Written by Cédric K. Irons, CNN Written by Cédric K. Irons, CNN Britain Contributors Twitter: @Edmeida
“I’m A Celebrity,” one of the world’s most popular reality-TV shows, was thrown a curveball Friday when top US rap producer Naughty Boy, who had previously indicated that he’d been pulled out of the show for some medical reasons, allegedly departed the camp for good .
Naughty Boy had been a favorite to win the competition, but less than 48 hours after emerging from the jungle, he appeared in a now deleted tweet saying he “wouldn’t want to leave.”
He did add, however, that he’d come out of the show and his sleeping pills were at a pharmacy “near your house so just call me if you need some, please.”
Naughty Boy stayed quiet as camp mates complained about the closed nature of the camp . Campmate Sam Quek, a paralympic hockey player, accused them of keeping “such a tight circle of trust in such a… untrustworthy way.”
“I’ve got so used to getting so much attention,” she told her camp mates as they openly discussed plans to begin the dreaded Bushtucker Trial. “It’s hard to concentrate, I’ve never been like this before in my life.”
Scoring through the sides
Naughty Boy himself did seem less than interested in the task of collecting stars for the camp. A performer on hit UK group One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful” track, and an impresario behind the likes of Sam Smith, he was eager to demonstrate his swagger in the jungle.
The harsh economic realities of camp life intervened when the camp asked Naughty Boy to provide the camp with drinks for a while, but he declined to give his camp mates bottles of his Jägerbomb-based champagne, Playas Raspberry-Complex Jägerbomb.
It seems Naughty Boy is unhappy in the I’m A Celebrity camp. Credit: ITV/REX/Shutterstock
“I can only get money out of the same person,” he said over the sound of fake crocodiles hunting in the jungle.
The camp is demanding he provide a bottle of his “Silver Jäger Bomb” though as of late Friday, Naughty Boy wasn’t heard talking to the camp mates.
Naughty Boy was replaced by rapper Rakim as part of the annual Bushtucker Trial , and according to reports, once Rakim was dubbed out of the camp, Naughty Boy’s presence appeared only as a spectator via Skype.
One US celebrity said on Twitter that the producer wouldn’t get paid for the whole experience of taking part in the show, saying producers had “forced” him into it. Naughty Boy responded on Twitter, indicating that he considered the whole experience a “deadly, one-sided game” and calling into question what he would have done if given a choice.
Disgruntled camp mates this time also included the star chef Harry Hill, Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington and comedian and “Big Brother” contestant David Hasselhoff. Adlington soon departed the show for a loved one’s birth and Hasselhoff promptly disappeared for a swim at a luxury hotel.
One of Naughty Boy’s fellow camp mates, Delroy Lindo, explained his subdued response to the challenge.
“I found it difficult because I don’t do trials and trials are something I enjoy,” he said. “To be fair he wasn’t winning anything and I wasn’t winning anything so it doesn’t really make a lot of sense for him to be there.”
One camp mate was unimpressed with the storyline of the group’s discontent and humorously tweeted: “Are we in the Idiocracy then, where everyone comes out at the end because it’s all a lie, so it’s easier to like the guy coming out who says something outrageous and people show more interest in who he is than what he said.”