Chantelle escapes eviction

Chantelle Houghton escaped eviction on Celebrity Big Brother last night after managing to convince the other contestants that she was a star.

Before the unknown Essex girl entered the house, the producers of the Channel 4 reality show set this as her task - saying she could stay beyond the first week if she fooled her fellow housemates.

Yesterday, the contestants gave presentations to the others about their own 'celebrity' status, then ranked themselves - from one to 11 - in what they thought was their order of stardom.

Chantelle was placed ninth by the group, above singers Maggot and Preston, so was allowed to stay on.

All along, the 22-year-old model and Paris Hilton lookalike has been told to pretend to be a member of a band called Kandy Floss.

But when it came to the crunch - having to sing a fabricated song called I Want It Right Now which her make-believe band were supposed to have charted with - she stumbled her way through hastily-learned lyrics and sang wildly out of tune. Yet still, her co-stars remained none the wiser that she had been planted in the house.

Her housemates threw embarrassed glances at each other as Chantelle displayed a rather limited vocal range and unusual dance moves.

But while glamour model Jodie Marsh looked distinctly unimpressed and basketball player Dennis Rodman chuckled, maverick MP George Galloway assured her: 'Very good Chantelle, I'll buy it.'

The celebrities ranked troubled television presenter Michael Barrymore as the most famous and Rodman in second place.

The ten 'famous' contestants were later made aware of Chantelle's fake fame. Barrymore is the bookies' favourite to win the show at 2/1.