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I'm A Celebrity... get me a cool million out of this charade!
Sunday February 8, 2004
They headed Down Under mocked as nonentities scraping the bottom of the barrel for the last vestiges of fame. They have endured the degradations of eating cockroaches, grubs and fish eyes for public entertainment. For many cynics, there is just one question: why?
Now comes the answer: they will return to Britain to find themselves, fleetingly at least, hotter properties than film stars or Premiership footballers - and cashing in at least £1 million each.
While the contestants of ITV's I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! toil in the Australian jungle, their agents are already under siege from thousands of offers of advertisements, book contracts, endorsements, interviews, photo shoots, record deals, TV shows and even pantomime roles. Tabloid newspapers are engaged in ferocious bidding wars and one group alone is to pay the model Jordan half a million pounds for her story.
Ratings have neared 12 million and the show has captured the public imagination in a way no one could quite predict. The bookies' favourites to win the two-week eviction show are Kerry McFadden, the former Atomic Kitten, and Lord 'Charlie' Brocket, once jailed for five years after trying to claim £4.5 million insurance on cars 'nicked' from his estate in Hertfordshire.
'I thought he'd get a few offers, but it's absolutely ridiculous,' said his agent, Nicola Ibison, of NCI Management. 'They include nude photo shoots for a women's magazine, an underwear endorsement deal, a panto role for next Christmas, upmarket after-dinner speaking, newspaper interviews, a TV documentary, and a primetime ITV film about his life. Brocket has a memoir on the way too.'
With a £3 million technical operation, producer Granada keeps a tight rein on the celebrities' pay. Each receives £25,000, but Jordan demanded £100,000, claiming compensation for lost modelling fees, although she settled for less than half that amount. Each is also raising money for charity. But it is what comes next that produces the real cash.
McFadden is represented by veteran publicist Max Clifford. He said: 'When Kerry said to me I'm planning to go on I'm a Celebrity... my advice to her was 'Don't', for the same reason that you would watch the programme and think: "Isn't it sad they would resort to this?" I didn't understand why she should do it. But if it carries on as it is, she will be right and I will be wrong. From a career point of view, it looks like a very good move for her.'
Another big winner, whatever happens in the contest, is Jordan, the model and Page Three girl. She has signed for Richard Desmond's Express Newspapers group, which includes the Daily Express, Daily Star and OK! magazine, for a fee believed to be around half a million pounds.
Ladbrokes, the bookmaker, has stopped taking bets on Peter Andre's single 'Mysterious Girl' becoming the UK No 1.
John Lydon might have quit in a blaze of swearwords, but he has calculated 'lots of spin-offs' from his participation. Virgin Megastore ordered extra copies of the Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks.
Observer
