BY JASON WRIGHT
2010 was another crazy and outrageous year in the world of showbiz, so here are the big talking points of 2010.
JANUARY – Katie Price & Alex Reid – A Match Made In Heaven?
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| HAPPY: Can Katie and Alex's marriage survive? |
One is a reputable hard man and has perhaps put the death-defying sport of cage fighting into the public spotlight. The other is a glamour model/TV personality whose high profile celebrity split in 2009 made her become “The Nation’s Bitch”. So when Katie Price (a.k.a. Jordan) and Alex Reid tied the knot in Los Angeles, it was expected but also surprising considering they hadn’t formally reconciled after splitting up a few months beforehand. The marriage took place just days after Reid had won the last series of Channel 4’s Celebrity Big Brother and the public’s perception on him was changed completely. Since the private wedding in the Atlantic, their relationship has hit the rocks so many times with conflicting reports of the couple’s separate work commitments getting the upper hand of their private life. Despite this, they held a second public wedding to prove their love back at home but still these questions over how long it will last remain today. It will be remarkable if they make it past the end of next year, let alone the seven-year itch.
FEBRUARY – Cheryl & Ashley Cole – End Of the Line
All too often enough, many footballers can’t resist the odd one night stand now and again but none more so than Chelsea’s Ashley Cole. He had already gotten away with it in 2008 as wife, singer and X-Factor Judge Cheryl Cole decided to give him another bite of the cherry. That was bitten right off at the start of February with another tabloid exclusive from a bar stripper claiming he had an illicit romance with her. Days later, several more girls sold stories of their experiences with the defender and after another tough week’s worth of thought, which included a downbeat appearance at the BRIT awards, Cheryl finally decided enough was enough and announced a split between them, formally filing for divorce soon after. This came as no surprise really, Ashley had been dicing with danger for long enough but as before, he gave into the temptation and it cost him the girl of his dreams.
MARCH – The Oscars – Mighty Minnow Outfoxes the Giant
The start of March brought the stars of LA out in force for the 82nd Academy Awards. The past twelve months had been record breaking in the world of movies and coming into the big ceremony itself, it had been widely expected that the epic 3D smash ‘Avatar’ would sweep the board. However, everyone was wrong as it only took three gongs, mostly for its special effects. Instead the honours went to ‘The Hurt Locker’, a compelling drama based on a US army experience of the Iraq conflict and made on a paper-thin budget. It won six awards including the prestigious ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’ for Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman to win the award. To make it even more remarkable, Bigelow had been previously married to James Cameron, who was behind Avatar. It just goes to show that sometimes a big budget isn’t necessarily required to make a massive blockbuster.
APRIL – Adrian Chiles Switches Sides – ITV Get Their Man
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| SCRUTINY: Adrian Chiles had a tough transition to ITV |
When ITV earned terrestrial rights to FA Cup and England football from 2008 onwards, on a four-year deal, they wanted to get in someone who had the pure knowledge of the beautiful game, Adrian Chiles. The BBC weren’t willing to let him go without a fight. The start of the year saw cracks beginning to show between Adrian and the BBC, when the former refused to shave and grew a huge and ugly beard, which he finally was forced to give up on if the Sport Relief campaign raised more than £20 million on the night. Then the Beeb didn’t do themselves any favours when they announced that popular Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans would take over hosting The One Show on Friday nights from the autumn. Chiles was livid and despite the compensation of being offered a two-year extension to remain at the corporation, he put pen to paper on the contract to join ITV. As part of the move, Chiles replaced an unhappy Steve Rider as the main man of the channel’s football coverage and present a revamped breakfast show from September. As far as ITV are concerned, they were happy to have got their man at last but Adrian’s dry wit and humour that made him popular on MOTD 2 and The One Show has not worked out at his new home so far. Things have got to improve before his reputation is destroyed totally in 2011.
MAY – Britain’s Got Talent – Time for a Change?
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| CLASS: Spellbound were the stars of BGT in 2010 |
The fourth series of ITV’s hugely popular talent contest ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ was anticipated to be the biggest and best yet but in the end, it coughed and spluttered its way throughout. Though the show produced a deserving winner in gymnast act Spelbound, throughout the show’s run, several questions were asked by the media as to whether the show was suffering by having rarely changed its format and adapted successfully to any change over the last couple of years. Sure enough, show creator Simon Cowell announced his intention to stand down from the auditions phase of next year’s series, only judging from the live semi-finals and Piers Morgan later also quit, focusing on his increasing commitments in the US. Comedian Michael McIntyre and David Hasslehoff, who is the lead judge in the American version, are to join the show next year which has promised massive changes and surprises. Let’s hope it works because if it doesn’t, the show will certainly hit the skids.
JUNE – Lindsay Lohan – A Fallen Star
There is some wasted talent in the US from time to time but none more so than Lindsay Lohan. Since 2007, the actress, famous for roles in The Parent Trap and Herbie: Fully Loaded has rarely been out of headlines for her erratic behaviour when not at work. It got much worse in June when she was sentenced to 90 days behind bars for violating the court terms of a criminal probation. She would only serve 14 days of this conviction before being bailed for a yet another stint in rehab. The amount of times that Lohan has ended up in court on criminal charges has now become beyond a joke and it is still amazing that she is still in showbiz today.
