Chantelle Houghton, 22, the wannabe “celebrity” who beat the “real” ones in Celebrity Big Brother, is now aiming for success as a pop singer.
“I am going to live the dream,” she said yesterday.
Houghton, who beat the disgraced television presenter Michael Barrymore in the final vote, is to record a single she once boasted to her housemates had already been a hit for her.
When she first entered the Big Brother household three weeks ago she was a nobody and a fake: the show’s producers told her to pretend she was from a fictional all-girl band called Kandyfloss who had dented the Top 40 with a record called I Want It Right Now.
When she had to sing the song she even forgot the lyrics she was supposed to know and had to resort to reading them from a script.
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Her rivals, by contrast, were celebrities — though in some cases more from mere media exposure than talent. The contest between these different concoctions was, said one leading commentator of 21st-century Britain, a “brilliant surreal experiment in contemporary culture”.
Peter York, the social commentator, said yesterday: “The invention of Chantelle was a superb piece of casting. Celebrity Big Brother is a work of genius, not least in the way the cast of characters are put together.
“The programme is being made by people with a big cultural imagination and a long memory to think of people like Pete Burns and George Galloway.
“Even the acts of casual cruelty they inflicted on the contestants were inspired.”
Houghton, a former promotions girl and part-time Paris Hilton lookalike, was presented with a £25,000 prize for winning. She said she would spend it on “make up, clothes and orange lipstick”.
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In the odd way of modern culture, though, her success at being a fake has brought her real celebrity. With the prospect of television appearances, record and modelling deals, she stands to earn a fortune. She has already been offered one role as the face of Travelodge, the hotel chain with beds at £26 a night, after friends said they called her “Paris Travelodge”, a cut-price Paris Hilton.
“I want it all . . . I want it right now,” she said yesterday, reciting the words to the song. “It looks like I’ve got it right now.”
She said she thought she had won the show “because I’m down to earth, easy-going and I’d like to think I’m just a nice person, hopefully that’s what everyone else thinks as well”.
Both Maggot, 24, real name Andrew Majors, a rapper with the group Goldie Lookin’ Chain, who finished third and Preston, 24, real name Samuel Preston, singer with the Ordinary Boys, who came fourth, said they were willing to record with her in future.
Barrymore, as runner-up, was another surprise. The former quiz show presenter had previously virtually disappeared from television after detectives questioned him about the death of a man in the swimming pool at his Essex home in 2001.
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His return to the limelight via Big Brother has opened new doors. He is to host Channel 4’s The Friday Night Project next month and is likely to be offered a new series. “This is the best rehab there is,” he said.
Barrymore, 53, and Dennis Rodman, 44, a former American basketball star, were the highest paid “house guests” on the show, getting £150,000 each.
The biggest loser was Galloway, 51, the Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, whose antics came close to bringing another house — the Commons — into disrepute.
He donned an Elvis wig and a Dracula costume, pranced around in a tight red leotard and crawled on all fours for fellow guest Rula Lenska, 58, in a humiliating cat impression.
Houghton said: “He’s got a lot of egg on his face. I think George looked down at me as some scatty girl. He actually said I was uneducated and couldn’t believe I lived in Essex and I was a vegetarian. He thought they were all in north London.”
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Burns, 46, the large-lipped transvestite who finished fifth, is likely to be the first in the race for the charts. His 1980s song You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) is being re-released tomorrow. “I can’t believe it”, said Burns. “It is like wearing a school uniform when you are 50.”
A flurry of last-minute bets on Houghton prompted fears that Channel 4 may have accidentally “leaked” her impending victory.
More than £1m was placed in bets at bookmakers and £5m traded in betting exchanges, more than double the amount wagered on any previous Big Brother shows.
But four hours before the result was known on Friday night, Channel 4 chat show host Richard Madeley announced at the end of the Richard & Judy programme that Houghton would be a guest on their next show. Many viewers took this as an indication that she was the likely winner.
In the final poll Houghton collected 56.4% of the public vote compared with the 43.6% who supported Barrymore.
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Yet, despite any overwhelming victory, the final odds on Houghton at the Betfair betting exchange were 1-5; people had to wager £5 to win £1. Barrymore’s odds were a much more generous 5-1.
Channel 4 denied the Richard & Judy show had any inside knowledge and said Houghton had been invited on the programme because “they thought viewers would want to see her”.