“Once upon a time there was a girl called Alice who opened the door to Celebrityland.”

Celebrity Bites is MTV’s latest entertainment show packed full of celebrity news and gossip. It stars their newest on-air personality Alice Levine, a one-of-a-kind, cheeky presenter with an eye for the tastiest juice in celebrity-land. The show is hosted in a customised silver airstream trailer and gives the audience a unique and wacky insight into the world of the rich and famous. Student Punch caught up with the talented Miss Levine to talk sketches, banter and using Marina Diamandis as a doll.

How did you get into presenting?

I started off studying English at university in Leeds. In my first year I joined the student television society and started doing a weekly show that was like an entertainment kind of show with celebrity interviews and stuff. It was about 8 minutes long and I started making friends through that.

How did you become host of Celebrity Bites?

I was doing that [show] for about a year and we also did other stuff like The London film festival. We made a documentary for the American network TBS so I had a bit of experience under my belt. When I left uni I got a position as a production assistant for RDF television, which is a big indie production company, and basically I did a lot of stuff for Bebo and managed to find myself an agent, and she got me the MTV gig.

What is Celebrity Bites about?

I like to think of it as a TV version of Perez Hilton’s blog in the style of old-skool Pop World that Simon and Miquita did.

Who have you interviewed so far?

For the show we’ve had Good Charlotte, Mel B from the Spice Girls and Emily Osment who is a Disney star. Last week we had Mike Posner, you might know his song? It’s called Cooler Than Me. Oh, my mind’s gone blank! I feel like it’s the Generation Game. Oh and Marina and the Diamonds! She was my favourite!

So you liked Marina the best?

Yeah she was so up for a laugh and I think a lot of the time people are a bit wary of doing slightly weird stuff, but she was such a good sport so we made her do a dream sequence where we were best friends and I was brushing her hair like she was my doll and I fell asleep on her lap and made her beg me to be in her band. I think a lot of people wouldn’t really be up for that but she had a really good sense of humour.

Do you come up with a lot of ideas for the show yourself?

There are two writers that write the majority of the show then I write my interviews. I’m also in the script meeting so I get to have my input and make changes and give ideas and stuff so it’s like a collaborative show.

Have you had any embarrassing moments when you’ve been interviewing anyone?

I definitely have since I started. On my old show I used to do for Bebo I had to do a dance routine in front of Alisha Dixon and have her mark me like I’m on Strictly Come Dancing. I had to do it in hot pants and a sweat band so that was pretty embarrassing, especially as one of the moves was my co-presenter slapping me across the face. There were a lot of shimmies in there too! You forget there’s also quite a large crew there so you’ve got someone on camera, someone on sound, a producer; you’re not on your own and obviously all her people from the music label were there too, thinking who are these ridiculous people?!

How would you describe yourself as a presenter?

That’s a tough one! The way I put people at ease is to try and make myself look like an idiot so I don’t know if that’s great in terms of being a presenter but it usually is good in trying to befriend whoever you’re interviewing. I think if you’re going to be a bit self-deprecating that always puts people a little bit as ease. I’d describe myself as a ginger presenter I suppose.

What would you say to our readers at SP to encourage them to tune in to the show?

I’d say I guarantee that I’ll embarrass myself. They’ll definitely laugh and they’ll definitely find out about the world of celebrities.

And finally, what can we expect in the next few weeks of the show?

There’ll be more exclusive paparazzi shots. There’s four left in the series so we’ll have four hot guests who I can’t tell you right now, and definitely some more hilarious comedy skits.

By Samantha Taylor