BBC chief to brief governing body over "Manuelgate"
LONDON, Oct 30 (Reuters Life!) - BBC Director-General Mark Thompson will brief the British state broadcaster's chiefs on Thursday to discuss the furore over a crude prank phone call made by two presenters on a radio show, the broadcaster said.
Radio and television star Russell Brand resigned from his BBC radio show as the row escalated on Wednesday. Fellow star presenter Jonathan Ross has been suspended from presenting his television show while an investigation is carried out.
The duo had joked on air that Brand had slept with the granddaughter of 78-year-old Andrew Sachs, who played Spanish waiter Manuel in the cult comedy series "Fawlty Towers", saying Sachs might kill himself after hearing messages they had left on his phone.
"I got a bit caught up in the moment and forgot that at the core of the rude comments and silly songs were the real feelings of a beloved and brilliant comic actor and a very sweet and big-hearted young woman," Brand, 33, said in a statement.
"I hope that now Jonathan and the BBC will endure less forensic wrath."
The 47-year-old Ross also issued a public apology for his role in the row, dubbed "Manuelgate" by newspapers.
"I am deeply sorry and greatly regret the upset and distress that my juvenile and thoughtless remarks on the Russell Brand show have caused," Ross said in his statement.
"However, it was a stupid error of judgment on my part and I offer a full apology."
The BBC reported that Thompson would hold an emergency meeting with members of the BBC Trust, the independent body which oversees the broadcaster and has a mandate to work on behalf of licence fee payers.
More than 27,000 people have already complained to the BBC over the offensive messages left on the answerphone of Sachs which Thompson described as a "gross lapse of taste" and a "completely unacceptable broadcast".
AUNTIE
Thompson is expected to have to explain to the Trust's editorial standards board how the recorded broadcast was allowed to go out on air.
The row continued to dominate the deadlines, making the front page story of almost every national newspaper on Thursday.
Commentators said BBC managers were desperately trying to contain the fallout it had caused and to save the career of Ross, one of the corporation's highest profile and best paid TV and radio stars.
Politicians have also been entering the fray with Prime Minister Gordon Brown among the voices condemning the presenters' actions.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw wrote a scathing article in the Guardian on Thursday saying he was "underwhelmed" by Ross and calling for him to be sacked.
That echoed the sentiment of Georgina Baillie, Sachs' 23-year-old granddaughter, who was at the centre of the jokes.
The scandal is particularly thorny for the BBC, which plays a central role in British life, both as a broadcaster of cultural, sports and arts programming on radio, television and the Internet, and as the nation's leading provider of news.
Because the broadcaster's output is funded by the taxpayer -- all Britons must pay a licence fee of around $300 a year to receive TV programming -- there is a sense that its output belongs to the people and should be reined in by them.
It is far from the first scandal to strike the BBC, which started transmissions in the 1920s and is affectionately known as "Auntie" because of its almost familial role.
Its coverage was criticised by the government in 2003 after the broadcaster suggested the case for going to war in Iraq had been "sexed up". An inquiry sided with the government.
Last year it was criticised alongside commercial broadcaster ITV for misleading the public through fake quizzes and competitions.
As satellite and cable channels have grown in Britain, the BBC has sought to keep itself cutting edge and relevant to the youth market, paying large sums of money to keep stars such as Ross from defecting to competitors.
(Editing by Astrid Zweynert and Paul Casciato)
