Piers Morgan

Comedian and TV star Paul O’Grady was set to be the host of Britain’s Got Talent and even have the show named after him until things got very heated behind the scenes

Former Britain’s Got Talent judge Piers Morgan has revealed Paul O’Grady was meant to be the host for the hit talent show, until things went very wrong. The controversial broadcaster was part of the original line up on Simon Cowell’s talent show back in 2007.

Music mogul Simon was inspired by former talent shows including Opportunity Knocks and New Faces as he wanted to create a competition for people of any age and location to enter. He wanted a range of personalities on the judging panel with him, and first settled on Piers and Fern Britton.

Simon set his sights on comedian Paul as host and even planned to name the show, Paul O’Grady’s Got Talent. He met with Piers for lunch in Kensington, London to get him on board.

READ MORE: Britain’s Got Talent’s scramble to film auditions after Simon Cowell’s illnessREAD MORE: Simon Cowell’s real reason for pulling out of Britain’s Got Talent after head injury

Piers admitted: “I owe him a lot actually because I would not have had any career in America without him. He has been great for me. He said ‘I am going to bring back an old all-round talent show like New Faces, Opportunity Knocks and The Gong Show in America. It can be any talent’.”

The broadcaster explained: “We did a pilot at ITV. Paul O’Grady was the host. The judging panel was Simon Cowell, me, and Fern Britton. It was about to be greenlit as a prime-time ITV show.”

Piers said he was ready “to get back in the game” but things quickly took a turn and the production was halted. He said: “Then Paul O’Grady had a massive falling out with ITV, told them to shove it and went to Channel 4.”

At the time, the Paul O’Grady Show moved over to Channel 4 and ITV stopped him being able to rent their studios. Paul decided to refuse all work with the network following the row.

He explained years later: “I did the pilot for Britain’s Got Talent – which was originally going to be called Paul O’Grady’s Got Talent. But I told the producers they were having a joke if they thought I would front a show with that title.

“The original panel of judges was going to be Simon Cowell, Fern Britton and Piers Morgan. I was the host. Then when I had the row with ITV I was banned from the studios.

“I remember I rang Simon and told him he had a huge hit on his hands, but there was no way I could do it. I said, if I am banned I have to be banned from everything. I can’t be a hypocrite and come in and do this. I had to bow out.”

Paul added: “I don’t regret what I did. Not in the slightest. Good luck to them.” He did also manage to patch things up with ITV and returned years later with Paul O’Grady Live!.

Paul’s decision to boycott ITV meant Britain’s Got Talent was hit with a huge delay and Simon decided to kick off with America’s Got Talent first. Simon enlisted Piers again as he wanted “someone who is judgmental, opinionated, obnoxious and arrogant” as him.

Britain’s Got Talent hit screens a year later with Simon, Piers and Amanda Holden as judges and Ant and Dec as hosts. Piers said on The Overlap and Betfair’s Stick to Cricket show: “He had literally come up with the entire concept of Got Talent on a napkin at the Ivy in Kensington.

“Bring back a talent show. Have a tough mean judge, a mother hen figure, a funny person and any talent goes. Now the Got Talent franchise is in more than 60 countries around the world. It changed my life.”

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MANY of us have been guilty of sneaking a glance at something we shouldn’t – but these unfortunate celebs were caught in the act.

This week Judge Rob Rinder was snapped copping an eyeful of Liz Hurley‘s cleavage at the National Television Awards.

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The TV presenter, 47, posed beside the actress, 60 – both of whom star in Channel 4’s new reality show The Inheritance – on the red carpet at the glitzy event.

Later on during the ceremony Rob – who was married to Seth Cumming from 2013 to 2018 – cracked a joke about her daringly low-cut dress.

While the duo presented the gong for Best Reality Competition, he couldn’t resist another look before telling Liz: “How marvellous it is that you are defying Newton’s Law of Physics. Well done to you!”

The Good Morning Britain star’s cheeky comment went down well, with the audience erupting into laughter.

Here we reveal the other brazen celebs who only had their own breast intentions at heart…

Morning peak

Outspoken Piers Morgan was caught sneaking a peek down Susanna Reid‘s top while presenting GMB back in 2016.

The presenter was admiring her purple dress, which had a cheeky slit down the front.

Piers quickly realised he’d put his foot in it, admitting: “I was just admiring my co-presenter.

