OHMYGOSSIP — Maura Higgins has landed a new job on ‘Love Island USA’, four years after she shot to fame on the UK version of the dating show.
The 32-year-old star will be the social ambassador for the Peacock show, meaning she will keep fans updated with all the behind-the-scenes gossip from the upcoming fifth season, which is hosted by Sarah Hyland.
A post on the official ‘Love Island USA’ Instagram account reads: “This just in… @maurahiggins will be your social ambassador this season bringing (sneaking) you the BTS scoop all summer! #LoveIslandUSA (sic)”
Iain Stirling – who narrates both the UK and US shows – commented: “Welcome to the team.”
Maura previously dropped a huge hint that she might be a bombshell on the US version of the programme.
She wrote on Instagram: “Bye bye London… for a long time.”
The star also shared how she was greeted by two guys holding up ‘Love Island’-branded signs that read “got a text” when she touched down in her new location.
Maura finished in fourth place on ‘Love Island’ series five alongside then-boyfriend Curtis Pritchard.
Following the series, she split from Curtis.
Last year, it was reported she was one of the candidates who could host the ‘Big Brother’ reboot on ITV.
But in April, AJ Odudu and Will Best were confirmed as the show’s new presenters.
Maura has some presenting experience after fronting BBC series ‘Glow Up Ireland’, and she has also done some roving reporter and presenting jobs on ‘This Morning’.

Source: VacationHunter.Online

OHMYGOSSIP — Claudia Winkleman’s ‘The Piano’ has been renewed for a second season.
The ‘Traitors’ presenter, 51, is to lead another series and a Christmas special of the heartwarming Channel 4 reality show, which sees train passengers take their turn of playing the instrument in train stations up and down the country.
Ian Katz, the network’s chief creative officer, told The Sun newspaper’s TV Biz column: “In a world full of wannabes seeking their moment in the limelight, The Piano was a breath of fresh air.
“It celebrated ordinary people doing something extraordinary for the sheer love of it.
“From 94-year-old widower George who played in Glasgow station to Lucy, the blind 13-year-old who stole the nation’s hearts.”
The show features judges pop singer Mika, 39, and classical pianist Lang Lang, 41, who both enthused about the programme and how it “touches hearts”.
Lang Lang told The Guardian newspaper: “TV has never really had a piano competition accessible to everyone.
“We’ve had professional contests or series for vocalists but never just piano. This instrument really is for everybody. Piano connects people, it touches hearts. This is the sort of show I’ve always wanted to do.”
The ‘Spring Wind’ star noted that the setting of busy railway hubs as opposed to stuffy concert halls added a “much more casual and spontaneous” vibe to the impromptu performances.
Lang Lang said: “I’m pretty sure more people will be interested in playing piano after this show. It shows the sheer joy of music, no matter who you are.”
‘Grace Kelly’ hitmaker Mika enthused about the format’s “honesty” compared to other talent show he has been a part of like the Italian edition of ‘The X Factor’ and the French version ‘The Voice’.
Mika added: “They wear their heart on their sleeve in a way professionals just aren’t able to do.”

Source: VacationHunter.Online

OHMYGOSSIP — Rita Ora is “so excited” to be joining ‘Celebrity Gogglebox’.
The ‘Masked Singer UK’ judge will be chilling on her sofa with her “beautiful sister” Elena, 34, for the star-studded edition of the Channel 4 show, which sees celebrities react to the week’s most talked about TV moments from the comfort of their own living rooms.
The 32-year-old pop star told the Daily Mirror newspaper: “I’m so excited to be joining this year’s series. My beautiful sister Elena and I love a good old girls’ night in.”
Rita – who will appear on the show alongside fellow new additions like Chris Packham, 62, Katherine Ryan, 40, and Jane McDonald, 60, as well as fan favourites such as Rylan Clark, 34, and Happy Mondays stars Bez, 59, and Shaun Ryder, 60 – recently admitted that she got “butterflies” when she met her ‘Jojo Rabbit’ film director husband Taika Waititi, 47.
She told the magazine The Line of Best Fit: “We clicked straight away … And, you know, his mother also survived breast cancer. We just really connected on our families and our work ethic.
“It was like there was no one else at the party, and then it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, the sun’s coming up. What’s going on?’ We remained really good friends, but I had butterflies – it was a surprise, but I felt comfortable. Safe.”
The ‘Praising You’ hitmaker gushed about how working professionally alongside Taika – who has kids Te, 11, and Matewa, seven, with his ex wife Chelsea Winstanley – is the “easiest thing ever” because they are “both fire signs”.
Rita said: “I love him in all aspects of the word … But, you know, I really respect him and admire what he does and how he has created his own style. It’s so cool to work with someone you love and bounce off each other. It’s the easiest thing ever. He throws ideas at me every minute, but that’s fine – we’re both fire signs.”

