UK ‘Big Brother’ boots contestant over Holocaust remark

A British actor who was removed from that country’s “Celebrity Big Brother” apologizes for a Holocaust joke directed at a Jewish contestant and said that he will visit Auschwitz during a visit to Poland.

Christopher Biggins is removed from the popular reality television show on Friday after three warnings about tasteless remarks about bisexuals and the Holocaust, according to British news reports.

During his time on the program, Biggins, who is homosexual and has a civil union with a same-sex partner, blames bisexuals for the spread of AIDS.

Britain’s Channel 5 also releases the footage of an incident from last Monday for which he was also reprimanded.

Biggins tells fellow housemate Katie Waissel, who is Jewish, while she is waiting to use the bathroom in the Big Brother house: “You better be careful or they’ll be putting you in a shower and taking you to a room.”

He later admits in interviews that he was referring to the Nazi gas chambers.

He says he apologized to Waissel and “Big Brother” for the “trite, ridiculous remark.”

He and his partner are scheduled to visit Poland in October.

— JTA