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Winehouse's man is voted Britain's top anti-icon

Rosie Walker
Friday 04 January 2008 01:00 GMT
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(Dave Hogan/Getty Images for MTV)

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Amy Winehouse's husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, has been voted Britain's top anti-icon.

Arena magazine carried out a poll to find where anti-celebrity feelings run strongest, asking readers which male celebrities least deserved their place in the spotlight. Mr Fielder-Civil, on remand at Pentonville Prison awaiting trial for perverting justice, headed the top 10 as the "worst husband ever".

"If your wife is partial to a nice bit of heroin, then you should probably help her out by abstaining from drugs yourself, not standing on the sidelines chanting 'plunge it down, you Zulu warrior' or whatever it is junkies shout to egg each other on," said the magazine.

It also mocked his fashion sense, lamenting that "along with fellow hat-botherer Pete Doherty [who managed not to make it on to the list], Fielder-Civil has made the trilby untouchable for any self-respecting gent".

But, if tabloid whispers are to be believed, his rating as a husband may have gone up a notch, as the pair are rumoured to have renewed their wedding vows in prison yesterday.

Second on the list was the graffiti artist Banksy. Arena said: "Banksy is mainly lauded by sixth-formers whose minds are so fogged by hormones that they believe stencils of policemen kissing passes for caustic social commentary. Less enamoured with his work are the taxpayers who spend 1bn cleaning graffiti in the UK each year, money which would arguably be better spent paying nurses, or even gay policemen."

"Failing the country" at sport is also declared a way to gain anti-icon status, with the England and Chelsea footballer Frank Lampard coming in third for his lacklustre display in the Euro 2008 qualifiers.

The falsetto-voiced singer Mika was fourth, followed by the daytime television host Jeremy Kyle, whose chat show was once described by a judge as "bear-baiting". The judge made the condemnation after a 45-year-old man appeared in court for head-butting his wife's lover on the programme, saying that the purpose of the show was to "effect a morbid and depressing display of dysfunctional people whose lives are in turmoil".

Peter Andre was sixth for forming "half of Britain's most over-exposed couple" with his model wife, Katie Price, aka Jordan. Andre revitalised his ailing career as a pop singer by pairing up with Jordan on the reality televsion programme I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. The couple sat on his-and-hers pink wedding thrones in front of 350 guests at their wedding in 2005.

The former Big Brother housemate Ziggy was seventh. He also found reality TV love, with Chanelle, while on Big Brother.

The singer known as Prince, the presenters Ant and Dec, and Top Gear's Richard Hammond accused of cashing in on a near-death crash completed the line-up.

The top 10 male stars we love to hate...

1. Blake Fielder-Civil

2. Banksy

3. Frank Lampard

4. Mika

5. Jeremy Kyle

6. Peter Andre

7. Ziggy

8. Prince

9. Ant and Dec

10. Richard Hammond

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