Pop Buzz UK

With the first news on the next UK Big Brother just being revealed, it appears that Poland is just about to dose of Big Brother 3, after programme makers Endemol sold the series lock, stock and barrel to the Polish broadcaster TVN.

While we in the UK are looking forward to the ninth series of the biggest and best reality television show, Polish people are just about to experience what is rightly considered the best ever series.

If you need a reminder, BB3 was the one where Jade Goody, the most successful Big Brother contestant ever, appeared, and showed off her flabby body for all to see in a late night drunken game.

She didn’t end up winning it though, with Kate Lawler proving to be the most popular house mate at the end of the 12 week series.

Endemol has until now just sold the rights to the show’s format rather than a whole series in its entirety, so this is an unusual move on their part.

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Regular readers of Pop Buzz UK will already know of my love for Big Brother, the granddaddy of all reality television shows. This is about the time of year when the rumours start flying about the next series, with fuzzy shots of the house, and countless false unveilings of the new contestants.

There’s not been much of that so far this year, but there are some concrete facts that have now been revealed, making it prime time we had our first preview of the forthcoming series, Big Brother 9.

The biggest news is that for the first time ever the series won’t begin its summer run in May, having had its start date put back to Thursday June 5th.

This is a clever move on the part of Channel 4 bosses, as it prevents it from overlapping with the second series of Britain’s Got Talent, the Simon Cowell led talent show which got huge ratings last year when amateur opera singer Paul Potts finally emerged victorious.

Davina McCall will once again be back to do the main presenting duties, which will please and anger a fairly equal amount of people I guess. She’s not the best interviewer in the world, but Big Brother just wouldn’t be the same without her, and she is at least also a huge fan of the show.

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This week saw Leona Lewis hit number one on the US Billboard charts with Bleeding Love, becoming the first solo British female music artist to do so in 21 years, and only the fourth ever. Not bad for a winner of a reality television show!

Londoner Lewis won The X-Factor back in 2006, beating Ray Quinn in a final which was pretty much already decided before it even began. Where is Quinn now? I’m guessing on a cruise ship somewhere impressing old ladies with blue rinses with his generic brand of Rat Pack style swing music.

Leona meanwhile is on the cusp of a brilliant career, which with this success in the States will probably see her earn a huge pile of cash, although it’s not yet enough to buy a house in her home town of Hackney.

The Americans may be a bit slow on the uptake with how good Lewis is, as before hitting the top spot in the US, she’s already done it in many other countries around the world, including of course, the UK, where she spent 7 weeks at the top at the end of last year, and bagged the best selling single of 2007 in to the bargain.

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Noooooooooo, please say it ain’t so! When I posted last week about the end of the marriage between Paul McCartney and Heather Mills with a high court judge awarding the one-legged model $48 million, I thought that would be it, end of the matter.

I was hoping beyond hope that I could avoid talking about the whole sorry mess ever again here on Pop Buzz UK. Unfortunately, my plan has come crashing down after just six days, and here we have another post on the topic.

It’s not my fault, it’s Heather Mills fault, as she just won’t shut up about it all. Instead she seems intent on keeping herself and her many tales of woe in the public eye for as long as she can.

According to The News Of The World, she is bitter about the divorce ruling, and only receiving $48 million, rather than the $250 million she was asking for. And so is hatching plans get revenge on Paul, his lawyer (who has already had a glass of water thrown over her) and the high court judge who branded her a liar.

She has allegedly told a friend:

“He’s a Beatles fan. His ruling was so one-sided. It just shows that when you’re a Beatle you’re untouchable. The ruling shows an element of Beatle worship. The judge is just another person who idolises Paul McCartney.”

Rubbish, the high court judge just gave his opinion. Just because it wasn’t an opinion in your favour doesn’t mean that it was wrong or for any other ludicrous reason.

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Gordon Brown became Prime Minister on June 27th of 2007 when Tony Blair retired from his position as head of the British government.

Since then, the economy has taken a jolt, and there have been numerous problems for the dour Scot to overcome. But would the Beckhams really do a better job?

According to a survey commissioned by Current TV, the British people, or at least the 2,000 odd who gave their views on Britishness. would rather see David and Victoria lead the country than Gordon Brown.

The responders were asked: Who would be the worst people to run the country?

Ex-Big Brother contestant Jade Goody topped the poll with 24% of the vote, while junkie singer Amy Winehouse wasn’t far behind on 16%. In third place was Ex-Atomic Kitten singer Kerry Katona, with current Prime Minister Gordon Brown in fourth place on 11%.

Peter Andre and Katie Price received 9% of the votes while 6% felt the Beckhams would be the worst leaders of the UK. So by default, we’d prefer to have an over the hill footballer and a woman who has made a career out of not being able to sing in charge of the country rather than Brown himself!

