By Pat Dunn

What: "Celebrity Paranormal Project"
Where: VH1 cable channel
When viewed: November 14, 2006
Episode #2: "Pearl"
Official site link: http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/celebrity_paranormal/110141/episode_about.jhtml

Okay, I'll admit I didn't think I'd be back here with another review of VH1's celebreality/ghostbuster program, "Celebrity Paranormal Project", but after seeing all five episodes aired to date, I've got to admit it's more fun than I thought it would be. Whatever your views on ghosts, the show serves up crumbling, spooky locations, and a wild mix of (mostly) famous people coping with scary bangs in the the dark, as well as with each other. The formula may be on a par with a Halloween spook house, but the psychology at work keeps it interesting.

The program notes, in a title at the beginning of the episode, that while the locations are real places in the United States, "their names and the names of some people in the stories may have been changed to protect their privacy." (Ah, so that explains why they said it was a ghostly boy who played with the rubber ball at the Waverly Sanatorium, when I had heard from other sources that it was a little girl.)

The second episode's location was the Warson Hospital for the Criminally Insane, located in New England. The backstory concerns a young woman, Nell Marley, committed here in 1945 for murder. She said at her trial that an entity known as "Pearl" made her do the crime. Despite a gruesome operation meant to help her, Nell did not get better and eventually died in a padded cell while wearing a strait-jacket.

The team for this episode consisted of:
Rachel Hunter, model, a believer
Godfrey, comedian, a skeptic
Traci Bingham, actress on "Baywatch", a believer
Tony Little, personal trainer, a believer
Ethan Zohn, winner of "Survivor Africa"

The first assignment sent Tony and Traci through the tunnels to Room 202, the Padded Cell, where Nell had died. Tony is told for the re-enactment to put on the strait-jacket. Traci sets up a pendulum "to detect spirits", and they use a EMF meter, which we're here told "measures paranormal energies". The pendulum swings, the EMF meter "goes crazy", Tony perspires heavily and Ethan finally calls them back to the base camp.

The second assignment sent Rachel and Godfrey to the Therapy Room, where Nell's doctor recorded sessions with her. Rachel was instructed to talk into a digital voice recorder (provided by the program) in an attempt to obtain an EVP (electronic voice phenomeon). Godfrey, in an ungentlemanly fashion, left Rachel alone in the Therapy Room, supposedly too frightened by a "shadow" he saw to continue. Despite being ordered to return to Rachel, he refused, and the experiment was cut short. Back in the base camp, everyone listened to the recorder and did hear-- something.

The third assignment sent Tony and Ethan to the Operating Room where Nell underwent a procedure called "trans-orbital manipulation" (basically an ice-pick inserted into the brain above the eye-socket). The men had a sack with them which turned out to contain a human skull and an ice-pick (nice surprises!), and were instructed to re-enact the surgical procedure. Tony obeyed under protest, and pierced both eye sockets. The room turned colder, they heard banging, the communication radio produced static. Ethan was then told to stay alone in the room and "focus on his experiences", while Tony was instructed to wait by the staircase. Ethan heard noises, then was left in darkness when his flashlight (also provided by the program) went out. He was very relieved when Tony came back for him and they went back.

The fourth assignment sent Rachel and Traci to the Hdyrotherapy Room, where Nell had been given baths in the tubs, and where her nurses were often scalded and scratched, supposedly by "Pearl." The team had a thermal imager and were told that red indicated heat energy and blue indicated cold spots. The instructions were that they should run water into the tub, and Traci should put her hand into it. Traci screamed, and flat-out refused to complete the assignment, which was a bit anti-climactic. There was, however, a rather neat brief flash of a human-shaped blue figure behind the ladies, just before the experiment was canceled. (Post-production addition? Most likely.)

Back at the base camp, the "Heart of the Haunting" was selected as the Padded Cell, and Rachel was named "the team member with the most sensitivity to the spirit", which meant she got to be "the conduit" for the "Channeling Session." The entire team returned to Nell's padded cell and set up a card table, placed the "Channeling Scroll" on it, and used a leather restraint as the "token from the spirit's past." Traci tried to refuse to put her hand on the scroll's handprint, as instructed, but the others reminded her that the sooner they got it done the quicker they could leave. Before the session went very far, all team members heard a whispery "Help Me!" and all beat a very hasty retreat in close formation.