celebrity

Celeb in 5: Thursday's best entertainment and gossip news.

1. Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald on why a Big Brother producer threatened his mum.


Before becoming a radio star and regular television presenter, Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald appeared on Big Brother.

Speaking to his radio co-hosts Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli and Sarah McGilvray, Fitzy shared how he got himself into a spot of trouble with the reality TV show back in 2004, resulting in the executive producer calling his mum.

While on the show, Fitzy was famous for donning T-shirts with the letters ‘MLS’ printed on them.

Fitzy wears a MLS shirt on Big Brother. Image: Channel Ten.
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“My mates that I grew up with were the Massive Loser Squad and we wore these T-shirts," Fitzy explained.

But as Fitzy got more and more popular on the reality show, his friends began to sell the T-shirts in Adelaide – making a lot of money while they were at it.

“We copyrighted that [MLS] and I know Channel 10 were really upset because they wanted to sell the T-shirts and make money. It was really interesting because they blew up when they found out that we’d copyrighted it.”

Channel 10 believed Fitzy's friends were selling the shirts to buy votes so he could win, so they threatened Fitzy's mum.

“She gets a phone call from the executive producer at the time and he was like, ‘I’m ringing you to tell you right now, if I find out that there’s been blocks of voting for Ryan we’re going to disqualify him and you will not get any of that money!’” he said.

2. The royal rule Meghan Markle finds it hardest to follow.

Meghan Markle Ireland
Image: Getty.
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Ah! Another day, another royal rule Meghan Markle's broken.

Over the last several weeks since the 36-year-old officially became The Duchess of Sussex, the world's been fixated on how she's breaking royal protocol (exposed shoulders, accepting gifts from commoners, talking about abortion, etc.).

But according to People, there are a few rules Meghan is legitimately struggling to comprehend.

According to a source, Meghan "has found certain rules in the royal household difficult to understand, like the fact that the Queen prefers women in dresses or skirts rather than trouser suits, and is often asking Harry why things have to be done in a certain way."

"I think she finds it a little frustrating at times, but this is her new life, and she has to deal with it," the source continued.

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To be fair, we can understand her frustration. She was oozing a bucket load of big dick energy in her pant suit last week, after all.

3. Alex Nation on how The Bachelor negatively affected her.

Video via Alex Nation

You'd be forgiven for thinking quitting your job to go on a reality TV dating show is glamorous. With all the freshly hosed-down driveways and free alcohol, it looks like a pretty sweet gig from the comfort of your couch, no?

But according to former The Bachelor star Alex Nation, being on reality TV has negatively affected her life.

"I actually love this question... I don't have any regrets and I loved my time on the show, but coming off the back of it, it changed me... both positive and negatively," she said in an Instagram story in response to a question asked through Instagram's new Ask Me Anything feature.

"I think I lost sight of who I was for a while," she said.

"I was so focused on going to events and being in the media.

"It all changed overnight and so quickly and I felt pressure to be a certain way, act a certain way, do a certain thing.

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"In the end, I guess, for a little while there I just forgot to be me and I actually didn't know who that was for a bit."

Thankfully, she also said she's fine now.

Phew!

4. The four A-list actors who turned down Brokeback Mountain.

So, Brokeback Mountain could have been a completely different, erm, Brokeback Mountain. 

You see, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio turned down the roles that Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal ended up playing in the movie.

celeb in 5
Big mistake, HUGE. Image: Getty.
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So did Matt Damon and Ryan Phillippe.

Director Gus Van Sant recently told IndieWire that "nobody wanted to do it", when the script was being passed around Hollywood.

“I was working on it, and I felt like we needed a really strong cast, like a famous cast. That wasn’t working out. I asked the usual suspects: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Ryan Phillippe. They all said no.”

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2007, Damon admitted he wished he hadn't turned down the role.

“Years ago, Gus Van Sant wanted to do it with me and Joaquin Phoenix. But I was on my way to Italy to do The Talented Mr. Ripley and then All the Pretty Horses. And Gus wanted to do Brokeback right after. And I was like, ‘Gus, I’m going to do a gay movie, then a cowboy movie. I can’t follow it up with a gay-cowboy movie!’’’

Big mistake, Damon, HUGE.

5. Love Island's Grant learnt Tayla dumped him on Instagram.


We learned on Thursday afternoon that Love Island Australia winners Grant Crapp and Taylor Damir have ended their relationship after precisely one week and six days together.

But it turns out that we were confronted with the news at the same time, er, Mr Crapp was.

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On an Instagram post shared by Love Island Australia, which read “BREAKING: Taylor Damir and Grant Crapp have sadly called it quits…” Crapp commented, “This is news to me??” accompanied by a surprise face. 

Well, uh oh.

Read the full story here.