Phillip Schofield - Here Comes The Hit Job

While most of our free and fearless press has been flogging the Coronavirus pandemic for all it is worth, extracting as much news value as they can from telling their readers that human trials of a vaccine are starting today or tomorrow (which we knew last weekend), those dedicated to busting the privacy of anyone and everyone in the public eye have been working their way towards the next Sleb hit job.

That you hiding behind that tree, Dan?

So who is in line for the front page divertissement, the break from unending lockdown gloom, the splash that lets the tabloids tell their readers to “look over there”? The answer appears to be that, once again, it is This Morning host Phillip Schofield. This may surprise some, given that he came out live on air and then gave the subsequent exclusive to the Murdoch Sun, but the 24-hour rolling news speculatron has an insatiable appetite.

This was hinted at with characteristic directness by Natalie Rowe as she told “Mark my words! [Dan Wootton] and the Scum Sun Paper are preparing to do a hatchet job on [Phillip Schofield] ... I told you first”. She added, when asked why the hatchet job would happen now, “It was never the ‘now’ it was all about the when”.

So is Nats right? Well, as Cilla used to say, shall we have a look and find out? Like at the Mail, which told us yesterday that Schofield “was seen arriving at his new central London flat on Monday - having recently moved out of his £2million family home following the announcement that he is gay. Ten weeks after coming out on national television, the 58-year-old This Morning presenter was pictured stepping out of a black car and into his new home, which is miles from the sprawling Oxfordshire property his wife Steph still lives at”.

Hot on the Mail’s heels was the Sun, telling readers about “his new abode, which was previously said to have a view of London's Shard”. They checked it out on Rightmove. And the Mail has noted, ominously, “it is not clear if his new home … is permanent”, which, freely translated, means “don’t bother moving because we’re keeping tabs on you”.

How could they be doing that? Another Mail story later yesterday, another ominous warning: “Staff at the TV studios have been made aware of the star's change of address, including the drivers who ferry him to and from the studio”. Otherwise meaning “we’ve got a contact at ITV, so we’ll know if you move house again”.

And in case anyone didn’t get what the Mail meant when it observed “Phillip Schofield gave a big thumbs up as he was pictured arriving back at his new London flat on Tuesday after filming This Morning … After a busy day at work, Phillip was making sure to adhere to lockdown measures as he returned straight back to his new abode”, let’s put it this way.

Must have been a big tree, then

The press didn’t just do a story about him moving to a new flat, and then leave. They have someone watching his place more or less permanently. Is this legal? Well, our free and fearless press tends not to worry about that sort of thing, especially when sales are in freefall and they’re desperate to score more sales and clicks.

He got ten weeks off for good behaviour. Now the tabloids are after him again. Because they always come back for more. As Natalie Rowe put it, “The Sun Paper still has to feed their rabid readers, with News Stories other than the Corona”. More on this one later.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by adding to its Just Giving page at

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/zelostreet5