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Well thank God, disguised in the form Judge Hugh Bennett, that that is all over! These divorce proceedings between Heather Mills and Paul McCartney have been going on for far too long, and got far too bitchy, but finally they are at an end.

The celebrity couple, well an ex-Beatle and a one legged ex-model at least. split up over two years ago, but it has taken this long for the pair to settle on a financial deal, and then only because a high court judge decided the outcome for them.

Mills has ended up with $48.6 million, which is broken down in to a lump sum of $33 million to add to the assets she already holds (basically, property, cars, furniture etc) which she already holds. On top of that, the couple’s 4-year-old daughter Beatrice will receive $70,000 per annum, as well as McCartney having to pay for the child’s nanny and school fees.

While McCartney retained his dignity (what little he had left after this charade) by remaining silent at the end of the court proceedings, Mills called an impromptu press conference to express her delight at the outcome.

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Just a year after moving out to Los Angeles, it looks like the Beckhams American dream could be about to end, as rumours emerge of a desire to leave LA and head back to the UK.

Last January it was announced that David Beckham had signed for the LA Galaxy, ending his successful stint at Spain’s Real Madrid, and signalling a future in the States for the footballer and his untalented wife.

At the time, Beckham secured a five year contract worth £120,000 (about $250,000) a week, but seeing as he spent most of his first season “playing” at the club on the bench, I’m not sure that was such a good investment.

The celebrity couple were welcomed to LA by Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, who threw a massive party for their new showbiz mates… although it didn’t work and Becks hasn’t signed up to become a Scientologist.

Now, according to a source speaking to OK! Magazine, Becks is eyeing a possible return to the UK, stating he would be happiest if someone bought out his contract with Galaxy, enabling him to play in England while still earning the same sort of money.

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The X Factor Judges are at it again, trying to upstage the acts as usual, and this time, surprise surprise, it’s over money. For once Simon Cowell isn’t actually involved, as he’s sorted. He’s currently in the middle of a three year contract with ITV which sees him get paid £20 million. Nice work if you can get it.

The rest of the vultures though, Dannii Minogue, Sharon Osbourne & Louis Walsh, are after more money because they’ve been asked to work an extra day a week during the next series. Yes, that means 2 days a week instead of one… ah diddums.

Basically, because of the unexpected success of the BBC1 show, Strictly Come Dancing, the next series of The X Factor will run over two days a week instead of one, with the results show being moved from Saturday night to Sunday.

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The Spice Girls brought their comeback to a stuttering halt last month when they played their last concert together in Toronto, Canada, on February 26th. The tour was meant to carry on of course, but the girls had earlier announced that they were cutting the tour short.

There have been many arguments put forward as to why this happened. The Spice Girls official explanation was that “family and personal commitments” had forced the group to abandon the tour, despite having already promised to play places such as Beijing, Sydney, Cape Town and Buenos Aires. The fans in these places were expected to just accept that reason, but a lot didn’t.

What most people believe is that the girls just simply couldn’t stand to be together any longer than absolutely necessary, and stopped the tour at the earliest available opportunity, although Mel C has denied that any great rift happened to cause the group to split for the second time.

She told Rolling Stones magazine:

“All of us have really enjoyed getting closer again. The whole atmosphere on the tour [was] very fun and there hasn’t been time for any bickering or the fighting that’s always reported about the Spice Girls. It’s just like a big family. There’s been more laughing than anything else.”

“We’ve been through something so unique together that even if we don’t see each other for a few months, we get together and it’s been like no time has passed at all.”

There’s a reason these reports keep cropping up though, because there’s evidence to back them up, with sources close to the girls reporting constant arguments. There’s never any smoke without fire. Egos probably pay a huge factor in that, with each of the five girls thinking they are the bigger star.

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On Thursday, it was revealed that Prince Harry, third in line to the British throne, was fighting in Afghanistan. The British press had kept it quiet due to a media blackout, but The Drudge Report, an American website famous for breaking the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky story, revealed the truth.

Prince Harry was then immediately brought back to the UK, due to the MOD deciding that it would be too great a risk to keep him out in a war zone fighting the Taleban.

Harry arrived home on Saturday morning, landing at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire at 11.29am with around 170 other soldiers. Two of the men he was travelling with were severely injured, which prompted Harry to insist “”Don’t call me a hero, those are the heroes.”

He spoke to the media about his experiences in the war torn country, saying:

You do what you have to do, what’s necessary to save your own guys.

“If you need to drop a bomb, worst case scenario then you will, but then that’s just the way it is.

“It’s not nice to drop bombs but to save lives that’s what happens. You do what you have to do to save your own guys.”

He also insisted that he’d be more than happy to go back, claiming he wants to sit down with his colonel and talk through various options.

It was also revealed that Prince William could soon be serving with the navy, as he will soon be commissioned and serve on a frigate or destroyer in one of the world’s trouble spots.

