Showbiz 10: From loo roll to hot flushes

Your mid-week Showbiz 10 includes Piers Morgan toilet paper as endorsed by his wife, a strange tribute to Janine Butcher and too much ring action in the morning.

JUST LOO ROLL WITH IT

Piers Morgan’s wife Celia Walden has endorsed a cheeky novelty product that allows you to wipe s**t all over Morgan’s face.

The toilet paper, with Piers face on each sheet, is something Celia is ‘proud’ to have purchased, as she showed her social media followers. The journalist showed off her bathroom bargain taking pride of place in the family lav.

“A proud moment for any wife.”

The product had previously been noted online by Morgan who was pleased it had been ‘selling like hot cakes’. Piers is seen thrice a week, Monday to Wednesday on ITV’s Good Morning Shitt’en, I mean Britain.

‘AVE A BUTCHERS

We all loved Charlie Brooks as scheming, Barry extinguishing, Janine Butcher. She walked Albert Square with a smile that gave away none of her evil intent.

So with that in mind, what kind of product could be produced to reflect those many years of Janine being a bit of a bugger to other residents in Walford? Well bugger me, and you will be able to bugger yourself soon, with The Butcher sex toy. And, no, we’re not taking you for ‘some kind of doughnut’ like her old pa Frank used to say.

Charlie is, a tabloid reported, releasing her own range of vibrators. The actress has been approached by Ann Summers – The Sun report – to design and launch the seven-inch rubber creations early next year. The budget brand aims to bring  ‘sexy yet affordable toys’ to the shelves.

You do know Poundland used to sell sex toys? Not that I saw myself, of course, someone told me…

TRINNY’S RING

No, not that one, although she does look, to me, like she needs a good go on The Butcher.

Anyway, we’re talking a big shiny product placement ring that she’s been flashing around the This Morning studio at any given opportunity. This self-confession product plug came down, she self-confessed, after a show-down with ITV bosses over her wearing it.

“I always wear this ring cause I always wear big rings. After a while, I remember the editor said: ‘Trinny you can’t wear that ring!’ I was like ‘Why not?’

“He goes: ‘Well because it’s an ad for your brand.’ I go: ‘Darling it’s the ring or me. I’m very happy to give up fashion on This Morning, but this is my ring, it’s me. I always wear big rings, people can make of it what they will.’” – Trinny on the Emma Guns Podcast

Could we not just have the ring on This Morning instead? It surely has a better eye for fashion than the tat Trinny usually comes up with.

HIGH PRICE TO PAY

The darling of our slot, Katie Price is of course back in the tabloids again and yet again its another story that isn’t particularly on the positive side.

Apparently, the queen of the column inches is facing a new bankruptcy hearing because her alleged lavish spending has been anonymously reported to the courts.

It appears those who she owes money to have seen her social media and tabloid features showing she’s not being exactly tight with money, with five holidays alone in 2020.

“Katie’s creditors have obviously seen her holidays, the products she’s been advertising and her days out on her YouTube channel and tipped off the bankruptcy court anonymously.” – ‘A Source’ quoted by The Sun

Well as Dolly Parton famously said, it costs a lot of money to look cheap.

A RIGHT TIT

John Leslie is back in the spotlight for yet another female sexual assault trial. This time the Wheel of Fortune, Blue Peter and This Morning personality is accused of making a ‘solid grab’ of a female’s tits over a decade ago.

The accusation is that this all happened at a Christmas party, as the court case began this week.

Leslie has denied sexual assault by intentionally touching the woman without her consent in December 2008.

“He shook my hand and was smiling and then immediately thereafter he grabbed both of my breasts, one hand on each breast, quite firmly, and laughed…

‘It was very confident, I would say. I was very shocked. It wasn’t a kind of quick grab. It was a solid grab and then, after a period of a couple of seconds, I think, he let go and was laughing.“I was a bit stunned. I didn’t say anything, I was a bit annoyed, I was shocked, I think. He just sort of laughed and walked off to the bar and that was it.”

Leslie’s defence noted that the story had been embellished to explain away the fact there are no witnesses.

STAYING POSITIVE

I know this Showbiz 10 newswrap is often quite flippant, but there are just times when you’re left stunned, shocked into silence by news. And it was exactly that this week at ATV Today when we heard the awful news about Tom Parker.

