{"id":174836,"date":"2025-12-09T04:55:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T04:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/174836\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T04:55:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T04:55:20","slug":"real-reason-hollywood-star-stormed-off-bbc-set-and-refused-to-return-tv-radio-showbiz-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/174836\/","title":{"rendered":"Real reason Hollywood star stormed off BBC set and refused to return | TV & Radio | Showbiz & TV"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hollywood<\/a> icon Rupert Everett once \u201cdid a runner\u201d from a hit BBC<\/a> show \u2013 and now its stars have confirmed the real reason. The Shrek 2 star, who has appeared in everything from My Best Friend\u2019s Wedding to An Ideal Husband, was invited to be part of the Celebrity Apprentice<\/a> during its 2006 run for Comic Relief.<\/p>\n

He was joined by the likes of Piers Morgan<\/a>, Ross Kemp and Cheryl Cole \u2013 but after just a day of filming, he decided to quit the show, with Apprentice winner Tim Campbell stepping in to take his place. At the time, it was reported that Everett couldn\u2019t deal with the constant presence of cameras as he clashed with Piers \u2013 but now Lord Sugar and Baroness Brady have revealed his real reason for fleeing.<\/p>\n

At the launch of this year\u2019s Christmas edition of the Celebrity Apprentice, which raises money for Children in Need, the pair were asked by press who would be part of their ideal line-up.<\/p>\n

Lord Sugar<\/a> admitted: \u201cWell I think the thing is, it\u2019s very much who\u2019s available. They have their own shows to do, and the quality of the celebrities will very much depend upon who\u2019s in between, in between work. It\u2019s really to do with whether they have a slot in their own schedule \u2013 they are busy people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baroness Brady echoed: \u201cI think I echo what Lord Sugar said. You could have a wish list as long as your arm, but we film over a certain period of time. You have to be available, you have to want to give up your time and you have to want to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not easy. Ask anyone here \u2013 it is the hardest working show on TV. When it says 5am, it is five o\u2019clock in the morning and you\u2019re still working at 10 o\u2019clock at night. You\u2019re grafting, you\u2019re contacting people, you\u2019re trying to make sales. It really is tough.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

She added: \u201cSome of the more glamorous names, they might be available \u2013 do you remember when we had Rupert Everett? He did a runner! He was like, \u2018Where\u2019s my script?\u2019 and I told him, \u2018There is no script\u2019. He turned up, he realised it was too tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everett said at the time: \u201cIt is just so different from doing a feature film. I went in with good intentions but I just could not cope with the Big Brother mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karren explained: \u201cI think Piers Morgan told him to call his friend Madonna for a donation, he said, \u2018You don\u2019t call Madonna, you write her!\u2019 So it\u2019s not just about who\u2019s available, it\u2019s about who will roll up their sleeves and get involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Concerned he\u2019d offended this year\u2019s line-up of talent, Lord Sugar quipped: \u201cI\u2019m very grateful that our celebrities gave up their time to do it \u2013 they weren\u2019t the only ones available. There were others! But we have to limit the numbers that we put into the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s festive special includes stars like AJ Odudu, Sarah Hadland<\/a>, Angela Scanlon and Jake Wood \u2013 who will compete to see who can create the best festive biscuit for Children in Need.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hollywood icon Rupert Everett once \u201cdid a runner\u201d from a hit BBC show \u2013 and now its stars…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[112311,2974,112315,112314,112316,156,4223,112313,112312,111,139,69,21244,112317,112318,112310],"class_list":["post-174836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-alan-sugar","tag-bbc","tag-celeb-apprentice","tag-celebrity-apprentice","tag-celebrity-apprentice-line-up","tag-entertainment","tag-hollywood","tag-karren-brady","tag-lord-sugar","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-piers-morgan","tag-rupert-everett","tag-rupert-everett-piers-morgan","tag-the-apprentice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}