The 9 0'Clock News – Mon 19 Jan

Posted by heatworld on Monday 19 Jan 2009

Filed under: Arlene Phillips, Britannia High, Gary Barlow, Jonathan Ross, Kelly Osbourne, Mitch Hewer, Russell Brand, Tony Hart, Brush with the law

Russell Brand slams public reaction to Manuelgate:
Up until now he's not said an awful lot about the incident, but we can't say we're surprised that Russell Brand chose a live stand-up situation to have his say on Manuelgate. The big-haired comedian kicked off his British tour last night in Reading and decided to tell his captive audience exactly what he thought of the whole debacle. First of all, images of all the headlines printed at the time were flashed up onto a screen, and then Russell sauntered on to the stage and told the crowd the whole thing had been just a "lark" and that it was "blown out of all proportion". Far from being apologetic, Russ simply boasted that the whole incident had boosted his profile, joking, "When you're as narcissistic as me, it makes my ego even bigger when you're all over the news." As well as laughing off what happened, Brand also made it clear he thought people had overreacted. "People were shouting, 'Put them on the sex offenders' register. Huntley, Sutcliffe, Glitter, Brand',"  he said. Do you think Russell has a point, or was it unwise of him to open up this particular can of worms again when most people had forgotten all about it?

Kelly O arrested over club slap
Kelly Osbourne has been arrested for slapping a woman who said her fiancé was dim. Kelly is alleged to have confronted Zoe Griffin in Punk nightclub, central London, after Zoe claimed her hubby-to-be did not know what an earthquake was. Gossip columnist Zoe said, "Kelly shouted loudly in my ear, 'I have an issue with you. Everyone has been laughing at my boyfriend'. Then I felt a hard slap." Kelly was arrested two weeks ago and released on bail until March. Temper, temper...

Britannia High axed
It all looked so promising for Britannia High, didn’t it? With High School Musical 3 being one of the biggest movies ever ever ever, a musical TV show set in a performing arts school with lots of pretty people in it – and created by Dance Queen Arlene Phillips AND with songs penned by Gary Barlow – it seemed like it would be the Next Big Thing. But no. After rather rubbish ratings (surely, in no small part due to its crap time slot on early Sunday nights), its been dropped after just one ill-fated series. An ITV insider confirms, “We thought Britannia High would be an all-singing, all dancing success – especially having all the top names in dance and music on board. Sadly the stories of these youngsters vying for their dreams didn’t seem to capture viewers imagination.” Will you miss the show?
 
Tony Hart dies aged 83
heatworld was very upset to learn of the sad news that TV art legend Tony Hart had died. The 83-year-old kids' TV favourite – and co-creator of plasticine model Morph – passed away at the weekend after suffering a chest infection. We remember our eight-year-old selves drawing our best artwork ever (even colouring inside the lines and everything) and posting it off to Tony Hart in the hope we’d gain a coveted place in the Hartbeat gallery. Although we never did, we didn’t take offence because Tony was such a lovely man. Tributes have been flooding in from the art world, including from Rolf Harris, who says, “He brought huge creativity to his TV programmes. He enthused and inspired a whole generation of kids into creating their own works of art, simple of complex.”