Atlanta event curator Mickey Lee was nicknamed “Micktator” behind her back by some other competitors during the current season of “Big Brother” on CBS.
The 35-year-old Midtown resident, one of three metro Atlanta contestants on Season 27, didn’t know about the moniker until she was booted from the house Sept. 4 after 59 days. But she accepted her bad girl image with aplomb.
“If you’re not a villain, you’re not relevant,” Lee told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution at Poach Social in the Summerhill neighborhood on Friday, eight days after she was voted out by her castmates in a bit of a blindside.
Credit: CBS
Credit: CBS
As the eighth person voted out, Lee just missed landing on the jury and taking part in deciding the winner of the $750,000 prize Sept. 28. This also meant she was able to return to Atlanta from Los Angeles instead of being placed in the jury house.
“I wasn’t bummed not being in the jury,” she said. “It meant a whole extra month being at home.”
Zach Cornell, a fellow Atlantan and marketing manager who was evicted on Day 38, called Lee “one of the craziest people in the house. She embraced her villain role well. But she played the game really hard. A lot of people in the house viewed her as a threat.”
In the end, Lee had no regrets going on the show. “It’s such a small, close-knit group of people who get to be on the show,” she said. “I didn’t win ‘Big Brother 27′ but I feel like I won. I feel like this will lead to more opportunities for me and my business.”
The show currently has seven cast members in the house with 11 days left.
Credit: CBS
Credit: CBS
Here are her comments on various topics related to being on the show:
She was no super fan: “I was recruited (by the show producers). Maybe if I had learned to play the game sooner, I wouldn’t have become a house target. There was a lot of lying going on in the house and I don’t think I could fake it as well as some people. In the end, I am glad I went out with a bang. Hopefully people will remember the ‘Micktator’!’”
Blindsided: When she was up against Ashley Hollis in early September for the weekly eviction, she had no idea she was leaving after being promised safety by different players who were lying to her. While she didn’t express overt bitterness, she didn’t have nice things to say about most of the remaining contestants. Vince Panaro: “Weasely. Wishy washy.” Ava Pearl: “She never made me laugh. She’s not very nice.” Morgan Pope: “She sacrificed people who were loyal to her. I didn’t respect her game play.”
Credit: CBS
Credit: CBS
Deprivation city: “Big Brother” is purposely stultifying beyond the lack of privacy. There are no clocks, no smartphones, no TV, no books, no games except chess. People are forced to just … talk. She actually slept well during the times she got to sleep because “my brain was on 24/7.” She avoided sleeping early, worried that it would give the other housemates the opportunity to conspire against her.
Her closest buds: The people she felt closest to from the “Big Brother” house left long before she did: flashy 25-year-old D.C. strategist Jimmy Heagerty and fellow Atlantan Zach Cornell. After leaving the house, she learned that some online fans construed her maneuvering to get rid of Jimmy as homophobic, which she denied. “That’s just absurd,” she said. “That narrative hurt my feelings.”
Credit: CBS
Credit: CBS
Watching the show from the outside: She held her first “Big Brother” viewing party with fellow ousted contestants Cornell and Atlanta native Katherine Woodman at Holiday Bar at the Interlock on Sept. 11. “More than 200 people showed up,” she said. “I was shocked.” Watching the show from the outside “was surreal,” she said. “It was strange to see the rooms and not be there.”
Who does she want to win? Of the remaining castmates, she is rooting for buff nutrition and fitness trainer Keanu Soto. He has played aggressively and has been a big target for weeks but has managed to escape elimination by winning competitions. “He’s a comp beast,” she said, using a common phrase in “Big Brother” parlance. “He has also played the most well-rounded game. He’s very intelligent. I commend him for sticking to his guns. I respect him.”
Credit: RODNEY HO
Credit: RODNEY HO
Habits die hard: In the “Big Brother” house, she wore a robe and slippers to enter the shower for privacy. When she came back to her own place, without thinking, she entered her own shower the same way more than once.
What she did first once she got back to Atlanta: “I ate crab legs. I love crab legs. I missed crab legs. I spoke about them every day. My boyfriend picked me up from the airport and we went straight to Spondivits [in East Point] and I had two buckets of crab legs. He knew his assignment.”
Most surprising news while she was in the house: Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s death.
Her background: A Midtown resident, Lee has lived in Atlanta for more than five years. “This city has adopted me,” she said. “This city has shown more love for me than (Jacksonville, Florida), the city I was born. I’ll stay here til the day I die.”
She started as a date night planner but now “curates” events more for “mingling,” not “matchmaking.” “I want to show the world Atlanta is more than just hookah bars and lemon pepper wings. We can do elevated, high end events.”
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