Source: VacationHunter.Online

OHMYGOSSIP — Catherine Tate has landed a new West End role in play ‘The Enfield Haunting’.
The ‘Queen of Oz’ star is “thrilled” to be treading the boards in the production – which is directed by Angus Jackson at London’s Ambassadors Theatre – as single mother Peggy Hodgson, who attempts to save her three children from a poltergeist.
Catherine will appear alongside David Threlfall, 69, who is playing Maurice Grosse, an out-of-his-depth ghosthunter.
The 53-year-old actress said: “I’m thrilled to be part of ‘The Enfield Haunting’ and can’t wait to start working with the first-class creative team and the brilliant David Threlfall.”
The play – which will have a limited London run before transferring to Brighton – is based on a real-life testimony from ghost hunters, heard by the writer Paul Unwin about the spirit hunting that took place in the North London suburb in 1977.
The 65-year-old playwright said: “Before Guy Lyon Playfair, the poltergeist expert, died in 2018, I spent a long afternoon with him in his basement flat in Earls Court.
“He and Maurice Grosse had spent months with the Hodgson family trying to protect them, but also make sense of what was going on. What Guy told me was terrifying. So much of what appears to have happened was impossible to fake and yet at the centre of the whole thing were real people trying to make sense of their lives.”
Catherine previously deemed it “just rude” that Netflix didn’t tell her that her mockumentary ‘Hard Cell’ had been cancelled last month.
She told Zoe Ball, 52, on her BBC Radio 2 show: “I believe … well, do you know Netflix never actually told me? So I’ve never actually had the call to say … nothing.
“Isn’t it just rude? I heard from someone else’s agent. That was nice.”

Source: VacationHunter.Online

OHMYGOSSIP — Jamie Lee Curtis is a big fan of BBC drama ‘Happy Valley’.
The Academy Award-winning actress has heaped praise on Sarah Lancashire and the show’s creator and writer Sally Wainwright for their “gorgeous portrait” of an “amazing woman” in former ‘Coronation Street’ star Sarah’s character Sergeant Catherine Cawood.
She wrote on Twitter: “Just finished @happyvalleybbc THANK YOU @SarahLancsUK @sallywainwrigh8 for a gorgeous portrait of an amazing woman.”
The BBC One drama finished after three series over nine years in February, with 7.5 million fans tuning in to see Catherine and villain Tommy Lee Royce’s final showdown.
The show has proved so popular in the UK, it is to be taught as part of a university TV writing course.
Professor Ann Marie Di Mambro from Glasgow’s Caledonian University is planning to use Sally’s show in lectures for the MA in TV Fiction Writing course, as she says it broke so many rules of television script writing.
She previously told the Daily Mirror newspaper: “It’s the perfect marriage of brilliant perfect casting. It’s so deeply, deeply emotional. It’s raw from start to finish.
“It goes against a lot of what we teach – that’s what is so wonderful about it. The penultimate episode ends with a phone call between two people (Tommy Lee Royce and son Ryan.)
“You tend to teach people not to over-write the dialogue. Phone calls can be quite dull.
“Don’t have scenes that are too long, but because it’s so unique and so original (it works.)
“I would imagine that it’s written from the heart and these are characters that the writer really believes in, who are so flawed.”

Source: VacationHunter.Online

OHMYGOSSIP — ‘Michael McIntyre’s Big Show’ is to return for a seventh series.
The Saturday night programme will be back on BBC One and iPlayer in 2024 after a successful sixth run earlier this year, and Michael is hoping fans might be able to remember the programme’s name after the next season.
He said: “There isn’t a day that goes by without someone telling me how much they love this show, although strangely nobody seems to know what it’s called.
“It’s either; ‘The one where you take people’s phones, the one where you wake people up in the night, the one where the wall falls down, or ‘The Big Night In’. Well, I’m thrilled to announce that all four of those shows are set to return for a seventh series!”
Fan favourite games Send to All and The Midnight Gameshow will be back on the seventh series.
They have provided some comical moments so far, with the likes of Jonathan Ross, Rylan, Alison Hammond, and Jermaine Jenas all previously handing over control of their phones to Michael in Send to All.
Michael will also be waking up more famous faces in the middle of the night in Midnight Gameshow, after previously pranking Peter Crouch and Rob Rinder.
Kalpna Patel-Knight, Head of Entertainment at the BBC says “We are thrilled to have ‘Michael McIntyre’s Big Show’ back on BBC One and iPlayer, it’s a show full of joy with laugh out loud moments and surprises on unexpecting celebrities.
“I cannot wait to see who Michael with his comedic brilliance will be waking up this series and who’s phone he will peek into.
“It really is unmissable on a Saturday night.”

