Saturday 29 November 2008

Happy birthday Lorraine Kelly 30/11/2008

Lorraine Kelly (Presenter of LK Today)
Born: November 30, 1959 (1959-11-30) (age 48)
East Kilbride, Scotland
Occupation: Television presenter and journalist
Spouse: Steve Smith
Children: Rosie
Lorraine Kelly (born November 30, 1959 in East Kilbride) is a Scottish television presenter and journalist best known as a presenter for GMTV, the ITV morning television station. She currently resides in Blairgowrie, Perthshire. Kelly's husband is Dundonian, and this has led to a misconception that she is too. However, she spends time at a home in Blairgowrie and is an avid supporter of Dundee United.

Early life
Kelly's father John worked as a television service engineer. She attended Claremont High School in East Kilbride. She turned down a university place to read English and Russian in favour of a job on the East Kilbride News which was her local newspaper and then joined BBC Scotland as a researcher in 1983. She moved to TV-am as an on-screen reporter covering Scottish news in 1984.

Career
In July 1989, she presented TV-am's Summer Sunday programme with chief reporter Geoff Meade, and in February 1990 she became a main presenter of Good Morning Britain alongside Mike Morris.

In April 1991, she was awarded the TRIC Diamond Jubilee Award for New Talent of the Year. She helped launch GMTV in January 1993, and presented a range of programmes, including the main breakfast show with Eamonn Holmes. She presented Liquid Eurovision and became the national spokeswoman for the United Kingdom during the collation of votes at the Eurovision Song Contest, in both 2003 and 2004, replacing the long-serving Colin Berry.

She writes weekly columns for The Sun and The Sunday Post. Kelly is also an avid Dundee United F.C. supporter and has been in attendance at matches. Between 2004 and 2007, she served a period as Rector of the University of Dundee. She currently resides near Dundee with her family when she is not working in London. She also has a home in Berkshire.

She has made several notable appearances on Have I Got News For You? and has presented it once herself. She also claims to have an in-built "bullshit detector". She also made a cameo appearance in the BBC Scotland soap opera, River City.

She currently presents her show LK Today which airs Monday to Thursday at 08:40 on GMTV, since 1994. From 2003, she co-presented This Morning with Phillip Schofield, on Mondays and Fridays, to allow Fern Britton to spend more time with her family, but she left in March 2006.

Kelly acted as the guest host for two shows in 2006. Firstly for an episode in the second series of The Friday Night Project for Channel 4 in January and then later, on 25 October for The Paul O'Grady Show. She did so again for Paul O'Grady on 30 November 2006, her 47th birthday and owing to sheer popularity, yet again on 7 November 2007 and more recently on 23 April.

Kelly also hosted the 9th annual Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Awards on Thursday November 30, 2006 for STV.

According to the Sunday Mirror, Kelly has been banned from appearing in an advertising campaign for ASDA because her boss, GMTV's managing director Clive Couch, feared that such a move would lead to more bad publicity for GMTV, which was fined £2 million by broadcasting regulator Ofcom in September for conning viewers with its premium-rate phone lines.

Kelly filmed an ITV documentary programme Secrets Revealed - DNA Stories in 2006, made by SMG Productions, although to date, the show has yet to be broadcast.

During a GMTV Studio tour, she admitted she likes to eat instant porridge oats for her breakfast. In a survey Kelly was voted the celebrity most people would like to buy a car from.

She has claimed that single-faith schools are a cause of sectarianism in Scotland.

Personal life
She is married to Steve Smith, then cameraman when she was covering Scotland for TV-am in 1985. They have a daughter, Rosie, who was born in June 1994. Lorraine returned from maternity leave in late 1994 to present her own show, Nine O'Clock Live, which was later retitled Lorraine Live and then, at the start of 2000, LK Today.

Lorraine Kelly's Grand-Parents are from the South Derry town of Draperstown.

On 5 September 2006, on GMTV, she examined her own family tree.

Kelly is a celebrity patron of the Association for International Cancer Research.

On June 20, 2008 it was announced that she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Dundee, where she was once rector.

Bibliography
Lorraine Kelly's Nutrition Made Easy (Virgin Books, due January 2009)
Lorraine Kelly's Junk-Free Children's Eating Plan (Virgin Books, 2007)
Lorraine Kelly's Baby and Toddler Eating Plan (Virgin Books, 2002 / 2004 / 2006)
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

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