THINK anyone had a hard time last night picking out the only genuine New Yorker in the new cast of “Big Brother 2“?
Not likely when the New Yorker is Monica Bailey, a 40-year-old Brooklynite who runs her father’s candy store by day and, after closing time, chases a show-business dream.
She is one of only two black women in the cast of 12. There are no black men.
Monica decided to tape her “Big Bro” video pitch right in her father’s Bedford-Stuyvesant candy store.
A breezy and natural-sounding two-minute tape of her talking about her life and loves (she was deliberately ambiguous about her sexual orientation) probably took 12 hours to get right, say friends.
That allowed just one hour to get the tape into the mail to Los Angeles by midnight – the deadline for applications.
She got to the Main Post Office on Eighth Avenue at 11:45 p.m. but by the time she got through the long line, the post office computers had turned over the date – and she thought for sure she had blown her chance.
Monica sent it anyway – and found out later that CBS had quietly extended the deadline by an extra week. She’d made it.
“People like Monica for her pizzazz and charisma,” says a friend. They call her “TV Guide” – because she always knows what’s on the tube.
She once auditioned for the dating show “Change of Heart” – but nothing ever came of it.
Friends say that may have been for the best, since she’s not likely to have a change of heart – about anything. “She’s a tough sell, but she’ll create some sparks on the show,” says one friend of Monica.
Monica’s parents are amicably divorced and she lives with her mom and within the wide arms of close-knit family – including her younger sister Melanie; Morgan, Melanie’s 11-year-old-daughter, and a dozen cousins. She is a regular at the weekly cousins’ meeting that convenes every Friday night at the Dew Drop Inn in the West Village.
She is a graduate of Brooklyn College who worked until a few years ago for the Adult Literacy program – a foundation-funded program which helps women move from welfare to work – and as a part-time usher at Radio City Music Hall.
Watching her thirties go by, friends said, Monica decided to change the course of her life and give acting a try. Earlier this year, she found the “Big Brother” application on the web and figured it was a good way to get herself known.
On June 22, she turned 40 and celebrated quietly with friends at the Dew Drop Inn.
Five days later, CBS called and told her to go out and buy eight bathing suits – that’s right, eight – pack them in a suitcase and be ready to leave for L.A. in two hours.
“She made a commitment when she turned 40 to shake things up in 2001,” says a friend. “I guess you could say she’s accomplished that.”
