Liza Minelli Set to Open Gest House to the World

"Human kind cannot bear very much reality," TS Eliot wrote in Burnt Norton nearly 70 years ago. But more and more of the famous are lining up to expose the realities of their lives to televisual scrutiny.

The singer Liza Minnelli appears to be the latest to follow the trend set by another singer, Ozzy Osbourne, who opened the doors of his Californian home to the cameras for a reality programme on the internet and MTV.

The Osbournes' family life has become a cult hit across the world and Ozzy's musical career has taken off again.

Anna Nicole Smith, the former Playboy and Guess? Jeans model and multi-millionaire heiress, has announced that she, too, will be inviting the cameras into her home.

"People will see that maybe I have a little talent and will take me serious as an actress," she said at a press conference announcing the show, in which her co-star will be her poodle, Sugar Pie.

Her likeliest fans, she said, would be "large women and college boys".

Now the music channel VH1 says Liza Minnelli and her new husband, David Gest, may be the next to share their breakfast table with the world.

"They are in talks in America about a reality show," a spokeswoman for VH1-UK said yesterday.

If the series went ahead it would be shown first in the United States and then in Britain.

Minnelli, daughter of Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli, has suffered a number of debilitating illnesses, including viral encephalitis and hip problems, but has shown all the resilience of her showbusiness background to return to the fray on the stage and now, possibly, on television.