“The camera caught me at a difficult moment… I looked over and looked down and before I knew it…”

He wasn’t the only person to appreciate Susanna’s low cut dress that day, with many viewers praising how she looked.

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Billionaire blunder

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Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, 40, landed himself in hot water when he was caught staring at fellow tech billionaire Jeff Bezos‘s fiancée’s chest.

The married social media magnate was snapped ogling Lauren Sanchez at President Trump’s inauguration in January this year – while her partner, 61, was stood right next to her.

Lauren, 55, hit headlines for her racy outfit at the swearing in, and it was later revealed her lingerie-style top was a $1,800 Alexander McQueen satin-trimmed bustier.

Mark – who wed Priscilla Chan, 40, in 2012 – raised more eyebrows less than 24 hours later when he ‘liked’ a photo of Lauren’s cleavage on her Instagram.

Fans were quick to mock the Meta founder, with one asking: “Will Zuck lose his Amazon Prime membership?”

Wedding leer

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While making a guest appearance on Good Morning Britain for the ‘wedding’ of Love Island stars Jessica Shears, 32, and Dom Lever, 34, telly host Jeremy Kyle was caught gawping at the bride’s breasts.

Given Jess was wearing a bikini for the live ceremony in 2018, her ample assets were on full display.

Viewers were quick to call him out, with one tweeting: “Jezza kopping a quick gorp at Jess’s t**s (sic).”

Another wrote: “Jeremy Kyle was staring at Jess’s boobs and it was disturbing.”

Jeremy, 60, had recently proposed to Vicky Burton, the former nanny of his kids, who he married in 2021.

Phwoar-lando

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Before Orlando Bloom, 48, and Katy Perry, 40, went their separate ways, the Lord of the Rings actor was caught with a wandering eye.

In September last year he was papped admiring Kim Kardashian‘s ample behind despite having his hand on fiancée Katy’s waist.

Fans were quick to criticise Orlando’s barely concealed stare at Kim, with one joking: “Maybe this is why they have been engaged for so long.”

Katy and Orlando went their separate ways in July this year, shortly after he was spotted having a cosy reunion with Kim at Jeff Bezos’ wedding.

Amanda’s Got Talent

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Simon Cowell, 65, clearly thought his Britain’s Got Talent co-host had talent(s) when he accompanied her to the British Academy Television Awards in 2010.

Amanda Holden, 54, had opted for a strapless gown, and Simon – who was at the time engaged to make-up artist Mezhgan Hussainy, 52 – couldn’t resist a glance at her bust.

The music mogul’s unfortunate moment was caught on camera – from multiple angles.

Though Amanda’s silver and white gown was fairly tame compared to the daring outfits she worn in more recent years.

Ola there!

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Dancer James Jordan, 47, was caught having a good look at Lisa Snowden‘s bosom – in a snap captured by his own wife.

The former Strictly Come Dancing professional was cosying up to the telly presenter, 53, at a bash in 2017.

Ola, 42, shared the photo of James gawping at Lisa’s chest on her Instagram story, captioned: “It’s my lovely Lisa Snowdon,” alongside a winking face.

The trio met after Lisa appeared on Strictly back in 2008 when she was partnered with Brendan Cole, 49.

Lady love

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It’s not just the famous blokes who appreciate the female form – in these amusing shots TV host Ellen DeGeneres, 67, was caught having a good inspection of Katy Perry’s boobs.

The women were at the Grammy Awards in 2013 when the talk show host was pictured ogling the I Kissed A Girl singer.

Standing arm in arm with her wife Portia de Rossi, 52, Ellen wasn’t shy about sharing her admiration.

Portia appeared to be find her spouse’s antics hilarious, while Ellen tweeted the photo with a birthday message for Katy captioned: “Happy birthday, @KatyPerry! It’s time to bring out the big balloons!”

It didn’t go down too well with fans, with some accusing Ellen of double standards, pointing out if it was a man who made the joke it would be seen as sexist.

Tucci close for comfort

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Anne Hathaway and Stanley Tucci became close while co-starring in The Devil Wears Prada back in 2006.

During filming Anne revealed that her co-star – then married to his now ex-wife Kate Tucci – had become obsessed with her breasts, and he was even spotted having a sly look down her plunging black dress while promoting the film.

Anne joked that Stanley kept elbowing her in the boobs, leading him to reportedly joke that she should stop “flinging those melons around like it’s harvest season”.