Source: VacationHunter.Online

OHMYGOSSIP — Mel Giedroyc and Martin Clunes will present new show ‘Britain By the Book’.
The ex ‘The Great British Bake Off’ presenter, 55, and the ex ‘Doc Martin’ star, 61, will front a travelogue exploring the areas of the Blighty that inspired some of the pair’s most beloved tomes, by authors such as Enid Blyton, Thomas Hardy and Raynor Winn, who will join them for a portion of their travels.
The show – which is due to air in September on ITV1 – will begin in Dorset, the home county of Martin.
Recently, Mel told about about her summer plans to star in the West End’s comedic take on the restoration period ‘The Crown Jewels’ directed by Sean Foley, starring the “absolutely brilliant” Al Murray and the likes of Joe Thomas, and Carrie Hope Fletcher.
Speaking on ‘The Graham Norton Radio Show’, Mel said: “We’ve got two weeks to go, we do our first preview – £15 tickets still available for previews – on 7th July, we’re at the Garrick Theatre for two months. But I’m going to be in the ruddy West End for the summer, which I’m really excited about.
“Al Murray is our leading man. I have to say he’s absolutely brilliant. He’s playing two roles, one of which is King Charles II. It’s all set around the time of King Charles II. We’ve got Neil Morrissey, an absolute diamond of a guy. Joe Thomas from ‘The Inbetweeners’.
“We’ve got Carrie Hope Fletcher the West End powerhouse legend that she is and two fantastic newcomers Adonis, yes he’s called Adonis, he’s is amazing. Adonis Siddique and Tanvi Virmani. It’s a bit of a whirlwind. I’m not gonna lie, but it is very, very good fun, and there are a lot of laughs. All the guys are growing out their facial hair into extraordinary shapes. There are wigs, there are enormous costumes. Sean Foley is the comedy director. He’s really, really good. He’s keeping us on our toes.”

Source: VacationHunter.Online

OHMYGOSSIP — Claire Sweeney thinks ‘Brookside’ should still be on air.
The 52-year-old actress shot to fame in 1991 when she took on the role of Lindsey Corkill in the now-defunct Channel 4 soap – which was noted for its hard-hitting depictions of rape, murder and was the first programme to show a lesbian kiss before the watershed – and admitted that she has no idea what happened that led to its demise in 2003.
Speaking on ITV’s ‘Lorraine’, she said: “I don’t think it should ever have been axed because it was so gritty. I don’t know what happened, it was a shame, such a shame. And ‘Hollyoaks’ kind of took over that place really and that went a lot more gritty. I don’t know if it would come back but there’s certainly an audience for it because when they showed the reuns on STV, it was the highest-rating shows.”
Meanwhile, the former ‘Loose Women’ panelist – who since coming runner up on the first series of ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ in 2001 has carved out a successful musical career with roles in West End hits like ‘Chicago’ and ‘9 to 5’ – has now joined the cast of ‘Coronation Street’ as the long-lost mother of established character Tyrone Dobbs (Alan Halsall) and explained that when she got the call to tell her she had won the part of Cassie Plummer, it was a case of history repeating itself from when she got her big break on ‘Brookside’ because she was informed on her birthday.
However, she was “sworn to secrecy” over her new role and often has to be “careful” what she tells her young son Jaxon – who she has with ex-partner Daniel Reilly – in case he blurts the news out.
She said: “I think everything happens at the right time for the right reason and it just takes that one person to believe in you and take a chance, and that was Ian McLeod. I got offered ‘Brookside’ on my 19th birthday, 17 April, and then I got offered ‘Corrie’ on my birthday, 52, this year. And I couldn’t tell anyone!
“So I was sat on the balcony, I was on holiday with my mum and Jaxon and I got the phone call was sworn to secrecy. And I had all my mates phoning me and I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone! I told my mum of course. I’ve got to be careful what I tell Jaxon though because he’s got a big mouth! He’s eight and he doesn’t really understand when you have to keep quiet, he’s just announcing it to everyone!”
“He loves it but I just want him to be happy and he’s a bright kid so I want him to get a good education.”

Source: VacationHunter.Online

OHMYGOSSIP — Fleur East says her “powerhouse” pal Janette Manrara has passed on valuable advice for ‘Strictly: It Takes Two’.
The 35-year-old singer has replaced Rylan Clark as presenter of the BBC Two show after becoming a runner-up on last year’s series of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ and described co-host Janette as an “amazing” colleague, who congratulated her straight away.
She said:: “Janette has been amazing, she called me straight away, as soon as she found out. She was like “yes I am so happy it’s you.” You know I’ve worked with Jeanette on the tour, I’ve spent a lot of time with her. She’s amazing, she’s a powerhouse, the thing she said to me was – what I’ve got on my side, is experience of being on the show. So I can identify with all the celebs who are going through it this year! So perfect!”
Fleur shared that Janette – who is expecting her first child with her husband Aljaz Skorjanec, 33, soon – is such a “huge fan” of Disney that she had taken the House of Mouse as inspiration when decorating the room that will be the little one’s nursery.
She said: “I mean Janette is a huge fan of Disney. She just revealed the baby nursery photos this week on Instagram, and it’s all Disney-themed, so she’s a woman after my own heart!”
The ‘Sax’ songstress – who was paired up with professional dancer Vito Coppola, 30, on ‘Strictly – went on to recall that competing on the Saturday night favorite was the hardest thing” and warned other celebrities thinking about signging up that they need to be “prepared” for such a feat.
She said: “I think for anyone doing ‘Strictly’, you need to be prepared that it is going to be the hardest thing you’re ever going to do! At first, I thought I was just going to glide along the ballroom dance floor. And no, it’s very, very difficult. But as soon as you accept the challenge, the glitz, the glamour, the sequins. It is all as fabulous as it seems on TV – and you will have the best time.”

Source: VacationHunter.Online