It’s been a helluva night folks, hasn’t it? I’ve just come back to my hotel room from the Celebrity Big Brother final and press conference.

Let me say first, that the highlight of the entire night was Jack Whitehall on Big Brother’s Big Mouth. Okay, as one journalist next to me remarked, he was swearing much more than usual, probably on account of the final night adrenaline. But that whirlwind performance and minor bitchfight between Tina Malone and Michelle Heaton was priceless. (I heard later on that Michelle broke down in tears during the commercial break and none of her housemates comforted her – a member of the audience did instead.)

Anyway, as you might have guessed, Ulrika Jonsson’s win tonight has caused many a tabloid editor to tear up the front pages declaring Verne Troyer the winner. But more than that, her downright refusal to answer questions about her private life meant that there were no juicy details to include in tomorrow’s papers. In fact, when it came to speculation on her fee, she started to become downright hostile – finally claiming that the press wouldn’t be asking a man that question.

I remember one journalist asked whether being apart from your kids for a few weeks was worth all the fretting and crying she did. Ulrika – quite rightly – rounded on the young lady and asked her if she had any kids, concluding that if she’d had kids she would not have asked that question and would have understood how hard it was. Score 1 to Jonsson.

It surprising that anyone got a word in edgeways, because a belligerent Coolio dominated any question that was asked, to the obvious annoyance of the other housemates (Terry, Ulrika, Verne, Coolio and Ben were all present). Coolio’s a funny guy, but I’m guessing that most people were wishing someone had switched off his microphone about halfway through the interview.

I’m glad I’m a blogger though, and not a tabloid journalist. Verne’s shock exit (fourth place? wtf?) totally threw everybody. Then when Coolio went out, everybody was shocked. Mostly at how Ulrika – who I’ll admit I thought was some kind of national pariah – had managed to stay in right to the end. I’m still baffled as to how she got that groundswell of support.

Lisa mentioned in her liveblog post that she was looking out for me in the crowd. I was a little surprised to discover that the press – like you at home – got to watch the show on TV in a little cafe-type building on the studio. Yes – despite the fact that Davina was rocking the stage not five minutes from where we sat, we were watching it on telly. Bizarre beyond belief.

But better yet, during Terry Christian’s interview, the television set was drowned out to the sound of fireworks. It was only then that I was aware of the 10-15 minute gap between recording and broadcasting that they use to cut out expletives. Basically, while you were watching Terry’s interview, Ulrika was in the process of coming out of the house. How weird is that?

On The Finalists

Here’s a little bit of my impressions of the final five housemates from what I experienced of them at the press conference:

On Terry Christian: Terry was exactly like you saw on TV. Down to earth, funny, the type of guy you’d like to go out for a pint with. Seems like a really decent bloke. As a settled family man, there was no scandal, and the press were left scratching their heads for questions to ask him – apart from the obvious ‘bring back The Word’ ones.

On Ben Adams: I’m inclined not to call being quiet or slightly dull a personality deficiency like most people. Ben seems to be a nice guy, he’s just not quick with the one-liners, especially in a house with characters like Coolio and Terry and Verne.

On Verne Troyer: Verne’s an interesting character. I suspect he’s spent much of his life being patronized, but still manages to take it with such good grace. He’s a shy enough fella, but has no problem standing up for himself – he took Coolio to task for answering a journalist’s question on his behalf.

On Coolio: No joke – you could literally hear Coolio before you could see him. It was how we knew the celebs had re-entered the Big Mouth studio for the press conference. He didn’t shut up during the entire session and was funny for about 35% of it. Much as the world will always be indebted to him for Gangsta’s Paradise, he’s surprisingly annoying – I wouldn’t want to be cooped up in a house with him for a month.

On Ulrika Jonsson: I want to give Ulrika the benefit of the doubt – she’s been burned by the press on many occasions, and her attitude toward the journalists was sharp and seemed unfriendly. If you saw her on Big Mouth you’ll know what I mean. It was like she’d done her job and now wanted to go home. But on the other hand, she may have been uncomfortable being the center of attention.

Either way, as the winner of the show, she didn’t give the journalists much to work with – to be fair, the lines of questioning were either about her family or private life or about her fee. But what else do you ask Ulrika?

I’m going to bed now…

…so I’m going to sum things up. In what was largely a fairly calm household, there were very few axes to grind. And the five celebs left at the end were seasoned enough to know not to give a scandal away for free. Let’s see what comes out when the megabucks rounds of interviews and magazine deals are done.

Anyway, having seen some of the highlights on the show this evening, the 2009 celebrity housemates did a damned entertaining job, didn’t they? I don’t need to read about them hating each other in the papers.

Congratulations to Big Brother though, for managing to bounce back so well. I think this series has proved that there may well be life in the old dog yet, and that it might still be too early to write the all-seeing eye off!

My one parting comment to you though – isn’t it funny how this year was so entertaining, yet there wasn’t one mention of ‘evil’ Big Brother? Maybe it’s time to retire that tactic…

Here are some shots of the Big Brother celebs from tonight’s series finale!

Ben finished in fifth place, Verne in fourth, Coolio in third, Terry Christian in second and Ulrika won! Was anyone else surprised by the result?

Click on the link below.

