Piers Morgan Biography

In a nutshell

The tabloid editor-turned TV presenter was never short of journalistic ambition, would you believe it.
After stints work on local newspapers he landed a plum job working on The Sun's Bizarre column before being famously appointed editor of The News of the World, aged only 28 - a mere whippersnapper in the business. Here he found a niche exploiting the culture of celebrity, (something that tends to sell a lot of papers, you'd think someone would have thought of it before him).
Not content with his trajectory here, he soon defected to rival newspaper The Daily Mirror to do the same thing for presumably a lot more money. Though controversy was not far away - his famous 'Actung! Surrender' headline a day before England played Germany in Euro 96 didn't go down too well and he was forced to apologise. In 2004 The Mirror's now infamous publication of hoaxed pictures showing British soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners was the end of the road for the bullish editor and he was forced to resign from the paper.
It may have been the end of Piers' journalistic career, but it marked the start of his meteoric TV persona. He landed a job as panel judge in America's Got Talent thanks to pal Simon Cowell (with whom he also shared a panel in the British version of the show alongside Amanda Holden).
ITV then purportedly offered him a 'golden handcuffs' deal (i.e. we pay you a fat wodge of money and you only work for us) which has resulted in a mixed bag of documentary-style shows such as 'Piers Morgan On...' and 'Piers Morgan's Life Stories' where he gets to interview celebrities in his inimitable style. Famously Gordon Brown went on to suffer the Pies onslaught before the 2010 election to try and win favour with the voting public. Labour went on to lose the election.
Piers Morgan's bombastic style has, perhaps unsurprisingly, come under fire. His famous spats have included Ian Hislop, panellist on satirical current affairs show Have i Got News for You. The two famously had an on-screen confrontation on the show around claims the former Mirror editor had been trying (unsuccessfully) to dig dirt on his private life. Jeremy Clarkson responded slightly less diplomatically to similar intrusion - by punching him at the 2004 British Press awards. Perhaps actions speak louder than words?
To capitalise on his (in)famous run-ins Piers has also published several books on his most beloved of subjects: celebrity, which he somewhat ironically, has now become.
A new series of 'Piers Morgan On...' is due to be broadcast in 2010. Piers Morgan - Biography from (http://www.talktalk.co.uk/celebrity/biography/person/piers-morgan/242)

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Sunday, September 25, 2011