JULY – Cheryl Cole – Fight For Her Life
Cheryl Cole had undergone a traumatic first half of the year and was just hoping it wouldn’t get any worse. In one week in July, it nearly got cut short. The week started with a simple story of the Girls Aloud star collapsing at a photoshoot for her upcoming new album, at first harmless as it seemed like it was just a case of exhaustion through overworking. Just 24 hours later came more shocking developments when The Daily Mirror broke the news that she had contracted malaria following a short break in the African country of Tanzania with close friend Derek Hough. Worse still, the next day, another newspaper scoop in The Sun formally announced that Cheryl had contracted the most lethal strain of the disease and was given just days left to live. At that point, everyone believed it was over and were simply waiting for the news that she had succumbed to the illness. Then a week later, treatment in a specialist hospital for tropical diseases like malaria worked and before long Cheryl was back and fighting fit again. Her experience no doubt raised the issue of malaria into the public spotlight and she later told broadcaster Piers Morgan in an exclusive interview of his popular TV show ‘Life Stories’ the full extent of her illness.
AUGUST – Time to Say Goodbye – Three ITV favourites breathe their last
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| FAREWELL: The Bill was one of a number of departures on ITV |
Towards the end of August, emotions seemed to be running high at ITV as the broadcaster bid farewell to three of its most beloved and popular programmes. First to go was ‘Heartbeat’, a popular drama set in fictional Yorkshire village in the 1960’s. It had been on the air since 1992 and despite the obvious dwindling figures of recent, it was still a regular fixture of ITV’s Sunday night schedules. The programme was killed off due to ITV’s budget cuts within the Yorkshire region. Next was the closure of ‘The Bill.’ Centred on a fictional London police station, Sun Hill, it had been run continuously for 27 years. Again in recent times, the programme had been suffering from a decline in viewers. A massive revamp of the show last year failed to halt this slide and sure enough, the axe swiftly fell on what was considered as one of Britain’s best drama shows. Finally, the last week of August (stretching into the first few days of September) was to be the end for a morning classic. Having woken up the nation since 1993, GMTV was put to bed. In these current times it had been constantly outperformed by rival BBC Breakfast and bosses decides to give a total revamp to help compete better. A full takeover by ITV late last year sealed the deal and GMTV departed on September 3, to be replaced by Daybreak on the following Monday. There is no doubt that these farewells have signified changing times at ITV but just how much more can it take of this in the future. We shall have to wait and see.
SEPTEMBER – George Michael – Banged Up For Getting High
Another celebrity who has seen controversy taken over their status in recent times has been singer George Michael. September saw him achieve his lowest ebb of his distinguished career as after a long night of partying, he stupidly got behind wheel of his car after taken excessive amounts of marijuana. The result was inevitable as he crashed his motor into a Snappy Snaps outlet in West London. He subsequently had his driving license revoked and was jailed for two months for illegal possession of drugs. It was another embarrassing moment in the recent history of the former legend of music.
OCTOBER – Katy Perry & Russell Brand – Hitched In an Indian Delight
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| MATCH: Russell Brand has met it in Katy Perry |
One of last year’s hottest and unusual new couples was US singer Katy Perry and British comedian Russell Brand. Their unruly love for one another meant it would soon be inevitable that they would tie the knot. Months of planning came and went and finally they got married in a private and traditional Indian ceremony in Delhi. The photographs and stories from the wedding reportedly fetched over $2 million, proving how much attention the pair have received from the media throughout this time. Considering Russell’s rather controversial past, it seems like his love for Katy has actually changed everyone’s personality on him for the better. Many will hope they stay together for a long time.
NOVEMBER – Jason Manford – Sex Shame Ends His Dream Job
Jason Manford seemed to be enjoying himself more than ever before. After landing, to the surprise of many, Adrian Chiles job of hosting The One Show; it looked like nothing would get in his way, or so he thought. The tabloids once again had a celebrity when the guard was let down and it was revealed he had sent several sexual text messages to five strippers. Of course, most people would just stay silent but with his reputation called into question, Manford decided to do the honourable thing and confess it was true. He then resigned from his position on The One Show to focus on rebuilding his relations with his loved ones and focus on his upcoming stand up tour. It is a shame that it had to come to this but at the end of the day, Manford did the right thing.
DECEMBER – Coronation Street – 50 Years Is No Time for A Party
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| DERAILED: The tram crash bought carnage to Corrie |
Coronation Street, Britain’s and the world’s longest running soap opera hit the big 50 milestone before Christmas month and it did so with an almighty bang. For the anniversary week itself, producers wanted to run a storyline that had the nation gripped for the entire duration. The week started with a massive explosion that destroyed the recently opened Joinery nightclub before a tram derailed from the damaged viaduct above and smashed onto the cobbles. The disaster claimed the lives of popular characters Ashley Peacock (Steven Arnold) and Molly Dobbs (Vicky Binns) whilst several others were injured and scarred permanently over the experience. It earned Corrie its highest ratings in years and will surely receive a spate of awards next year.
So there we have it. It has been another massive and explosive year on the showbiz front. Let’s hope 2011 is just as sensational as the one gone by!
