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BBC slammed after screening porn star's lesbian fantasies

Damon Wake,Press Association
Tuesday 06 January 2009 14:36 GMT
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The BBC came under fire today after celebrity lesbian couple Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson were the subject of "gratuitously sexist and homophobic remarks" in an end-of-year show.

The Most Annoying People Of 2008, screened on BBC3 on December 29, put the couple 43rd on the list of the year's 100 most irritating public figures.

Interviewed for the programme, former porn star Ron Jeremy described in some detail the sex acts he wanted to perform with Lohan and Ronson, while BBC Radio 5 Live presenter DJ Spoony said "hot and fit" women should be saved for straight men.

Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell called on the BBC to say sorry and said the DJ should be suspended from his show until he apologises for the remarks.

"The remarks by BBC Radio 5 presenter DJ Spoony and straight US porn actor Ron Jeremy were gratuitously sexist and homophobic," Mr Tatchell said.

"The BBC should have never broadcast them. A public apology is due from the BBC.

"DJ Spoony should be suspended by the BBC and be allowed to resume presenting his Radio 5 programme only after he has apologised on air and promised not to repeat his homophobic garbage."

The show is due to be repeated on BBC3 tomorrow night, and is available to view on the iPlayer.

Mr Tatchell said Spoony and Jeremy's remarks should be bleeped out for the repeat.

Actress Lohan, 22, and 31-year-old DJ Ronson - the sister of music producer Mark - announced they were an item earlier this year after months of press speculation about their relationship.

Of lesbians, Spoony said: "Let the munters and mingers get each other - that's cool because no-one really wants them.

"But when they're hot and fit and Hollywood superstars, they should be saved for guys - not me, but other guys."

Jeremy, 55, said he would like to have a threesome with the couple and even described ejaculating over them.

"Those two girls are both very good-looking, so I would love to be in the middle of that," he said.

"They would do each other, do me, do each other, back and forth, then I do a pop and it's over.

"The polite thing to do is to pop on both of them."

Mr Tatchell said: "Ron Jeremy's comments were needlessly offensive. They added nothing to the programme and should have been edited out.

"He's ugly, sexist and arrogant. No self-respecting woman, lesbian or straight, would want to have sex with him or even spend a minute in his company."

The BBC refused to apologise for the remarks, but issued a statement which read: "Most Annoying People 2008 is a light-hearted and comedic look at people and events that have annoyed, amused or appalled us over the last 12 months.

"The contributors to the programme are expressing their own views and opinions which are meant in a light-hearted way with no malicious intent."

The BBC was fiercely criticised late last year after Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross left a series of obscene messages on Andrew Sachs's answering machine during a recording of Brand's radio show.

The two presenters said Brand had slept with the 78-year-old Fawlty Towers actor's granddaughter, Georgina Baillie, 23, and joked that Sachs might kill himself.

In the furore that followed the broadcast, Brand and two senior Radio 2 executives resigned and Ross was suspended without pay for 12 weeks.

The BBC Trust, the corporation's governing body, said there had been major failures of editorial judgment by senior managers.

BBC management said in the wake of the scandal that extra care would be taken to stick to editorial guidelines in future.

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