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REWIND: March 2020

Showbiz Newswrap

REWIND: March 2020

Rewinding showbiz highlights from March 2020 with TV Critic Vivian Summers. This issue contains mild language.

Charity starts with a fee

Caitlyn Jenner and Harry Redknapp were just two big names who were recorded accepting thousands of pounds in return for backing what they thought was a charitable cause. However the entire thing was set up by Channel 4 in a sting operation.

In a Dispatches documentary, Celebs For Sale: The Great Charity Scandal, the two personalities are revealed to be part of a widespread practice of paying celebrities for public support. The celebs involved blamed agencies for the money taking, and they would never ask for money from charity themselves it was noted.


Rewind Newswrap

Rochelle Humes won’t return to music because of her commitment to her family the singer turned presenter noted. ‘I don’t think that lifestyle would work for my family at all. We’re realistic about that.’ she told Red Magazine.

Danny Dyer and daughter Dani are to launch a podcast in the latest audio trend. The EastEnders actor and his reality star offspring will be in his words ‘talking bollocks’ all on Spotify.

Stacey Solomon spoke on Loose Women about keepsakes, many of us like to keep mementos of happy times and people. Stacey has kept from the birth of her children the umbilical cord and a foreskin. Lovely…

Strictly Come Dancing sticking with baby news professional dancers Darren Bennett and Lilia Kopylova announced this month that they are expecting their second child together while former Strictly pros James and Ola Jordan have revealed the name of their baby daughter, Ella.

Katherine Jenkins spoke about how she has ‘no regrets’ about how she stepped in to help an OAP who was being targeted in a street robbery in London. The singer, a victim of robbery herself, told Stella magazine ‘If it happened again, I’d do it again,‘. The incident that happened last December involved an elderly woman and two teenage girls.

Tulisa revealed she has Bell’s palsy, a type of paralysis that temporarily affects the ability to control the facial muscles. Speaking to the Loose Women of ITV she noted it stems from a horse riding accident. “…the first attack I had was after a serious horse-riding accident. I fractured my skull and it caused a lot of nerve damage.”

Baby Baby more baby news from former EastEnders actress Melissa Suffield – onetime Lucy Beale – who gave birth to a baby boy while Made in Chelsea regular Spencer Matthews is expecting a baby girl with wife Vogue Williams, reality star Lucy Mecklenburgh has given birth to a baby boy called Roman and former TOWIE regular Lauren Pope announced that she is expecting her first child.

Katherine Jenkins …takes no shit.


Olly’s seeking brother reunion

Olly Murs first spoke about his fallout with brother Ben after twins performed on The Voice, noting ‘We haven’t spoken for 10 years. We had a big argument. I was on The X Factor, and I couldn’t make his wedding because I was on the show, it was a long story. I feel like the next time I am going to see him is going to be at the worst place to see someone. It will be at someone’s [funeral] that we lose in the family. I don’t want that to be the case.’ 

This month he spoke about the social media reaction to his emotional television comments, noting he’d been overwhelming by the positive support.


Whitmore on ‘Flack Hoax’

Laura Whitmore spoke this month of her horror when realising telly pal Caroline Flack had actually died, believing initial reports and social media postings were just another death hoax.

Having seen posts on Twitter she first believed the stories were ‘fake news’ and ignored them. It wasn’t until later when a friend called that things started to fall into place. Caroline had taken her own life, aged just 40. Laura had stepped in to hosting Love Island on ITV2 while Caroline took time out after being charged with assault of her boyfriend.

Laura, thought Caroline’s death was fake news.


Rewind Newswrap

Dancing on Ice judge Ashley Banjo has become a father for the second time with his wife Francesca while reality star Maria Fowler and her husband Kelvin Batey are expecting their second child together.

Davina McCall spoke about how she was rushed to hospital in her 20s after a drugs overdose, amazingly at an event organised by lowlife newspaper The Sun on Sunday. The trashy tabloid had the nerve to host International Women’s Day event. Anyway Davina noted ‘Drugs took me to a very, very, very dark place and, one night, I overdosed.’

Harvey Weinstein the disgraced film mogul pervert this month was sentenced in New York to 23 years in prison, following being found guilty of a first-degree criminal sexual act and third-degree rape. CNN noted that it was ‘the culmination of a case that fuelled the global #MeToo movement and encouraged women to speak out against sexual abuse.’ Things got worse for the fallen media boss when later in March he tested positive for coronavirus while in prison.

Irish band The Coronas have pondered their name while the world is dealing with coronavirus. The band have cheekily reached out to the bottled beer manufacturer Corona to see if they have any advice. Neither currently have plans to rebrand.

One Direction keep in touch, now they’re disbanded, via email. Speaking on Friday night’s RTÉ Late Late Show, Niall Horan, who has just released his second solo album Heartbreak Weather, said, “It’s an email chain. You’d think we were 45-year-old men. I don’t know but it’s an email chain for some reason . . . ” 

Glastonbury’s famous Pyramid Stage will not be in use this year for any major crowd performance in June, as the festival becomes the latest event to be cancelled due to coronavirus.

Gogglebox star Scarlett Moffatt opened up about how online trolling left her needing to speak to the Samaritans after being driven to depression. Proving the point made famous without any talent or years of progressing through the television ranks makes for people unable to cope with anything but praise.

Gordon Ramsay was slammed for laying off more than 500 staff members amid the coronavirus crisis, with Ramsay worth around £140million, chef Anca Toropu blasted the Kitchen Nightmares host. ‘Many of the staff were left in tears at the way he has treated us. There was no warning…. he has treated staff like pieces of s**t.’ she noted.

Coronation Street regulars Sally Carman and Joe Duttine in March announced they’re engaged. The couple play Abi Franklin and Tim Metcalfe in the ITV Granada produced series and revealed their pending nuptials with an Instagram post.

Ramsay, not flavour of the month with 500 former staff.


RIP March 2020

This month we said goodbye to Eggheads regular Dave Rainford, Welsh Rugby icon Matthew Watkins, actor Max von Sydow, music mogul Tom Watkins, chef Michel Roux, musician Genesis P-Orridge, comedian and presenter Roy Hudd, footballer Peter Whittingham, actor Lyle Waggoner, performer Mark Blum, songwriter Alan Merrill and singer Kenny Rogers.


The views in this feature are those of Vivian Summers and are not endorsed by ATV Today or ATV Network.

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