problem is that she is not pretty - Kate is and Debra is 'striking' - she suffers from being 'ordinary', yet with a decent business mind - far better than Philip (who let himself down this week by being an arse).
BUT unless she stands up for herself more, she will not be able to manage 'big personalities' and that will be a factor.

Lorraine would benefit from a haircut, a pair of glasses that actually suited her, and some nice clothes. Debra is a prime example of this sort of thing -- people consider her "striking" despite the fact that it looks as if her face has had a rapid and unfortunate coming together with the back of a bus.

Lorraine looked very nice during the truffle tasting dinner.

Those glasses and the severe haircut go a lot further than 'Not doing her any favours'.

I suspect she'll really shine on YF (or, you're hired').

Yep, those glasses are a bit of a handicap. Because they're so magnified, they make her look like she's permanently big-eyed and petrified and that's not a good look for someone trying to impress you with their capabilities. She looks much better without them but I guess she can hardly leave them off if she can't see without them....there's enough of the blind leading the blind going on already.

On some occasions her problem was that she stuck with an idea for too long. The under-floor exerciser is one example, the multiple-characters theme for the cereal is another, and doing the pitch is another. She doesn't always seem to make progress; she just gets something and won't let go. Which isn't the same as following through.

On the pitch, she did get better though. I hope you don't think that because she doesn't follow through on one occasion, that means she never follows through. That would be a bit simplistic.

I think I've addressed your other points in other threads, so I won't repeat myself here.

Well, yes, she's clearly short-sighted, so any glasses are going both to be completely essential and to have that slightly strange optical effect. But that's a very good reason not to pick absolutely massive frames! Why oh why oh why isn't she wearing little wiry things? Quite frankly, her glasses salesman should be fired!

And I agree with Tern about any YRF/YRH appearance...

I can't see either team making the mistake of ignoring her again. If she leads them to a win they'll be happy, if she makes a mistake they can blame it on her and take her in the boardroom.

Now that Siralan has pointed out that she is normally correct it is a win/win situation for the others. Siralan has in fact put her in a weaker position, byy pointing this out!

The problem with Lorraine I feel is that she doesn't express herself very well and in this particular series it is very easy to get shouted down and ignored by the others, so what she does is repeat her points e.g concerns with "Pantsman" and her feeling that the rug was actually quite valuable etc in the boardroom where she can't be ignored so easily and by then it is too late, and her colleagues immediately go on the defensive.

Her instincts are actually very good, and after her being championed by Margaret last week, if they have any sense at all her group should pay more attention to what she has to say

I quite like Lorraine!

Funny you should say that about the magnifed glasses! It struck me the other night who she reminds me of - Emma Thompson's portrayal of Professor Trelawney in Harry Potter

http://www.aceshowbiz.com/images/news/00016210.jpg

Striking similarity to Lorraine!
http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/a...80_766343a.jpg

They're even similar in how Professor Trelawney has her 'divinations' i.e. predictions, which usually no one believes (they are often made up) but she occasionally comes up with a gem!

Had to giggle in the last episode when everyone had decided they would listen to Lorraine's prediction of who would be going when they were waiting at the penthouse, and she confidently predicted it would be Ben - oops!

Without being rude, as she can look very nice, I think Lorraine is unfortunately one of those people who, when her face is in its natural position, has a bit of a downturned mouth, which can cause people to assume she is a negative person, when in fact she is probably just deep in thought!

Mind you, working in a task with Philip is enough to make anyone have a downturned mouth!

agreed. If she steps forward a little more then she may well be a dark horse, who knows!

As I've said, she's damned if she does and she's damned if she doesn't.

Those who make it their business to be apologists for Philip will criticise her for 'going on to long' if she holds her ground and 'not following through' if she puts team morale above her personal opinions.

As with those who have a crush on her opponents, she just can't win.

It amazes me that Lorraine is the one who has been described as overly negative, whereas Philip seems to always be having tantrums, whinging and complaining yet he is thought of as a bit moody as opposed to being a wet rag like Lorraine...

I hope that Lorraine triumphs over everyone!

I think that some people have crushes on Ben and Philip.

If Lorraine had chosen different glasses and a different hairdo I suspect things would be very different.

Not that I think members of this forum are shallow, or anything.

