Talking of X-Factor, the only slightly strange David Gest is reportedly being lined up to join the judging panel for the next series of the ITV talent show. As previously reported, Louis Walsh has been dropped from the judging team, which will be expanded to four people, meaning two new judges are being recruited. On the back of his popularity with the ITV audience post-jungle, the impresario and former Mr Liza Minelli is a favourite to join Simon Cowell and Sharon Osbourne in judging and coaching the next generation of pop hopefuls. The Mirror quote a source thus: "Talks are well under way and ITV chiefs think David is just what the show needs to give it a new kick. It's just a case of sorting out money and scheduling. Simon Cowell wants someone who would bring some fresh humour to the show and David is such a character. He knows David will be someone who knows what he's talking about. He also wants someone with strong views and who isn't afraid to speak their mind and David's that man".
In related news, David Gest is involved in the latest 'they buggered up the phone-in voting' story, with allegations that 30,000 votes to keep him in the jungle on the last series of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here were lost in the system, meaning that he was evicted from the show when actually Mylene Klass, who he was up against at that stage, should have lost the vote. Which throws all the voting that followed on the show into turmoil, because who's to say that Gest wouldn't have got the most votes through to the final had he still been on the show? (Though don't tell poor old Matt Willis that - you can't take his jungle win away from him, given how badly the solo career seems to be going).
The lost vote allegations follow the publishing of emails in The Sun allegedly from employees of Eckoh, who operate the phone lines for the TV show, which seem to admit that SMS votes from another of the show's suppliers, Mig, came in too late to be included in the final count. One email outlines how the text votes didn't make it into the final vote, while a response says: "I can't believe that there's been a cock-up with the system like that, so near the end as well. Migs' system obviously couldn't handle all the txt messages, but it's their problem not ours so sod it".
But ITV are denying the claims, and say that the aforementioned independent review of all of the network's phone/text in promotions (which, as previously reported, was launched last week, before the latest allegations surfaced) will show that the I'm A Celeb vote that evicted Gest from the show was all above board. They said in a statement: "This accusation is completely wrong. On the night of David Gest's eviction, all votes were counted and verified. No SMS votes for David Gest were lost at any time and all his votes across all platforms were counted in the final vote". Eckoh back the network in denying the allegations, and also allege the emails printed in The Sun are fake.
However, premium line regulator Icstis has said they are still investigating the allegations and that there were "still questions that need to be answered".