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David Irving invited on Celebrity Big Brother

From The Jewish Chronicle
October 30, 2008

TV production company Endemol, which makes the reality show Celebrity Big Brother, was condemned this week for inviting Holocaust-denier David Irving to take part in the next series.

Mr Irving states on his website that he received a "top secret provisional invitation" in September asking him to take part in series planned to start on January 2. He was told last Friday that he had not made the final selection.

He met producers for 90 minutes at a Kensington hotel on October 7 and wrote on his website: "They seem very keen, pleased that I am so up front, open and uninhibited. Comes easily to me."

He also notes that his teenage daughter advised him against accepting, but he told her he was encouraged by the fact that "financially [the programme makers] have made a killing".

He said he was annoyed at the decision not to take him, saying "the fee would have been nice" wondering "who had put the ‘no' stamp on it".

Stephen Smith, director of the Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre in Nottingham, said: "Broadcast is fast becoming a spectacle of outrageous views that can bring harm to others. If the makers of Celebrity Big Brother even considered David Irving for their next broadcast, it demands a full explanation.

"It is just as well they thought twice. David Irving has convictions for Holocaust denial in Austria and is well known to be an apologist for the Nazi regime. He has no place on prime-time television."

A Big Brother spokesperson said Irving had not been "seriously considered" as a contestant.

David Irving did not return the JC's request for comment.

Last updated: 10:08am, October 30 2008

http://www.thejc.com/node/7486