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January 7, 2010

Kelvin MacKenzie: ‘I turned down £75k to appear on Celebrity Big Brother’

By Dominic wireposts

Kelvin MacKenzie reveals today how he turned down £75,000 to appear in the latest series of Celebrity Big Brother.

The rumbustious former Sun editor writes in his weekly column (only available in print) how he told producers he could only do without any communication with the outside world for 26 days if they paid him £375,000.

He reveals that the series pscychologist suggested he sit in a room without any noticeable activity to see if he could handle going into the house: “I chose the office of the Daily Mirror editor”.

It’s not the first time MacKenzie has been approached to do some reality TV. In December 2006, Press Gazette magazine revealed that MacKenzie had been approached by Mentorn with a view to fronting a TV show which would see him become a sort of Gordon Ramsay of the regional press – turning around flagging local newspapers.

Sadly the show never got off the ground.

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