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Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan (born 30 March 1965) is a former editor of British tabloid newspapers the News of the World (1994–1995) and the Daily Mirror (1995–2004).^[1] He is credited as author of eight books and is editorial director of First News, a national newspaper for children. Morgan branched into television mainly as a presenter, but has become best known as judge or contestant in reality television programmes. In the UK, he is a judge on Britain's Got Talent alongside Amanda Holden and Simon Cowell. He is known in the United States as a judge on the show America's Got Talent, and as the winner of The Celebrity Apprentice.

Early life

The third of four children^[2], Piers Morgan was supposedly named after brewery heir and privateer motor-racing driver Piers Courage. He attended a private preparatory school until the age of 13 and then Chailey School, a comprehensive secondary school in Chailey, near Lewes, East Sussex^[3]. Morgan studied Journalism at Harlow College. After a brief career at Lloyds of London, he joined the Surrey and South London Newspaper Group, where he worked as a reporter on the South London Press. Morgan was recruited (he says headhunted by editor Kelvin MacKenzie) to join The Sun newspaper, specifically to work on the Bizarre column.

Career in newspapers

Morgan's first major position in national media was as de facto editor of The Sun's show business column, Bizarre, under the editorship of Kelvin MacKenzie. In 1994, aged 28, he was appointed editor of the News of the World by Rupert Murdoch, becoming the youngest national newspaper editor in more than half a century. He quickly gained notoriety for his invasive, thrusting style and lack of concern for celebrities' right to privacy, claiming that they could not manipulate the media to further their own ends without accepting the consequences of a two way deal.

Morgan left this post shortly after publishing photographs of Catherine Victoria Lockwood, then wife of Charles, Earl Spencer leaving a detoxification clinic. This action ran against the editors' code of conduct, a misdemeanour for which the Press Complaints Commission took Morgan to task. Murdoch was reported as having said publicly that "the boy went too far." Morgan's autobiography The Insider states that he left the News of the World of his own choice and somewhat against owner Rupert Murdoch's wishes when he was offered the job of Editor at the Daily Mirror.

As editor of the Daily Mirror, Morgan was widely criticised and forced to apologise in 1996 for the headline "Achtung! Surrender" a day before England met Germany in a semi-final of the Euro '96 football championships.^[4] The story was written by Justin Dunn.^{citation needed}

In 2000, he was the subject of an investigation after Suzy Jagger wrote a story in The Daily Telegraph revealing that he had bought £20,000 worth of shares in the computer company Viglen soon before the Mirror's 'City Slickers' column tipped Viglen as a good buy.^[5] He was found to have breached the Code of Conduct on financial journalism by the Press Complaints Commission, but Morgan kept his job. The City Slickers columnists Anil Bhoyrul and James Hipwell, were both found to have committed more breaches of the Code, and were sacked before the inquiry. In 2004, further enquiry by the Department of Trade and Industry cleared Morgan from any charges.^[6] On 7 December 2005 Bhoyrul and Hipwell were convicted of conspiracy to breach the Financial Services Act. During the trial it emerged that Morgan had in fact bought £67,000 worth of Viglen shares, emptying his bank account and investing under his wife's name too.^[5]

In 2002, the Daily Mirror attempted to move mid-market, claiming to eschew the more trivial stories of show-business and gossip. Morgan rehired John Pilger, who had been sacked during Robert Maxwell's ownership of the Mirror titles. Despite such changes, Morgan was unable to halt the paper's decline in circulation, a decline shared by its direct rivals The Sun and the Daily Star.

Morgan was fired from the Daily Mirror on 14 May 2004 after authorising the newspaper's publication of allegedly faked photographs of Iraqi prisoners being abused by British Army personnel. The Daily Mirror countered that it had fallen victim to a "calculated and malicious hoax" and apologised for their publication.

Later, Morgan also had a monthly interview column in GQ magazine.

In May 2005, in partnership with Matthew Freud, he gained ownership of Press Gazette, a media trade publication together with its 'cash cow' the British Press Awards, in a deal worth £1 million.^[7][8] This ownership was cited as "one" of the reasons many major newspapers boycotted the 2006 awards.^[9] Press Gazette entered administrative receivership toward the end of 2006, before being sold to a trade buyer.

On 4 May 2006, Morgan launched First News, a weekly paper aimed at seven- to fourteen-year-olds. Morgan is editorial director at First News, responsible for bringing in celebrity involvement. He referred to the role as "editorial overlord and frontman"^[10]. During 2007, the First News reportedly had a circulation of 750,000.

