[James]

Mr Gay UK

Nov 21 2005

By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

BY the time you read this one of the highlights of the gay calendar will have taken place the Mr GAY UK final. I've been running this competition now for 14 years and there have been a whole host of celebrities involved.

We always have a famous host and a panel of judges who have some playful banter with the contestants.

They then most crucially score the guys and help to decide who will be the winner.

In previous years Sir Ian McKellan, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Jason Donavan, Paula Yates, Lily Savage, Denise Van Outen and Graham Norton have all been involved, to name but a few.

Finding the famous faces is always fun and you'd be amazed how many stars want to get involved.


I speak to Jonathan Ross nearly every year about it and he is always interested but unfortunately is usually booked up well in advance!

This year we were looking forward to having Jenny Frost, ex-Atomic Kitten star as part of the panel.

She loves the events we run in Leeds and Manchester and had a ball at the final last year.

I was quite surprised when she told me she was going to have to pull out and I was upset that she wouldn't tell me why.

It was only later that she told me she was actually going into the jungle to take part in I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!

She swore me to secrecy as her contract with them meant she couldn't tell me the reason she wasn't coming to Blackpool at the time.

I think she'll be great in the programme, but I don't envy her having to eat all those creepy crawlies!

She said she will be back in time for my wedding in December though which I'm glad about.

I'd better not ask you to vote for Jenny though look at what my `kiss of death' did for Chenai in the X Factor!

The judges this year should be popular with the audience.

We have Kemal and Craig from this year's Big Brother on the panel.

They're both really strong characters and clashed a few times in the Big Brother house.

There may be some fireworks with them appearing together especially with all those sexy guys on stage to argue over.

The antics on stage should be very exciting this year too.

Not only is Richard Cowell, the Royal Navy officer I mentioned a few weeks ago able to attend (and apparently he will be in uniform!) but we also have another unformed gentleman on stage.

Tom from Leeds is a serving police officer and will be appearing in his police get up.

I hope to be able to bring you some juicy behind the scenes gossip next week!

If you want to see who won the competition, check out www.mrgayuk.co.uk

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