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Artist News
Kilimanjaro c’lebs reach the summit
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 9 March 2009
The posse of c’lebs who have been on that Kilimanjaro jaunt for Comic Relief have completed their mission.
Girl Aloud Cheryl Cole, GMTV bloke Ben Shephard, Radio 1 irritant Fearne Cotton and telly-presenter-actress-type Denise Van Outen were the first of the celebrities in the Comic Relief team to make it to the summit of Africa’s biggest mountain this weekend, with a Twitter feed seemingly submitted from the summit reading: “At the summit, God knows how”.
Surprisingly, given this was a BBC project, U2 weren’t at the summit to provide a little congratulatory album plug, which was a bit of a poor show if you ask me. It’s the Africans I’m thinking about here, Bono.
The rest of the celebs followed soon after, including Chris Moyles, Ronan Keating, Gary Barlow and that other Girl Aloud Kimberley Walsh. From what I hear, they all found it pretty hard going as the summit approached, which isn’t surprising, it is a very high mountain. Alesha Dixon, the last of the celebrities to make it to the top, reportedly crawled her way to the summit as she really struggled with the whole low oxygen malarkey, poor girl.
Making up for all the torment a little, presumably, was the news that donations generated by the Radio 1 spearheaded Red Nose bonanza had already passed a million, the most money ever made by a Comic Relief project on the nation’s favourite.
Confirming that achievement, Radio 1’s Head Of Programmes Ben Cooper told reporters: “This is fantastic news! We’re overwhelmed by the generosity of our listeners. It’s the first time Radio 1 alone has raised a million pounds for Comic Relief. Chris and Fearne and the rest of the team out in Kilimanjaro will be spurred on by this great news”.
Participating celebrities will now return home to the UK before Friday’s big Red Nose Day bash. Most media attention, tabloids anyway, is sure to be on Girl Aloud and ‘X-Factor’ judge Cole, whose other half Ashley was, as you no doubt know, arrested for being drunk and disorderly after a night out clubbing while his wife was in Africa last week, and after being photographed having what his PRs are calling an “intellectual conversation” with an unnamed woman.
Perhaps they could sell tickets to the Cheryl/Ashley Cole showdown and raise another million for Comic Relief. Not that we’d want to encourage domestic violence or anything, we’re no Eamon Holmes here at CMU you know.
