E3 Group

Last week saw the E3 Artists offices inundated with requests to hire Austin Drage and Laura White. This was fuelled by the simple fact that no one expected them to be voted off the X Factor. The whole affair has escalated into the 40,000 member strong ‘bring back Laura’ campaign, many of the complaints registered with Ofcom claiming that there must have been something wrong with the phones for such an injustice to occur. Normal service was resumed on X Factor this week with bookies favourite for the chop Daniel Evans getting the heave-ho.

Strictly Come Dancing was another story indeed. Cherie Lunghi was not only a firm favourite for the final, but also received a whopping 32 points from the judges. She became the latest victim of ‘VS Syndrome’ (voting surprise), leaving the show after a dance off with Lisa Snowdon and Brendan Cole. John Sergeant who, lets face it, is about as graceful as David Brent, continues to storm through the competition on the back of the public vote which seems determined to spoil the judges party. Rachel Stevens compared losing the public vote to John as “like being dumped” but it seems to me that the anti-Sergeant sentiment in the show is only fuelling the fires of his fan base.

This ‘VS syndrome’ is good news for those looking to book the favourites of the top reality TV shows. It won’t surprise me to see requests to hire Cherie Lunghi go through the roof this week. Marks and Spencer have already lined her up. With current trends, its anybody’s guess which Reality TV stars will be available to book next week but I’ve got a tip for next year’s Strictly Come Dancing winner, Peter Mandelson!

I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! has graced our screens once again and there are no surprises as to who the bookies have tipped to be first on the plane home. Robert Kilroy-Silk headed the list of most unpopular contestants before the show even kicked off. And now that the show has kicked off, he’s done himself no favours.

The obligatory back-biting and whisperings about fellow contestants has begun in earnest and although Kilroy is not the only perpetrator, he seems determined to exploit every word he hears to his advantage. How very political. At one point, Carly Zucker, self confessed WAG, joked to him that former boyband Blue star Simon Webbe shouldn’t eat due to his failure in the Bush Tucker Trial. Kilroy carefully stored up this information before later revealing it to the entire camp, suggesting that it wasn’t a joke at all and that Carly genuinely intended to withhold Simon’s dinner. Carly then had the audacity to look over his shoulder while he was washing up, resulting in her being accused of having control issues.

Martina Navoratiova, George Takei and Simon are my favourites so far, but there is no telling which way the voting will go if recent reality TV voting trends are anything to go by. We could see Kilroy crowned king of the jungle, John Sergeant as this year’s Strictly champion and as for X Factor, well your guess is as good as mine!

With the calamity surrounding the booting off of X Factor hopefuls Laura White and Austin Drage, I started thinking about whether winning the X Factor, or any other talent show, will impact on your potential career any more than losing does. It is clear to everyone that these two acts have more star quality than some of those left in the show but since their shock dismissal, E3 Artists have had an unprecedented amount of requests to hire Laura White and Austin Drage. We have of course happily obliged and their schedules for the Christmas period are filling up fast. This just goes to show their talent outshines the label of ‘winner’.

Laura has been offered a record deal since leaving and Austin has revealed how the X Factor constrained his musical ambitions by packaging him as Leon Jackson mark two. It is no surprise that despite not winning, these two are musical hot property. Leona Lewis and Will Young lead the way in the successful winner’s league but other former champions include Steve Brookstein and Michelle McManus who have sadly failed to recreate their colleague’s successes. Lemar has enjoyed an internationally successful career despite finishing third in BBC’s Fame academy. He has won two Brit awards and has a raft of top ten hits under his belt; not bad for third place.

So should Laura and Austin be too disappointed? Lilly Allen has written in her blog of her shock at Laura’s ejection and songstress Adele has expressed a desire to work with up and coming talent like these two, rather than established stars with established egos. Judge these acts on their talent not their positions in what is ultimately a politically motivated contest.

This week, our senior entertainment agent Dan Kujawski had an interesting meeting with Maria Friedman’s personal management team. They discussed Maria’s commitments for the coming year and she is very interested in branching out into new territory. Dan has dinner planned with Maria to discuss these new avenues.

Maria has hinted at her plans having spoken to Elaine Page on her radio show early this year. She mentioned she would like to take a break from the theatre and spend some time doing concert performances. Maria has now established herself as a sensational concert artist and has received rapturous reviews, performing her favourite songs from her illustrious career.

This is great news for all those anxious to add a bit of West End magic to their next event as three times Olivier Award winner Maria is keen to lend her formidable vocal ability to more corporate engagements. Her amazing talent is a fabulous addition to the E3 Artists roster and we cannot wait to start working with this living legend of Theatre!