Showbiz Newswrap
Showbiz 5: From tabloid hack to a Fern comeback
A newswrap of recent showbiz news with Penelope Teeth.
After Byline Times handed the Met Police a ‘dirty dossier’ of alleged deeds by tabloid queen Dan Wootton the nation – well all six people who actually were interested – awaited the outcome. And the outcome is while Dan may have been dirty and had done things he regrets – as he noted on his former GB News show Dan Wootton Tonight – legally the cops say there isn’t anything to answer to.
The New Zealand-born hack said in a statement earlier this week that he had been “completely cleared”. And without seemingly any self-awareness of his previous television rants or newspaper articles – in which he had hounded celebrities such as Caroline Flack and Phillip Schofield – the once King of the Celeb Witchhunt claimed to have been a victim of one himself.
BBC News reported that ‘The Metropolitan Police had examined allegations that he used fake online identities and offered money to others for explicit material of themselves. Last July, he told viewers he had made “errors of judgement” but strongly denied any criminality.’
“While I knew this would always be the outcome, the process is now the punishment, with social media acting as the executioner.” Wootton said in a statement, adding, “Margaret Thatcher once said that if you ever get trial by media, or guilt by accusation, that day freedom dies.”
The irony of that last statement shouldn’t be lost on the families of Schofield or Flack who had been at the end of Wootton doing just that – trial by media.
“It is high time that all of our ancient rights were once again upheld, chief among them the right to be presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law.” This would most certainly be the end of Dan’s career if that became law, what on earth would he write or broadcast about? Dan is currently off air from GB News due to an entirely different matter.
As Dan knew too well from the Phillip Schofield situation, you can be a dirty f*cker, but it doesn’t make it illegal – but that didn’t stop Dan from hounding Phil night after night on his TV show, so I have no sympathy for the tabloid tosser.
Linda Robson says Katie Price is desperate. Well, that’s not new news. Oh, desperate to get back on Loose Women.
Writing in her new book Truth Be Told, Linda said: “I love Katie Price but sometimes I think she deliberately tries to shock…”Whenever I bump into her now, she tells me how she wants to come back to Loose Women. And I say, ‘But, Katie, you can’t f*** ing behave yourself, can you?’
Loose Woman has been on air since 1999 and continues to have a regular panel of names that without the show would be showcasing travel irons on QVC.
Since the Nolly drama last year a spotlight has been turned on how women in television have been treated in the past and in some cases not so long ago. Speaking about misogyny in soap opera Sally Lindsay has spoken about an incident she encountered on Coronation Street.
Lindsay, now a star of Channel 5 with her own travel series and prime time drama, recalled her stint in the ITV serial had its downside. Talking to the Chatabix podcast she said:
“There was one, he was an absolute dire misogynist and he…I was the lead, obviously, I was Shelley, the lead character in my storyline, and there was an actor brought in to play something with my storyline. And this actor, who will remain nameless said, ‘She’s in my eyeline’ and just pointed at me. This **** of an actor. I turned round to the director to say ‘Can you tell him not to say that, not to treat me like that’ you know? And he went ‘Could you just move Sally? I mean I think it’s probably best if you do.’
“So even though it was my bar, as landlady of the Rovers, it was a major part and they still went with the bloke. And that’s happened quite a lot with directors, not any more, not for the last 10 years I’d say. I’ve been doing this for 25 years.”
She has been the queen of ITV and Channel 5 daytime in the past and currently hosts a weekly show on Talk Radio/Talk TV. However, it’s her health that has made the news this week as Trisha Goddard revealed she is facing terminal cancer.
Sky News reported that ‘The mum of two said that keeping the illness a secret was “becoming a burden” and while she was “nervous” about revealing the cancer’s re-emergence, “it needed to be done”‘ Sky continued, ‘The 66-year-old has been diagnosed with secondary breast cancer – meaning the disease started in the breast and spread to another part of the body – for which there is treatment but no cure.’
In an article with Hello Magazine Goddard noted that she was told the news 19 months ago, but has only just decided to share the diagnosis which has seen the cancer spread to her bones, specifically her right hip. It is the second time Goddard has battled with cancer, winning the first time a decade ago.
Former This Morning host Fern Britton has reportedly been signed up to appear on Celebrity Big Brother with The Mirror reporting that the presenter may have revelations about her former co-host Phillip Schofield. The newspaper notes ‘Fern and Phil had a bitter falling out, however, when Fern explosively quit her job and was replaced by 42-year-old Holly Willoughby.’ adding ‘Reports have teased that Fern is ready to tell all about her fractured relationship with Phil once she is inside the famous reality show house.’
Up until now Britton, who has also worked on BBC Breakfast Time, Ready Steady Cook and her own Channel 4 chat show, hasn’t said anything about the This Morning departure in any great detail and has always made an effort to seem friendly to Phillip whenever the programme has asked her to appear on it or special programmes – this included anniversary video messages marking the programmes previous landmarks since her farewell in 2009. Fern first hosted the show in the 1980s and became a regular in the late 1990s. After the departure of Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan in 2001 Fern, along with John Leslie, were announced as the main replacements on the programme.
An insider at ITV told The Sun newspaper: “She wants to show the public a different side to her — unscripted and unapologetic. She has a lot of stories to tell and she won’t hold back when it comes to her relationships with people like Phil. They don’t speak anymore so there are no bridges to burn as far as she is concerned.”
ITV have said that any names being mooted for CBB are entirely, at this point, speculation.
The views expressed are those of Penelope Teeth, the drag queen with bite, and are not endorsed by ATV Today.