The joke doesn’t seem to have bothered either party as they’ve remained bosom buddies and are currently filming The Devil Wears Prada 2.

Bonnie Blue insists she is happy but there is a cost to her fame and she does not live a normal life

Bonnie Blue has made millions from porn, inviting multiple fans to have sex with her and posting film of what some people would call orgies, but she calls “events”, online.

Her biggest event was in January, when she had sex with 1,057 men in 12 hours, the inspiration for the title of a new Channel 4 documentary, 1,000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story.

At a screening of the documentary, Bonnie insisted she was “very happy” with her life. But her notoriety, and her boasts of sex with married men, who, she says, should not feel guilty about cheating on their wives, come at a price.

In the film, Bonnie, a 26-year-old former NHS recruitment worker from Derbyshire, whose real name is Tia Billinger, says: “The last time I went out by myself was probably about six months ago. Now it is not that safe.

“I get 100s of death threats a day, so it is not that safe when I walk around.

“I say, ‘It is going to happen at some point, someone will come and give me stick’ and fair play to her, at least they are getting up off their sofa. My worst one is acid, if someone did acid, and I could see some spiteful girl doing that.”

READ MORE: ‘I saw real Bonnie Blue behind closed doors – there’s one dark truth people don’t see’

Bonnie has split from her husband and her closest friends seem to be Josh, who posts her videos, and a stylist. She says: “My sort of circles got smaller, but my team are also my best friends.”

Director Victoria Silver followed Bonnie for six months, gathering footage of her having sex, and was at her January marathon for a couple of hours.

At the documentary screening, Bonnie expressed surprise at the amount of explicit footage used. Asked if she was expecting complaints, Victoria said: “If I was making a film about a musician or some kind of other performer their work would be in there. I think it is important to see what she does.”

And Bonnie is clearly proud of her work. Of her sex marathon, she says: “I love the fact that I was able to experience that day with over 1,000 subscribers, fans, people that spent time out of the day to come meet me.

“But, yeah, I also need money to be able to take time out of my days to be able to do that, to hold these events. These events aren’t cheap by the time you pay for staff, security, the venue.”

But she says she has earned more than £1million in some months, and the documentary shows the increasingly extreme lengths she will go to for clicks and views.

In one stunt, she creates a school classroom for a sex show, with other, younger, contributors taking part after being sent invites.

The director’s voiceover says they are not paid but “appearing in their socials with Bonnie is payment enough”.

At the shoot in Birmingham, one girl called Codie says: “She got quite big quite fast, so it will be nice to see how she does things. No, I am not being paid today, it’d just be that I get tagged and then hopefully get followers and subs from that and then roll on to my page.”

She admits she does not normally do anything “adventurous” on her OnlyFans page and that this is the first time she has taken part in filmed group sex. She adds that making sex films is better than having to do an office job.

Another contributor, Leah, says: “I got a DM to see if I wanted to take part. As soon as I heard Bonnie Blue’s name I was intrigued because she’s everywhere at the minute.”

Leah says this is the first time she has been with other people in a room having sex and she is “definitely” nervous.

But Bonnie does not seem bothered or concerned by the fact the girls look a bit shy and intimidated. Bonnie says: “The fact they are so nervous works in my favour, because their reactions will be more realistic. Or if they feel intimidated, obviously, I want them to say, but sometimes sex is intimidating, so it’s going to be good.”

Another scene shows Bonnie at home with mum Sarah, who speaks with pride about how her daughter was a great dancer as a child.

She also seems proud of her career as a porn star. She says: “Would it be something that I chose for her to do, no. I was really, really shocked, but now would I want her to do anything else? No, not at all. It’s her choice.”

Sarah and other relatives have given up their jobs to be on Bonnie’s payroll.

Sarah says: “People I know always liked us both, but think it’s OK to make nasty comments.

“Most of the time I just laugh. I’m like, ‘If you could earn a million pounds in a month, your morals would soon change, and you’d get your bits out’. I don’t care what people say.”

Bonnie says: “My family started to put up with hate, I get that, but I also get the life I live and the money. So it’s like I also want them to receive some of the rewards.”

The documentary ends as Bonnie is about to head to Romania to meet influencer Andrew Tate, who is facing rape and human trafficking charges, which he denies, and is a self proclaimed misogynist. Bonnie says: “He’s probably just as controversial as I am. Whether people love him or hate him, he’s a marketing genius.”

