Showbiz10: “I did not take it upon myself to lick him”

It’s late-night Saturday once again and here at ATV Today we ponder the past week in the showbiz world with our ten choice stories.

Ahead of a new documentary Katie Price revealed that she has had to take the tough decision to move her son Harvey into care. The 18-year-old, who has autism, Prader-Willi Syndrome and is registered partially sighted, is to be enrolled at a residential college from next month.

“It breaks my heart. I don’t want him to think I’m just getting rid of him.” – Katie Price speaking to The Sun

Strictly Come, Dancing contestant 2020, Caroline Quentin insists her partner on the Beeb show was happy to be licked during one of their dance routines The Guardian newspaper reported.

“Let me just say that Johannes was completely complicit, I am not a licker. I did not take it upon myself to lick him.

“We talked about it. It was consensual licking. It was meant to be funny. So get a sense of humour or f*** off. One or the other. I don’t care.”

The face of GMTV in the 00’s, Fiona Phillips, has spoken about her time on Strictly Come Dancing. Commenting in The Mirror she reflected;

“It’s funny but for someone who has spent a lot of time in broadcasting, I’ve always been quite shy and have low self-esteem.

“I felt so self-conscious, but I thought, ‘I will have a professional dancer and it’s a nice programme’. But Brendan is a rough old taskmaster and really wanted to be number one or nothing.”

The pro-dancer who was cha-cha’d off the show for good, it seems, in 2018, also reportedly didn’t get on with Lulu. He made her want to shout, apparently… and if you don’t get that you’re far too young to be here.

Sir David Attenborough became the latest television personality to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, BBC News reported. He follows in the footsteps of telly legends such as Lionel Blair, Joan Collins, Barry Humphries, Prue Leith and Ian McKellen.

The celebrities have been putting their support behind getting vaccinated by sharing photographs of them during the jab taking place. Of course, the most famous of all to get protected was The Queen and Prince Phillip earlier this month.

This week we’ve said goodbye to more stars that glittered and shone in our lives.

It was farewell to early stateside ‘reality star’ Pat Loud who became famous as the matriarch on An American Family. We also said goodbye to John Reilly who passed aged 86. He was best known for his role on ABC’s daytime saga General Hospital.

Evangelist Duranice Pace died aged 62, Siegfried Fischbacher of magic duo Siegfried and Roy said ‘until later’ aged 81, Sylvain Sylvain New York Dolls guitarist passed away at 69 and Dynasty actor Peter Mark Richman died aged 93.

This Morning’s Phillip Schofield has revealed that he feared coming out as gay would look like “a publicity thing”, as he shares the extent of planning that went into his interview with Holly Willoughby Digital Spy reported.

It didn’t look like a publicity stunt to me or many other people. It came across more like a rush job to get it out there before someone else did. *rubs chin* who knows – maybe The Sun was going to do a ‘Stephen Gately’ on him. Anyway, the former Going Live! presenter told podcast Life, Interrupted that…

“I can remember saying ‘This is ridiculous, you know, this is the biggest thing I’m ever gonna do in my life. How is this a publicity stunt? For what?'”

Baby news this week saw Daybreak, The One Show and Loose Women regular Christine Lampard confirm that she’s expecting a second child with football hubby Frank. She spoke about her concerns on having a ‘lockdown pregnancy’ on Loose Women as ATV Today Lifestyle featured earlier in the week.

Actress Kara Tointon, best known possibly for her spell with BBC One’s EastEnders, has welcomed her second child with partner Marius Jensen.

Daughter of Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, Chloe, revealed to The Sun on Sunday that her approach to life has been greatly influenced by her mum’s wardrobe malfunction at the National Television Awards in 2000 when she gave ITV viewers an eyeful when her top fell apart and exposed her massive bra to millions at home, and thousands at the venue.

Chloe says this has helped her have ‘no shame’ along with growing up in the celebrity spotlight.

“Being in the public eye, if you can’t laugh at yourself, you’re gonna hate every second of it. I’ve generally got no shame. I really like doing sexy shoots, I love just prancing around in my underwear. And I’ve learned from my parents not to take myself too seriously.”

Jason Donovan, actor, singer and soon to face ice skating on ITV, has said his wife saved him from the mire.

‘Had it not been for her [Angela], I doubt I’d still be standing. She was my saving grace and set to become the real love of my life.’ Jason told The Mirror yesterday.

Donovan hit the ‘big time’ starring in Reg Watson’s hit-serial of the 1980s Neighbours alongside Kylie Minogue and fame was addictive, as was the trappings that came with it. In the show his on-screen wedding drew in millions of viewers while a pop chart domination in the late 80s and early 90s followed with hits such as Nothing Can Divide Us, When You Come Back To Me, Too Many Broken Hearts and Everyday all taking the UK and Australia by storm.

Battling cocaine addition, Jason decided to clean up his act when Angela became pregnant with their first child, of three.

‘I now know what I don’t want to do in my life, I’m very honest about that period. Do I regret it? Not really. It was wasted time. There were a lot of relationships that suffered. But I got out at the right time and I’ve learned from it.

‘There’s nothing cool about taking drugs, full stop.’

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