22:00pm on 12th November 2006
It is ITV's flagship reality show. Yet producers of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here have been forced to slash costs before the two-week reality show has even started.
Towering fees and diva demands from the 10 contestants in the run-up to today's opening show have sent it dangerously over-budget.
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Now the likes of
David Gest, Jan Leeming and Lauren Booth have been put on a strict budget of £59 a day at their five-star north Australian hotel where they have been staying all week.
They have also been banned from cleaning out minibars and making international calls from their rooms.
The cut-backs occurred after Lauren Booth, a vociferous anti-Iraq war campaigner and the sister in law of Tony Blair, run up £30,000 in travel expenses when producers were forced to fly her and an aide out first class due to security concerns. David Gest also demanded first class transport from America.
Gest and Jason Donovan meanwhile demanded £100,000 each to appear. While the show's format this year has also been altered - at great cost.
Additional contestants including former Eastenders star Dean Gaffney, former Emmerdale actress Malandra Burrows, and Coronation Street actor Phil Middlemiss have been flown in but will be paid a very small amount to appear.
DailyMail
