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Bollywood star tipped to win TV show after race row
2007-01-26
Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty is favourite to win a British reality television show this weekend, following a diplomatic storm over the alleged racist bullying of the Indian actress. Bookmakers on Friday quoted odds of 4/11 on Shetty emerging the winner on Sunday of "Celebrity Big Brother", which triggered a row drawing in the Indian and British governments earlier this month. Her main perceived tormentor, Jade Goody, was evicted by public vote last week, just days after the row erupted following foul-mouthed exchanges on the programme, a version of the Big Brother format which has been a worldwide hit. Another female housemate who was seen as having bullied the Indian actress may leave as early as Friday evening, when two more of the remaining eight contestants in the house are due to be evicted. Bookmakers say singer Jo O'Meara of S Club 7 fame has only a 50-1 chance of survival. But even Friday's double eviction has seen Shetty at the centre of another whirlwind of controversy raging beyond the garden fence. Endemol, the television firm which makes the series, messed up the eviction procedure, showing the phone numbers viewers should use to vote to kick out each housemate -- apart from Shetty, for whom a number was shown for viewers to use to keep her in. "This was a genuine mistake which was due to human error," said Endemol. "We apologise to viewers and feel the best way to rectify it is to cancel the vote so far and reopen the voting." Broadcaster Channel Four said: "While the voice-over was correct and stated 'to vote to evict Shilpa', the on-screen text mistakenly read 'to vote to save Shilpa'." The Daily Star newspaper said programme makers were considering changing the rules and bringing out both evicted housemates at the same time to soften the public reception for O'Meara should she be thrown out. There was no audience for Goody's eviction as Channel Four bosses feared an ugly public backlash. Famous in Britain for her startling ignorance on a non-celebrity version of Big Brother, Goody has made tearful, apologetic television appearances since in a bid to save her career from the scrapheap. India has said Goody, who has applied for a visa to visit the country, will not get red-carpet treatment if she comes, a report said Friday. Goody can visit India like "any free citizen" in the world but she would not be an "official guest of the country", Tourism Ministry Ambika Soni said, according to the Indian Express newspaper. The Indian tourism office in London had earlier invited her "to experience India's healing nature once your current commitments are over." Kevin Lygo, Channel Four's director of television, said it was a "fantastic thing" that the programme, which drew more than 43,000 complaints, had sparked debate. He admitted that the row involving Shetty had saved the show from being "the most boring in years". "Suddenly, from the cooking of a chicken going wrong, this argument erupted and then was taken on by the media and then erupted into this extraordinary story," Lygo told television industry magazine Broadcast. Amongst other comments in last week's storm over alleged racism, Shetty was called a "dog" and asked whether she lives in a shack, prompting protestors in India to burn effigies of the show's producers. British lawmakers lined up to condemn the programme when the row was at its height, while Indian officials urged their British counterparts to intervene.
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