‘Is that really a woman?’ Lionel Blair mistakes Renee Graziano for a man as he tips Christopher Biggins to win Celebrity Big Brother
LIONEL Blair mistook Celebrity Big Brother contestant Renee Graziano for a man as he appeared on This Morning to talk about his experience on the show.
The veteran entertainer, 84, was a guest on the ITV show – hosted today by James Martin and Anita Rani - alongside fellow former CBB contestants Callum Best and Claire Sweeney.
And when a picture of all the new housemates that entered the house last night flashed on the screen, Lionel pointed at the Mob Wives star and cheekily said: “Is that really a woman?”
Speaking about the contestants he knew, he tipped Christopher Biggins to win and said: “I know Biggins and he won I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here – I think he should win, but I think he’s too nice!”
Claire, who starred on the first ever Celebrity Big Brother which aired on Channel 4 in association with Comic Relief, said she was backing Sam Fox.
She said: “I love Sam Fox, I think she’s great and she’s been around for years.”
Lionel appeared on CBB on January 2014 and became the third housemate to be evicted – and said he believed most celebrities took part in the show because of the money.
Callum, 35, who appeared on CBB in January 2015 and came third, said he thought it was a good way to boost your profile as a celebrity and show who they really are as a person, which was one of the reasons he decided to do it.
Blair also advised contestants to play by the rules and added: “When you go in there, you play the game and you have to be a team player. Because if you do something wrong that Big Brother tells you to do, it’s not just you that gets punished, they punish the entire house.”
Anita asked all three if it’s easy to forget about the cameras and Claire said: “I don’t think you can. But when I was in it, it was for a week and a lot easier. Now it’s there to test people and push them to each extreme of their personality.”
Lionel said: “I did, totally, I really forgot all about it. It wasn’t until I woke up one night and there was a window and I could see the camera, the cameraman had obviously gone to the bathroom and left the curtain open right next to my bed.”
Callum added: “I remember on day one everyone’s coming in as glamorous as they can be and then by day three everyone’s in their pants not really caring. But you don’t forget that you’re always there.”
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