Showbiz 5: From Spock eyebrows to Tom’s hump

Welcome to a newswrap of entertainment lowlights with Penelope Teeth, your drag queen with bite…

Another round of lifestyle, showbiz and telly stories of a depth that wouldn’t fill a puddle.

The Price Is Still Not Right

Poor Katie Price, the gift that keeps on giving to showbiz editors in the UK. Am I the only one who actually worries for the mental health of this dear girl who was recently seen on X in a photograph as naked as the day she was born – although now quite modified in several areas – and covered in what looked like dog shite? Is she getting enough hugs, and toilet rolls?

Anyway, she was back in the newspapers this week thanks to her recent Turkey ‘working holiday’ where she had £10,000 worth of surgery that has left her looking like ‘Spock’ from Star Trek with her latest facelift putting her eyebrows slanted.

“I do need to sort my brows out, I look like Spock from star trek, so if you know anyone who can fix these, let me know. It doesn’t matter what any of you say to me, you will not put me down…” – Katie Price on TikTok

I’m just impressed our Katie knows who Spock from Star Trek is…

Far from a Perfect Moment

Martine McCutcheon – the Lorraine Kelly of the West End –  and for a spell as Tiffany in EastEnders this week announced that she has split from husband Jack McManus after 18 years together.

‘After much thought and consideration, Jack has decided it’s best for us to separate after 18 years together and I accept his decision,’ … ‘We are both so very blessed and grateful for our beautiful, 9 years old son Rafferty, whose happiness and welfare has always been and will continue to be, our number 1 priority.’ She said on social media. She also noted it was he, not she, who decided to part ways.

To quote another Tiffany, ‘Could have been so beautiful, could have been so right…’

Tom’s got the Hump…

In the sixties, they shared the same manager, were seen photographed together in publicity and even appeared on each other’s ATV Elstree-produced TV Shows. They could be seen having a laugh at each other’s style as Tom Jones went ballad with a Enge song and Engelbert Humperdink went upbeat with a Tom track. But those days have long since gone.

Tom Jones recently told a newspaper “There is nothing friendly about me and Engelbert because he is a p***k and you can quote me on that. We fell out years ago.” Tom also noted that The Last Waltz singer had tried to make amends and reach out, but the Welsh warbler has no interest in a reunion, “No. He has tried but I don’t want to talk.”

If Englebert had been trying to patch things up with the It’s Not Unusual singer then it wasn’t the greatest of ideas for Enge to say Tom wasn’t a good performer anymore. Speaking to The Sun earlier this year Engelbert said he felt Tom had “lost his voice… I don’t think he’s got it any more.” The well-known lothario hit back in The Sun,  “I didn’t know he said that — it is the first I have heard of it, but he is full of s**t.”

It’s unclear why or when the two fell out, but it seemed to have been long-running, going back to at least the late 1970s.

Pictured: Tom makes a guest appearance on the first episode of ATV’s ‘The Engelbert Humperdinck Show’; Enge also later appeared on an episode of ATV’s ‘This Is Tom Jones‘ (ATV Elstree, 1969)

Newswrap Wraps

• TV football presenter and Sky Sports legend Chris Kamara has this week launched a new campaign to get children around the world back into education.

Former Brentford and Leeds United footballer Chris is an ambassador of Street Child, the international education charity dedicated to changing the lives of the world’s most marginalised children. Street Child’s ‘Back to School’ campaign will support thousands of young people in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere to access education – many for the first time.

• On Good Morning Britain, former Pussycat Doll Ashley Roberts joined Charlotte Hawkins and Adil Ray where she teased a Pussycat Dolls reunion. Responding to Charlotte and Adil asking if a reunion may be on the cards for the Pussycat Dolls as they approach their 20th anniversary, Ashley said:

“Your guess is probably as good as mine. It was a shame because we geared up for the reunion, we had React, we released a single and then Miss Rona [Coronavirus] stepped in and really cancelled all the plans unfortunately. I think if that didn’t happen then we would have just continued on but now getting everyone on the same page may be a little bit difficult. It took us ten years to even get that first reunion going. We shall see, fingers crossed but nothing’s happening at the moment… Watch this space.”

