In a regular feature Sleb Safari has taken to calling ‘Celebrities shacked up with spectres’ we delve deep into the supernatural and allow spirits to communicate with us through the mortal bodies of our celebrity friends. Just kidding, Sleb Safari is completely terrified of all that talk and would run a mile (and then limp the next) at the merest whisper of inexplicable occurrences.
This week’s celebrity shacked up with a ghost is Sarah Hyland who is convinced she was co-habiting with a ghost in a Berlin apartment.
Sarah named her invisible flat mate Olga - because why not - and the pair got on famously. She reckons Olga has been a presence in the property since the 1940s and that "a lot of probably terrible things happened there” in the “very, very old” building. Feels a little crass, given Germany’s history.
Sarah says Olga revealed herself through scent.
"I was moving in and I was putting my stuff in this dresser, and all of a sudden I smelled perfume, and I was like, 'What is going on'," Sarah said. What was going on, she concluded, was that she was sharing her living space with a ghost, not that she had been heavy handed with the fabric softener.
Naturally, Sarah is not the only celebrity to be playing house with a ghost. And not the first to be alerted to their silent housemate through scent. Paul O’Grady experienced exactly the same olfactory occurence.
"When I first moved in here, people used to say they could smell perfume and I couldn't, I never smelt it,” he told Yvette Fielding on her Paranormal Activity podcast.
“It was about two years later, I got up one night and went downstairs for a drink, and I smelt it on the stairs, it hit me."
And then, at a do, Paul was introduced to someone who was connected to the woman who used to live in his house and she passed on 'a message', asking Paul if he had ever sniffed sophistication on the staircase.
"And I went 'What?" I said 'Yes, I can' and she said, 'It's by Jean Patou, or somebody'.
"I went and got a bottle off eBay, one of the old fashioned ones, to see if it smelt the same and it was."
And, much like Sarah and Olga, Paul left it at that and he and his fragrant friend have lived together happily ever since. Sleb Safari would have had the house on the market by the morning but the signed up members of showbusiness must be a hardier breed. Presumably when they weigh up who might be trying to get into their house versus Casper the friendly ghost, a strong scent wins every time.
Dancing On Ice starts its A&E run
Dancing On Ice, which vies with Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins for the ‘most dangerous show on television’ title, has begun its annual A&E run.
No sooner have the celebrity ice skating students been announced than training starts and injuries occur. Sometimes it’s the pupil - Denise Van Outen (broken shoulder) - and sometimes the teacher suffers at the hands of their student, enduring slash injuries with stoic heroism.
This year already Darren Harriott has fallen on his neck and suffered whiplash and Joey Essex has cut his hand. Sleb Safari will never, ever understand why slebs put themselves through it when they can hold out for Strictly Come Dancing.
Kate Winslet's best Christmas present
Kate Winslet has given the world the greatest Christmas gift by confirming there will not be a sequel to The Holiday. Languishing at the bottom of the best Christmas films ever made list, it’s a holidays horror.
Rumours were circulating that the sequel was due to begin filming early next year but Kate says that’s nonsense.
"I read something about that, but it’s the first I’ve heard of it. I promise you not an agent or a representative or anyone from the first one around has had any conversation with me about that. Hand on heart, that’s never come up," she told People.
And that’s the only Christmas present Sleb Safari needs this year.
