A Family Affair

‘THANKS to reality TV we have learnt that the girl bending over in the Sun is not Kylie Minogue or just another bleary-eyed loudmouth out on the razzle, but Jade Goody, a celeb.

‘Silly banter’

Those aren’t just any old dimply thighs, chubby buttocks and expansive white knickers on display, but something special. Something celebrity.

We know that the girl in the Mail telling us how when she was in Hear’Say she was a ‘total pain’ is called Myleene Klass.

And we need absolutely no hint at all in recognising that the woman in the Sun in a red corset is Nadia, who has just released her debut single.

We all of us know these things because, as the Express reports, reality TV shows are bringing families together.

We talk not only of Vic Reeves and his wife Nancy – who spent time in the celebrity jungle in a bid to become the new Richard & Judy – or of Family Holidays From Hell, but of normal families who like nothing better than gathering round the TV to watch a man fish stray maggots out of his backside.

Families who laugh heartily as another star pulls on a pink ’boutique bandana’ and a tight vest and – in between singing showtunes – tells us, via the Star, how he can’t believe anyone thinks he’s gay.

His name, as your gran and the dog know, is Paul Burrell, and he’s a ‘butler on the edge’ as he faces down rumours inside and outside the camp that he is gay.

But while Paul tells us how his favourite film is The Wizard of Oz, his wife back home is ‘bewildered’ at slurs on her man’s sexuality.

Miriam, for it is she, is ‘stunned’ by innuendos and dismisses the jokes – ‘The only thing camper than him on the show is the camp fire’ (Ant and Dec 2004) as ‘silly banter’.

Meanwhile, we at home snuggle up on the sofa and look on, happy to pass the evening wondering why Burrell had all those old Princess Di dresses at his house.

And how he came to be a florist…’

Posted: 2nd, December 2004 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink