Pop went the Irish property bubble, and with it went Shane Filan from Westlife’s millions. Everything he had was invested in Irish property, and when the Celtic Tiger died, that was the end of Shane’s estimated £30m too. Mike Tyson blew his money – about $300m – on, among other things, a tiger (Bengal not Celtic), a gold bathtub and the rest. MC Hammer gold-plated his gates, as well as handing over millions to some of his old pals from the ghetto. You can touch this, he told them, generously.
We’re talking famous people who have taken big falls – for a variety of reasons including greed, vanity, stupidity, addiction, bad advice, bad friends, naivety etc. Bankrupt & Broke: When Celebs Go Bust (Channel 5), the show is called.
None of the above mentioned celebs actually take part. Which, when you’re told at the start: “Tonight, in the words of the victims themselves, we’ll be finding out why so many stars are falling victim of the dreaded B-Word [bankruptcy],” could leave you feeling a little cheated.
To be fair, Tina Malone from Shameless, Willie Thorne from snooker, Abz from 5ive, Bez from the 1990s, Keith Gillespie the footballer, Ed Mitchell the news reader … they do turn up, and even say some quite interesting things about gambling, addiction, circling sharks, poor decision making and so on. Bez is best. “You don’t miss what you never had,” he says. “And I’ve never had loads of money, so I don’t miss it.” Bez now keeps bees.
But there are more absentees: serial messer-up Kerry Katona, Chris Eubank, Bev Callard, Calum Best, Martine McCutcheon. You can sort of understand why you wouldn’t want to come on the telly and talk about how it all went to shite for you; but the trouble is, that leaves the usual rabble of showbiz reporters, “writers and broadcasters” and television critics (is there a more disreputable profession?) to come and talk shite instead.
Plus, there’s something a bit grubby about the whole exercise, no? Gloating over the misfortune of others; the bigger the fall the bigger the gloat; schadenfreude television. Much more fun just to send them on The Jump.