As proof that the bookies don’t always call it right, Verne Troyer did not win Celebrity Big Brother tonight, instead he finished in fourth place. Verne received 15.8% of the total votes cast

I was never behind Verne in any big way, he seemed nice enough but he wasn’t exactly an exciting housemate. I am surprised at this result though. I expected Verne to finish in at least second place, and now I have no idea who is going to win tonight!

Bookies have revealed that Verne Troyer is the favourite to win the final of Celebrity Big Brother tonight. That would tie in with Unreality TV’s poll (at the right of this page) which is rarely wrong!

The odds on Verne, 40, winning shortened last night from 1/2 to 2/5, Terry Christian is sitting at 7/2, Coolio and Ulrika are 12/1 and Ben Adams is 25/1.

So has Verne done enough to win and will you be voting for him? Leave your comments below.

The complaints brigade are up in arms again, this time hitting out at Celebrity Big Brother housemate Verne Troyer.

Last night’s highlights show saw Verne embracing a baby doll saying:

“Hey, Mutya. I know you wanna leave, but before you go can you just save a spot in bed for me and I will give you some special loving.

“We don’t have to tell anyone else. Hey – do you want to ride my scooter?”

He then went on to stick his tongue in it’s mouth!

The Sun has reported that many fans are complaining about the scenes with one woman calling the broadcast “sick”.

She claimed: “Men of Verne’s age should not be snogging babies on TV – real or not.”

So what do you think? Was Verne out of line or was this just a bit of fun with an inanimate plastic object?

Big Brother rewarded the celebrity housemates with alcohol last night and after a few glasses of champagne Verne Troyer started to go a little bit crazy.

As he entered the diary room some of the housemates expressed their surprise at his behaviour but Coolio explained to La Toya:

“A lot of dwarves tend to die young. So that’s why he’s having fun. That’s why he travels, that’s why he lives his life. He’s almost 41 and most dwarves don’t live past 50,” he said.

Ulrika, Ben and Tommy joined the group and Coolio went on:

“You can tell his body is falling apart now. He used to do his own stunts, he used to dive all over the place, do his own flips…” he then joked that even with his body starting to fail, Verne could still do better press ups than Tommy Sheridan.

For today’s Celebrity Big Brother task Coolio, La Toya and Verne – the three American housemates – will take part in a Best of British Quiz and will be given two hours in which to learn as much as possible from their fellow housemates on the following subjects:

o British Heroes
o Cockney Rhyming Slang
o British Place Names
o The Queen’s English

Throughout the two hour tutorial period, Big Brother will deliver various British delicacies, via the hatch in order for Coolio, La Toya and Verne to experience the flavour of Britain.

Later today the three American Housemates will be called to the Task Room where they will receive a traditional British roast dinner and listen to some traditional British music in order to focus their minds for the Best of British quiz.

However, once the Americans are locked in the task room, eating their roast dinner, the remaining housemates will discover that they will also play a role in the quiz. They must each wear an all-in-one shiny suit containing remotely controlled muscle stimulator pads.

Each time Coolio, La Toya and Verne provide an incorrect answer a buzzer will sound and remaining housemates will receive a mild shock.

Coolio, La Toya and Verne will be asked a total of 50 questions;

o 10 questions on British Heroes
o 10 questions on Cockney Rhyming Slang
o 10 questions on British Place Names
o 10 questions on the Queen’s English
o Plus 10 questions on a mystery subject – their fellow housemates.

If the three American Housemates successfully answer 30 or more questions correctly then housemates will pass the task and receive 3 tokens.

Housemates have been informed of the task, streaming starts today on E4 at 14.45-17.00

Highlights of today’s task will be seen in Monday’s 9pm show, C4

The video of Verne and Ulrika’s ‘Endless Love’ performance has now received over 100,000 video views on the Channel 4 website , smashing the 10,000 target set by Big Brother, and making it one of the most viewed Big Brother videos ever.

The video achieved 81,483 video views by the end of the task at 11pm last night, ensuring that Verne and Ulrika passed their challenge.

As part of the lifestyles of the rich and the famous task, Ulrika and Verne had to become Diana Ross and Lionel Ritchie and learn and perform a cover version of their classic duet, ‘Endless Love’.

As part of the lifestyles of the rich and the famous task, Celebrity Big Brother housemates Ulrika and Verne had to become Diana Ross and Lionel Ritchie and learn and perform a cover version of their classic duet, ‘Endless Love’.

An exclusive preview of their performance aired on BBLB last night.

A video of their performance is up on www.channel4.com/bigbrother – Big Brother has decided that in order to pass their task, this video must get 10,000 views online, before 23.00 this evening…

Celebrity Big Brother housemate, Verne Troyer has admitted that he has an evil plan to help him succeed in the BB house.

Verne is most famous for playing evil Mini Me in the Austin Powers films, and he promises to be just as evil and mischievous as his alter ego.

In his VT last night Troyer, teased: “I have an evil game plan. I hope there’s an attractive model in there. I’m all about having fun.

“I will also sabotage everybody in the house.

“I will take their stuff and hide it, pick my nose and put it in their food and get everybody blaming everyone else.

“I’ll play the nice guy but deep down I will be evil. I want to win and I am prepared to do anything to succeed.

“If that means screwing someone over, then OK. It’s all about the competition.

“I’m just about having fun. But don’t take me lightly – I’m definitely there to compete.”