Pandora: Jamie not so keen on the homeless life

Lining up a bunch of celebrities for a reality television show might not be everyone's ideal use of license payers' money, but sometimes it can make for cracking spectator sport.

The BBC have recently finished filming Famous, Rich and Homeless – a spin-off from BBC 3's well-received Filthy Rich and Homeless – in which contestants are forced to swap their cappuccino-sipping lifestyles to live rough on the streets for 10 days.

The programme, which is due to be broadcast in the spring, features the former tennis star Annabel Croft, journalist Rosie Boycott, formerly of this parish, and the comedian Hardeep Singh Kohli.

However, Pandora learns that filming didn't entirely go according to plan. Also appearing in the show was the Duke of Marlborough's son, Jamie Blandford, whose past can best be described as colourful.

The 52-year-old heir has a history of drug abuse and has previously been jailed for forging prescriptions. He was also sent down two years ago for his part in a road-rage incident.

According to an on-set source, rather than suffer the extreme conditions, Blandford ended up hot-footing it to a hotel on the first night of filming.

"From what I can gather, he did disappear," says a spokesman for the programme.

"I think he would deny that he was in a hotel the whole time, though some might speculate that this was where he went."

Keira can dust off her Zelda

Keira Knightley has been given a chance to squeeze her waif-like figure into yet another vintage costume.

Filming appears to be back on with The Beautiful and The Damned, the much-hyped biopic detailing the troubled relationship between F Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre.

The project, in which Knightley plays Zelda, looked like stalling several months ago when the director, Nick Cassavetes, decided to drop out. But yesterday it was announced that John Curran would take his place, with filming now due to begin in March

What with all the talk about the Great Depression, Fitzgerald is currently experiencing quite a revival in Hollywood.

An adaptation of an F Scott short story The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring Cate Blanchett, is being tipped for Oscars, while madcap Australian director Baz Luhrmann is mooted to direct a new version of The Great Gatsby.

Donal eyes up the spangles

Donal MacIntyre's decision to appear on ITV's Dancing on Ice is threatening to play havoc with his image as a hard-nosed investigative reporter.

MacIntyre recently met up with the show's producers to select which frilly sequinned shirts he will wear when the show kicks off this weekend.

"You do feel a bit prattish," he tells this week's Radio Times magazine. "But you have to buy into the whole thing, and not take yourself seriously – only the training."

I only hope MacIntyre hasn't opted for any short-sleeved spangly numbers.

In order to infiltrate Chelsea's football hooligans' notorious "head hunters", he had an ugly tattoo of the club's emblem carved on to his arm.

Corden lacks the 'X factor'

James Corden's high-profile attempts to "pull" Alexandra Burke appear to have crashed and burned.

Just before Christmas, the well-lunched star made moves to woo the excitable X Factor winner by sending her a £4,000 Cartier watch. Sadly, she's given him the bum's rush.

"I'd love to go on a date with James but it would only be for a friendly drink," she says "I was flattered that he gave me such an expensive gift but there's no romance."

Black's not afraid of Michael Wolff

The row between Conrad Black and Michael Wolff has erupted into all out war. Last month, Black published a less-than-favourable review of the Vanity Fair journalist's biography Rupert Murdoch, The Man Who Owns the News, on the American website The Daily Beast. Wolff responded by claiming the former Telegraph proprietor had "lost his mind". Now Black has hit back, uncharitably suggesting the men in white coats be called in. He writes: "Isn't this the point where gentle, white-clad bearers of butterfly nets are supposed to conduct the Wolffs of the world to a nice quiet place where they can exchange with each other coarse, verb-less sentences... in between sessions of heavy medication and gentle counselling?"

Letts's inventive internet stalker

The Daily Mail's waspish sketch writer Quentin Letts has picked an unwanted internet stalker. His Wikipedia page has been altered to claim he is working on a book about right-wing journalists driving the Tories to defeat in 1997. Before that, it alleged that he'd taken his editor Paul Dacre to task over his fondness for colourful language. "I've never even contemplated writing a book about the loony right," says Letts. "As for the stuff about bad language, I have published a book which used the word 'buggered' in its title, so I'm not sure I make a very convincing prude."