I`m a celebrity get me....................

NBC officially announced the cast for "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!" on Friday morning and it includes stars from film, music, sports, reality TV - and possibly one impeached politician.

he weirdest aspect of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! is that the worst thing about the show isn't the celebrities, it's everything surrounding them: the hosts, the competitions, the lack of imagination. The celebs, they've got imagination to burn. Spencer Pratt was his usual repulsive self, but it was pretty clever of him to call NBC entertainment president Ben Silverman to complain about the living conditions he was enduring in Costa Rica. Sanjaya is so imaginative, he was content to stare at a fire and marvel at "the whole concept of how it works." Stephen Baldwin had the verbal dexterity to refer to a bit of tripe he ate as emitting "a little fart of disgustingness." And Heidi Montag -- 'scuse me, Mrs. Heidi Pratt, as she prefers to be known now -- had the imagination to apologize for her husband's egomaniacal, pathetically lame reality-show ranting by saying, "My husband is a very new Christian," and therefore deserves to be forgiven.

Best of all, Janice Dickinson told Patti Blagojevich, "You need to set the record straight" about what a good guy her disgraced-governor-husband Rod is, and Spencer avowed that he would have voted for Blago for President.

If the rest of the show was as nuttily deluded as all of the above, it'd be worth watching Monday through Thursday... almost. But the dreadful co-hosts, Damien Fahey and Myleene Klass, repeated much of what the celebrities had already said and then told us what to think about them. And the reward competitions -- eating disgusting things; having bugs crawl over the contestants -- were the stuff of 1,000 old reality shows.

I'll stick around a few days more to see Heidi and Spencer traduce Christianity simply by offering prayers from their mealy mouths and maybe get a peek at that bullet-ant bite Stephen Baldwin suffered (did I hear that right? a bullet-ant? where are the shotgun-tarantulas?). But I have a feeling my curiosity about these celebs is doing to be used up as quickly as Heidi's hair "product."

As Rod Blagojevich waits to find out if anyone will sell him down the river, his wife Patti was nearly swept away by a river in Costa Rica. She bravely took his place on "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!" so their family would have some income - and for a children's cancer charity.

On last night's premiere episode, Patti distinguished herself as one of the more sane contestants on the gross-out reality show. And no, there was no swearing. Not even as she chewed a tarantula. (It had a "musty, yeasty" flavor, she said.)

Patti did, however, pick up a few celebrity endorsements for her husband. Spencer Pratt, a fabricated villain for "The Hills," said that he would have voted for Rod for President. "I look at them as the Heidi and Spencer of politics," Spencer confided to the camera. Presumably, he meant it as a compliment.

Patti even got a few minutes to argue Rod's case in primetime. "He was always about doing the right thing for the people," she explained. "He was fighting the special interests." And the, um, trial? "They made a big hoopla out of something that wasn't even true," she said.

Decaying supermodel Janice Dickinson called her a "great woman."

Then "new Christian" Spencer invited Patti to sit with him and his wife Heidi for a prayer. Soon Patti's eyes filled with tears. It was unclear whether she was touched, or horrified by the company she was keeping.

By the end of the show, Illinois' former first lady was hanging upside down in the Trauma Tank, wearing goggles, as cockroaches danced in her hair.

In other "I'm a Celebrity" news:



*Chicago's comedy team Frangela - Frances Callier and Angela Shelton - saved the show with some lively commentary. They were also the first ones out of the Trauma Tank.

*Spencer/Heidi - Speidi - quit the show twice, only to return.

*Heidi Pratt's dry shampoo sparked a scuffle, with hubbie Spencer picking fights with a series of women.

*Stephen Baldwin, a veteran of "Fear Factor," "The Mole" and "The Apprentice," seemed right at home.

*"American Idol's" Sanjaya Malakar exhibited "mad jungle skills."

By reality standards, the first episode was a yawn. But it's early yet. Here's hoping that by the end of the first week, Lou Diamond Phillips or Torrie Wilson has some sort of breakdown. Or the dry shampoo runs out.

Lou Diamond Phillips. Star of La Bamba, Young Guns and Extreme Justice. Show Highlight: beating a crooked politician’s wife in a game of ‘Eat The Tarantula’. Little Known Fact: LDP rarely smiles because, in accord with ancient Cherokee custom, his teeth were replaced with eagles’ beaks when he was a child.

John Salley. Apparently used to play in the NBA, which is some kind of American netball league. Show Highlight: sorry, big John, you were so inoffensive – and we care so little for American sportspeople – that we failed at any point to register your presence. Take it as a compliment: it means you weren’t the kind of horrible little wanksplash who gets voted into having to drink snake venom from a lizard’s arsehole. Speaking of which…

Spencer Pratt. Vainglorious puddle of sleaze from MTV’s The Hills. Show Highlight: Was given a plate with a stick insect on it and challenged to eat the beastie quicker than the fat little lady from the other team could. Decided to ram the insect, and the decorative flower it was sat on, into his mouth and gagged a bit. Thus he achieved the almost impossible and made himself look a bigger tool than The Hills did. Little Known Fact: scientists use Spencer as a fixed marker on the “Self-Regarding Celebrity Turds” scale. He lies exactly halfway between Chris Martin and The Other Ones From Coldplay.

