Hammond's insurance goes up again

Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond was involved in another car accident at the weekend - less than a year after nearly losing his life in a 288mph crash.

The 37-year-old skidded off the track during a 24-hour Le Mans-style race at Silverstone on Saturday, the BBC said.

The host was not injured and continued the race once his vehicle - a BMW 330 DTi Sport - was repaired. "During the race, at night, Richard was driving and another car shunted him off the track," said a BBC spokesman. "Richard wasn't hurt at all but the car was damaged. It was taken back to the pits and repaired before Richard carried on with the race."

Hammond and fellow presenters James May, Jeremy Clarkson and masked driver 'The Stig' had been taking turns at racing the £100,000 car.

Cowell faking it?

Simon Cowell has been accused of creating "fake" bands composed of failed solo entrants to compete in X Factor. A report suggests the show creator and judge has been "fixing" things by steering the made-up groups into the final stage.

According to The People he has created one male and one female band - possibly called Hope and Aspire respectively. An insider told the newspaper: "It's no secret that Simon Cowell wants a band to win this year - even if they have to fix it. Putting through made-up bands when other groups have spent months or years preparing just isn't fair. It's a fix."

Jim Walks out of Kitchen

Comedian Jim Davidson has left ITV1's Hell's Kitchen after a dispute with fellow contestant Brian Dowling.

His departure from the cookery reality show followed a row in which he used a gay epithet in the former Big Brother winner's presence.

Dowling took issue with the term, which he described as "really rude". Davidson released a statement after his exit saying "the moment was right to leave". "People who know me know I am not homophobic," he continued.

The row began after Davidson complained about a "look" he'd been given by a table of diners.
"Why do shirt-lifters pull that same face?" he said, prompting Dowling to call him the "most offensive person he had ever met".

I used to like him on Big Break though.


In other news

* Pamela Anderson's ex-husband Kid Rock must appear in court over an alleged assault on drummer Tommy Lee, who was also married to the actress.

* Kelly Osbourne made her London stage debut in the musical Chicago last night. She plays a prison matron.

* UKTV Gold has acquired the fifth season of US dancing show Dancing With The Stars.

* Katie Price and Peter Andre have signed up to host their own chat show on digital channel ITV2.

* MTV Networks' is launching a raft of new websites, increasing its web presence to 300 sites by the end of this year.

* BBC Three has commissioned a season of documentaries for the channel's winter and spring schedules. The series of hour-long programmes will look at issues which affect young people, including child poverty, self-harm, teen pregnancy and young carers.

* Tomorrow sees the launch of NutsTV, a new digital terrestrial channel from Turner Broadcasting System and Nuts magazine publisher IPC Ignite. ETV, the production team behind Thomas Cook TV, London TV and ITV's The Mint are producing the channel.

* Viewers have complained to Ofcom about the use of the term 'pikey' in ITV1's celebrity cooking show Hell's Kitchen.


Clips of the day

Bring back streakers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge8TpXptUrc

Try and keep your mouth closed when you watch this – go on, just try.

http://www.fhm.com/site/content/article.aspx?ID=21460

Monkey rides dog…its not porn don’t worry.

http://www.fhm.com/site/content/article.aspx?ID=21751

Fat lad 'has one' on diving board

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoJotPlvVjk