Why I’m A Celeb can’t resist a grid girl as Olivia Attwood joins string of models… including forgotten series one star
IT’S lights out and away we go to Australia for the new series of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!
As the campmates take their positions in the jungle, there is a familiar look to the line-up: grid girls.
Olivia Attwood, who worked as a racing model for six years, now follows in a long line of former grid girls who have gone on to take part in the show.
Over the weekend, she opened up on her F1 fanbase, explaining: “Pre Love Island, my Instagram used to be about 98 per cent men or something, because of being a grid girl.”
ITV bosses clearly can’t resist the glitz from the pits, as they’ve had Katie Price, Gemma Atkinson and Nell McAndrew on the show and been keen to sign up many more, including Keeley Hazell and Emma Noble.
Here, we reveal the pin-ups who’ve swapped the buzz of the racetrack for mosquitoes in the jungle – and the other glamorous stars producers have been desperate to snap up.
READ MORE I'M A CELEB
Olivia Attwood
Before she entered the Love Island villa in 2017, Olivia, now 31, worked as a motorsport grid girl.
She has previously said that the job, which she started aged 19 and did on-and-off for six years, “totally changed my life”.
Grid girls – sometimes known as brolly dollies – promote racing companies on the track by wearing outfits emblazoned with their branding, or hold umbrellas over drivers if it is raining.
In 2018, Formula One banned them from its circuits as they were no longer in keeping with its “brand values”.
Olivia, who worked for motorsport team, Monster Energy, slammed the decision. She said: “No one held a gun to my head to do it, I did it because I wanted to and my experience was entirely positive.
“I’m all for feminism, I’m all for equal rights – but I don’t think we should be told what defines feminism. This is going against it – you’re telling a woman they CAN’T do something.
“They’re taking the fun, glamour and extravagance out of absolutely everything – where does it end? If you got a mechanic to hold a brolly over the bike on the track, how boring’s that?”
Now she’s jetted off to another corner of the world to join campmates including Coronation Street actress Sue Cleaver, Hollyoaks’ Owen Warner, rugby ace Mike Tindall – and last-minute bombshell booking, Matt Hancock.
Katie Price
Katie Price is in pole position for a very prestigious award – the only contestant to have appeared twice on I’m A Celeb.
The show changed her life as she met future husband Peter Andre during her first stint in 2004, then returned for another series in 2009 for a reported fee of £350,000.
But before her hair braid-wearing days in the jungle, Katie – then known as Jordan – worked as a grid girl for Eddie Jordan’s team.
She appeared at the Spanish Grand Prix in 1998, wearing signature yellow hotpants.
Most read in TV
In 2017, she said of the job: “Commercially it was a huge thing at the time. I was involved with Benson & Hedges. The idea was it should be fun.
“Motor racing is a very serious business, very commercial and it needs to have a very respectable return on the investment.”
Nell McAndrew
She started out as a Marilyn Monroe lookalike but after taking part in the very first series of I’m a Celeb in 2002, Nell McAndrew became a household name.
She played Lara Croft in promos for the video game Tomb Raider, but was fired from this role after posing nude for Playboy in 1999.
The glamour model joined Uri Geller, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and Christine Hamilton in the I’m a Celeb camp before DJ Tony Blackburn was crowned Jungle King of the series.
After she came fourth in the jungle, the 90s pinup famously posed with one of Eddie Jordan’s Formula One cars in a photoshoot.
Since then, the 48-year-old spends her time as an accomplished amateur athlete and has run the London Marathon a staggering seven times.
Gemma Atkinson
In 2007, Hollyoaks actress Gemma Atkinson was unveiled as the ‘female face’ of the British Grand Prix.
She said: “I’m a massive F1 fan and this is my first time at the British Grand Prix. I’m really excited to be here as the female face of the British Grand Prix.
“The atmosphere here at Silverstone is incredible! It is an unbelievable experience and I never imagined I’d get so close to the action. I’m so thrilled to be here.”
A few months later, Gemma took part in the seventh series of I’m a Celeb, alongside Katie Hopkins, Janice Dickinson and winner Christopher Biggins.
Near misses
The drive to get former grid girls appearing on I’m a Celeb has been well-documented over the years.
Jodie Marsh appeared at the 2003 British Grand Prix at Silverstone to launch a Playstation 2 game.
She was then signed to join the jungle in 2003 but pulled out, allegedly because bitter rival Katie Price was said to be going in.
In the early Noughties, Emma Noble could be found posing at the front of a fast car alongside Katie Price and Melinda Messenger.
And it wasn’t long after this that the model-turned-actress was reportedly top of the producers’ wish list to fill the glamour role, occupied by Katie Price in the previous series.
In 2005, Lucy Pinder posed alongside Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella while promoting the release of the Playstation 2.
Three years later, she revealed she was desperate to go into the jungle, but was pipped to the post by Gemma Atkinson.
She said: “I know I’ve been on the shortlist before but something’s always come up. Last year, it was between me and Gemma Atkinson, and she just pipped me at the last minute. But hopefully I’ll get the chance to go into the jungle sometime soon.”
In 2015 glamour model Keeley Hazell – who was a grid girl at Silverstone in 2006 – was in high demand, with both I’m a Celeb and Celebrity Big Brother bosses desperate to sign her up.
In a huge bidding war, CBB reportedly offered her £250,000 to enter the house compound, while ITV promised better exposure as they had millions more viewers.
She didn’t do either and instead tried to crack Hollywood.
But there’s one grid girl who won’t be going anywhere near the jungle.
Kelly Brook – who was a grid girl for seven years – has explained why she won’t be signing up.
She previously said: “I can just think of a million things I’d rather do. I don’t think I could be on the show. I really don’t because I hate confined spaces.
“I don’t want to eat eyeballs or sheep testicles and all the things they have to eat on there.
“Even if I had a huge tax bill and I had to pay it really urgently, I still wouldn’t do it.
Read More on The Sun
“I know that they offer them so much money, so I understand why they do it, but when you’re eating stuff like that on the telly, where do you go from there?”
“It’s kind of like the beginning of the end in my opinion!”