Jessica the hell down, and then reveals that "Respect" was this week's theme and lesson. That's why she had the ladies work with Sylvia in 2 different settings. Sylvia's Performance Reviews are shared with the ladies: Sylvia says that Jackie, Courtnee & Amber did an excellent job with their work and were very sweet, nice and respectful. Jackie is very choked up by these compliments, and one really sees that this whole insane process is actually helping Jackie to grow, as Jackie talks about having a whole new appreciation for her own housekeepers and they work they do (by virtue of having done some of that same work -- recall that Jackie is the one who cleaned out that nasty toilet). Real sweetheart Courtnee echoes those sentiments.
Next Sylvia talks about the bad girls, first noting that Chrissy just didn't seem to care, doing no work to help out the group. Proof positive that any human being can try to spin just about any situation in any way possible, lazy-ass-refusing-to-work Chrissy then characterizes Sylvia's very valid criticisms as "over the top" and "disrespectful." LOL. Pam is then commended for working in her area even despite Chrissy's refusal to work, and next Laura blasts on Chrissy, saying that she was so disrespectful to Sylvia.
Sylvia had even worse things to say about Gia and Erica, whom she describes as having "no morals and no respect" (very accurate, but they sure are hot!, for better or for worse). To her credit, Erica expresses remorse for letting Sylvia down and states that she hopes that Sylvia will accept an apology from her. Gia, in contrast, is in no apologizing mood! But then Omarosa's impressions of Gia (recall their earlier spat) are played on video for all the ladies to see: "Gia's just a little angry troll, and it's sad because she could actually use that kind of skill for leadership, but instead she uses it to kind of manipulate -- clearly I was underwhelmed by Gia, underwhelmed." GIANT OUCH! Gia then complains, weakly, that Omarosa has no reason judging her from only having know her a very short time that evening (well perhaps the couple minutes you spent trying to get in her face outside her bedroom in her house pretty much shored up her opinions fairly quickly, there, Gia!).
Segment 6 (Final Segment, Thank God!): OK, Bottom Line Time: Who Passed and Who Failed? (Passing means that a Lady is positively progressing through the program and is one step closer to having her "benefactor" take her back and restore her cash flow; while Failing means that the Lady better shape up because she is on her way to a recommendation that the benefactor not take her back with a reinstalled cash flow). The now-emerging trichotomy between these ladies is all the more clear from these Pass/Fail Grades: Amber, Courtnee, Jackie, Pam and Leanne all PASS. The three bad girls -- Chrissy, Erica and Gia -- all FAIL, obviously. Meantime, the middle ground lady, Jessica, is forced to sweat it out to the end, when it's revealed that she PASSED because she worked hard, even despite her often bad attitude and very angry, outspoken nature.
Final Surprise: A New Weekly Award has been created for the VIP ("Very Improved Princess"), meaning the best-performing Lady of that week. The VIP entitles the lady to a large personal room and bathroom of her own at the house (previously, such suite was masked behind a locked door that the ladies could not access). But it also carries the responsibility that week of doling out all the chore assignments and complete responsibility for the weekly budget being maintained. The First VIP Award Recipient?: Jackie! And frankly, it's hard to dispute that award since she's the one who primarily cleaned that raunchy-ass toilet. She was also given credit for overcoming her altercation with Gia last week and largely avoiding Gia this week.
But look out for dissension in the ranks from none other than the "middle ground" angry babe, Jessica: Jess is the one lady who is actually visibly angry with the choice of Jackie as this week's VIP, commenting: "Ugly little bitch who had botched plastic surgery -- you get a VIP bedroom! That was like a BOOM to my heart . Jackie had a popcorn fight in the freakin' dining room 15 minutes ago and was acting' like a freakin' banshee. Are you kidding me? I'm so pissed off!" End of Episode.
Preview of upcoming episodes: The ladies are exposed to the horror of being forced to go shopping at a discount clothing store! Plus Erica (who else?) continues to rub everyone in every wrong possible way!
Final thoughts: In tonight's episode, the general dichotomy of these ladies is really starting to become clear. Erica is probably the most purely hot gal of this whole bunch, but she's completely superficial, bigoted, aristocratic and out-of-touch. Gia and Chrissy are, in a word, pathetic, and they inhabit the trifecta of "bad girls" with Erica, although there is a definite "Old Money versus New Money" rift between the three of them. Inhabiting the "not-so-bad" girls faction on the other side is Amber, Courtnee, Jackie, Leanne and Pam. In the middle of those two extremes is Jessica, who can work hard and be nice or just the same try to bite your head off in the drop of a hat.
My early personal favorite from this whole show: Erica is the hottest, but Courtnee is the one whom a dude would most like to meet in real life. Courtnee has had very little air time so far on the series, and you know why? Because she's the least prone to stay stupid, over-the-top things (a very bad trait if one wants to be a reality star, but a very admirable trait in almost every other circle of life). She just goes about her business as the very tall, leggy, gorgeous supermodel type from North Carolina. She's the Independent Rage's Favorite! (OK, so are we finally done? Good Grief! It's 1:15 over HERE!).
With Kagan's Senate confirmation hearings to begin tomorrow, an article in this weekend's Politico.com speaks of Kagan's past writings, statements and litigation track record on the subject of restriction of pornography and other sexually explicit speech, which Kagan would reportedly very much like to restrict through the development of novel new legal strategies aimed at cracking down on that type of content. From my read of the article, a lot of what Kagan has espoused as a young lawyer and more recently as solicitor general gets back to the common theme that she believes that judges should be in the business of making judgments identifying new types of speech -- through a wide-open "balancing" of the speech's costs versus its benefits -- as "low value" or "minimal value," such that the speech could be very freely censored and restricted by the government.
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