The Wanted’s frontman shared his heartbreak over his diagnosis of an inoperable brain tumour. Tom and his pregnant wife Kelsey discussed the terminal condition with OK magazine on Monday.

“I’m still in complete shock, it’s so much to take in… I knew something wasn’t right, but I never expected it to be this. You never think this will happen to you.” – Tom Parker speaking to OK

Sometimes there just are no words.

BOY O BOY

Happy news this week came from Rochelle and Marvin Humes who shared their joy of becoming proud parents to a baby boy.

“Blake Hampton Humes. On Friday morning at 8.44am our boy arrived to flip the switch on 2020. I didn’t think I’d ever fall in love with another man but this guy has stolen my whole heart and we’ve been in a love bubble ever since…” – Rochelle Humes on social media

The happy couple has two daughters, Alaia-Mai (born 2013) and Valentina Raine (born 2017).

In other baby news, this week Emmerdale regular Michelle Hardwick also welcomed a baby boy with wife Kate Brooks. Hardwick, who plays Vanessa Woodfield in the ITV saga, announced the birth on social media of Edward ‘Teddy’ Peter Brooks.

THE RIGHT WAY

Angelina Jolie and Amnesty International are to release ‘Know Your Rights (and claim them)’.

The book with an introduction by Angelina Jolie sets out the history of child rights and why they matter, before introducing each of the rights and how they apply in the real world.

They include rights of urgent interest to young people today, such as free speech, gender and racial equality, health, a clean climate and a sustainable environment. Each group of rights is accompanied by true accounts of child activists who have fought to make a difference in every corner of the world, as well as quotes in their own voices.

Know Your Rights (And Claim Them) also includes a guide for young people on how to claim their rights – through campaigning and protesting, educating themselves and others, and by challenging injustice at home, in school or at a community level.

“The Convention is for the children of the world, who can use its provisions to call for their rights to be protected. They can also help other children and prevent their rights from being violated. To do this, children need to know their rights and be supported in how to use them. This book does that.” – Geraldine Van Bueren QC

HOT TOPIC

Davina McCall appeared on Loose Women at the start of the week and spoke about her experience of the menopause.

“Nobody told me about it. I hadn’t learned about it at school, from my mum or my big sister. It was the thing nobody talked about it.

“There was so much shame about it. It was a sign you’d dried up, you were past your sell-by date, you were at the end of your life, which in Victorian days, I suppose you were….But now we live until we’re 80, we’re right in the middle of our lives. This is where the good bit happens where we know we’re not going to have kids anymore and we can go off and be a bit selfish after being selfless for so long.”

Davina said taking Hormone Replacement Therapy has helped her get through it.

Loose Women airs weekdays from 12.30pm on ITV, STV and UTV

RIP

This week we learned that actress Margaret Nolan had passed away on October 5th. ‘Maggie’, to those who knew her, had graced the big screen been groundbreaking on the small screen and had even life as a soft-porn star before her fame as Vicky Kennedy.

In the movies, she was best known for James Bond movie Goldfinger alongside Sean Connery and six Carry On appearances from 1965 Carry on Cowboy through to Carry on Dick nine years later.

On television, there were plentiful offerings of roles ranging from comedy with Steptoe and Son and Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? To action drama in shows such as The Persuaders! and The Sweeney to lavish drama such as Brideshead Revisited and Armchair Theatre.

Margaret had a recurring part in the BBC soap opera The Newcomers in 1966, however, a longer role came in 1983 in ITV’s Crossroads in a role she said she was “incredibly proud of”. She played Denise Paget, the mother of Downs Syndrom child Nina. The storyline in association with MENCAP was universally praised and coverage of it made newspaper headlines and coverage on News at Ten.

Margaret Nolan passed away on October 5th 2020 aged 76.

This week we also learned of the passing of former BBC floor manager Tony Redston. Tony worked on shows such as Lovejoy, Top of the Pops, Doctor Who and the original All Creatures Great and Small.

It was also farewell to actor Ronald Forfar who had a long career in the theatre but became famous for playing wayward Freddie Boswell in Carla Laine sitcom Bread for over sixty episodes. Ronald died aged 81. Other TV roles included in Z Cars, The New Avengers and The Sweeney.

An opinion feature by Vivian Summers. ATV Today, ATV News and ATV Network do not endorse any views expressed by the author in this piece.