Cleric and former GB News presenter Calvin Robinson has embarked on another money-spinning scheme following his departure from the channel, which once branded itself “the home of free speech”. Robinson is now offering personalised video messages on the website Cameo. Prices start at £32 per video. Robinson was sacked from GBN along with actor Laurence Fox after defending the latter’s on-air rant about a female journalist, in which Fox asked “who’d want to shag that?”. The pair remain friends and Robinson recently gave him a blessing, pictured.
After leaving GBN, Robinson set up a crowd-funding page in an attempt to match the salary he was receiving from the channel. He also embarked on an expenses-paid preaching tour of the United States in which he visited Disneyworld. A number of minor celebrities and public figures use the site, which can offer big money for relatively little work. Messages are pre-scripted by customers, who seem to take pleasure in ventriloquising famous faces to deliver birthday messages, insults and the like.
Politician and GBN presenter Nigel Farage, has also been prolific on the site since the pandemic, charging around £75 per message. He has recorded over 4,000 Cameo videos since 2021, making an estimated £200,000. But there are downsides. In 2021, Farage was criticised for using the phrase “up the ra” on the site, which was interpreted as a chant of support for the Irish Republican Army. And yesterday, the Byline Times raked up pre-scripted Cameo video from 2021 in which Farage appears to use an offensive slur. He is unable to respond to the allegation as he is a contestant in I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here.
Suella keeps on disrupting at political awards bash
To the Rosewood Hotel in Holborn, where The Spectator held its Parliamentarian of the Year awards last night. Former home secretary Suella Braverman was the obvious choice for “disrupter of the year” after her recent car-crash exit from the Government. She went on stage to the sound of I Predict a Riot by the Kaiser Chiefs. Looking chuffed, Braverman picked up her award from master of ceremonies Sajid Javid, another former home sec. She also attempted a joke at the Prime Minister’s expense, quipping that he might have won the award “for disrupting my plans to cut the numbers and deliver a manifesto pledge”. Laughter was distinctly unforthcoming from the gathered politicos, including her successor James Cleverly who was there with wife Susie, pictured.
Eighteen years after bagging the Speccie’s politician of the year award when he was the fresh-faced Tory leader, new Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron got the “comeback of the year” award. Accepting it via video link, he moaned about his new House of Lords colleagues, asking “which idiot put so many Lib Dems in here?” Rising star Claire Coutinho, who Rishi Sunak recently appointed as Energy Secretary, joked that the PM wanted her around to make him look taller. Other winners included shadow health secretary Wes Streeting, who assured those worried about his “healthcare reform” talk that he wouldn’t sell the NHS because no one wants to buy it after 13 years of Conservative government.
Truss’s pearls of wisdom for Santos?
There was some worry and confusion among the Washington, DC press pack on Tuesday when former British prime minister Liz Truss was spotted hanging around on Capitol Hill. The short-serving PM was snapped in the corridor outside the office of beleaguered congressman George Santos, pictured, who is currently under fire from members of his own party for telling fibs. Today he faces an expulsion vote in the House of Representatives in which fellow Republicans are expected to vote against him. If there’s one woman in Washington at the moment who knows what it’s like to feel the thrust of the traitor’s dagger, it’s Truss. She has been in DC to talk with Republican leaders about “freedom and democracy” but has denied rumours she wants to move Stateside.
Princesses campaign against modern slavery
The royals and the stars were out at the Anti-Slavery Collective’s inaugural winter gala at Battersea Arts Centre last night. Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, along with their mum Sarah, Duchess of York, came in support. “I was 21 when I first learned about modern slavery. I don’t want people to get to the same age without being educated about the realities,” Princess Beatrice said. “I also really want to see young people learning about modern slavery as a module in schools.”
Singer James Blunt and wife Sofia, actor Rami Malek, musician Ed Sheeran and model Camila Alves McConaughey were among the guests. Across town, actors Julia Roberts and Myha’la Herrold were promoting their film, Leave The World Behind. Roberts was happy to act in the film if her scenes kept PG. “As long as I wasn’t going to be naked in a jacuzzi, I was all in,” she said. Over in Holborn, David Gandy launched his Hackett collaboration. Meanwhile, actor Layton Williams, presenter Vick Hope, Girls Aloud members Nadine Coyle and Nicola Roberts toasted the We Do Us initiative.
