5 BEDS FOR 10 Jungle CELEBS
Frank Thorne In Murwillumbah (Who Ate A Witchetty Grub And Survived) 1
I'm A Celebrity chiefs are trying to orchestrate a steamy rumble in the jungle - by only providing five beds for the 10 contestants.
And they are likely to get their wish - thanks to bikini-clad soap star Gemma Atkinson, who says she fancies getting up close to former boyband singer Jason "J" Brown.
Former Hollyoaks star Gemma says she is likely to smooch J, 31, a pin-up with 90s boyband 5ive... as she had a crush on him as a schoolgirl.
Gemma, 22, said: "I'll blush when I see him in the jungle because I had his picture on my pencil case at school when I was about 14.
"I used to collect stickers of him from Smash Hits magazine, so if I get close to J in the jungle, people will automatically accuse me a flirting with him. Already the whole J thing is building up, so there's a lot of pressure once we do get to meet."
When the 10 arrive in the Australian camp, the first thing they will discover is there are not enough beds to go around. Three of the celebs will have to sleep in hammocks strung from the trees - or share a bed. The other two stars will have the luxury of their own treehouse - which will be ideal for private canoodling.
Itv producers are desperate to recreate the ratings-winning love match between Peter Andre and Jordan in the 2002 series.
Gemma admitted: "I do tend to get on better with lads than with girls. I think I'll get on with him. I'm officially single, so if anything romantic happens, it happens, but if doesn't, so be it."
But she warned: "It takes a good piece of bait to get me hooked, so the boys will have to do very well. Two weeks is not really enough time."
Gemma, who paraded for the cameras yesterday in a tiny bikini, went on: "If it feels right, we'll meet up for a drink after we come out of the jungle.
"I know the whole Jordan and Peter thing worked, which was great and they are a fab couple. But I would be a bit embarrassed falling in love and everything on telly in front of everybody.
"I mean, it's bad enough taking your fella home to meet your mother, never mind everyone else seeing him."
Meanwhile, in other changes, there will be no camp leaders in this year's show. Producers hope this will provoke a series of rows and feuds as contestants battle for superiority.
The show kicks off tomorrow evening on ITV.
Panto star Christopher Biggins and man-eating Kate Hopkins of The Apprentice are on standby to enter the jungle if any of the 10 walks out or is thrown off the show.
Trials are most revolting ever
The Bushtucker Trials - which decide what food the celebs get - will be most revolting yet. One even involves eating a LIVE MOTH.
Failure in any assignment will mean going on punishment rations of rice and beans.
Apart from more crocodiles and dangerous snakes, and tons of creepy-crawlies, the celebrities will have to play games including:
Grave Danger - in which a contestant will be buried alive in a coffin full of water and rats.
Meal Or No Meal - an eating trial with a horrible live-bug twist.
Wheel Of Misfortune - in which a contestant will be strapped inside a wheel and challenged to catch food stars.
Rumble In The Jungle - in which a celeb will have to manoeuvre a small jeep across a high wire highway over water Show adviser Chris Lore, who devised the trials and tested them on Aussie guineapigs, bragged: "One tough bloke flatly refused to even embark on one of the trials. I was very pleased."
HELLO CAMPERS
Ex-EASTENDERS star Marc Bannerman has been crying for his mum...before he has even set foot in the jungle. Marc, 34, said he had pleaded with producers to let her into the camp as his "luxury item". He revealed: "I wanted to smuggle my mum in to sing me sweet lullabys at night."
Meanwhile, fans hoping for a glimpse of Marc showering naked will be disappointed: "My mum will be watching and she hasn't seen me naked since I was three years old."
Singer Cerys Matthews is desperate for romance in the jungle. But the Welsh beauty has specified that, apart from being good in bed, her new man should also be a handy plumber and an electrician all rolled into one. Cerys, 38, said: "I hate to go hungry. I would even eat a kangaroo bum, provided they cleaned it first!"
Her big fear is whether her singing will annoy her fellow campers.
"I like to sing What A Wonder ful World and Love Me Tender, which might get on everyone's nerves."
Football legend Rodney Marsh says he was due to appear in last year's show - but bottled out of it at the last minute.
"Basically, I lost my bottle," he said.
"That has been a closely guarded secret until now.
This time the timing is right for me, but I must admit I'm starting to lose my bottle again.
I am very nervous more about the mental challenge."
Rodney says the producers have told him he can shower in the nude if he wants..."but I told them I'd rather see the girls do that."
Pr guru Lynne Franks has one fear of the jungle..."I might have a Carol Thatcher moment in the middle of the night and wee in the woods.
I would happily pee in the woods, but I will try to avoid having one in the actual camp.
I've wee'd in the woods before.
I'm a bit of a nature buddy and I go camping a lot."
Would she like to be Queen of the Jungle?
Lynne: "I'd like to be Goddess of the Jungle - I'm already Queen of my life."
Changing Rooms presenter Anna Ryder Richardson wants to get cosy with rats - because she and her husband Colin have just bought a zoo in South Wales.
"I thought it might help me to get used to them," she said.
Anna, 43, has banned her kids, aged four and five, from watching the show "because they would burst into tears if they saw mummy wrestling a croc".
As for the challenge of eating a crocodile *****, she laughed: "I'd chew it but I wouldn't swallow."
Chef John Burton Race has told how he ate a scorpion - when he was just four years old.
"It tried to bite me, so I bashed it and then ate it," said John, 50, who will do the camp cooking if necessary.
John said he had put on 10lbs in weight in past week, so he can live off his body fat if his fellow celebs fail to win food for the camp.
"I don't mind eating witchetty grubs and insects.
If you can eat an oyster, you can eat a witchetty grub," he said.
Former 5ive singer J Brown claims he was once a badly-behaved hotel room-trasher.
"But all that is behind me," he said.
"I don't feel that way now.
Breaking up hotel rooms and all that was all due to stress, caused by record executives flogging me and my band mates like dead donkeys."
And the good news is he has vowed not to sing any of his old 5ive songs: "I don't want to bore everyone," he said.
Mirror
