The snakes survive Janet...

Tara Conlan|Laura Benjamin|Evening Standard

11 April 2012

Given her acidic attitude and notoriously sharp tongue, it's not generally advisable to tangle with Janet Street-Porter.

But clearly no one had told the snakes that.

They gleefully sank their fangs into her yesterday, providing a moment to savour for those who enjoy seeing the biter bit.

Miss Street-Porter had spent the first few days snapping at her fellow contestants on I'm A Celebrity - Get Me Out Of Here!

The tables were well and truly turned on the 57- year- old TV executive during a task to earn food for her jungle companions.

The public had voted for her to take part in the Snake Strike challenge in a phone poll. She said she was chosen 'because I'm a mouthy cow'.

The challenge involved her reaching into a tank full of snakes. Hidden among the reptiles were ten numbered stars she had to collect to convert into meals.

Clad in protective clothing and goggles, at first she performed well, plucking the first star from one small snake.

Using extreme care she collected the first seven meal tokens but ran into trouble with the eighth.

It was hidden under a lid in a log and as she cautiously tried to pick it up a snake bit her on her hand.

Undeterred, she tried again but received another nip so moved on to the ninth. However that was also hidden in a log and she found more fangs being sunk into her hand.

Despite the pain she retrieved the ninth token and the tenth, though not before receiving another couple of bites.

Afterwards she was treated by medics for the punctures on her hand. She told hosts Ant and Dec: 'I know people say snakes are not venomous but when they bite you, it's not very nice.

'They are so quick, it's incredible. I feel an accomplishment in that I have done something that a lot of people would not do at all. I did not get where I am today by being feeble.'

She added that she hadn't had much contact with snakes before, 'other than snakeskin shoes and handbags'.

A jubilant Miss Street-Porter said she was determined to win as many meals as possible as the men in the camp were suffering hunger pangs. Despite her injuries she was her spiky self back in the jungle camp, rowing with former East 17 singer Brian Harvey and telling cameramen who followed her to '**** off'.

Meanwhile models Sophie Anderton and Nancy Sorrell fulfilled expectations by playing their trump card and stripping off.

Miss Anderton took a dip wearing a thong and tiny string bikini top and was joined by her friend Nancy wearing a low-cut bra top.

But the pair may soon have a rival in the form of Emma Blocksage - Harvey's girlfriend. The contestants have spent the last few days building a treehouse furnished with a large double bed. Yesterday around the camp fire they discussed what it was for, speculating that a couple of new contestants might be parachuted into the show.

Miss Blocksage, who goes by the name of Emma B, is flying out to Australia today and will arrive on Friday. There are suggestions that she will enter the camp on Sunday night, shortly after the first evictiontakes place. A show insider said: 'After the first eviction, Emma will enter the camp and set up home with Brian in the treehouse. The final details of how she is going to walk into the camp haven't been sorted out yet.

'She may just stroll in casually and say hello to everyone, or she may be put into the camp overnight and surprise everyone the next morning.'

Harvey nearly quit the show over the weekend after hearing that his grandmother had died.

Betty Nabb, who was 70, brought the singer up from a young age and they had been living together in East London for the past two years.

Harvey decided to stay on but has broken down in tears so the arrival of his girlfriend will be of some comfort to him.

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The snakes survive Janet...

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