Today's Press Briefs

Billie Piper will be a guest on ex-husband Chris Evans' new chat, OFI Sunday, show this Sunday night at 10:30pm on ITV1. "Chris Evans presents this live entertainment show which makes the most of the disappearing weekend. The presenter is joined by celebrity guest Billie Piper, who also happens to be his ex-wife, for games, chat and music. The latest gadgets are reviewed and a classic car is up for grabs in Laid Up - the only game show on TV for competitors who are injured."

UTV notes that, as follow up to the auction of a Dalek at Bonhams mentioned in yesterday's press clips news report, the final tally on the Dalek sold at the auction house was £36,000... more than three times what was expected. "The Dalek Supreme, from the 1970s series of Dr Who, was brought by communications agency Indeprod at a charity auction in aid of the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children. ... The Dalek was made from welding together the top half of another Dalek from a 1960s series of Dr Who and the bottom of one used in a BBC exhibition. It was expected to fetch between £7,000 and £10,000. The Dalek Supreme met its end in the Destiny of the Daleks in 1979 when it was blown up by a pyrotechnic flash - scorch marks are still visible under its interior seat. The prop was later used in Madame Tussaud`s Waxworks Museum for a Dr Who exhibition in 1980. A spokesperson for Indeprod said: 'We are delighted to have acquired a Dalek. We shall place it in our reception area for all to see and enjoy. We have been after a Dalek for years and this seemed to be the perfect opportunity, especially as the proceeds will go to the Great Ormond Street Hospital. We are also very pleased that the Dalek will stay in the country.' Auctioneers Bonhams claim the Dalek was quoted as saying: 'I am so relieved that I have found a new home without the risk of extermination, although I had dreamt of living with Billie Piper.'" Also covered at BBC News.

This weeks edition of The Pink Paper, #887, the UK's longstanding free LGB community newspaper, features a two page interview with Russell T Davies and producer Phil Collinson, covering RTD's attitudes to sexuality and the media, the new approach to Who, why Who has so many gay fans and the character of Captain Jack. They're also giving away 3 DVD sets of series one!

Other news clips: Monsters and Critics has a brief story about Charlotte Church which mentions "Torchwood" (since the early reports that she would be in the show, producers have denied them); SyFyPortal covers the Billie Piper issue, quoting from Outpost Gallifrey's news pages; Brand Republicnotes that Carphone Warehouse will sponsor Chris Evans' new ITV chat show which debuts with his ex-wife Billie Piper as his first guest

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Andrew Harvey, Matt Dale, Chris Hinchley)