Big Brother star faces jail over fur coat

CELEBRITY Big Brother contestant Pete Burns could face jail over his “gorilla-skin” coat, a British government minister warned yesterday.

The Dead Or Alive star claims his fur coat is made from the endangered animals.

Now the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has stepped in to say Burns may face “serious consequences” if this turns out to be true.

Trading in endangered species carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.

Biodiversity Minister Jim Knight said: “Gorilla skins belong on gorillas, not on reality TV show contestants. Gorillas are critically endangered and any promotion of gorilla products in this country can only put these amazing creatures in further peril.”

The coat has already sparked a furious row with fellow housemate Jodie Marsh.

When surgically-enhanced singer Burns said he was offended by Marsh’s autobiography, in which she spilled details about her ex-boyfriends, the glamour girl retorted: “Well, I think it’s low that you wear a monkey coat. It offends me every time I see it on your back.”

Burns hit back: “That thrills me. I get off on the fact that my coat offends someone who put her boyfriend’s dirty underwear in a book. I’m thrilled. I wish I had a sable coat and a chinchilla dressing gown and every other fur I could lay my hands on.”

Meanwhile there was panic yesterday morning when the house ran out of toilet paper.

George Galloway alerted the housemates to the crisis. “I’m looking for toilet paper,” the MP said grimly after a visit to the bathroom.

Actress Rula Lenska was aghast.

“That is true humiliation,” she said. “In Poland before communism fell, if you were in a nightclub you had to ask for two sheets of paper and have to pay for them.”

Michael Barrymore had a suggestion: “I suppose I could cut up some carpet tiles and use those.”