In an industry filled with stars as fake as their own veneers, it’s hard to know who is the real deal in the land of showbiz.
Some celebrities glide effortlessly through a world brimming with media opportunities and hefty pay cheques, while others take any old gig in a desperate bid to stay relevant.
Indeed, never before has there been such a slew of reality TV opportunities or ‘celebrity’ game shows for fame-hungry wannabes trying to make a name for themselves.
So who would sell their own grandmother (or at least OnlyFans feet pictures) for a brand deal?
Here is the Mail Showbusiness team’s league table of the ten most desperate celebrities on the circuit today…
1) Katie Price
Katie Price has been around the block and back when it comes to both reality TV appearances and men – anything that will keep her in the Press
Please put your hands together for the ultimate desperado. After three decades vying for the headlines, there is only one candidate crowned the Queen of Too Keen.
Katie Price has been around the block and back when it comes to both reality TV appearances and men – anything that will keep her in the Press.
Since her debut as a Page 3 girl in the 90s, the 47-year-old’s increasingly taut visage has concerned even her most devoted fans. But that not stopped her pursuing further cosmetic surgeries, such as her recent Brazilian Butt Lift she claimed she got during her lunch break.
Despite recent attempts to get back in the spotlight with a memoir and a slew of TV documentaries, she has long fallen out of favour with the press pack – thanks to her somewhat volatile antics.
At a recent book launch, the former ‘Queen of the Jungle’ belted out an ear-bleeding rendition of 90s club classic Everybody’s Free and ranted about journalists in the room ‘writing s*** about her’.
But, minutes later, she was privately begging the writers present to cover her and her party, which was also being documented by photographers her team had invited.
She has been declared bankrupt on multiple occasions, turned to OnlyFans with draw-droppingly explicit images.
‘It’s all rather sad really,’ said one concerned friend. ‘She had so much potential after her successful documentary with son Harvey in 2021, but she can’t help degrading herself.’
2) Lily Allen
Lily Allen has jumped back into the limelight following her split from Stranger Things actor David Harbour earlier this year – and don’t we know it
Lily Allen has jumped back into the limelight following her split from Stranger Things actor David Harbour earlier this year – and don’t we know it.
Not a week goes by when we don’t hear about some intimate detail about her life, garnering headline after headline.
The singer had to clarify that she didn’t hate her own children after saying they ‘ruined her career’, admitted having a secret boob job following her high-profile split, and even spoke about the number of abortions she has had.
And who can forget the desperate push for attention when she began posting photos of her feet on her OnlyFans account?
All of which might be more palatable were she not, our sources claim, so difficult to work with.
‘You think with a career handed to her by her famous father [actor Keith Allen] that she might be a bit more humble,’ said one staffer who has worked with her. ‘But she is one of the worst celebrities I have ever had to work with. She huffs and puffs like a small toddler when she doesn’t get her own way. I’m in a WhatsApp group with TV and radio production staff and she’s on our blacklist.’
3) Lizzie Cundy
TV personality Lizzie Cundy faithfully documents every aspect of her life with a stream of airbrushed Instagram photos for her dozens of fans
Anybody who knows former WAG and TV personality Lizzie Cundy will tell you the 57-year-old can’t resist a party.
As one associate puts it: ‘Lizzie would go to the opening of a bag of crisps, if she knew there were cameras there.’
When she’s not posing for the paps, Lizzie faithfully documents every aspect of her life with a stream of airbrushed Instagram photos for her dozens of fans.
Asked how she has maintained her profile all these years, the former wife of Chelsea footballer Jason Cundy said: ‘That’s the way to keep your head above water, otherwise you will be pulled down. I’ve milked the WAG industry for all it’s worth, I’ve done a book, done a musical, done a TV show.
‘You have to keep reinventing yourself, keep moving.’
4) Tallia Storm
The little known Scottish ‘popstar’ has become a mainstay of the reality TV circuit after being pushed by her fame-hungry mother for over a decade.
While wannabe ‘momager’ Tessa Hartmann, 55, has achieved Z-list fame as a Real Housewife of Jersey, her 26-year-old daughter has yet to reach the big time.
