You snooze, you lose

Meanwhile, still in jungle news, former Mail on Sunday home affairs reporter Jo Knowsley had a bad start to her new freelance career in Australia. Having been tipped off that the punk rock icon Malcolm McLaren was refusing the join other celebrities in the I'm a Celebrity jungle with Ant and Dec, keen freelances got out of bed at dawn on Sunday morning to doorstep the luxury Palasso Versace Hotel on Queensland's Gold Coast. Except Knowsley, who was asleep. She knew nothing of the unfolding drama until a colleague broke the news to her. When Knowsley called her newsdesk in London, she was shocked to be told that another Aussie-based freelance, Sandra White, had already filed. The copy included quotes from contacts working on the show, revealing the fact that McLaren was too scared of poisonous snakes, spiders and other creepy crawlies to take part. It wasn't all bad news. Despite sleeping through the drama, Knowsley still got a byline on the breaking story. However, she's not been seen by the hack pack since Sunday morning. The tabloid journalists have now dubbed her Rip Van Winkle. One wag said: "Jo has to learn that in our game, she who snoozes, loses!"