Stephen Baldwin. No, not the one from 30 Rock. No, no, no, not him out of Backdraft, either. Stephen, lots of tattoos, starred in The Flintstones In Viva Rock Vegas. Okay, you’ve got him now. Seems like he’ll be good value here, though. Show Highlight: being bitten by a ‘bullet ant’ seconds before going live on air for the Trauma Tank. Manned it out like a true pro.

Sanjaya Malakar. Oh, go on, you do. Him with the daft hair off of American Idol last year. Show Highlight: when challenged to eat a huge chunk of iguana’s tail, he simply flung the thing into the back of his gob and swallowed. We are finding it so hard not to connect that last sentence with his surprisingly extended stint on Idol, judged of course by Simon Cowell. Damn you, libel laws. Little Known Fact: Sanjaya says that his hair heroes include Robert Pattinson (“mmm, silky”), Donald Trump (“aah, flappy”) and Susan Boyle (“ooh, pubey”).

That’s it for the boys. Tomorrow we shall bring you the female contestants. And we’ll go with the producers, and chuck Janice in there, too.

Popularity and criticism

The final of the second, third and fourth UK series were seen by 12.73, 14.99 and 11.43 million people. The show helped singer Peter Andre revive his career in 2004. However, it has come under fire:

* The first complaint is that the show is trashy, has-been celebrities trying to revive their careers. The UK Secretary of State for Culture, Tessa Jowell, was the most high-profile person to criticise the show. In an interview with the Financial Times during the second British series, she said, "If they weren't mostly – save their blushes – has-been celebrities, there might be more interest [...] I think that if we saw many more programming hours taken over by reality TV, I hope you'd begin to see a viewers' revolt."
* The second criticism of the show is that it pretends to be more wild than it actually is: Audiences are left with the impression that the celebrities are in the Australian Outback, far from any major settlement, whereas they are actually close to a luxury hotel and about 30 min drive to the Gold Coast, Queensland. Further, the camp site in which the celebrities stay appears to be open to the elements but is largely covered by sheets above the view of the cameras. In an episode of the British show, a celebrity had to swim in a swamp apparently infested with crocodiles – marksmen were shown ready to shoot the animals if they attacked.

Controversy over voting arose during the sixth series of the show when Toby Anstis was eliminated. It was revealed that both he and EastEnders actor Dean Gaffney had polled the bottom two amount of votes and that viewers had to vote again to save their favourite of the two. However many fans argue that this was not made clear. In the following days, The Sun ran an article that revealed Toby's eviction had been the result of a mix-up which happened on the interactive "red button" vote – people normally use this to keep their favourites in the show, but it asked which one they wanted to vote out instead of in. When ITV bosses realised their mistake, they shut the service down, but Toby's eviction sparked fury amongst fans.

CBS, broadcaster of the popular American reality show Survivor, unsuccessfully sued ABC and Granada TV over the program, alleging similarities. Given the poor ratings of the show in America, leading to only a single U.S. series being produced, the failure of the lawsuit proved moot.

Blagojevich, who was on hand for the announcement in Los Angeles, said he's very excited about the possibility of appearing on the NBC show in some capacity.

"We're discussing potential options, but I will not appeal judge's decision [to limit my travel.]" He told reporters. "[But], I hope I can participate in some way"

Janice Dickinson , who has already appeared on the 2007 British version of the reality show, told reporters her life as a mother and super model will give her an edge.

"I've practically already won it!" Janice exclaimed from the stage.

But, Janice might have some competition from Heidi and Spencer - according to the couple's "Hills" co-stars.

"I would say, Heidi's the more competitive person. Spencer just kind of melts whenever he's around her so I bet she'd win," Stephanie Pratt , Spencer's little sister told Access Hollywood at "The Hills" PaleyFest09 panel Tuesday night.

However, Stephanie's "Hills" fellow cast member, Lo Bosworth, thinks Spencer could be the king of the jungle.

"I think that Spencer will probably win. My money's on Spencer to take it all," Lo told Access.

"I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!" will air at 8 PM over four weeks in June. The new series will debut as a two-hour television event on Monday, June 1 (8-10 PM) and will follow with broadcasts on Mondays through Thursdays (8-9 PM) for the first three weeks. During the fourth week of June, the series will be telecast Monday through Wednesday (8-9 PM) with the finale on Wednesday, June 24 (8-9 PM).

Also, NBC and MTV announced that each Sunday, beginning June 7, MTV will air a marathon of the week's episodes including never before seen footage and commentary from cast members in real time, providing an enhanced viewing experience for die-hard fans.