Plane drama for Oscar celebs

Alistair McGowan and fellow TV celebrities suffered a nightmare start to the Oscars when their LA-bound flight was grounded on the Heathrow runway for five hours.

McGowan, his impressionist partner Ronni Ancona, presenter Kate Thornton and comedian Rob Brydon were flying out to Hollywood to be pundits on Jonathan Ross's Oscars broadcast for the BBC.

But as the celebrities boarded the Virgin plane a fault was discovered which resulted in the lengthy delay.

While engineers investigated the problem, fuming passengers were forced to remain on board - and airport rules meant no alcohol could be consumed by the thirsty celebrities until they were airborne!

Virgin Atlantic tried to appease disgruntled travellers by sending round a letter of apology - which offered a 10 per cent discount off their next Virgin flight.

Flight VS7 was due to take off finally at 5pm.