72 Point Blog National News, PR and Market Research Specialists…

Ten Celeb PR Clangers of 2010

For the celebrity – reputation is everything.

So there’s nothing more satisfying than witnessing a famous figure fall from their pedestal from a magnificent height under the watchful glare of the public eye.

Here are my ten favourite celeb "crash and burns" of 2010…

1. BP boss Tony Hayward tells reporters "I would like my life back," as Gulf Coast families suffered from the impact of the major oil spill. He is then then photographed sailing his yacht and calls the spill "relatively tiny."

2. "They should never have put me with that woman. She was just a sort of bigoted woman who said she used to be Labour," Gordon Brown says in comments picked up by a microphone he had forgotten to remove from his clothing on April 28^th. Brown is then followed by TV crews visiting the woman’s house to make a personal apology.

3. In July, a taped telephone conversation between Mel Gibson and former girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, emerges. In one, he is alleged to have told her: "You look like a f***ing pig in heat, and if you get raped by a pack of ni**ers it will be your fault." Gibson is abruptly dropped from the cast of soon-to-be-released movie, The Hangover 2 and replaced by Liam Neeson.

4. Vince Cable is stripped of his responsibility for media regulation after it is revealed by the Telegraph that he claimed (to undercover journalists posing as constituents) to have "declared war" on Rupert Murdoch's News Corp empire.

5. Sarah Palin, a guest on Glenn Beck’s radio show, claims “We gotta stand with our North Korean allies,” Beck points out her mistake, to which she replies, “We’re bound by prudence to stand with our South Korean allies, yes.”

6. Australia's Next Top Model host Sarah Murdoch mistakenly announces the wrong winner on the show's live final. Murdoch names Kelsey Martinovich as the contest winner at the Sydney event. Moments later, she realises she's crowned the wrong girl.

7. John Terry is dropped as England Captain after his affair with Vanessa Perroncel, the ex-girlfriend of Terry's former Chelsea and England team-mate Wayne Bridge is revealed. The revelations also led to Bridge's retirement from international football.

8. Wayne Rooney mouths off at England fans after their nil all draw against Algeria in the 2010 World Cup. The England striker loses his cool as he headed for the dressing rooms, turning to a TV camera and saying: "Nice to see your home fans boo you. That's what loyal support is"

9. Cheryl Cole causes a national outcry when she fails to pick Xfactor favourite Gamu Nhengu to progress to the live studio shows. The Girls Aloud singer is forced to deny she had been under pressure to ditch her because of immigration issues surrounding Gamu’s family at the time.

10. Gillian McKeith is accused by viewers and the media of faking a fainting episode on reality TV show I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here after she was picked for her seventh challenge. The nutritionist from Scotland dramatically collapses on live television causing a national commotion.

By Harriet Crosse