Piers Morgan

Piers appeared as a guest on Have I Got News for You in 1996, and he and Ian Hislop failed to keep their mutual contempt off-screen. Hislop directly accused Morgan of having him (Hislop) followed and his house watched. The conflict escalated from there and at one point Angus Deayton asked if they wished to go outside and have a fight. In what was not Morgan's finest moment, approximately halfway through the show, when shown his question in the "Odd One Out round" (Rupert Allason; Sting; a koala; Geoffrey Clements) he 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". When Hislop successfully made the 'jam' joke later in the programme, 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, and Morgan appeared to be humiliated. 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. 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 the common practice of inserting a nickname in quotes between first name and surname, as 'Piers "Morgan" Moron'). 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. During his time at the Mirror, Morgan frequently threatened to publish damaging stories about Hislop, and while they never appeared, Morgan has staged numerous petty attacks on Hislop such as gate-crashing a book signing with 'protestors' proclaiming 'Gnome Go Home'.

Private Eye has also mocked Morgan for his relationship with Marina Hyde, now a columnist on The Guardian, not least because both parties were at the time married to other people. Their involvement became known via leaked amorous emails while Hyde was working for The Sun and Morgan the Daily Mirror. A feature of the Private Eye treatment of this episode was to contrast its furtive nature with the manner in which Morgan regularly promoted his nuptials in the 'Bizarre' column when he was showbusines

Piers also has a long-running public feud with Jeremy Clarkson, one of the presenters of Top Gear. In October 2003, on the last Concorde flight, Clarkson threw a glass of water over Morgan while the two were exchanging insults. In March 2004, at the British Press Awards, Clarkson cursed at Morgan and punched him three times leaving Morgan with a scar above his left eyebrow; apparently Clarkson was angry that the newspaper had published photographs of him with a woman who was not his wife. Recently Morgan and Clarkson appear to have resolved their differences according to Morgan's newspaper column.

Piers is now working on the Television Show-You can't sack me I'm a Celebrity-Quite apt really considering his chequered career.