Some things will always fascinate me. Like the fact that the legendary footballer Lionel Messi is named after Lionel Richie.
Or the liars trying to claim on radio phone-ins last week that they’ve seen people with up to £130,000 claiming Universal Credit. (Are they carrying it in bags, briefcases or wheelbarrows?).
For the record, you’ll struggle to claim Universal Credit if you have more than £16,000 and you don’t have bank statements. But this week’s fascination surrounds Celebrity Big Brother and the irony of booting out one of its highest-paid contestants for doing exactly the kind of thing they hoped he would when they gave him £500k and made him one of their highest-paid contestants.
Rourke, the star of movies such as 80s hit 9 and a 1/2 weeks and more modern blockbusters such as Sin City, Iron Man 2 and The Wrestler, could have been one of the biggest stars of the movie industry. Instead, he developed a bad boy reputation, went under the knife and turned down roles in film classics such as Rain Man, Platoon and The Untouchables.
Ahead of the CBB launch last week, the 72-year-old told The Sun: “My career is in the toilet and I’m not getting A-list movies. I’d like to be back where I can work on movies that have integrity.”
Explaining his reasons for rocking up in the Big Brother House, he added: “It was between this or a really bad independent movie, and I’ve had it up to here with really bad independent movies.”
It was just six days before the CBB house would have it up to here with Rourke, ejecting him for the kind of offensive, unreconstructed behaviour and language you’d expect from an over-indulged, entitled movie product of the fifties. He was kicked out last Saturday after his latest use of “inappropriate language” and “unacceptable behaviour”.
He’d made former Dance Moms star JoJo Siwa cry with comments about her sexuality. He’d used language that made The Only Way Is Essex star Ella Rae Wise feel uncomfortable. And, in the show’s Diary Room, he was told that in a disagreement with Love Island star Chris Hughes, he’d used language and behaviour deemed “threatening and aggressive”.
Here’s the thing. Reality TV shows don’t target controversial names in the hope that they’ll sit quietly in the corner, eating Hobnobs. They want exactly the kind of viral content that has seen the show make news bulletins, these pages and news and celebrity websites on both sides of the Atlantic.
Leering Rourke gave it to them from the jump when he ogled presenter AJ Odudu on his way into the house. I’m A Celebrity is notorious for it. Invite controversial or fading stars on and lap up the online and print media chatter and debate from their bad behaviour.
And who cares whether they win or not? By then, you’ve already attracted a larger audience to wonder what the fuss is all about. (You can only wonder whether Michael Fabricant’s hairstyle is real or not for so long)
For every ten that decide rubbernecking at car crash TV isn’t their thing, four or five will stay. In this case, Celebrity Big Brother will put out a po-faced, sombre statement claiming to take bad behaviour seriously, yada, yada, yada.
Rourke will have picked up half a million pounds for six days’ work and, in truth, everyone’s a winner. Except, with TV making so much more of this kind of cheap, dumbed down content instead of investing in quality drama, comedy and news, it’s us viewers who end up losing out.
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