I keep awaiting for Lorraine to screw up though, she is in quite a precarious situation.

She only needs to make one or two mistakes to prove all of her detractors right. She could have a Lucinda style-turnaround, but could easily go the other way too if she isn't so lucky...

Lorraine is the best canidate by far, but I do like the village idiot.

Lorraine has decent gut instinct about things. If they'd listened to her and ditched the pants man thing, they might not have lost the task. Her fruit characters idea wasn't very original but it was better than what they went with.

And if they'd focussed on that rug, like she said they should, who knows...?

I cheered when Margaret pointed out that Lorraine was the one who was generally right but never listened to.

I would dearly love to see her win this but it's unlikely.

Not picking on this comment, but I do think that her 'problem' is more the obvious ineptness of some of those around her rather than her appearence or own attitude.

She is not always right, nor is she any brighter than some of the rest, but I do think that she has an ability to see the wider picture that the likes of Phillip, Debra and Ben lack.

The editing has focussed on the spats between her and Phillip over the last two weeks so we are bound to think she is always ignored and underestimated by the rest.

As the likes of James, Howard etc come to the fore in the later stages we may see her being "ignored" less but that may not be all good.

In the coming weeks we may see her in a different light as she gets it wrong, is seen actually laughing etc but I also don't think she will make the final. Mid table all the way.

I wonder what Lorraine would look like if she wore contact lenses. I don't like the glasses she wears.

Agree with you on both points!

Lorraine seems to be an outsider for two reasons - firstly, she is older being in her mid-30s, and secondly, she is not as pretty as the other girls, particularly Kate and Mona. Finally, she is on Phil's team and he is using these two factors against her.

I don't think she will win although she is one of the more capable players... I mean, candidates. I think Suralan will feel he wants a candidate that people will listen to - not have to be told that they should listen to. ALso, if there is any truth in those stories which were in the NOTW last weekend, then she doesn't stand a chance.

Really? I don't see any sign of that. He's generally been critical of her ideas, not her appearance, and his criticism has generally been correct, albeit not appropriate during brainstorming. I think she'd just been wrong often enough for him to start to disregard her.

I wonder how he feels about Mona? Mona seems more conventionally attractive, but in my opinion is a weaker candidate. Philip seemed annoyed that Kimberly didn't bring Mona and Nooral into the boardroom, so I wonder if he actually rates attractive Mona lower than unattractive Lorraine? Lorraine at least had an idea, and contributed criticisms that helped Philip refine his idea, and generally works hard, where-as in the edit we don't see Mona do anything much (other than mess up the pitch).


I agree. Although I don't think she's quite that bad at getting listened to. Being called "Cassandra" did her no favours, though; she has to shake off that label and I think she knows it.

That works both ways, though. Attractive women are often judged more harshly. Mona is unpopular in some quarters, for example. I have to wonder whether she got that high-value cleaning contract in the first task because of her ex-beauty-queen looks rather than her clever negotiating skills. Kimberly mentioned that Kate has the same problem: because she's good looking, people assume she's a dumb blonde, and she has to work harder to get people to take her seriously.

I was actually talking about things here rather than on the tasks (although your point still stands).

On the tasks were they have to get big(gish) contracts (e.g. cleaning and catering) I'm certain that Talkback actually set these up.

There's no way that Mona would have got that contract after almost calling the prospective client a liar.

Similarly with the catering tasks - no one would have gone for either of the teams after their appalling presentations.

What are Philip's criticisms of Lorraine?

That she talks b*llocks? That's mainly what I've heard him saying about her, and its been proven wrong by the outcome of the tasks.


Philip is driven by his own ego, so as long as Mona is agreeing with all of his ideas, as we have seen her to be doing - then I dont think he will have any problems with her.


By calling her Cassandra I think Margaret was paying her a big complement.

If they were wise, they would pay attention to her because Cassandra was always right. She obviously rates Lorraine's judgements quite highly to suggest she is always correct and by not taking her seriously the team will be doomed to disaster, as in the myth.

Well, no. She was wrong on task 3 and task 5. She was right on task 6 about the rug. This notion that she has good instincts is a bit over-stated. Sometimes she's right, sometimes she's wrong.


Except he thought she should be brought into the boardroom.


It was double-edged. Nobody wants to be Cassandra. She was cursed.