Pop Buzz UK

The witch is dead, long live Big Brother! Alexandra De-Gale has been booted out of the Big Brother house ahead of her inevitable eviction on Friday after she is said to have threatened some of the house mates.

This is the first Big Brother post I have done since launch night so I have yet to have my say on the woman that will always be remembered for thinking “Memba, I tol’ you” was a suitable way to prove her point, and end an argument. And arguments are what Alex spent most of her short time in the house engaging in.

She was booted out last night at around 8pm after having a conversation earlier in the day with various house mates. She had recently found out that she was up for eviction along with Mario the fake Italian, and clearly took it badly.

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Sharon Osbourne sensationally quit her role as a judge on The X Factor last week, and it was almost immediately announced that Girls Aloud singer and celebrity WAG Cheryl Cole was to replace her. Unfortunately it seems that the rest of Girls Aloud are jealous of her new role on prime-time Saturday night television.

This story has two brilliant elements to it: the loss of who was surely the best judge on The X Factor, and the fact that the hiring of Cole as her replacement could bring about a premature end to Girls Aloud.

For starters we have lost Osbourne, who despite my misgivings about last year as she and her fellow judges dominated the headlines instead of the contestants that are meant to be the stars, remained my favourite judge. Now that she has gone we are left with Simon Cowell who has become a pantomime caricature of his former self, Louis Walsh who tried to be controversial but is just a camp Irishman at the end of the day, and the useless lump that is Dannii Minogue. Great, I can’t wait for the new series.

Cheryl Cole isn’t actually a bad choice, although it now means we have two young judges who know next to nothing about music and managing a singers or singers in her and Minogue. At least Osbourne had experience on her side, though I suppose the fact that Girls Aloud actually formed as a result of Popstars: The Rivals should stand her in good stead.

However, according to Heat Magazine, and reported here via Digital Spy, the rest of the girls in the group aren’t too happy with Cole’s new role, and are jealous that she seems to be getting all of the success outside of the confines of the group.

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Blackadder was one of my favourite television shows growing up in the 1980s. Featuring Rowan Atkinson as Edmund Blackadder, and Tony Robinson as his sidekick Baldrick, the show also had the cream of British comedy talent providing back-up, including Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, now a huge success playing House in America.

Now, it could be about to make a comeback, with Tony Robinson revealing the possibility of the show returning to our screens in 2010. Before that happens though, the cast are meeting up later this year to celebrate he 25th anniversary of Blackadder II - I assume they just forgot to celebrate the first series last year…

According to Digital Spy, Baldrick told Teletext:

“We always had a fantasy of doing it again in 2010, so we’ll be having that conversation. I would love to do it and suspect Rowan Atkinson would too.”

However, it seems Atkinson may not be as keen as Robinson had hoped because it has now emerged that he is refusing to attend the reunion, which was to form the basis for Blackadder Exclusive: The Whole Rotten Saga and Blackadder’s Most Cunning Moments, two shows set to be aired on UKTV Gold.

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Stories about the Beckhams are like London buses, there’s none for ages, and then 3 come along at once. One is about David Beckham, one is about Victoria, and one is about that shadow on their marriage, Rebecca Loos who David allegedly had an affair with a few years ago.

We start with David, who has apparently agreed to climb Mount Kilimanjaro for children’s charity UNICEF. The 19,340ft African mountain is now on Becks agenda after U2 front man Bono is reported to have badgered him in to climbing it to raise money.

No date has been set for the climb, with Becks having commitments with LA Galaxy and insurance issues needing to be worked out. It’s thought the climb will take six days, and Beckham will have to be at the height of fitness to even attempt the feat.

Meanwhile, proving their life isn’t all about football and charity, Victoria Beckham has revealed that she likes to get drunk all the time.

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For eight years now, we’ve been watching Davina McCall presenting the UK version of Big Brother, but it seems that finally, after this next series, Big Brother 9, she’s going to call it a day and quit the hit Channel 4 show.

While the reality show is much more about the contestants, and the interplay which goes on between them while in the house, Davina has definitely added something to the show, and made it her own. When she had to have the odd day off, and another presenter stood in for her, it just wasn’t the same.

But everyone was a fan, and all the while the show has been running, Davina has had her critics, and had to endure many accusations of being lazy or just plain dull on the show. Many people on Internet forums dedicated to the show roundly criticised her interviewing skills, as she’d often let the big questions escape unasked, and the viewers screaming at the television.

So why is she quitting? Well, according to the News Of The World, she has decided that the time is ripe for a change of career, and no longer wants to be a presenter. She’s giving up in an attempt to forge a serious acting career instead.

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Last October saw the Fox television network in the US announce plans for a Spaced remake. At the time I wrote a piece urging the network to get the original creators involved, but it turns out the pilot for the remake is being made by an American team instead.

The original show was created and written by such luminaries as Simon Pegg, who has gone on to be a big-time Hollywood comic actor with Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz and the upcoming Star Trek movie to his name, Nick Frost, who appears with Pegg as his fat sidekick, Edgar Wright, who directed Shaun and Hot Fuzz, and Jessica Hynes (formerly Stevenson) who went on to appear in the Royle Family.

With people as creatively genius as these involved in the original show, it seems madness not to involve them in any remake. But more than that, Fox failed to even credit them for the UK made sitcom.

Pegg and co. do not own the rights, and so Fox were able to sneak in and steal the whole concept from under their noses, but they could have at least offered some kind of involvement or bit part to the creators.

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We all know Robbie Williams has had his problems in the past, with drink, drugs, and food. He seems to be addicted to everything, including sex. But it seems he may be about to get another problem in to the problem - Gillian McKeith wants to help him deal with his issues. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, even my worst enemy.

McKeith is the nutritionist and dietician, who has made her fortune telling people You Are What You Eat and rifling through their shit. Although she certainly knows her stuff, and offers sensible, healthy advice about eating, the way she does it is to act like a stern headmistress, talking down to grown adults as if they are twelve years old. I can’t see the free-spirited Williams taking kindly to that.

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I’ll tell you right here and now that I am not a journalist. I am a freelance writer, and a professional blogger, and some of my work comes close to be what you’d describe as journalism, but still I would never assume to call myself a journalist. I don’t earn enough from what I do for starters.

However, I am more of a journalist than Coleen McLoughlin ever will be, which makes it slightly absurd to learn that is what she has entered as her occupation on the wedding banns for her forthcoming marriage to England footballer Wayne Rooney.

This is a joke right? Coleen McLoughlin is a WAG, nothing more, nothing less. Good on her for bagging a young footballer who went on to become a great player for Manchester United and England, but I think its time for a reality check.

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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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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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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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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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