[Kaz]

From today's People Online

BIG FLOODER!

BIG Brother bosses face £100,000 repairs to the TV house after it was flooded by a burst water pipe, The People can reveal.

The deluge wrecked the bathroom where last series winner Kate Lawler romped with housemate Alex Sibley, and swamped the whole house.

Someone forgot to turn the heating on at the £750,000 house during this month's cold snap and a pipe froze, then burst.

No one noticed for two days as gallons of water filled the air conditioning unit. Finally the bathroom ceiling collapsed, flooding the entire compound.

Designer carpets and rugs in the bedrooms and toilet were saturated under two inches of water.

Laminated wooden flooring in the kitchen was soaked and will need replacing. And damp has seeped through plasterboard walls in the nine-month-old house at Elstree studios, in Hertfordshire.

An insider at Elstree admitted: "It looked a right mess - more like a swimming pool.

"You wouldn't believe the damage a leaking pipe could cause.

"In the bathroom, we might as well start again from scratch. The compound was built with designer materials. To replace everything will take time and effort"

The bathroom was the focus of several top moments in Big Brother 3 and in the celebrity version.

Fans saw Sophie Pritchard and Lee Davey kiss there and Jade Goody attempted to seduce male model Alex. House designer Markus Blee will oversee the renovations. Set owners Endemol plan to claim from insurers and hope to have the work completed by the end of February.

Series four of Big Brother starts in mid-May. A spokesman promised: "It will be fixed in time."

Producers estimate that more than 200,000 people have applied to star in the 12-week series.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Careless!

Producers estimate that more than 200,000 people have applied to star in the 12-week series.

12 weeks this time? Anyone heard any rumours about this?