She first grabbed headlines as a 13-year-old when she secured a supporting slot for Sir Elton John at his Falkirk gig, after her parents pursued the Rocket Man singer and his husband David Furnish at a Hawaiian resort on holiday.
But her fledgling music career – which, according to sources, has been mainly funded by her millionaire father – has never taken off despite Tallia’s desperate efforts, including a short stint on The X Factor.
In a bid to grab headlines, she got a place on Channel 4’s Celebs Go Dating after being billed as ‘Brooklyn Beckham’s ex’.
But it soon turned to embarrassment for the wild-haired singer when the eldest son of Posh and Becks took to Instagram to deny the pair had ever dated.
5) Lottie Moss
In recent years, Lottie has launched an Only Fans and a podcast series where she interviews fellow Z-listers and discusses her tumultuous dating life
The youngest sister of the world’s most famous supermodel, Lottie has tried to follow in Kate Moss’s fashion footsteps by featuring in campaigns for Calvin Klein and on a 2016 cover for French Vogue.
However, her biggest claim to fame is falling over a bin bag as she exited VIP hangout Chiltern Firehouse.
The embarrassing tumble in eye-wateringly high heels got her headlines, but a source close to her sister Kate tells us that not all was as it seemed.
‘I wouldn’t put it past her if she deliberately fell over to get some attention,’ our snitch said. ‘She craves the limelight and is doing increasingly outlandish things to get it.’
In recent years, she has launched an OnlyFans account and a podcast series where she interviews fellow Z-listers and discusses her tumultuous dating life. She was also a participant on the Netflix game show Celebrity Bear Hunt, which has failed to be renewed for a second series.
She has also opened up about checking into rehab after a ‘really bad’ cocaine addiction in 2022.
A friend of Kate told us she is ‘embarrassed’ by her 27-year-old half-sister, who has quickly become the ‘black sheep’ of the family.
6) Ella Morgan
Still trying to find love on television, Ella then took part in Celebs Go Dating, making history as the show’s first transgender celebrity
If there’s one Z-lister that can be heard above everyone else at minor celebrity events, it’s the Married At First Sight ‘star’, Ella Morgan.
Since being on the Channel 4 dating show, the 31-year-old has modelled for the failed fashion brand Pretty Little Thing. And after revealing her intention to become a presenter, she got her first gig introducing Girls Aloud at the 2024 Brighton Pride parade.
Still trying to find love on television, she then took part in Celebs Go Dating, making history as the show’s first transgender celebrity.
Our source says: ‘Unfortunately for Ella, this industry can smell desperation and she doesn’t do a very good job at hiding it.
‘Instead of the paps chasing her, she chases them.
‘She really sees herself as up there with the A-Listers for her appearance on MAFS, and acts like one too, it’s become her whole identity.’
7) Ekin Su Cülcüloğlu
The Mail revealed Ekin Su had been kicked out of the BAFTA after-party for not having an invite
It all seemed to be going so well for Ekin Su when she won Love Island in 2022 with the ‘Italian Stallion’ Davide Sanclimenti, and she became known as a ‘national treasure’ for her fiery no-nonsense attitude.
The 30-year-old was dubbed ‘the best contestant ever’ on the ITV dating show and signed the largest brand deal in its history with fashion site Oh Polly for £1million.
But those in reality TV circles have derided Ekin Su’s much-loved persona, describing her as ‘cold’, ‘judgmental’ and ‘only there to take selfies’.
A source tells us: ‘She literally just stands there and says nothing. She’s the sort of person who will look you up and down when you say hello and then in the first three minutes decides if you’re worth her time. If you’re not, then there’s no speaking to her, which is lucky for you because all you will talk about is her.’
But perhaps Ekin Su should wise up – after the Mail revealed she had been kicked out of the BAFTA after-party for not having an invitation, she needed all the friends she could get.
And her less sparkling side came to the public’s consciousness when she appeared on Celebrity Big Brother last year and was seen to be causing arguments in the house – which she blamed on a bad edit.
In a career move that perhaps cemented her decline in reality television, she then tried to claw her way back by returning to the show that made it all happen in the Love Island reboot All Stars. But she was unsuccessful as she and her then-boyfriend, Curtis Pritchard, placed a measly third.
