Celebrity Big Brother begins

Eleven celebrities have entered the Big Brother house as the latest series of the Channel 4 show gets under way.

Ulrika Jonsson, La Toya Jackson and Austin Powers star Verne Troyer are among the housemates who will spend the next 22 days under the gaze of the television cameras.

Glamour model Lucy Pinder, singer Mutya Buena, Shameless actress Tina Malone and former Liberty X member Michelle Heaton are the other female contestants, while ex-boyband singer Ben Adams, rapper Coolio, The Word presenter Terry Christian and Scottish politician Tommy Sheridan complete the line-up.

Presenter Davina McCall introduced the housemates and announced an early twist - one of them will be named Celebrity Head of House, including luxury private living quarters and immunity from next week's eviction. They, rather than the viewers, will nominate housemates to face the first public vote.

THE WOMEN

La Toya Jackson

Age: 52

Occupation: Singer

La Toya is one of the most famous members of the Jackson clan - in her own mind, at least. She describes herself as "a television star, a legendary name, a world-renowned entertainer".

She signed up for the show because she has led a "sheltered" life. "The Celebrity Big Brother experience is going to be great because I still don't know the world," she explains.

La Toya bears such a similarity to her brother Michael that for years they were rumoured to be the same person. Conspiracy theorists maintain the two are never seen in the same place at the same time.

She likens herself to "a red bottle of wine that ages gracefully - the older it is, the better it gets."

In 1989, she posed for Playboy and the issue became one of the biggest sellers in the magazine's history. Her music career failed to emulate the success of sister Janet and she filed for bankruptcy in the 1990s.

She refuses to eat white food, including mashed potato and rice,

Lucy Pinder

Age: 23

Occupation: Model

The Page Three model is the housemate most likely to get her kit off. She was discovered by a photographer while sunbathing in her home town of Bournemouth.

Lucy is a "Tory bird" who enjoys discussing politics and admires Lady Thatcher. She describes herself as a control freak.

Her lifetime ambition is, apparently, "to hold a monkey". She would like to play a James Bond villain or, failing that, appear in EastEnders.

Michelle Heaton

Age: 28

Occupation: Singer and presenter

Michelle was a runner-up on ITV talent show Popstars and became a member of rejects band Liberty X. They had a string of chart hits, including a number one with Just A Little, and toured Australia with Bon Jovi. The band split in 2007 and Michelle embarked on a doomed solo career.

She married boy band singer Andy Scott-Lee in 2006. The wedding had a winter wonderland theme and a glossy magazine bought the rights. They are now separated.

Michelle is angling for a role in West End musical Chicago.

She has threatened to strip in the house.

Mutya Buena

Age: 23

Occupation: Singer and songwriter

The former Sugababes star left the band in 2005 after giving birth to daughter Tahlia. She had a reputation as the "feisty and bitchy" one in the group but insists: "I'm totally the opposite. I'm actually laid back and quiet."

She had a solo career and her debut album, Real Girl, sold over 100,000 copies. She now runs a talent agency.

Of Filipino, Chinese, Irish and Spanish descent, Mutya has 14 tattoos including her daughters name, a Latin prayer, a black rose, a heart, a princess and her surname in case she forgets it.

She hopes the Big Brother house will be "like Little House On The Prairie". Unlikely.

Tina Malone

Age: 46

Occupation: Actress

Tina is best known as the mouthy Mimi Maguire in Channel 4 drama Shameless. Previous roles include Mo McGee in Brookside and a nurse in Dinnerladies.

She owns a drama school in Liverpool and is producing her first feature film.

After struggling with her weight for 20 years and tipping the scales at a size 26, she had a gastric band operation in March and has already lost four-and-a-half stone. She says: "I was desperate. I didn't want to be fat and ugly for the rest of my life." Her ambition is to lose enough weight to play Sally Bowles in Cabaret.

She suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder, sex addiction and depression.

Ulrika Jonsson

Age: 41

Occupation: Writer and Broadcaster

Nicknamed "4x4" because she has four children by four different partners, Jonsson is as famous for her love life as her presenting career.

Previous conquests include ex-England manager Sven Goran Eriksson, shamed television presenter John Leslie and Hunter from Gladiators.

She is currently married to advertising executive Brian Monet.

According to reports, the former GMTV weathergirl is being paid the top rate of £175,000 for appearing on Celebrity Big Brother.

Recently she announced plans for a breast reduction as her bosom has come to resemble "a couple of ping pong balls in bin liners".

THE MEN

Ben Adams

Age: 27

Occupation: Singer, songwriter and producer

Ben was a member of boy band A1, now long-forgotten, who had two number one hits in 2000. In 2001, he was named Sexiest Man by Smash Hits readers.

Educated at Bedales, he was a chorister with St Margaret's Choir, Westminster Abbey, performing for the Queen and the Pope.

Ben describes himself as "very sweet, very innocent and wouldn't say boo to a goose".

He is attempting a career comeback.

Coolio

Age: 45

Occupation: Rapper and actor

The Grammy Award-winning star had the biggest hit of his career in 1995 with Gangsta's Paradise, which appeared on the soundtrack of the Michelle Pfeiffer film Dangerous Minds. The album on which it featured went quadruple platinum.

He was nicknamed 'Coolio Iglesias' after entering hip hop contests as a teenager, later shortening it to Coolio. The former bad boy says he will have no problem sharing a house with strangers because he got used to that in prison.

After his music career fizzled out, he found an unlikely calling as a celebrity chef - or "ghetto gourmet", in Coolio-speak - with an online cookery show, Cookin' With Coolio.

He has six children and modestly classes himself among the "top 10 greatest lovers of all time". He is looking for love and plans to take condoms into the house.

Terry Christian

Age: 48

Occupation: Broadcaster

The Mancunian is best remembered as the host of Channel 4 youth show The Word in the 1990s.

He is a devoted Manchester United fan and worries that viewers will find him annoying.

Terry aims to play the role of "loveable older brother" in the house and hopes his fellow contestants will be "interested in the world around them, interested in the world of ideas".

Tommy Sheridan

Age: 44

Occupation: Politician

The Left-wing politician is a friend of George Galloway, a fellow firebrand who became a national laughing stock after pretending to be a cat on Celebrity Big Brother.

The former Scottish Socialist Party leader, who is married, successfully sued a Sunday newspaper for £200,000 over claims he had taken cocaine and visited a swingers' club. He was later charged with perjury and the case is ongoing.

Currently studying for a law degree, Tommy says the things he will miss most in the house are his twice-weekly sunbed sessions.

His greatest fear about appearing on the programme is that he "won't be very interesting".

Verne Troyer

Age: 40

Occupation: Actor and stuntman

Best known as Mini-Me in the Austin Powers movies, Verne is 2'8" tall. He dislikes the term "dwarf" and prefers to be called a "little person". He has set up a foundation which helps little people go to college.

His career includes 15 years as a stuntman (he was once a stunt double for a nine-month-old baby).

A ladies' man, Verne is a frequent visitor to the Playboy mansion and hopes to meet an attractive woman in the Big Brother house. In 2004, he married a 6'2" yoga instructor called Genevieve, but they filed for annulment weeks later.

In June, Verne lodged a $20 million lawsuit after a tape featuring him having sex with a model appeared on the internet.

He is determined to win the show and has a dastardly game plan: "I plan to sabotage everybody in the house, take their stuff and hide it, pick my nose and put it in their food, and get everybody blaming everyone else. I'll play the nice guy but deep down I'll be evil."


- telegraph.co.uk