Posted by Simon at January 6, 2006 05:44 PM

Well, the fourth series of Celebrity Big Brother has started, and what an interesting time it could well turn up to be - once they get rid of some celebs who seem lacking in celeb status...!

The Eye says it every year, but what an "interesting selection" Channel 4 have made. Certainly it's very different to the bunch that showed up in CBB1 and 2, but we all like watching freak shows and Channel 4 know it, so that's why we've got the 10+1 for 2006.

10+1?
Yep, 10 celebs and 1 non-celeb (although after being on BB "celeb status" is something that almost always follows, so arguably there's 11 celebs in there now).

As Richard O'Brien used to say at the start of Crystal Maze "let's meet them shall we?"

First up is Chantelle, a 22 year old "model promotions girl" from essex. She's the non-celeb, and has to pretend that she's a singer from a group called Kandyfloss ("with a K"), and that the hit song was "I want it right now". If the celebs don't rumble her, she gets to stay in the house, otherwise she's out on Sunday.

In the Housemate number 2 slot is Michael Barrymore, he entered the house to massive cheering from the crowd, and took ages to walk past everyone who was seemingly very happy to see him again since he vanished from British TV screens a couple of years ago.

Third housemate is 80's singer Pete Burns. He got boo's from the crowd to start with although it did seem to change in to cheers before too long. Looks like he could give last years Jackie a run for her money in the cosmetic surgery stakes...

Next up is American actress from Baywatch Traci Bingham, followed by Goldie Lookin Chain's Maggot, 60's actress Rula Lenska, and then model Jodie Marsh.

The final four included Basketball legend Dennis Rodman, who commented "oh this gotta be joking..." as he entered the house and found Traci Bingham there. FA (that's Faria Alam, not Football Assosciation) followed him entering a couple of minutes later, and got lots of boo's from the crowd, although they were cheers instead of boo's when Preston from the Ordinary Boys turned up and entered the house.

Finally a bit of a shock for the media it'd seem, as current MP George Galloway was announced to be the 10th celeb to be taking part in the show. Again there was massive booing from crowd, and as he entered the house he shouted "stop the war!".

Early doors
Initially the group seemed to split in to males and females, although before long they all grouped back togther and mingled a bit, up until the point that they started to drift off to bed - Faria, Rula, etc... Late night stop-up's they most certainly don't seem to be.

Well, they wouldn't have been, if only the snoring hadn't of kept them awake.

It'd seem Michael Barrymore has a bit of a loud snoring problem, which kept the rather close pair of Dennis and non-celeb Chantelle giggling away as they chatted with each other from their neighbouring beds.

Finally Barrymore seemed to wake from his slumber and apologised for the snoring and went out in the kitchen, before heading in to the living room, where he fiddled with the cactus plant trying to break off one of the spikes, which it'd seem he was hoping to use as a pen... sneaky.

The Eye will be watching, and will report back for Day 2. In the meantime, have your say about the Celebs, on the forum.