Director Victoria asks her: “You talk about female empowerment, but how do you square that with aligning yourself with the most misogynistic male on the internet?”

Bonnie says: “Piers Morgan interviews serial killers all the time. It’s not messed up his brand. He [Tate] has been labelled multiple things by the media, and so have I. We’re probably the two most misunderstood people out there at the moment.”

Channel 4 defended the documentary, telling the Mirror: “The explicit content is editorially justified and provides essential context.”

And at the screening, commissioning editor Tim Hancock said: “We are very proud to do films like this.”

* 1000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story, Channel 4, Tuesday, 10pm.

US rapper Kanye West abruptly walked out of his most recent interview with Piers Morgan, who later blasted the rapper’s conduct in a scathing public statement

Piers Morgan has reignited his feud with Kanye West, following yet another explosive encounter that ended with the rapper abruptly leaving their interview.

On Piers Morgan Uncensored, Kanye cut the interview short after just four minutes when he accused Piers of ‘patronising’ him because the TV presenter mistakenly said that he had 32 million followers on X – rather than 33 million followers.

Piers, 60, was adamant about questioning the rapper, 47, about his anti-Semitic posts on X after he claimed that all Jews are ‘slaves’ and that they should be ‘whipped’. Kanye also horrified social media users earlier this year in a vile outburst on X where he claimed that he ‘loved Hitler’.

However, after Kanye stormed off camera after Piers mistakenly got his X following count wrong, the TV presenter was left with Kanye’s right-hand-man and online influencer, Sneako.

A baffled Sneako, who has also recently faced bans on certain platforms, said: “That’s it for Ye. Nice to meet you, Piers.” However, he stayed to reluctantly listen to some tough questions on behalf of Kanye, with Piers asking if he ever intended to do a proper interview.

Sneako said: “You know what you are doing? I think you were trying to patronise very intentionally by getting those two things under his skin.”

A defiant Piers then replied: “We called him Ye,” before he went on to say that the pair had kept the crew waiting for almost 22 hours before eventually turning up for the interview.

Sneako said it “was funny” and he also refused to answer queries about Ye’s antisemitism and comments glorifying Hitler and bashing Jewish people.

The influencer said he was out working with the star to help him “fulfil his vision”, adding he refused to “speak on his [Ye’s] art or his vision”.

Defending having him on the show, Piers said: “The reason I wanted to get him on was because I don’t think anyone holds him to account for anything he does on X, and in fact, he deliberately breaches all of X’s rules, and yet he does it with impunity and is allowed to do it, whereas millions of other accounts get suspended for far less offences.

“So I was going to ask him directly, why I mentioned his X following, I was going to ask him about what he puts on X and why he does this? Why he continually attacks Jewish people, why he continually celebrates Adolf Hitler?”

On his anti-semitic comments, and referencing ‘whipping Jews’, Sneako said he found the whole subject ‘funny’. He laughed as he told Piers: “I’m pretty sure it’s a joke because I’ve been here for a couple weeks [in Spain] and he hasn’t whipped any Jews.”

Piers concluded: “Tell him from me he’s a snivelling, little coward, and he’s an anti-semite and a Hitler worshipper. That’s what I would have asked him if he’d had the b***s to sit there and take the questions.”

The outspoken broadcaster took to Instagram to break the news, posting a photo of a visibly disgruntled Kanye and captioning it with biting sarcasm: “UPDATE: I interviewed Kanye West again today.

“As I expected, given what I’ve said about him recently, it didn’t last long or go well. This was him right before he stomped off like a big baby before I could ask him why he’s become a vile, Hitler-loving, Nazi-slathering, anti-Semitic p***k. Drops on @piersmorganuncensored later…”

As expected, reactions flooded in. Some followers praised Piers for holding firm, with journalist Rosanna Lockwood calling it “the caption to end all captions” and adding a clapping emoji. Others were less impressed, with one commenter cheekily reminding him, “I love this and ur honesty piers but u also stormed off like a big baby.”

This isn’t the first time the pair have clashed. Back in 2022, they went head-to-head in a combative sit-down on TalkTV. The conversation was intense, unfiltered, and stretched over two hours – until Kanye, then still going by Ye, reached a breaking point and walked off mid-filming.

