Jerry's ringer

It is the moment when Jerry meets Jerry. The king of shock TV, Jerry Springer, comes face to face with the actor who plays him in the hit musical inspired by his chat show.

Springer met actor Michael Brandon for the West End opening of Jerry Springer - The Opera. It satirises Springer's long-running show in which he presides over warring couples and bizarre guests who make claims such as "I married a horse".

Organisers of the opening at the Cambridge Theatre clearly wanted celebrities whose lives have been in the news to attend the show.

John Leslie and his girlfriend Abi Titmuss were there, along with Nancy Dell'Olio who became a tabloid favourite after her partner, England manager Sven Goran Eriksson, had an affair with Ulrika Jonsson. TV presenter Angus Deayton, sacked from Have I Got News For You after revelations about his private life, was also present with his partner, scriptwriter Lise Mayer.

Jerry Springer - the Opera, previously a sell-out at the National Theatre, is set to be a West End hit. But the real Springer revealed that he plans to quit his TV show after 12 years and follow Arnold Schwarzenegger into politics.

At the £100,000 party in Whitehall's Banqueting Hall, Springer, 59, said: "I plan to run for Senate in Ohio in 2005. I have to wrap up the show first and that is why I am not running next year.

"I think celebrities have a much better chance being political figures right now. Look at Arnie."

But Springer has some political experience as mayor of Cincinnati in the late Seventies.

Others guests included Sir David Frost, Jeremy Clarkson, Simon Cowell, Gaby Roslin and Tracey Ullman. Producers are in talks to take the £3 million show to Broadway next year.