celebs – Page 6 – Rob Mansfield: Content-ment

Beware the curse of I’m A Celebrity

So I’m A Celebrity’s back for another year giving all us couch potatoes the justification we need not to go out for the next couple of weeks.

Chief among this year’s contestants are the perma-tanned George Hamilton, 80s Page 3 ‘stunna’ Sam Fox and camp design duo Colin & Justin.

But woe betide anyone who thinks that winning the annual jungle junket is a key to further riches. If you look back at the roster of previous winners, many of them have fallen foul of the IMACGMOOH curse.

Of the 8 previous victors, four have fallen on hard times. Kerry Katona’s – queen of 2004’s jungle – problems have been well-documented, but few could have predicted that when she overcame the likes of Peter Andre and Jordan to lift the crown.

In 2006, Carol Thatcher took the crown and all was going swimmingly until she was booted off of the One Show earlier this year for calling a tennis player a golliwog.

The following year, former Busted member Matt Willis charmed the pants off of the viewing public and donned the regal get-up. Any thought that he would go on to conquer the pop charts again were swiftly dispensed with. His debut solo album failed to crack the top 50, he was dropped by his label and then had to go to rehab to clean up his drinking habits. Happily, he’s back in fighting form, but things weren’t good for a while.

Even last year’s victor, former EastEnder Joe Swash isn’t immune. He may have got a gig for Living following Pamela Anderson around, but he had to file for bankruptcy in the past few weeks. Money’s a sore spot even for the success stories.

Of the other four winners, three are what one might call veteran entertainers who had a solid career before they started, so were unlikely to lose out too much. Tony Blackburn, Joe Pasquale and Christopher Biggins weren’t exactly A-List, but it meant that their careers got a little boost for a bit longer. Phil Tufnell is, well, Phil Tufnell.

Anyway, my point is that winning the show doesn’t necessarily guarantee success after the celebs fly back from Australia.

So all this year’s contestants: you have been warned.

Is This It? Why we haven’t seen the last of Michael Jackson

michaeljackson Even in death, Michael Jackson continues to cast a spell over his fans and beyond. The premiere of Is This It?, footage of his rehearsals for his O2 Tour, hits cinemas worldwide tonight.

Handily, his first (and you’ll note the use of the word first) posthumous single is also called Is This It, even though it was co-written with Paul Anka back in 1983.

Some may think that this will be the last we’ll hear of Michael Jackson for a while. The circumstances surrounding his death seem to have been cleared up and now this footage is about to be shown finally.

And yet, we all know that music legends never really go away, do they? Jimi Hendrix recordings were unearthed long after he shuffled of this mortal coil, MTV Unplugged and the single You Know You’re Right were released after Kurt Cobain’s death and even Nick Drake’s early unheard recordings have been turned into something ‘new’.

Jackson will be no different. There will always be new fans to attract. My six-year-old daughter had never really heard of Michael Jackson before his death. While watching Up in the cinema at the weekend, the trailer for Is This It? came on and she turned to me and said, ‘That’s Michael Jackson. It’s sad that he died,’ before proceeding to sing along to all the songs playing in the background.

I’m not suggesting people should forget him, but let’s face it, we can all be pretty certain that in a year or two or 10, some more ‘new’ recordings will be ‘mysteriously’ discovered.

The Jackson bandwagon will roll on long after his death, because he is still a money-making machine and probably still has a line of creditors longer than your arm, queuing up to claw back some of the money still owed to them. For that reason, and that reason alone, Michael Jackson will never be allowed to die.

Louis Walsh eye surgery – in case you’re not sure

After the first week of this year’s X Factor live finals, I blogged about the fact that Louis Walsh had obviously had eye surgery.

At the time, I didn’t have access to footage of new Louis, so it was all speculation. Now he’s back in the chair, I’ve taken the liberty of doing a dodgy comparison (left), so you can judge for yourself.