8) Curtis Pritchard
Curtis is used to being the laughing stock. Perhaps the pinnacle of his fame was when he became a ‘meme’ during his 2019 debut on Love Island for his head-in-hands one-liners
Speaking of her now ex-boyfriend, Love Islander-turned-boxer Curtis Pritchard of course makes our list.
Our snitch said: ‘It’s not surprising Curtis has gone on to try to be a boxer after Love Island. Both platforms require someone to be performative, thirsty for a quick buck and they don’t mind being the centre of attention. Having met him, Curtis is all of those things.
‘He’s a lovely boy and always very kind and polite, but he doesn’t really know what he’s doing when it comes to the industry and that’s why he’s sort of ended up where he is, just signing up for cringe gig after cringe gig.’
Curtis is used to being the laughing stock. Perhaps the pinnacle of his fame was when he became an online ‘meme’ during his 2019 debut on Love Island for his head-in-hands one-liners such as rejecting his partner Amy Hart’s affections because ‘I like to be the one to make everyone coffee in the morning’.
Last month the semi-professional dancer was caught dancing the cha-cha-cha in Battersea Power Station to promote Lipton Ice Tea to a dwindling crowd of teenage shoppers.
The sad scene went viral on TikTok and he was spotted dancing again last week to promote Nescafe coffee at the O2 Arena.
‘I think it’s safe to say this was maybe not quite the stage Curtis thought he would end up on, but hey ho, cash is cash,’ our insider says.
9) Pete Wicks
Accompanied by his arguably more famous ‘media husband’ Sam, Pete has enjoyed a minor re-entry into public life with their podcast ironically named, Staying Relevant
The Only Way Is Essex star had almost faded into oblivion when a lucky reality TV signing brought him back from the brink – that of his best friend, Sam Thompson, joining the I’m A Celebrity cast in 2023.
Pete rushed out Down Under to support the Made In Chelsea star in 2023. But, while he was there, he kept ‘accidentally’ being found by paparazzi.
Our insider says: ‘Wherever Pete went, somehow this photographer would turn up. Everyone was joking that he must have been ringing this guy up and staging pictures to get a story.’
But they add things ‘got really gross’ when he tried to drag Sarah Corrin – the girlfriend of soap actor and fellow I’m A Celebrity contestant Nick Pickard – into it.
‘Sarah would agree to go out for dinner or wait with Pete while he had a cigarette and they would get pictured,’ our source adds. ‘Everyone suspected he knew what he was doing, and it created a narrative that something was going on between them.’
If true, it worked, with those set of pictures sparking rumours. After meeting Sam off the wooden bridge when he was crowned King of the Jungle, Pete was straight back in the spotlight.
Not long afterwards, The Only Way is Essex star signed on to the BBC’s upcoming series of Strictly Come Dancing.
Since then, accompanied by his arguably more famous ‘media husband’ Sam, Pete has enjoyed a minor re-entry into public life with their podcast ironically named, Staying Relevant.
10) Danny Jones
Despite being crowned King of the Jungle last year, public opinion of Danny has soured
Cheating on the mother of his child with his I’m A Celebrity co-star, Maura Higgins, was perhaps not the way McFly frontman Danny Jones wanted to be remembered. But, unfortunately, footage of his ‘drunken kiss’ with the reality TV star in February is already etched in the showbusiness history books.
Our source tells us: ‘Danny has always been obsessed with his squeaky-clean image, so when all that came out he was infuriated and desperate to turn things around for himself.’
Despite being crowned King of the Jungle last year, public opinion of him has soured. Now the 39-year-old is hoping to salvage his reputation by reuniting McFly for a nationwide tour in September – more than 20 years after they formed.
Our snitch adds: ‘He is adamant McFly are not past their prime. The other boys find it fun and a bit of laugh, but Danny takes it really seriously. He acts like they’re some new band on the block that is going to change the course of music.
‘It’s all he’s got left going for him really and he knows it.’
Throughout the kissing scandal, Danny’s wife, Georgia Horsley, kept a brave face and eventually forgave her husband of 11 years to protect their seven-year-old son, Cooper.
