Paper Monitor
11:29 UK time, Tuesday, 15 November 2011
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
Freddie Starr and the hamster. It is the stuff of headline legend.
The Sun's "Freddie Starr At My Hamster" was front page news in 1986 and it was as good as gets for headline writers.
Until now that is. The hamster has been usurped by a camel, or to be more precise, the toe of a camel.
The comedian is in the Australian jungle for the ITV show I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, and its producers handed the tabloids a gift of a story by making him take part in a "bushtucker trial".
He sat down to a multi-course meal, which included the aforementioned toe, a rotten egg, a pig anus and turkey testicles.
The Sun decided to go with the toe rather than the other anatomical bits, and the headline in today's paper reads: "Freddie Starr Ate My Camel".
Paper Monitor can just imagine the headline writers rubbing their hands together and laughing gleefully.
And as if that wasn't enough, there was an added dose of drama, with Starr taken to hospital after devouring the disgusting food.
The Sun has gone to town with the story. Their cartoonist has drawn a picture of Starr with a camel-shaped belly and there's pictures of the testicles and toes.
But best of all, there's a little hamster lurking at the bottom of the story with the speech bubble: "At last, maybe that'll teach him."
Obviously no other paper could steal the obvious headline. The Daily Express went with "Jungle horror lands Freddie Starr in hospital", while the Daily Mirror sailed closer to the wind with "Freddie Starr ate my tucker and gets rushed to hospital".
The Mirror could not resist the temptation to have its own speech-bubble hamster but this time it's an Australian one: "Serves you right, mate."
The 
