Gail Porter
|
Gail Porter on Top of the Pops |
Gail Porter (born
March 23 1971 in
Edinburgh,
Scotland), sometimes known by her married name
Gail Hipgrave, is a
British television presenter who became widely known after presenting
Fully Booked in the late
1990s.
Porter has tended to present family-friendly television programmes, or ones aimed directly at children, for example
The Movie Chart Show,
Top of the Pops and
Live & Kicking. She currently presents
Dead Famous.
In the late-'90s she began to pose for photos in men's magazines such as
FHM and
Loaded. She has appeared on the
FHM 100 Sexiest Women in the World list four times (1999-2002), ranking her highest in 1999 at number 8.
Probably the best-known product of her many photo-sessions is one particular still in which she is seen completely nude from behind, but turning her head back to make eye contact with the camera, thus permitting a simultaneous full view of her face, back and bottom, and a glimpse of one of her breasts from the side.
The image earned its near-iconic status due to the events of one night in 1999, when FHM famously beamed an enormous projection of it onto the exterior of the
Houses of Parliament, with an accompanying message urging people to 'Vote Porter'. This stunt coincided with a period of plummeting turnouts in British elections, with particular concern being expressed about a so-called 'lost generation' of young people showing themselves to be less interested in serious political issues than in the allegedly vacuous currents of modern celebrity culture, of which the seemingly unquenchable craving to see someone like Gail Porter without her clothes on was offered as a prime example. There were thus suggestions by commentators that FHM's stunt had a deeply symbolic significance, with the world of escapist celebrity-fetish managing to appropriate the very seat of power to exalt its triumph. Other commentators responded by suggesting that the political class, rather than simply bemoaning developments, ought instead to see if it could learn any lessons from the evident inclination of so many to accept the invitation to 'Vote Porter'.
In
2003, Gail appeared in the Channel 4 reality TV show,
The Games, although injury truncated her participation.
Gail Porter married husband
Toploader guitarist Dan Hipgrave in August 2001, with whom she had a daughter, Honey, in 2002. The relationship has since broken down - they separated in the summer of 2004 - and Gail has spoken publicly about her ensuing battles with stress, drugs and post-natal depression. In 2005 her conditions triggered
alopecia, causing her to lose all of her body hair. [
1] [
2]. She refused to wear a wig, deciding instead to maintain a public profile and raise awareness of the condition. On an appearance on the
Richard & Judy show (February 15th, 2006) she showed that her hair, eyebrows and eyelashes were beginning to grow back. [
3] Recently there were rumours that her hair loss had been deemed permanent, but Gail refuted these rumours on 12th April, 2006 saying "It is possible that I'm going to get my hair back. My doctor just said not to get my hopes up." [
4]
Porter's experience with alopecia was the subject of the
BBC ONE life documentary 'Gail Porter Laid Bare' on 31st May 2006.[
5]
Porter once commented on her 30DD breast size to the media.
"When I was pregnant they were huge and poor Dan was in fear of his life. He thought he'd die in bed. He was like: 'Don't roll over - please!.'" [
6]
Porter is named in the lyrics of
The Streets' song "
The Irony of it All".
Gail Porter has a black belt in
shotokan karate.
Gail worked in a B&Q hardware store prior to becoming famous.
*
IMDb page on Gail Porter*
Gail Porter profile and biography on AskMen.com*
An article about the 1999 FHM PR stunt
