Pranksters’ Bogus News Stories Pull ‘Big Brother’s’ Leg

In a prank that proved reality is in the eye of the beholder, the set of CBS’ hit series “Big Brother” was sent into a state of confusion this week.

The premise of the show, which has averaged 11 million viewers since launching July 5, is that watching 10 strangers isolated in a house for 100 days is entertainment. But for the guinea pigs inside, cut off from contact with the outside world, reality can be elusive.

The chaos came courtesy of two 28-year-old screenwriters, Caleb Wilson and Matt Allen, who crammed doctored pages from the Los Angeles Times into seven tennis balls, then lobbed the balls over the fence ringing the perimeter of the “Big Brother” house located on the CBS-Radford studio lot in Studio City.

Two of the balls landed outside the house, and when residents opened them, they discovered two “Big Brother”-related articles, one in which President Clinton deemed them a “national disgrace.”

“How can these people, particularly the parents, abandon their families and children for a chance at money and fame?” Clinton was quoted as saying. “I think it’s a national disgrace.”

“Big Brother” resident George, a married father of three, reportedly was so distraught he wanted to leave the house. But a CBS spokeswoman denied that George (no last names are used) was undone by the prank. “It was made clear to everybody that it was all a hoax,” she said.

The prank forced CBS and the show’s producers, Endemol Entertainment, to breach the rule against outside contact by giving George a letter from his family to help allay his concerns.

The CBS spokeswoman said Friday that the network hadn’t decided whether to take any legal action against Wilson and Allen. The men denied any association with CBS or Endemol in perpetrating the stunt.

If this stunt was unplanned, it represents just the latest embarrassment “Big Brother” and CBS’ other reality series hit, “Survivor,” have caused the network, most due to slips in background checks.

The latest glitch is at least tinged with humor. Wilson and Allen decided to pull off the hoax Wednesday, when the screenwriters, who have a comedy feature in development at New Line Cinema, had a meeting on the CBS-Radford lot. They noticed the “Big Brother” house was surrounded by a fence but had little visible security.

“For fun,” Wilson said, the two wrote the bogus articles and e-mailed them to J.G. Roshell, an Internet graphic designer who created the mock pages. Allen and Wilson jammed the photocopies into the balls along with a cover letter that read in part: “It’s so unfair what’s going on out here . . .”

The two say that they returned to the lot Thursday, stood 30 yards from the fence and began tossing the balls at the compound. They then went to a friend’s office and watched the 24-hour live feed on the “Big Brother” Web site to see what would unfold.

Allen and Wilson said a voice was heard across the compound saying: “This is Big Brother. There’s been a security breach. Put those balls down. Do not read the articles.”

The CBS spokeswoman said security around the fence might be beefed up, and that the network hasn’t decided whether to air the sabotage segment.