Strange Days Indeed

The Sun confirms what we knew on Sunday, but with one added ingredient: Eighties pop icon Steve Strange.

For this to be true this means that there are actually going to be twelve housemates. I'm sceptical. In the first place, there were only eleven beds there on Tuesday for the press visit, and we were firmly told that there were only going to be eleven celebs. All in at the beginning, with no late arrivals unless somebody dropped out at the start or walked out later on. Last time we had three walk outs: Ken Russell, Donny Tourette, and Leo Sayer, but the BB bigwigs seemed pretty confident that they had the eleven and it was all done and dusted.

So I rather suspect that one of the twelve will be missing from the limos that drive up Elstree tonight. Still, assuming he's going in, and if I were a producer I'd be working overtime to make sure he does, Steve Strange seems a bit... strange. Like Verne Troyer and La Toya Jackson he's had form, having already been on a reality TV show - BBC3's haircutting show "Celebrity Scissorhands " where Steve had a bit of a problem. He had an allergy to hair.

According to this interview, conducted nine years ago, there was a period when Steve developed agoraphobia, and couldn't leave his house in Wales. This suggests that CBB is the ideal show for him. Maybe three weeks isn't long enough and he'll still be found lurking in the task room when summer rolls along.

It's certainly been a tough life for Steve, even if most of it has been self-inflicted. Heroin addiction, sentenced for shoplifting, living off benefits, being mugged with a baseball bat. And writing "Fade to Grey" have all taken their toll. My brother once met him in a night club, and asked why you couldn't dance to it. He wasn't pleased.

I'm guessing that CBB could be the show to resurrect his career. Or permanently destroy what little there is left of it.

On the other hand, he's got survivability written all over him. How many other pop careers have continued to bubble along 25 years after one hit? How many times can he appear in documentaries and in the "Where are they now" file of obscure style magazines? I mean, there aren't any rumours about Lieutenant Pigeon flying into BB, are there?

So far, I've written about three potential celebrities. Jermaine Jackson's little sister La Toya. (What's the betting next time Michael will go in, making it a hattrick of Jacksons? ), pint-sized thespian Verne Troyer, and now Steve Strange.

All of them seem a little bit eccentric, to put it kindly.

Nine o'clock tonight can't come soon enough, eh?

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