Showbiz 5: From Bill’s big tax bill to dirty texts hit Holmes

Showbiz Newswrap with Penelope Teeth…

ITV Sport came under fire from Scotland fans for dedicating 30 minutes of the pre-match coverage of the Scotland v Germany match to the first England game. Other viewers were left baffled that ITV1 took 90 minutes out of the schedule for ‘build up’ chatter meaning the schedules were overly rearranged.

One STV viewer asked ‘will there be half an hour of discussion about the next Scotland game during England’s pre-match coverage?’ Others criticised 90 minutes of the programme before the match which saw regional news and the national news programme cut to 15 minutes each – when the usual daytime offerings were unaffected. ‘Why not a half-hour best of The Chase? If something has to be cut, this is where Ofcom should have kick’.

North of the border STV operates the Channel 3 service provided by ITV to the rest of the UK. Another viewer suggested to avoid such England-centric coverage in future maybe STV could do their own lead-in programme.

Dirty bastard Paul Gadd – known for his glam rock persona Gary Glitter – has been ordered to pay more than £500,000 in damages to one of his victims who sued the disgraced I Love You Love Me Love singer at the High Court in London.

The payout comes following his 2015 conviction for abusing her and two other young people between 1975 and 1980. Gadd was jailed for 16 years in 2015 for sexually abusing three schoolgirls, just one of several perverted crimes to his name. His sentence expires in February 2031.

RTÉ News report ‘Glitter was automatically released from HMP The Verne, a low-security prison in Portland, Dorset, in February last year after serving half of his fixed-term determinate sentence. He was put back behind bars less than six weeks after walking free when police monitoring showed he had breached his licence conditions by reportedly trying to access the dark web and viewing downloaded images of children.’

It’s the showbiz story of the moment – if you like that kind of thing – the ongoing seemingly never-ending coverage of the Ruth Langsford and Eamonn ­Holmes spilt.

This week The Mirror reported ‘the real reason’ the pair have come to a parting of the ways. The paper says that the former darlings of Friday This Morning ended up splitting up after Ruth was left ‘tampin’, fumin’, ragin’ when she discovered messages between Eamonn and another woman.

The Mirror states, ‘It comes after we told last week how news presenter Eamonn, 64, has become close friends with a blonde divorcee in her 40s — who works as a relationship counsellor. The Belfast-born anchor has been on outings with her and showered her with gifts. It is understood the messages Loose Women host Ruth, 64, stumbled across were to and from the same woman.’.

And of course, with Eamonns great health, dashing youthful looks and sparking personality who wouldn’t want a bit of his Irish charm…

Former Emmerdale and Coronation Street performer Hayley Tamaddon has been diagnosed with arthritis following a recent trip to the hospital Entertainment Daily reports.

Posting on social media she said, ‘Today. Woke up. Thought my head was gonna explode. Puked up twice… Took Jasper to nursery. Got ready for a photo shoot. Got there and realised I really should see a doctor. Ended up in hospital. On a drop for medication. It didn’t work. Head and neck pain still horrendous. Had a scan. Got told I have arthritis.’

Coronation Street regular, since its launch in 1960, Bill Roache has realised as Moria Stewart sat upon a washing machine once declared ‘tax doesn’t have to be taxing’.

The Ken Barlow performer has settled a tax bill with HMRC thus now has been spared a bankruptcy order. The 91-year-old was given 12 weeks in March to settle the dispute with the taxman however earlier this week at a High Court hearing lasting less than a minute a judge ordered that the case be dismissed.

HMRC requested the dismissal and was awarded £1,129.20 for the costs of bringing the dispute to court. The Evening Standard reports, ‘It was initially reported that Roache owed a £546,348.53 debt to HMRC, though the true figure – said to be lower – has not been revealed.’