So - Rachel Richardson, enterprising TV reporter from the News of the World, has made it past the vetting procedures and is one of about 40 people with the chance of entering the Big Brother house on Friday.
If her name is picked at random then it will be a coup for her paper. But which hacks would you most like to see locked up in Elstree with the current inmates? Kelvin MacKenzie? Richard Littlejohn? Or maybe someone from the Guardian?
And what would a paper like the Screws achieve by getting someone in there? The journalist in question could certainly reveal some intimate details about the goings on in the house, giving their paper a free buy-up. But is it worth the effort? And the expense? Ms Richardson is thought to have paid £2,000 for a one in 40 chance of getting in there, after all.
Clearly Victoria Kennedy from the Mirror didn't think it was worth it. Apparently she has backed away from the chance of going in.
But what would happen to the programme if a hack did get in there? Would the hack in question be ignored - or even vilified - by rival titles unhappy with giving them free publicity?
Who would be the best hack to go in? An editor perhaps? They probably don't have the time, but just pretend they did. Or maybe an ex editor like Piers Morgan? Or someone from the posh papers? Sir Max Hastings anyone?
We have already seen what happens when people in the media or the public eye go into the house with the show's celebrity editions. Some - like the feminist writer and critic Germaine Greer - simply brushed aside the experience as silly. Others, like Michael Barrymore or Vanessa Feltz, used it as an excuse for some public hand wringing and a chance to rehabilitate themselves in the eyes of the public. With a newspaper hacks the agenda will of course be different. But will Ms Richardson's presence enhance or damage the Big Brother brand? Or is such a thing possible?
