EXCLUSIVE: Celebrity Big Brother icon Chantelle Houghton has opened up about the wild day job she had before fame due to her striking resemblance to Paris Hilton
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Celebrity Big Brother star Chantelle Houghton has opened up about her wild job before fame.
The telly star, 41, spoke with Daily Star in collaboration with WDW Bingo about her life before heading into the CBB house back in 2006.
Chantelle first joined the reality show as the only non-celeb in 2006 and was tasked with tricking the other famous faces into thinking she was just like her housemates.
But before the show, she worked as a celebrity lookalike and was booked for jobs to pretend to be US socialite Paris Hilton and she told us about how it all began.
Chantelle explained: “I was working as a promotions girl at the time, like I was doing a bit of modelling. I was working for The Motorcycle News as a grid girl going around, standing with the umbrellas, etc.
“And so many people kept saying, ‘Oh, you look like Paris Hilton'. And I just thought, you know what this could be a thing, because I know that people use lookalikes for jobs and stunts, so I had to look into it, and I ended up being signed by a lookalike agency as Paris Hilton.
“I'd get booked to do things like – there was a show at the Excel Center where they booked Paris Hilton and her sister Nicky Hilton lookalikes, and we would just literally have to turn up and sort of just walk around the place.
“We'd walk around in a real hurry, like we were carrying these little dogs and just like Paris and Nicky, we're done up to the nines.”
When asked how much she would cash in for a day's work in a job like that, she revealed: “I think I roughly got £200 maximum a day.”
Paris also revealed she was once asked to pose for a photoshoot as Paris around the time one of her pet Tinkerbell died, who was featured on hit series The Simple Life with her owner and co-star Nicole Richie.
She shared: “I also got booked to do a piece for The Guardian. They used to do a supplement on Saturday. And it was around the time when one of Paris Hilton's dog, maybe Tinkerbell, had died.
“I was booked by a photographer. I can't remember her name, but she took pictures of the royal family and all sorts of people like that.
“And I was booked to do a photo of me throwing a Chihuahua in the bin because of the surroundings, for the reasons Paris's dog had died.
“So, yeah, again, that was around, like £200. And it was just really fun. It was a fun day and I had a great time.”
Chantelle believes that taking on these roles before being thrown into the spotlight herself helped with gaining confidence in the industry.
She added: “I do think working in that kind of industry at a low level of the entertainment industry, sort of gave me the confidence then to go on and apply to Big Brother and not feel so threatened, probably being around celebrities during my time in the house.”
Chantelle also pretended to be Paris and tricked reporters with her pal dressing up as Paris' sister Nicky at Heat Magazine offices.
She explained: “I remember me and the Nicky Hilton lookalike got quite friendly – we once went and knocked on the doors of Heat Magazine offices pretending that we were actually Paris and Nicky Hilton.
“Then when I went on Big Brother, it was brought up. So that was even more embarrassing! But, yeah, it's just really good, fun memories. It's more memories for the rocking chair when I'm an old lady.”
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