Around 6.2 million viewers tuned in to watch contestants enter the Celebrity Big Brother (CBB) house last night, making it the biggest show of the day across the terrestrial channels, Channel 4 said.

The machinations of celebville are as turbulent as the intrigues of a bloodstained Renaissance court this week, with Madonna cast as Henry VIII and her personal trainer, Tracy Anderson, as the unfortunate Cardinal Wolsey.

Katie Price's tough boyfriend, a cage-fighter named Alex Reid, has revealed that he likes to dress up in women's clothing. Katie is, reports a gabby friend, "100 per cent behind him, and totally comfortable" with his hobby. And before anyone starts calling him names – or wondering how he plans to fill Ms Price's generously proportioned undergarments – we're also told, "Alex is not ashamed in the slightest. On the contrary, he thinks the subject matter is totally misunderstood."

There comes a stage in every budding romance when a God-fearing Englishman must stiffen the sinews, summon up deep reserves of courage, and introduce his new girlfriend to that precious group of people who monopolise the lion's share of his waking hours: his workmates. For Alex Reid, the muscular former Hollyoaks star who has become embroiled in the real-life soap-opera of a relationship with recently-divorced headline magnet that is Katie Price, this always-tricky process will have represented a particularly daunting prospect.