ITV counts cost of Pamela Anderson's Ice flop
Pamela Anderson's flop appearance on Dancing on Ice could have cost ITV as much as £1,000 a second. The former Baywatch beauty was the first celebrity to be axed from the show at the weekend, following a stumble and a wardrobe malfunction in her debut performance. But the Daily Mirror reports that Pammie secured a guaranteed six-figure deal for taking part in the show, no matter what, meaning her three-minute performance on the ice cost around £150,000, taking into account all her expenses. An insider told the newspaper: "Pammie's the biggest star we've had on Dancing On Ice and we hoped she'd pull in millions of viewers for weeks. "We booked first-class flights for her and sourced plush accommodation for months in case she got to the final stages. "All in, we've spent about £150,000 and she lasted one week. It's a disaster." A spokesman for Dancing on Ice confirmed all contestants are paid the full sum agreed even if they are voted off on the first night. The 45-year-old blonde bombshell, who has also competed on US TV show Dancing With The Stars and appeared in the Indian version of Big Brother, has announced her retirement from reality shows. She told ITV's This Morning: "I'm never doing this again. This is the last one. I don't think I should be in this kind of environment anyway."
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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.
An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.