The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Prue Leith waiting on Bake Off judge job
Prue Leith says reports she is to be paid three times as much as Mary Berry for a role on The Great British Bake Off are “complete nonsense” and added she does not yet know if she has the job.
The ex-Great British Menu star, 77, has been in talks for a judging role on the popular cookery show. It is moving to Channel 4 this year, after it was sold by production company Love Productions after a sevenseries run on the BBC.
Reports speculated that Leith was to sign a deal to star in Bake Off for a rumoured £200,000.
Leith added: “I believe I’m about to be paid about a quarter of a million pounds or something and I’ve got a deal. It’s complete nonsense.
“I have not signed any contract. I’ve not got the job yet. I hope to have it – I have no idea if I will.”
Leith said: “Of course I (want it). There’s not a cook in the country who doesn’t want to do that job. It’d be lovely.”
She said she hopes it will be “fairly soon” that she finds out from the production company about the TV job, because “it has been going on an awful long time”.
Leith said she backs Paul Hollywood’s decision to stay with the programme after its move.
Berry and the show’s presenters Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins opted out of the switch, with baker Hollywood the only remaining original star to appear on the next series.
She said: “I think Paul Hollywood was quite perfectly within his rights to stay with Love Productions. They’d made him famous, he was getting a decent salary and he was enjoying it. Why shouldn’t he stay with them?”