Patsy 'quit Celebrity apprentice' after bust-up
Celebrity Apprentice participant Patsy Palmer quit the show after a row with teammate Michelle Mone, according to the papers. The Sun reports that the EastEnders star had to be persuaded by her husband Richard Merkell into returning to the charity show - in aid of Comic Relief - after blowing her top with Mone, founder of Ultimo Lingerie. "The girls' team was barbaric," said fellow teammate Ruby Wax. "The claws were out - big hissy fits." And other members of the girls' team also fell foul of Patsy, including GMTV presenter Fiona Phillips and former Countdown star Carol Vorderman. "There are moments when Fiona Phillips breaks down after rowing with Patsy. Carol also falls out with her," a show insider told the paper. It's not the first time The Celebrity Apprentice has faced such drama. On the last series property guru Kirstie Allsop walked out after a row with Knickerbox founder Jacqueline Gold - but she returned the next day. Patsy and the girls team face a celebrity 'boys team' consisting of Jack Dee, Alan Carr, Gok Wan, Jonathan Ross and jeweller Gerald Ratner. The show will be screened on BBC1 on Thursday and on Friday night during the Comic Relief telethon.
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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.
An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.