Big-haired Big Brother winner Tim Dormer has revealed he and fellow 2013 housemate, the less-than-hirsute, Bert Newton-loving Ben Zabel, are in talks to do a travel show together.
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The Odd Couple On the Road perhaps?
"Well, it is, isn't it? The modern-day Odd Couple. We get along so well, even though we're polar opposites in so many ways," Dormer said, on Friday.
"We're talking to a great production company about it and, hopefully, by the end of the year, cameras will be rolling on that."
The news comes as Big Brother will be holding auditions for the first time in Canberra, determined to find older housemates, including professionals and parents, for the 2014 season.
Canberra's only BB housemate to date has been then waitress Brigitte Stavaruk who lasted 73 days in the house in 2008 and was touted as a potential winner.
The show's executive producer Alex Mavroidakis told us this week the audition net was being cast wider and audition times extended in a bid to attract a more diverse range of housemates.
The Canberra audition will be held on May 1 at the Hotel Realm in Barton, with registration from 11am to 7pm (and you also need to register online beforehand).
Mavroidakis happily told us applicants don't need to cook, renovate, sing or dance.
"The good news with Big Brother is you don't need any talent, you just need to express yourself very well," he said, deadpan.
Mavroidakis said the producers were "unashamedly looking for older housemates". They were introducing a new "nominate a mate" element where people could put forward the name of someone they think might make a good housemate but were too busy or unable to audition and the best nominees would be fast-tracked through the process.
"The show will live or die on the quality of the housemates," he said.
Dormer, a university student and media worker previously infamous for doing a nudie run on pop star Rihanna's tour plane, won $250,000 by taking out Big Brother last year. He is now a roving reporter on the Today show but reckons people shouldn't pursue BB for fame and fortune. And he does have some advice for prospective housemates.
"I mean it sounds cliched but it is the golden rule, you've just got to be yourself. You can't fool the producers, they've been doing it for so many years," he said. "I think their job is to sift through the wannabes and the people who try to pretend to be people they think the producers are looking for. They just want to find genuine people, interesting people who Australia is going to want to get behind, because at the end of the day, if you're pretending to be someone you're not, Australia is going to see right through it.
"So my advice is, find out what it is that makes you unique, stand out from the group and just go with that. Make sure they can see your personality. You don't have to be the loudest, the smartest, the prettiest. You've just got to be you."
Dormer said he auditioned twice - in 2012 and 2013 - before getting into the house.
"In 2012, I went all the way through, I even did all the promo shoots, I was on hold to be a latecomer intruder a few weeks into the show but they held me back at the last minute and I found out last year when I auditioned, they told me, 'Oh, we really wanted to put you on the show last year but Nine said, 'Oh, he's a bit controversial, a bit risky'. They didn't want any drama for the first year," he said, saying the streak on the tour plane was just one of the things that might have frightened Nine.
"I did have a reputation for trouble."
Dormer famously promised to use part of his $250,000 winnings to take Zabel to Graceland and another housemate, Anthony "Drew" Drew, rafting down the Amazon. He says those trips are still in the works.
"I turn 30 in April so I messaged Ben only two weeks ago and said, 'Ben, why don't we do this trip? Two weeks away, we'll go over to Graceland'. But he's working with Mornings for Channel Nine and me with the Today show, we can't really just up and leave and get away from it, while we're still trying to build relationships with work. Hopefully, by the end of the year."
And he's still in touch with Drew.
"Drew and Ben and maybe Tahan, I still talk to. Drew's in Melbourne so if I'm ever down there we'll catch up and have a meal together," he said.
So what has he done with his winnings?
"I bought a little French bulldog. They're not cheap. It was three and a half grand! They're expensive dogs," he said. "I gave a lot of money away to my family and at Christmas I donated a lot. I've put most of it in the bank account. It just means this year I don't have to go straight back to work. I can follow my dreams for a little bit longer.
"That is a really big prize for me because before Big Broth-er, I was a uni student and on a government student allowance. That's a really big luxury, that the prize money gives me the chance to sit back and think, 'What do I want to do with my life'? and lets me chase my dreams."
* To nominate a mate or register for the housemate hunt, go to www.bigbrother.com.au.