In 2007, Morgan was filmed falling off of a Segway, breaking three ribs. Simon Cowell and others made much of Morgan's previous comment in 2003, in the Daily Mail, after U.S. President George W. Bush fell off a Segway, that "You'd have to be an idiot to fall off, wouldn't you, Mr. President?"^[11][12][13]

He has a regular column in the 'Live' supplement of the Mail On Sunday.

Career in television

Morgan's career has diversified in recent years into television presentation and proprietorship. In 2003, he presented a three part television documentary series for the BBC titled The Importance of Being Famous, about fame and the manner in which celebrities are covered by modern media.

He has co-hosted his own current affairs interview show on Channel 4, with Amanda Platell called Morgan & Platell. The show was dropped after three series allegedly due to poor viewing figures, though the chairman of Channel 4, Luke Johnson, was reported not to like the programme.

Morgan was reported in December 2005^[14] to be developing a new series You're Fired and to be a panelist in a forthcoming talent show for ITV1 based on the US series The Gong Show.

Throughout 2006 Morgan appeared as a judge on the American television show America's Got Talent alongside Brandy and David Hasselhoff on NBC. Morgan appeared as a celebrity contestant on Comic Relief Does The Apprentice in 2007, to raise money for Comic Relief. During filming, he and Alastair Campbell reduced fellow contestant Trinny Woodall to tears when they tried to sabotage her team's event, and were involved in a brawl with her.^[15] Upon his team losing, Morgan was selected by Sir Alan Sugar as the contestant to be fired.^[16]

Also in 2007 he appeared as a judge for the second season of America's Got Talent and also appeared as a judge on the British version of the show, Britain's Got Talent on ITV1, alongside Amanda Holden and Simon Cowell. He also presented You Can't Fire Me, I'm Famous on BBC One.

In January 2008, Morgan fronted a new 3-part documentary about Sandbanks for ITV1^[17] entitled Piers Morgan on Sandbanks.

Morgan was the winner of the U.S. celebrity version of The Apprentice, early in 2008. The most memorable feature of the programme was the rowdy disagreements he had with fellow contestant Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth. This was resolved in Morgan's favour on 6 March, after her team was defeated by Morgan's in the biggest victory in Apprentice history. Morgan ended up the overall winner, being named Celebrity Apprentice on 27 March, ahead of fellow finalist, American country music star, Trace Adkins and having raised substantially more cash than all the other contestants combined.^[18]

In May 2008 Morgan signed a two year "golden handcuffs" deal with ITV reportedly worth £2 million per year. As part of the deal Morgan will continue as a judge on Britain's Got Talent for at least two more series and front a new chatshow. He will also make some interview specials, plus three more documentaries from various countries. Morgan's golden handcuffs deal is the first signing by ITV's new director of television, Peter Fincham. ^[19]

Feuds

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Ian Hislop

Morgan appeared as a guest on Have I Got News for You in 1996; Hislop and Morgan failed to keep their mutual contempt off-screen.^{citation needed} Hislop accused Morgan of having him (Hislop) followed and having his house watched.^{citation needed} The conflict escalated and at one point Angus Deayton asked if they wished to go outside and have a fight. Later in the show, when shown his question in the "Odd One Out round" (Rupert Allason; Sting; a koala; Geoffrey Clements) Morgan responded, "Is the answer 'jam'?" in reference to a joke made by Eddie Izzard the previous week, saying, "Last week Eddie Izzard said it and everyone roared with laughter as if it was hilarious." Hislop retorted that Izzard got a laugh because "People like him". Morgan replied, "Don't play the popularity line with me, Hislop", before appealing to the audience: "Does anyone actually like him?" The audience responded loudly in favour of Hislop. By the end of the programme Morgan claimed Hislop would be "getting new neighbours", insinuating photographers would be sent by him. Piers' guest spot became one of HIGNFY's most famous incidents.^{citation needed} On the news of his sacking, the show repeated the clip.