• Despite four in ten Brits (42 percent) feeling passionate about climate change, we remain completely in the dark about the meaning of words such as “net zero”, “carbon offsetting” and “green washing”, according to a poll.

A staggering nine in ten (89 percent) say they find environmental jargon mind-boggling, admitting they have NO IDEA what many terms actually mean. So, it’s no surprise that two thirds (65 percent) of us regularly search the internet to find out what environmental jargon means, according to the survey of 2,000 Brits by Hello Hydrogen. Let’s face it some people in Blyth still don’t know the Internet exists at all, so should we be surprised…

• Emmerdale regular Eden Taylor Draper has been nominated for ‘Best Serial Drama Performance’ at the National Television Awards. This follows her ongoing social awareness plot where her character of Belle is in a coercive relationship. Speaking about the nomination she said:

“It feels amazing. I feel honoured as I am up against some amazing names Angela Winter, Peter Ash, Di Parish, and David Nielsen… I’m nervous. I can’t lie, I feel like I’ll be quite anxious until it gets to my category but I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve not been to the NTAs in a while and it’s always so lovely…”

• Lily Allen has been mocked for returning a dog to a shelter because ‘it ate important documents’ – including passports. Sweetie, the only idiot in the room would be the plonker who left these important documents where a dog could eat them. Lily, from a line of famous twits, should know owning a pet is a responsibility and that includes your own actions. Fool.

From a Ballroom battle to a Courtroom case

Sacked Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer Graziano Di Prima is reportedly looking to sue the BBC for ditching him from the ratings-winning show.

The Mirror reports that Di Prima has ‘hired top lawyers as he prepares to ‘sue the BBC’ over his ‘unfair dismissal’.’ The paper adds, ‘The 30-year-old was recently axed after the BBC probe into the show found instances of “misconduct”. It came as he was accused of “physical and verbal behaviour” towards his celebrity partner of last year, Love Island’s Zara McDermott.’

At the time of his departure he released a statement, which read:

“While respecting the BBC HR process, I acknowledge it’s only right for the sake of the show that I step away.”

“I am saddened that I wasn’t allowed to offer a quote to the online news stories, and I take on board the sensitivity of the situation. There’s more to this story that I am unable to discuss at this time, but I am committed to being strong for my family and friends. I wish the Strictly family nothing but success in the future.”

Another newspaper reports that the dancer has hired Whitestone Chambers Solicitors to help clear his name as he believes, as implied in his original statement, there is more to the story than the Beeb noted at the time of his departure and The Sun adds that his legal team has ‘gone through thousands of text and WhatsApp messages between him and Zara and the other Strictly dancers and believe that the professional dancer has a case over ‘unfair dismissal’.’

Jermaine Jenas admits to ‘inappropriate’ messages but insists ‘I’ve done nothing illegal’

Sing it, ‘#Oneeeeee, Oneeeee, Oneeeeeee’. The jingle to The One Show brings us to our number one  –  although it seems a Beeb presenter has been a bit of a number two…

‘I’ve done nothing illegal’, part of the headline in the bastion of quality The Daily Star over former BBC Sport and The One Show host Jermaine Jenas. The tabloid added how text-happy Jermaine ‘had his contract terminated by the corporation this week. The BBC received a complaint about text messages sent by the presenter last month and launched a probe.’ However unlike previous ‘scandals’ Mr Jenas was shown the exit with swift action, which for the Beeb was rather out of character.

It is reported that the former England player was ditched by the corporation following claims he had sent ‘unsolicited and inappropriate texts’ to a female employee at the broadcaster. Speaking to The Sun the now ex-One Show host said he ‘did nothing illegal’ adding that the correspondence has been ‘inappropriate messages between two consenting adults’. He went on to tell the paper he was ‘ashamed’, and ‘deeply sorry.’

In the most brutal of goodbyes, The One Show updated their social media presence to remove his face from their page. It so far is the only visible thing the programme has done in regards of Jenas. The production has made no on-screen reference to his “suggestive messages to junior staff” (The Mirror) on air.