Popstar Boy George is set to become the highest-paid I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! star. The singer is set to earn £500,000 for appearing on the ITV show.
The Karma Chameleon star landed in Brisbane today donning a lion mask. It comes as the programmes returns to Australia after two years in Wales, reports The Mirror.
Television insiders say the bumper pay-out tempted him Down Under. It reportedly puts the 61-year-old ahead of US reality star Caitlyn Jenner, 73, as top earner in the show’s 20-year history.
The Culture Club singer’s arrival completed the 10-strong line-up for the new series that begins next Sunday night. He reportedly signed up for the show after his biopic, starring Yungblud, was shelved.
He joked: “I’m here to do a version of The Lion Queen, I don’t know what you are talking about, darling.”
But his signing was met with anger among those who feel he should be banned from TV due to his abuse conviction in 2009. George, whose full name is George Alan O’Dowd, was jailed for 15 months for falsely imprisoning a male escort by handcuffing him to a wall and beating him with a chain.
The singer served four months inside. One social media user said: “He chained a man to a radiator. Why is he still platformed?”
The other campmates are: Corrie’s Sue Cleaver, 59, Lioness Jill Scott, 35, ex-rugby ace Mike Tindall, 44, DJ Chris Moyles, 48, ITV News host Charlene White, 42, A Place in the Sun host Scarlette Douglas, 35, Love Island ’s Olivia Attwood, 31, Hollyoaks’ Owen Warner, 23, comic Babatunde Aleshe, 36.
