Wednesday, August 30, 2006

The business psychologist and the Big Brother celebrity (part 3)

Well, the work continues on the television show that I'm filming. If you haven't guessed, that's me in the photo on the left. Jade Goody in the middle. And Hollywood PA Heather H. Howard on the right.

The task at hand is for us to find a personal assistant for Jade. So a couple of weeks ago, the three of us sat through an interminable number of panel interviews. Literally hundreds and hundreds of candidates passed our way. Many of them were instantly forgettable. Some were just obviously trying their luck to get on television for their 15 seconds of fame.

But from the hundreds of candidates, we've chosen 10 candidates - one of whom will eventually get the coveted job as personal assistant to Jade. The 10 candidates have moved into a secret location in North London to live together for 3 weeks. And over the three weeks, Jade, Heather and I will be setting them a number of challenges to sort the strong from the weak. We want to find someone who has great organisation skills, who is proactive and anticipates needs. We want a personal assistant who has the interpersonal skills to negotiate with tough people ranging from pesky paparazzi to other stars in the showbiz firmament. We want someone who can work with Jade - who admits herself that she can be temperamental and difficult with people when she's in the wrong mood.

It's a tough call, but we'll find the right person.

In fact, we set the first challenge yesterday. And already one person has been eliminated...

Oh, one of the big bosses from Living TV was there yesterday with us on the set. And apparently the show is going to air on their channel on 9th or 10th October. So set your video recorders!