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Last July I told you about JK Rowling’s plans for a possible eighth book in the hugely popular Harry Potter series.

Now before anyone gets their hopes up, we’re not talking a new fictional work to carry on the series where The Deathly Hallows left off, but rather an encyclopaedia full of fascinating facts and undiscovered details about the Harry Potter universe and the characters which reside within it.

Unfortunately it seems that someone has beaten her to it, and in an attempt to gain fame and fortune, is trying to publish an unofficial reference book about everything Harry Potter.

Writer Steve Vander Ark and publisher RDR Books have plans to release an encyclopaedia of their own, which is obviously being fought with legal action by Rowling. She said:

“I am very frustrated that a former fan has tried to co-opt my work for financial gain. I believe that RDR’s book constitutes a Harry Potter rip-off of the type I have spent years trying to prevent,”

“Both I, as the creator of this world, and fans of Harry Potter would be exploited by its publication.

“I feel intensely protective, firstly of the literary world I spent so long creating, and secondly, of the fans who bought my books in such large numbers.”

And of course the money that you’d lose if this book came out without your permission. Rowling is perfectly right though, because this book, titled Harry Potter Lexicon, would be using her work, and the characters she spent so long giving life to, without any guarantees of accuracy.

The book was due for release last November but publication was delayed after Rowling sought an injunction. A legal case will now follow, and a decision made as to whether the book is lawful or not.

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Almost a year to the day that there was speculation that Prince Harry would be going to Iraq to fight with his A Squadron of The Blues and Royals, part of the Household Cavalry Regiment, it has emerged that Charles and Diana’s son has been fighting in Afghanistan since before Christmas.

He is reported to have been working in Helmand province of the war torn country, as an Air Controller, responsible for covering front line troops. It has also been confirmed that he has been personally involved in clashes with the Taleban.

He is currently two and a half months in to a four month deployment, although now that the news is out, army chiefs have a tough decision to see if they can risk him staying out there, or whether he should be brought back prematurely.

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Oh God, here we go again, the Paul ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne story has gone public again, this time with the former England footballer being sectioned under the mental health act, after being arrested at a hotel in Gateshead.

It seems not a few months can go by without some story or event happening in the life of Gazza, and drag his name, kicking and screaming, back in to the media.

For those that are too young to remember, Paul Gascoigne was one of the most talented soccer players England has ever known, and when he was on form, for both his various clubs, and country, he was up there with the best in the world.

Unfortunately, he was also very highly strung, and didn’t seem to be able to switch off between games. When he was injured just after signing for Lazio in a career making move to Italy, he descended in to a downward spiral of boozing which meant the second half of his career never matched up to the first. Basically, he had a touch of the George Bests.

This latest twist to the saga that is his life, started after he stayed at a hotel near his home town of Newcastle to recuperate from a hip operation.

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The Brit Awards took place tonight in Earls Court, London, and here we have all of the latest news, gossip, winners and losers.

The annual event was presented by the Osbourne clan, with Sharon and Kelly taking most of the stage time. Unfortunately, Sharon spent the whole evening looking and acting drunk, while Ozzy sat in the background shaking.

There was a particularly memorable moment when Vic Reeves came on to the stage to present the award for Best British Album. He was pissed as a fart, and so he and Sharon fought over who was going to announce the winner. That was about the only controversy on a night celebrating a year of great British music.

Most of the awards went the way I had expected, or at least secretly hoped for. The big winners of the night ended up being Take That, Arctic Monkeys, and Foo Fighters, who all walked away with two awards each.

Leona Lewis ended up as the biggest loser, as even though she managed to win The X Factor in 2006, she managed to lose in all four of the categories she was nominated in.

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It seems the marriage between Katie Price aka Jordan, and Peter Andre isn’t the dream that they make out it is in public. In fact, things got so bad at one point that the big breasted model actually contemplated suicide.

Jordan and Australian pop singer (former) Peter Andre famously got together and fell in love after both being stars on I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here in 2004. They then got married, and had a child together, but despite acting in public as if life were 100% rosy, behind the scenes was another matter entirely.

The revelations have have come out as a result of Katie Price finally writing her long awaited (although not by me) autobiography titled Jordan: Pushed To The Limits. I’m guessing the title refers to her mental well-being rather than her bra cups, but I could be wrong.

The News Of The World newspaper has printed some exclusive previews from the book, and it reveals quite a bit of anguish for the couple over the past few years.

Firstly, after having the couple’s first baby together, Junior Savva Andreas in 2005, Jordan suffered from post natal depression, which drove her to thoughts of suicide.

She struggled to bond with Junior, and eventually ended up in The Priory clinic and was prescribed anti-depressants.

Then after going home again, she went completely off sex, and refused all of Andre’s sexual advances. I can’t say I blame her, as he is a creepy guy, but then again, I didn’t marry him did I.

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