News in Brief Extra: Anti-acne, pay gap and babies

Last week we had a special edition of News in Brief celebrating the life of Liz Dawn, so here is the ATV Sunday of last weekend this Saturday. We’ll have our usual issue as expected – or dreaded – tomorrow.

Roxy Shahidi is expecting…

Now as the actress stars in Emmerdale and not EastEnders we can’t say ‘expecting a decent storyline’ because as we all know the ITV Yorkshire saga’s plots have been pretty entertaining of late. No Roxy recently announced she’s pregnant.

OK magazine reported how the performer behind character Leyla Harding is to have her first baby with husband Arsher Ali.

“I burst into tears… We had only been trying for a few weeks and I was sure it was going to take us much longer! It took a few weeks before I got my head around it, but once I did I was filled with joy… We’re having a girl. We both wanted to find out so we had the… test at 12 weeks. There hasn’t been a girl in my family for 20 years so everyone on my side is pretty excited for us.” – Roxy speaking to OK magazine

Kemp it in the Family

Speaking of babbas, Sky 1 documentary host, and former ‘Enders actor Ross Kemp welcomed his third child on September 28th, announcing the news on Twitter. It’s his second child with his current partner.

Ross, who visits dangerous locations across the globe for Sky – which is obviously pretty easy compared to battling through some of the BBC One EastEnders scripts – told his social media followers, “Big thanks to Lawrence Impey [hospital surgeon] and his team… Very happy Dad again!”

Now to a different kind of bun in the oven…

Ross has seen some pretty dire things in recent years, including EastEnders plots. As seen here on Sky 1. Ross welcomed this third child recently.

Bake Off gets Hollywood treatment

Paul Hollywood is to join the line up on the stateside version of GBBO, The Great American Baking Show. Dan Wooton, in The Sun, reported that Paul is to replace Mary Berry, who quit the show, along with the BBC original, to stay with the beeb rather than move with GBBO to Channel 4.

Paul will judge alongside Johnny Iuzzini on the US version of the show. The Sun also add, ‘The Merseyside-born baker will be heading to US telly for the first time since he cheated on his wife with Marcels Valladolid in 2013.’ A Great British Pants Off hopefully won’t happen again then.

Quickies

In other Bake Off news the former home of the series’ cookery tent, Harptree Court, is up for sale. The Grade II Georgian mansion  in North Somerset was home to The Great British Bake Off during series three and four of the show. Fans of GBBO will have to dig deep as the sale price is five million.

Former Emmerdale actors Charlie Hardwick and Sheree Murphy are returning to their famous Yorkshire characters Val Pollard and Tricia Dingle for the Emmerdale Studio Experience next month. The pair will ‘meet and greet’ fans of the ITV soap in the run up to Christmas as part of the events festive period.

Kate Winslet, before acting fame and fortune fancied being a hairdresser. Speaking on a recent edition of stateside series The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, Kate recalled how her career as a scissor queen came to a sharp end. “A family friend—who was a fully grown man, ladies and gentlemen—allowed me to cut his hair, and I cut off a piece of his ear,”

Lucy Mecklenburgh has admitted that while starring in Channel 4’s Celebrity Island, she pissed on Ryan Thomas’ foot. The pair who found romance under the palms, had to survive the rough and food-less island for weeks fending for themselves alongside other celebs. Speaking of her pee incident she noted “Not many people can say that after a week of knowing someone, can they?” Well the former TOWIE star has obviously never had a night out in Glasgow.

Anti-acne adverts featuring former Hollyoaks actress Jorgie Porter have been banned during children’s programmes due to concerns about them leading to bullying, the BBC reported. The advertising watchdog stated it felt the commercials implied that teens who have bad skin, and don’t use the product being plugged, are more likely to be mocked. The company behind the skin product said the ad showed a ‘personal story’ of Jorgie, and didn’t set out for the promo to be interpreted in the way the watchdog has ruled.

Val Pollard actress Charlie Hardwick is returning to her character’s history for the Emmerdale Studio Experience.

Please Don’t Mind the Pay Gap

Former Loose Women regular, and businesswoman Karen Brady has waded into the men versus women pay gap at the beeb. Speaking to the Radio Times magazine she noted;

“The BBC is publicly funded so people want to know where their licence fee is spent and who gets what. Most shocking was the disparity between men and women effectively doing the same job. Emily… what’s her name? From Newsnight. Yes, Maitlis. She wasn’t on the list but her counterpart, Evan Davis, is on almost double.”

The Independent newspaper noted that ‘ The BBC has been caught up in a gender pay gap storm following its revelation of top on-screen talent paid more than £150,000 a year.’ adding ‘The salary reveal was part of the corporation’s annual review and highlighted the fact that two-thirds of its stars earning more than £150,000 are male.’

“Gary Lineker earns £1.8 m, while his female equivalent, Clare Balding, is on £199,000. He is not overpaid, she is shockingly underpaid. A lot of the men should be forcing the BBC to pay more. The BBC keep talking about how they will redress the balance, but change can happen very quickly in an organisation if a CEO is determined to make that happen. Tony Hall (the BBC director-general) just needs to make the decision to resolve it, and then go and resolve it.” – Karen Brady speaking to Radio Times

BBC gender pay gap needs sorting says Karen Brady.

Bleeping BBC Breakfast

BBC Breakfast presenter Dan Walker gave viewers a verbal shock when thanks to a slip of the tongue and Dan Walker spoke a very rude word. The one a lot of people use when mentioning Jeremy Hunt. In fact Jeremy Hunt has become rather the slang term for the word in question.

Yes the beeb morning show had the airwaves turn blue for all of a second when Walker – who is also a regular on BBC Sport programming – let out the c-word live on air.

“Now, what better way to gain an understanding of a community than to immerse yourself in their c***ure.” – Dan Walker on BBC Breakfast.

The Mirror reported ‘After tripping over his words, Walker quickly corrected himself. While his co-host Naga Munchetty said: “That was a mixture of ‘country’ and ‘culture’, wasn’t it?” The paper continue ‘And Walker later responded to his mistake on Twitter, saying: “Think I got away with it. Not sure anyone noticed.”‘ Well they noticed enough Dan for The Mirror to report it.

C-word on Breakfast, courtesy of Dan Walker.

Remembering…

Actor Tony Booth passed away aged 85. Best known for his role in BBC Sitcom Till Death Us Do Part, he is of course Cherie Blair’s father and was married to Coronation Street legend Pat Pheonix.

Comedian and Benidorm actor Bobby Knutt died aged 71. Lady Lucan, Lord Lucan’s widow, passed away aged 80 while Ex-Newcastle United chairman and popular North East businessman Freddy Shepherd died aged 75. Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner said goodbye aged 91 after years of titterlation and of course we bid farewell to Liz Dawn of Corrie fame….