Mum’s the Word

Mother’s Day is fast approaching and so our thoughts are naturally turned to celebrity Mums. You can play bingo online here at Mecca and then treat your Mum with your winnings. Or, if you’re a Mum, treat yourself to some well-earned pampering with your bingo cash. And if you’re not a Mum, don’t worry; we won’t tell anyone if you bag a bingo jackpot and keep it all to yourself!

Every March a new Grattan Celebrity Mum of the Year is crowned; you will probably recall that last year’s victorious celeb Mum was the feisty Sharon Osbourne. Sharon won last year’s vote presumably because of her ability to help hold the tight-kit Osbourne family together through various upsets, including stints in rehab for the two most famous Osbourne children Kelly and Jack, Ozzy’s quad accident and the burglary of their house, in which many items of jewellery of great value - both sentimental and monetary - were stolen. The family appear to have come through their various setbacks and emerged closer than ever. Couple this with the fierce loyalty Sharon shows to her brood and her hubby (woe betide any celeb who has a dig at one of the Osbourne clan) and it’s not difficult to see why Sharon took the 2006 prize. Some of this year’s finalists are a little more surprising however…

Perhaps among the most surprising of this year’s batch of potential celebrity Mum’s of the year is reality TV star Jade Goody. Jade has been mentioned in this column many times before, simply because she has been in the news so much this year. One of the biggest stories of the year so far was the racist bullying scandal surrounding Celebrity Big Brother which saw Jade emerge as, at worst, a hate figure and, at best, a figure of national embarrassment. Following her release from the cushioned captivity of the Big Brother house, Jade soon realised the full scale of the problem. Her behaviour, along with that of cronies Danielle and Jo, had sparked not just national, but international debate. The issue had been raised in Prime Minister’s Question Time, brands had pulled the plug on sponsoring Big Brother and Jade and Danielle had been dropped by perfumes and modelling agencies respectively. Jade was tearful and apologetic and claimed she did not care about her career, only the hurt she may have caused. She did not go back to her sons straight after coming out of the house however; another move that sparked more criticism. Jade claimed that it was for her sons’ own safety and was reunited with them a few days later.

Despite all the controversy surrounding Jade and all the vitriol directed her way via the media - many parts of which were almost audibly rubbing their hands with glee at the seeming demise of this working-class, ill-educated, curvy reality TV star who seemingly represented all that is wrong with the “dumbed down” culture of today - the public seem to have got behind Jade once more. Perhaps the public are sick of the media misrepresenting them and perhaps the general consensus is that yes Jade made a mistake, but so do we all. Perhaps she is not a racist bully but a young woman ill-equipped with the skills to debate and discuss in a calm and rational manner (her upbringing was far from idyllic as anyone who knows the bare minimum about Jade will agree) who ultimately loves her kids and wants to ensure none of the Big Brother furore affects them adversely. So, as strange as it may seem at first, perhaps Jade’s nomination for Mum of the Year isn’t so hard to swallow after all...

Another surprising addition to the list of finalists is another staple of this celebrity column – Kate Moss. Kate is more often in the news for her on-off (and on again, and off again, and on again and we’re bored now) relationship with rocker and self-confessed drug addict Pete Doherty, than her modelling; that and her own alleged troubles with illegal substances. Where her daughter, four year old Lila Grace, quite fits into all of this is not clear. Lila in fact spent her 3rd birthday without her Ma, as Kate was doing a stint in rehab at the time. The idea behind putting Kate up for the Mum of the Year award might be that she has proved she is willing to sort herself out, demonstrated by her stint in rehab. But remember that this stint only came after photographs of the model snorting white powder, widely believed to be cocaine, made it into the tabloid press. Kate was promptly dropped by fashion houses and beauty brands left, right and centre, and then promptly picked back up again after the dust had settled and she had shown she meant business by going for a spot of counselling… So were her daughter’s best interests at heart, or was her career her prime concern? Clearly some still think she is a top Mum despite all the apparent evidence to the contrary.

Heather Mills is best known at the moment for her split from ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney and the divorce settlement and court battles that look set to be bitter and long-running. But she is also in the public eye this month for her place in the final of the Celeb Mum of the Year award. Perhaps voters see her fit to receive the mothering title because of the way the couple have so far seemingly left messy custody battles out of the proceedings. Heather has not attempted to restrict access to Beatrice by Paul despite all the bad feeling between the two. The press has always had a hate-hate relationship with Heather Mills so her nomination could again be a sign that the public doesn’t always agree with the press and doesn’t agree that she’s the money-grabbing monster she is usually portrayed as being.

Along with all these somewhat surprising nominations, there are some less unusual choices in the final for the award. They include Big Mother Davina McCall, DJ Sara Cox, presenter Tess Daly, former Spice Girls Mel B, Geri Halliwell and Victoria Beckham (Emma Bunton’s pregnant with her first child as we write so perhaps she’ll be in their next year!), Fern Britton, Louise Rednapp and Lorraine Kelly. For the full list of the celebs in with a shot of winning the parenting accolade this year, and for your chance to cast a vote, visit Grattan Celebrity Mum of the Year 2007. But don’t forget to come back to Mecca Bingo after that for your chance to win some great cash prizes playing bingo online – treat your Mum this Mother’s Day or any time of year when you play bingo to win at Mecca Bingo online!