Silverton crushed by Romana

BBC Breakfast's Kaplinsky clone, Kate Silverton produced an abysmal performance on the red carpet at this year's Oscars. A shame really because she's far more likeable than the ruthlessly ambitious automaton Kaplinsky, despite the scandal of the Philip Hayton on-air walkout. The normally bespectacled pretender looked liked she'd actually lost her glasses in the melee as she struggled to maintain a semblance of control in the red carpet scrum.

Given the open goal of a generous 3-4 minutes with the newly Oscar-ed Helen Mirren she couldn't seem to ask any other question than a variation of the most banal question of them all - "what was going through your mind as they announced the winner". That was followed by "and what were you thinking as you walked to the stage".

I can only assume she must have panicked. This interview had clearly been negotiated well in advance and I can't believe she didn't have a better set of questions prepared. The rest of her time was spent looking more and more uncomfortable with each feeble attempt to shout for the various big names going past, admitting "it's not very dignified is it ?"



By contrast, GMTV's feisty resident LA correspondent Carla Romano was far more at ease. Years of working the red carpet have sharpened her tactics for lassoo-ing the ones that count and even when she fails it's not the personal tragedy that Silverton clearly felt.

So where now for Silverton ? Not quite ready for that big leap into Saturday evening television, a nice daytime quiz show might be a short-term solution. Rob Curling gained a cult following in his time for the under-rated Turnabout and it could be time for a celebrity version 2.0 Still, someone at the BBC is clearly intent on fast-tracking her as she also fronted a pointless Panorama "expose" of some IVF doctor which created barely a ripple of media interest.



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Kate Silverton, Helen Mirren, HBBC Breakfast, Carla Romano