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Angela Shelton: I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!
by Troy Rogers
 What
happens when you drop a bunch of celebrities in
the Costa Rican jungle and pit them against each
other in various physical, extreme, and stomach
challenging tests of intestinal fortitude for
charity? A lot of unexpected Fear Factor style
celebrity drama that fans have a say in perpetuating
or eliminating from I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out
of Here! With such notable names feeling the heat
of reality competition, there's a hotbet of celebrity
survival in a cast that includes Stephen Baldwin,
Janice Dickinson, former NBA great John Salley,
Heidi and Spencer from The Hills, Lou Diamond
Philips, former American Idol cast-off Sanjaya
Malakar, the comedy duo Frangela, new addition
Daniel Baldwin, and more.
After surviving the Costa Rican jungle to the first elimination, one half of the comedy duo, Frangela, Angela Shelton, battled not only her fellow celebs but also rat-in-the-hole dangers while horking down bugs and insects for charity. By the end of he first elimination stage of I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!, which earlier saw John Salley and Janice Dickinson reduced to tears, Angela Shelton became the first celebrity to "Get Out" of the jungle.
The following morning, we hopped on the line for a conference call chat with Frangela comedy girl Angela Shelton to find out how she battled elements and egos before getting out in one piece.
THE DEADBOLT: Aside from being eliminated, what was the worst part overall?
 ANGELA
SHELTON: [laughs] Oh, that wasn't that bad,
being eliminated. You know, outside of not being
able to bring home what I wanted to for my charity,
Covenant House, I'm very grateful to America
in a lot of ways. The worst part about being
there, I think, is that it's just physically
hard, like getting there was hard. I didn't
think Francis and I were going to make it through
the walk to camp, and once that happened I was
like, "Oh, we're in trouble. We couldn't even
get here." [laughs]
THE DEADBOLT: Did you start to think of how to get out of there if you could barely make to camp?
ANGELA: Well, that's the thing, you start looking for routes but there's no way to escape. You're in the jungle. It's not like, turn left at that palm tree. You've got to wait until they take you home.
THE DEADBOLT: You mentioned that the bugs were biting everybody. But since you guys bit them back, what did they taste like?
ANGELA: I'm going to tell you: at first you don't like it and you want them away from you. And then you're just like, "Maybe that's a little protein. Maybe it'll help me get through this hungry night without these rice and beans." You get over it quick.
THE DEADBOLT: Did they taste like nuts or [were they] bitter or salty or what?
 ANGELA:
No, they taste like bugs. They don't taste like
chicken or any of that, it's definitely gross.
Everything we had, besides the rice and beans,
the stuff that's for the trials and stuff, it's
all disgusting. I mean, disgusting, and it's
something you can't get rid of, the taste. It
took me two days to get the milkshake cow intestine
taste out of my mouth.
THE DEADBOLT: What did you think when Daniel Baldwin dropped in?
ANGELA: It was so shocking and such
a breath of fresh air. He is hysterical and
such a hard worker. He came in and immediately
was like, "What can I do?" So just surviving
on a camp level, it was great, because we had
somebody else and there's so much to get done,
and we're all cut up and bit up and weak. So
to have somebody more at the top of his game
come in was great. And the stories between him
and his brother are hysterical.
THE DEADBOLT: What's your take on Sanjaya? So far, everyone I've talked to is split.
ANGELA: I think Sanjaya will be in the top whatever, 2 or 3, or whatever it is. He's one with the jungle. I mean, one, with it. He's covered in mud, he doesn't care about any of that - I'm going to tell you Sanjaya's weakness: his problem is he's getting bored. Because so much of what we do when we're not doing a trial - we usually have 1 or 2 of those a day. What the rest of it is about is survival, cooking and cleaning or whatever - it's not interesting. And he's a person who needs to always be doing something. He wants to play games, and he wants to sing, and he can't really sing because music has to be cleared. So I think that's hit him really hard, because he's a person who sings all of the time. So if I think if there's anything that might do him in, it will be just - You know what? He needs a 19 year-old friend. A 19 year-old friend and somebody to play with [laughs].
THE DEADBOLT: I was really shocked to see John Salley crying the other night. What did you think of the blow-up between him and Janice Dickinson?
 ANGELA:
You know, I don't know what you guys saw or
didn't see. The reality is, and I know the show
gets edited or whatever, and I have no idea,
but that altercation was surprising to everyone
and I think most surprising to him. He is a
very peaceful man. He's a vegan, you know. [laughs]
He is all about peace and it takes a lot to
get somebody like that that hot and that mad
and sort of out of control for a moment. And
I tell you, he has regretted it and he is pained
about it, and every single moment of that remorse
is absolutely sincere. And he said to us afterward,
"This is such an amazing lesson for me, because
for the last 20 years I thought I was beyond
this kind of behaviour." You know, it shows
you you still got work to do. I will tell you:
whatever they showed you, there was a lead up
to it. [laughs] I don't know what you saw, but
John didn’t just turn around and attack. Janice
can be a little trying and in this environment
it's a little hard to keep focused.
THE DEADBOLT: Well, he even said in his video that she knew which buttons of his to push and she pushed them.
ANGELA: Yeah, she called him a bunch of really heinous names. I don't know what got her beforehand and I'm gonna tell you [that] we were all shocked because he and Lou Diamond Philips are like Buddhas. Nothing seems to phase them, it was really amazing, and I felt really bad for him because he's really gone through a lot since that moment. But he says he thinks it was a positive experience, he wishes he hadn't done it, but he learned a lot.
THE DEADBOLT: Were you worried about anything going into the show? Maybe a water challenge or snakes or something?
ANGELA: I was just worried about being outside and the bugs and just camping and really having to make our own way. Definitely we all have fears. Like nobody is a big fan of the spider, to be honest. As a group, well, I guess that's one of those - most people are afraid of them. These spiders, they're more like the size of dogs, and they look at you. I swear all of those little eyes look at you and you're like, "Oh, my God.!" [laughs] It's so terrifying. But yeah, I was definitely worried about the bugs and the spiders. Actually, the eating things isn't as bad as having them crawl on you.
THE DEADBOLT: I'm curious about Heidi and Spencer, because Janice Dickinson told me that she ran into them at a gas station and they told her they only planned on being there for three weeks because they had other things to do.
 ANGELA:
Yes. Oh, they said that whole time. Their other
show, The Hills, is going to start taping soon
and they had no intention of being there that
long anyway.
THE DEADBOLT: So why do they care if they come back or not?
ANGELA: Well, I haven't spoken to them, and I haven't seen any TV or press since I left, because I'm in this little bungalow and it doesn't have anything set up. So my guess would be that they discovered there was more to get out of being there than not.
THE DEADBOLT: They want more camera time, I guess.
ANGELA: That would be my guess, because that seems to be their motivating force in life. But I don't know how they've been portrayed. I don't know what people are saying about them. So I don't know if they got out and were like, "We got to go back." I know that they begged to come back. Maybe it's true. Maybe they've had a conversion and they really feel like they should go back and do better and act right. One can only hope.
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