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Outside the Lines: Queen of “College Hill”

Should Kathy Harris get booted off College Hill: Interns?

You know who Kathy is, right? She’s the sassy out lesbian on BET’s new half-hour reality series about a group of black summer interns living and working together in Chicago. College Hill: Interns is The Apprentice meets The Real World. A group of future Masters of the Universe are divided into two teams to compete in challenges focused on marketing, team building, management, publicity and community organizing. Heads roll, and interns go home.

Because most of the action takes place in their sleek apartment, the 10 interns do much of their business brainstorming hung over, still drunk, wearing underwear, sleepwear or nothing at all. There’s a lot of education and entrepreneurship alongside fronting, flirting and freakiness. And lots of drinking!

Kathy, the resident lesbian, is a 20-year-old sophomore at Illinois State University who hopes her stint as a College Hill intern will lead to a VJ gig on BET. Pretty, with close-cropped hair and wide, round, Bette Davis eyes, she describes herself as an honorary D.I.V.A. (Divine. Intellectual. Vibrant. & Articulate.) On the show, she’s carved out a role as “motivator.”

Halfway through, how’s Kathy doing? She’s out, but is she in? Two interns have been sent packing, and as the show hurtles toward the Dec. 4 finale, somebody – or somebodies – will also go home. So what about Kathy: Is she making the grade? Let’s see:

Coming Out: A+

In Episode 2, during a group conversation about dating, somebody asked, “What’s the worst line you ever heard?” Kathy’s response was, “I can turn you straight.”

As jaws hit the floor, she added: “I don’t date guys. I like all types of women. I like all of them. And I like [expletive] them.” Wow!

In one of those gossipy, canned interviews that are a staple of reality TV, housemate Lonnie said, “Hey, I have nothing against homosexuality whatsoever, especially hot lesbians.”

And later, when Kathy was careful to assure the other women that she would never date any of them, Ivy wrote on her blog, “Honestly, I thought, ‘dang, why not, you don’t think we’re cute?'” For Kathy, coming out of the closet and into the limelight was seamless and natural.

Humility: F

In Episode 5, nearly drunk on a scary, yellow-looking cocktail, Kathy announced that “nobody in this house is on my level in terms of sex.”

But she didn’t stop there. “If a girl was, like, laying on this table right now, I could just rub my hand all over her body, and I betcha she’d feel everything,” Kathy went on. “She’d probably come just by me doing it.” (Between the slurring and the censors, I think she said “come.”)

Amid lots of eye rolling, it went downhill from there:

Lonnie: Give me a tip then. [Then, behind Kathy’s back in an interview:] Right off the top, I’m thinking: “This is bulls—. If this is real, I will never question you again in my [expletive] life.” Kathy: I give her my energy. Lonnie: I don’t know where the [expletive] this energy is. I want some secret Quasimodo Lord of the Ring type thing.

Sexual Technique (with men): D

To prove her prowess, Kathy climbed on top of Kasheef and, starting at his belly, licked, kissed and sucked from south to north. She didn’t rock his world.

“Kathy did a thing on top of me,” he said later. “It was cute, but it was nothing I was shocked and amazed about.”

Afterward, he flipped the switch and put the moves on her. Though she claimed that she wasn’t “even close to horny,” the consensus both in the house and on the BET message boards was, “She’s bi.” Sexual Technique (with women): B

Later the same night at a local nightclub, Kathy proved she could mack. She picked up a honey, and the two women engaged in a grindy, against the wall rub-a-dub. It was steamy, but points have been deducted because the hottie multitasked by talking on her cell.

Audience Response: A

Post-coming out (and rub-a-dub), fans have shown Kathy lots of love on the message boards. Here’s an (unedited) sample:

ÔÇó I a lesbian 2 so wassup lets hook up ÔÇó KATHY BABY YOU IS TO FINE FOR YA OWN GOOD HOLLA AT CHA BOI!! ÔÇó O my god Kathy is beautiful I love her 2 death ÔÇó Like your other fans i love you to and think that you are so beatiful. i hope you make it to the top your the only reason why i watch it! i wish that i could find a girl like you! ÔÇó Wow…I think Kathy is gorgeous, unique, confident, smart, everything a black woman should be. I find that incredibly sexy and I love watching you on the show girl.
Will she win? Probably not. Jenna, the honor student from St. Louis, has my vote. Brash, buff, brainy and beautiful – and even a morning person! – she’s the alpha girl to watch.

However, Kathy should edge out Lonnie, who got drunk, threw up on-camera and then was too hung over to participate in the Episode 6 challenge, building a house for Habitat for Humanity. Or Tationna, who first whined and then wept through the crew’s landscaping challenge.

Should you watch? Why not! As the writers’ strike drags on, you better learn to love reality shows. As the black ones go, College Hill: Interns is a lot more wholesome and inclusive and much less ghetto than, say, Flavor of Love or I Love New York. And until The L Word and The Wire return in January, this is it for African-American lesbians. So tune in, and cast your vote for Kathy.

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