Private Eye, of which Hislop is editor, has routinely referred to Morgan as "Piers Moron" (or, in a twist on their common practice of inserting a nickname in quotes between first name and surname, as 'Piers "Morgan" Moron') and more recently, "Rent a Gob" in reference to his appearances as a judge on television talent shows.^{citation needed} The magazine had originally referred to him as Piers 'Boy' Morgan, based on Rupert Murdoch's reference to him as 'the boy' after his departure from the News of the World.^{citation needed} During his time at the Mirror, Morgan frequently threatened to publish damaging stories about Hislop, and while they never appeared, Morgan has staged numerous stunts such as gate-crashing a Hislop book signing with 'protestors' proclaiming 'Gnome Go Home.'^{citation needed}

Following the publication of Morgan's book The Insider: The Private Diaries of a Scandalous Decade, the Eye published an article suggesting that, far from Morgan being an insider and this a "diary", he was an unreliable spectator, the book containing many glaring inaccuracies.^{citation needed} For example, references to Morgan supposedly having visited Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street in the early part of 1997, when in fact John Major was still Prime Minister.^{citation needed} From time to time the Eye returns to this theme, seldom missing an opportunity to criticise the book.^{citation needed}

In 2007, Ian Hislop chose Morgan as one of his pet hates on Room 101,^{citation needed} although Morgan had recently attempted to quell the feud in an article in Hislop's local paper, saying "The war is over. I'm officially calling an end to hostilities, at least from my end. I'm sure it won't stop him carrying on his 'Piers Moron' stuff." Hislop responded by asking "Is that an armistice or an unconditional surrender?" However, though Paul Merton agreed to put Morgan into Room 101, he was comically rejected as being "too toxic" even for Room 101.^{citation needed}

Jeremy Clarkson

Morgan has had a long-running public feud with Jeremy Clarkson, presenter of Top Gear^{citation needed}. In October 2003, on the last Concorde flight, Clarkson threw a glass of water over Morgan while the two were exchanging insults^{citation needed}. In March 2004, at the British Press Awards, Clarkson punched Morgan three times in a clash over The Mirror's coverage of his private life.^[20]

Sir Alan Sugar

A recent war of words developed between Morgan and Amstrad and Apprentice boss Sir Alan Sugar, due to rivalry in ratings between The Apprentice and ITV's Britain's Got Talent.^{citation needed} Sugar fired Morgan from the celebrity version of his programme, prior to his winning the US version, presented by Donald Trump. Morgan boasted that Britain's Got Talent would easily beat the BBC show in ratings, by winning the 2008 BAFTA awards.^{citation needed} Sugar responded - "If Britain's Got Talent does win, it will be thanks to Simon Cowell, the organ grinder, rather than his monkey - Piers Morgan." Both programmes were nominated for an award, but neither won. Morgan also claimed that a series of insulting and vicious text messages and E-mails have been exchanged between him and Alan Sugar, and the feud shows no signs of fading.^{citation needed}

Personal life

Morgan is currently in the process of filing for divorce from Marion Shalloe, whom he married in July 1991 in north Hampshire. They have three sons: Spencer (born July 1993), Stanley (born June 1997) and Albert (Bertie) (born December 2000). He has been linked romantically to The Guardian columnist Marina Hyde and The Daily Telegraph's gossip columnist Celia Walden^[21], who is the daughter of the former Conservative MP George Walden. Morgan has stated that he is a Roman Catholic.

Morgan is a life long fan of cricket. A childhood which included correspondence with Sir Don Bradman, and a promising early youthful fast bowler, he has played for his local side in Newick since 1978. Every year since 2000 he has organised a game between a Morgan family team and the Newick side, which includes a famous "ringer" - 2008's ringer was England one-day captain Kevin Pietersen, which Morgan described as "the best day of my life."^[22]

Books

• Morgan, Piers (1991). Secret Lives. Blake. ISBN 0-905846-95-8. 
• Morgan, Piers (1991). Private Lives of the Stars. Angus and Robertson. ISBN 0-207-16941-1. 
• Morgan, Piers (1992). To Dream a Dream: Amazing Life of Phillip Schofield. Blake. ISBN 1-85782-006-1. 
• Morgan, Piers (1993). "Take That": Our Story. Boxtree. ISBN 1-85283-839-6. 
• Morgan, Piers (1994). "Take That": On the Road. Boxtree. ISBN 1-85283-396-3. 
• Morgan, Piers (2004). Va Va Voom!: A Year with Arsenal 2003-04. Methuen. ISBN 0-413-77451-1. 
• Morgan, Piers (2005). The Insider: The Private Diaries of a Scandalous Decade. Ebury Press. ISBN 0-09-190506-0 (hardback) ISBN 0-09-190849-3 (paperback). 
• Morgan, Piers (2007). Don't You Know Who I am?. 

References

External links

• BBC profile
• Piers Morgan at the Internet Movie Database