Cummings becomes Big Brother

X-men actor Alan Cummings has become the third star to take over the house on Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack.

The New York-based 42-year-old follows comedian Matt Lucas and former Arsenal and England footballer Ian Wright into the Big Brother hot seat.

And he wasted little time in making himself at home, getting the housemates to perform a task where they all had to take on character roles for the day.

The star of Eyes Wide Shut and Spiceworld told Jade, Jay et al to pick a stereotypical character and become them.

Complete with costume and personal training from Cummings himself, the contestants need to convince the man in charge that they have got what it takes to be stars.

In order to claim the luxury menu prize at the end of the task they were told they had to put on a performance and impress their audience of one sufficiently with their acting talent.

Boxer Anthony was transformed into a southern belle, Victor put on a velvet suit to become Dr Loon and Calista became a German boffin called Professor Olga.

Cummings himself claims to be a Big Brother obsessive, but has confessed to a dislike of rude people who are offensive to get attention, which may be a problem as a celebrity hijacker.

On his online blog on the Big Brother website the actor said he was enjoying his role so far and being "kind but firm"

"I'm really loving the way they’re all exploring things about themselves, which are coming through the characters that I’m giving them," he wrote.

"I think I’m being friendly and letting them explore things that they maybe didn’t realise they had to explore."

Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack is being broadcast in place of the usual Celebrity Big Brother after last year's race row involving Jade Goody and Shilpa Shetty attracted headlines for the wrong reasons.

Via inthenews.co.uk