January 27, 2007	Saturday	Muharram 07, 1428

LONDON: Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty is favourite to win a British reality television show this weekend, following a diplomatic storm over the alleged racist bullying of the Indian actress.

Bookmakers on Friday quoted odds of 4/11 on Shetty emerging the winner on Sunday of “Celebrity Big Brother”, which triggered a row drawing in the Indian and British governments earlier this month.

Her main perceived tormentor, Jade Goody, was evicted by public vote last week, just days after the row erupted following foul-mouthed exchanges on the programme, a version of the Big Brother format which has been a worldwide hit.

Another female housemate who was seen as having bullied the Indian actress may leave as early as Friday evening, when two more of the remaining eight contestants in the house are due to be evicted.

Bookmakers say singer Jo O'Meara of S Club 7 fame has only a 50-1 chance of survival.

But even Friday's double eviction has seen Shetty at the centre of another whirlwind of controversy raging beyond the garden fence.

Endemol, the television firm which makes the series, messed up the eviction procedure, showing the phone numbers viewers should use to vote to kick out each housemate -- apart from Shetty, for whom a number was shown for viewers to use to keep her in.“This was a genuine mistake which was due to human error,” said Endemol.

“We apologise to viewers and feel the best way to rectify it is to cancel the vote so far and reopen the voting.” Broadcaster Channel Four said: “While the voice-over was correct and stated 'to vote to evict Shilpa', the on-screen text mistakenly read 'to vote to save Shilpa'.”—AFP