Celebrity Big Brother has long been known for bringing a surreal mix of stars together under one roof. Chris Eubank and Anthea Turner? Sue Perkins and Goldie? Sylvester Stallone’s mum and Bez? Jermaine Jackson and Danielle Lloyd? Tiffany Pollard and Angie Bowie? All of whom, thanks to the CBB house, broke bread, shared a bedroom and gossiped in the garden.
The jeopardy and chaos of the show is hinged on seeing this insane mix of people interact, we get that, but where do we draw the line? Are all ‘big Hollywood bookings’ worth it regardless of their pasts? At what point does it stop being entertaining and just become platforming someone who shouldn’t be on TV?
This is a question a lot of viewers are asking this series as Hollywood actor Mickey Rourke, who has starred in films like Iron Man 2, Sin City and The Wrestler, has come under fire for a making a series of homophobic comments towards his fellow housemate, JoJo Siwa.
When he asked the former Dance Moms star if she likes boys or girls, she replied, ‘Me? Girls. My partner is non-binary.’ He then said, ‘If I stay longer than four days, you won’t be gay anymore.’ Later on in the episode Mickey said he was ‘going to vote the lesbian out real quick’. He then shouted that he needed ‘a fag’ before pointing to JoJo and saying ‘I’m not talking to you’.
The actor was swiftly called to the diary room and reprimanded by Big Brother, where he was told, ‘Mickey, Big Brother thinks your language was offensive and unacceptable. As a result, Big Brother is giving you a formal warning.’ He responded, ‘I apologise. I don’t have dishonourable intentions. I’m just talking smack, you know?’ He then extended a half-hearted apology to JoJo herself and explained that he has a ‘short fuse’ and wouldn’t apologise if he didn’t mean it.
Understandably, Mickey’s language has not gone down well with viewers, many of whom have called for him to be removed from the house and not just given a formal warning. ‘JoJo Siwa being subjected to homophobic bigotry from Mickey Rourke was a hard watch,’ offered one viewer on X. Another shared a screenshot of their complaint to Ofcom adding, ‘Mickey Rourke should be out of that house.’ While a third user wrote, ‘It is now objectively clear that the only reason Mickey Rourke is still in that house is because they’ve paid an obscene amount of money [for him to be there].’
Mickey’s offensive comments followed his opening night blunder when he inappropriately pulled host AJ Odudu in by the waist before entering the house. ‘You’re very flirtatious,’ she said, as he continued to hold onto her waist. AJ then joked, ‘Stop looking at me’ and forcibly turned him around by his shoulders towards the door and he said, ‘No, I want to stay with you.’ At this point AJ’s co-host Will Best stepped in to pull her back from the actor and shouted, ‘Don’t take AJ with you!’.
It was another uncomfortable moment met with a negative response from viewers. ‘Scared for all the women in that house now with how Mickey was with AJ on live television mind you,’ posted one X user at the time. Another viewer wrote, ‘No female TV presenter should be made to feel like AJ just did. He shouldn’t have been allowed on this show if he can’t control himself around women.’
In less than five days, he has also managed to insult Donna Preston for using an LED mask ‘to sort out her neck wrinkles’ by saying ‘maybe you should run around the block instead for 10 minutes.’ She joked, ‘I am getting a little turkey neck’ and he replied, ‘You are what you eat.’
The show has subsequently been flooded with Ofcom complaints – 89 were about Mickey’s behaviour towards AJ and figures for the JoJo and Donna episode have not been released yet.
It begs the question, when does ‘inappropriate behaviour’ and ‘smack talk’ become enough to remove someone from the show? Regardless of whether Mickey has been warned by Big Brother, or widely called out for being creepy and homophobic on social media, should people like this platformed on national TV just because they are famous? Every day that he remains in that house he is both at risk of making more people feel unsafe and given more undeserved chances to redeem himself in front of a national audience.
In response to growing pressure to remove Mickey as a housemate, a spokesperson for Celebrity Big Brother said: ‘All of the housemates have a conversation in advance about expected language and behaviour. The CBB team also have daily meetings to discuss welfare matters.’
While it cannot be an easy undertaking to book and prepare celebrities for a reality TV show, especially one as intense as Big Brother, there has to come a point when someone’s behaviour is more harmful than it is entertaining. We know by now that, along with thousands of critics, Mickey will likely amass new fans during his time on the show too.
In 2022, ITV received another wave of backlash for casting the then-working MP Matt Hancock as a contestant on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. Despite blowing up his career a year earlier by having an illicit affair in his office during the pandemic, as the health secretary, breaching his own social distancing guidelines, Hancock attempted to justify his stint on the show by saying he wanted to raise awareness of dyslexia. He ended up finishing in third place.
The following year, the controversial right-wing figure Nigel Farage was reportedly paid £1.5 million to go on the show, making him the highest paid campmate in I’m A Celeb history. There is no question that his appearance on the programme boosted his profiled and improved his reach with younger viewers. He is now leader of the Reform party, the fasted growing party in the UK, and is a sitting MP for the first time.
There is clearly a tried and tested formula for these shows to cast controversial figures who are likely to spark backlash with their views and behaviour. The worrying reality is that they often they do well. When you look back to the media storm surrounding Jade Goody and Shilpa Shetty in 2007 – where Jade and other housemates were rightly accused of making racist remarks towards Shilpa in the Big Brother house – it’s concerning to see how we have gone backwards. Several agencies and corporations cancelled their contracts with the housemates accused of racism, citing the allegations as the reason for the terminations. Many of the show’s sponsors pulled out as a result. And following an investigation, Ofcom ruled that Channel 4, where the show was broadcast at the time, had breached the Broadcasting Code and statutory sanctions were placed on the network.
It's almost impossible to imagine offensive comments or inappropriate behaviour being treated with the same gravitas today. Each time controversial characters are cast for ratings, their behaviour is normalised, and we become more and more desensitised to the unacceptable. A half-hearted apology is not enough – Mickey’s behaviour should not be tolerated, let alone platformed on primetime TV.
Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK, working across pop culture, TV and news. She has also written for the i, i-D and the New Statesman Media Group and covers all things TV for Grazia (treating high and lowbrow shows with equal respect).