UK reality show boots glamour model over Hitler support

Celebrity Big Brother producers move swiftly to evict Tila Tequila after her previous pro-Nazi comments emerge

Britain’s Celebrity Big Brother reality show has booted out an American glamour model after one day over her self-professed admiration for Adolf Hitler.

Tila Tequila’s eviction on Friday by the Channel 5 television station and Dutch production company Endemol came after her comments in support of the genocidal Nazi leader was revealed. Tequila was then summoned to discuss the issue with producers, and shortly afterwards asked to leave.

Tequila has previously called herself “Hitila,” and posted on social media a photoshopped image of herself clad in a scanty version of a Nazi uniform holding a gun in front of the Auschwitz death camp, where around one million Jews perished in the Holocaust. She also referred to Hitler as a “sweet kid.”

A Channel 5 spokesman said that, “Unfortunately, Channel 5 and Endemol did not know about the views and attitudes Tila had expressed in social media postings prior to her involvement in Celebrity Big Brother,” the Daily Mail reported.

The British-based Campaign against Antisemitism had demanded that Channel 5 investigate Tequila’s background.

The reality game show follows the activities of its contestants as they are isolated from the outside world in the Big Brother house, with one contestant being voted out by the public each week. The winner is the last remaining housemate, who in the celebrity edition donates a cash prize to charity.

In a statement released after her eviction, Tequila said that after her 2013 references to Hitler she had immediately realized that she had made a “terrible mistake,” and blamed her actions on severe depression and drug addiction. The model also said she hoped that Celebrity Big Brother would give her a second chance.

This is not the first time that the celebrity version of the reality show has come under fire over racist remarks by housemates. In 2007, former Big Brother contestant Jade Goody, singer Jo O’Meara and model Danielle Lloyd made derogratory comments about a fellow contestant, Indian actress Shilpa Shetty. The show was subsequently suspended by then-broadcaster Channel 4.