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WC Amber's Fan Club
By: Scott Tady, Times Staff
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She does it again! By Scott Tady , Times Staff SPECIAL REPORT SURVIVOR - Her tribe lost for the third straight week, but Amber Brkich survived Thursday night's episode of "Survivor II: The Australian Outback." Once again, none of the Brighton Township woman's fellow contestants voted to boot her off CBS' immensely popular reality drama. But for the first time, Brkich's path toward a possible $1 million prize got a little rocky. A few members of Brkich's Ogakor tribe wondered if she is under the spell of domineering tribemate Jerri Manthey. Colby Donaldson, the car customizer from Texas, remarked to the camera that Brkich is in "the hip pocket" of Manthey, the bikini-clad, aspiring actress who has emerged as the show's leading villain. Mike Shanafelt, a co-founder of one of the several Brkich Internet fan sites, fears his fellow Westminster College graduate is being influenced by Manthey. "Amber is selling out to Jerri," Shanafelt said, adding that he was not pleased with Brkich's performance Thursday. "She's coming off as someone who's not thinking for herself," said Shanafelt, of Meadville. But over at Kelly's Down by the Riverside Saloon in Bridgewater - where Brkich worked as a waitress a few summers ago - a group of about 20 people sat around the TV proudly rooting for the hometown woman. "I jokingly said to them that Amber was going to get voted off, and I thought they were going to throw me out," owner Jim Kelly said. And over at the Maljevec house in Beaver, where two flaming torches lit the way to a "Survivor II" party, there was nothing but praise for Brkich. "Amber's going to win because she's from a tough family," said 73-year-old Vincent Maljevec, Brkich's cousin. He hosted the party, attended by his wife, and several neighbors, including Mabel Miller, who is old enough to be the mother of the original "Survivor's" crusty but beloved Rudy Boesch. "I think Amber went in there and said, 'I'm going to be the winner,' " said Miller, who turns 94 today. Her fellow "Survivor" partygoer, Joan Treleaven, 74, of Beaver, admitted their informal gathering got tense when Brkich and the other Ogakors convened in the show's weekly tribal council. Each week, "Survivor" stages competitions between the Ogakor and competing Kucha tribe, to see which one has to vote a member off during the somber tribal council sessions. Thursday night's competition was a test of knowledge, in which the 13 remaining contestants were asked science questions. Brkich was asked a multiple-choice question: To purify water, how long should you boil it? Brkich's former science teachers at Beaver Area High School must have beamed with pride as she gave the correct answer: 10 minutes. But the Kucha won the contest, and so the chore fell to the Ogakor to banish one of their own. Ballots were cast, leading to a tie, of three votes each, for 40-year-old chef Keith Famie and 23-year-old songwriter Mitchell Olson. A second vote was cast, without Famie and Olson, resulting in a 2-2 tie. "Survivor" host Jeff Probst then announced that under the show's rules, the next tiebreaker says the person receiving the most votes during prior shows was the loser. That meant Olson was kicked off the show, since he had picked up a vote last week and Famie had not. Whittled down to a dozen contestants, next week's show should be compelling, especially with the Ogakor's allegiances so fragmented. Famie and his fellow 40-year-old tribemate, Tina Wesson, appear to be allies; so do the 22-year-old Brkich and the 30-year-old Manthey. Donaldson, 26, has been shown cozying up to Manthey, though in private conversations with the camera, he has expressed his distrust for her. Going into Thursday night's show, Kucha tribe member Rodger Bingham, the 53-year-old teacher, had scored the highest approval rating among "Survivor" viewers, based on a poll conducted by the show's official Web site. His perky ally, Elisabeth Filarski, had the second-highest approval rating, followed closely by Brkich. Viewers' least favorite contestant, by a landslide, was Manthey. Scott Tady can be reached online at stady@calkinsnewspapers.com. Friday, February 16, 2001