Morgan later described the fallout, saying that retrieving the rapper after his dramatic exit proved to be “quite a struggle.” Nevertheless, he was ultimately relieved that Ye returned. As he told viewers at the time: “I’m glad I did because we ended up getting to where I think in his mind he wanted to get to. I think he wanted to atone for what he had done and the damage he had caused. But he was too fired up and too proud to actually go there until we got towards the end.”

Despite that, Morgan didn’t mince words in his assessment of the rapper’s views, branding him “racist,” “horribly homophobic,” and “pro-Hitler.” Since then, Ye has only courted further backlash, continuing to post incendiary content across his social media platforms.

In one of his most recent tirades, he once again targeted ex-wife Kim Kardashian, this time through an expletive-heavy livestream where he vented frustration about their ongoing co-parenting struggles. The 47-year-old rapper’s anger reached a boiling point as he accused the reality star, 44, of obstructing his role as a father.

It’s far from the first time he’s aired grievances online. Just two months ago, in March, Ye posted – and quickly deleted – threatening messages aimed at Kim, ominously stating he was prepared to “go to war” with her. The couple’s divorce, filed by Kardashian in 2021, continues to be mired in public drama.

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The presenter says the way colleagues rallied around him after social media storm was ‘lovely’

Gary Lineker has described the way he was supported by colleagues over his controversial suspension from the BBC in 2023 as “beautiful”. The outgoing Match of the Day presenter was asked in a new TV interview if the storm over the political comments he’d made on social media had been “blown out of all proportion” and he agreed it had.

The TV star, 64, explained: “It was a crazy week. It upset me, having all the press outside my house every minute of the day for five or six days. It got a bit silly.”

But Lineker said he discovered there was a surprisingly heart-warming aspect to the stressful situation. “It was actually also lovely, because the backing I got from the people I work with was beautiful.”

READ MORE: Sir David Attenborough to front new landmark BBC series weeks after 99th birthday

The row erupted after he posted that the language used by then home secretary Suella Braverman over the “stop the boats” asylum policy was “not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 1930s”.

But after he was suspended, in March 2023, many of his colleagues in BBC Sport refused to stand in for him, including Alex Scott, Alan Shearer and Ian Wright, plus Mark Chapman, Gaby Logan and Jermaine Defoe.

Lineker’s remarks were made in new ITV interview show The Assembly, in which stars are quizzed by a group of interviewers who are autistic, neurodivergent or learning disabled.

Under the rules, no question is off the table and everything must be answered. Asked if there was any element of “shove out” from the BBC over his Match of the Day departure, Gary says: “I don’t know, maybe they would have got rid of me anyway. I think it was the right time. You don’t want to overstay your welcome, do you?” Pushed on whether he was actually given the boot, he insists: “No, I wasn’t sacked.”

Questioned about being taken in by Brass Eye’s satire on paedophiles back in 2001, he says: “I wasn’t fooled. They cut out all the stuff where I kept saying ‘this is a joke’. They were quite devious.”

In the programme, made by Chris Morris, Lineker was shown holding up a picture of a hillside, explaining that a tiny blue blob in the middle was actually a child and saying, “If you attempt to show this to a paedophile he will try and attack it in an attempt to get to the child.”

But speaking 24 years on, Gary said: “They told me they were with the police and they wanted me to do it, halfway through I thought ‘this is just a scam’. But people found it funny.”

Asked to name the worst person he’s ever worked with he quips: “It’s a shame I’ve never worked with Piers Morgan.”

The dad-of-four became choked as he was asked how he felt when eldest son George was diagnosed with cancer as a baby. “That was really tough – it changes you,” he admitted. “He was only two months old. We got told he had leukaemia, he wasn’t given much chance. It was really awful, we were in the hospital for about seven months with him.

“But we were the lucky ones because there were other parents in there that lost their kids so we felt quite fortunate in the end. It was really scary.”

He said he and ex-wife Michelle had coped in different ways. “I felt I needed to talk about it. Michelle, she would bottle things up. But ultimately we got a good ending.”

Lineker told the group that he tells his kids he loves them, despite only hearing it once from his own father, at the very end of his life. “It was different back then,” he sighed. “He did say ‘I love you’ on his deathbed, which made me cry.”

The Assembly’s executive producer Stu Richards said the stars who took part had behaved differently. “It’s really exciting when the celebrity first walks into the room. Gary Lineker was incredibly nervous, Danny Dyer over-compensated and started telling everyone how great they looked.”

• The Assembly: Gary Lineker, Sunday, 10pm, ITV1/ITVX