Big Brother contestant: 'I thought they were sleeping pills'
Saar Sheinfain speaks before Knesset hearing says he was pressured into taking schizophrenia pills. Meanwhile, Shas MK causes uproar when he claims show is purely slutty
Sheinfain stated that "this occasion is very difficult for me and I'm gathering all my strength in order to confront everyone who's here. I asked to join Big Brother, I wanted to go through the experience I was promised. During the auditions they ask you 'will you agree to have sex on camera?' And then they told me you're a sensitive man, free to do whatever you want."
"It started to get boring and they asked me to stay. So the editor told me that the show's protocol obliged me to see a Psychiatrist. When I told them I don't want to see one they told me those were the rules and that I can't leave the show without seeing a psychiatrist."
On the meeting with Dr. Rabinovich Sheinfain states: "I told him I want to go home and don't want to stay. He told me 'everyone who voted for you and spent money on you won't forgive you and then you'll need even more therapy.' He spoke of the pills as 'pills that aren't strong, everyone takes them, you'll thank the day you met me.'
"For nearly two months I took pills for schizophrenia believing they were they were sleeping pills. If I had known they were schizophrenia pills I would never have taken them."
Knesset Member Nissim Zeev (Shas) created a major stir during the hearing when he declared that the reality show was nothing more than "slutty in the full sense of the word." He added that "they (producers) were doing participants a kindness in giving them pills."
To which one previous contestant responded with: "You just want people to talk about you later. You're talking nonsense." Zeev then asked him: "Do you also want a pill? They'll give you one."
Saar Sheinfain (Photo: Gil Yohanan)
Sheinfain, a finalist on the Israeli version of reality show "Big Brother", is filing a NIS 2.5 million (about $650,000) lawsuit against the show's production company "Kuperman Productions," for allegedly forcing harmful psychiatric drugs on the contestants for ratings purposes. Sheinfein claims he holds evidence to back his allegations.
Sheinfain claims that the picture depicted by the production company for the audience is far from reality. The contestants, said Sheinfain, are helpless and are being manipulated by the producers with psychiatric drugs.
"If it was up to me, you wouldn't have seen what you've seen. You saw a man who was drugged, imprisoned and manipulated… a depressed puppet," he stated.
According to the allegations, "Big Brother" contestants were given psychiatric pills during their stint on the show. Five more contestants are expected to support these allegations.
The contestants revealed that the show's psychiatrist, Dr. Ilan Rabinovich, approached them a few days before entering the house, and persuaded them to take pills to make them feel more calm and energetic during the show.
Some contestants said they were placed under a lot of pressure to take the pills against their will. One contestant claimed that the psychiatrist forced him to take the pill, telling him he would be kicked off the show if he refused.
