Hundreds of Ireland's best, brightest and self-proclaimed fame seekers queued outside the RDS in Dublin yesterday for the chance to become the next stars of the reality TV show, Big Brother.
The producers of the British Channel 4 show held their first ever auditions in the State in the hope of finding "real" and "genuine" contestants to entertain viewers for the programme's 10-week run this summer.
What they got were plenty of teenagers on mid-term break, the odd unconvincing female impersonator and a slew of rejects from RTÉ's You're A Star competition.
While many intended to rely on their personalities to impress the judges, others were bolstering their chances by wearing leprechaun hats, Irish dancing costumes and, in quite a few cases, just their underwear.
Hannah Massey (20), from Belfast, thought she would make an ideal contestant because she was "quite eccentric".
Dermot Hogan said he should be on the show because he was "very outgoing and very funny" and because he was from Cavan. "It would be a shame to miss out on me because I'd put Cavan on the map," he said.
Graham Byrne, from Dublin, was always "the life and soul of the party" and "very charming". Cyril Green was also charming, he said, and was prepared to do "whatever anyone tells me" to be on the show.
Conor O'Dea (18), from Glasnevin, Dublin, intended to impress the producers with his pole dancing.
His friend, Dave McKeown, was confident he would be chosen. "I'm so hilarious, everybody loves me, you couldn't find one person who doesn't like me."
Less concerned about being liked was a 32-year-old salesman from Rathgar, Dublin, calling himself Tim Dim. "I've watched the sort of idiots they've had on the show. I know I was born for this show."
Tim, whose employers understood he was taking his car to be serviced yesterday, was entering the competition for "notoriety" and in the hope of getting "loads of women's numbers".
The programme's producers interviewed some 1,000 prospective contestants yesterday. Around 10 per cent were selected to make a short video diary, a further 10 per cent of those would be considered for selection for the show. There was no guarantee that any of the Dublin candidates would be chosen for the programme, the producers said.
