Posh & Becks spark a British invasion

Uh oh. First Ant & Dec and now this. It looks as if NBC has opened the floodgates with its bright idea of pouring millions into a reality show starring a pair of British tabloid celebrities no one in America gives a toss about. Months before the launch of the summer series starring Skinny Spice and David Beckham, E! Entertainment is throwing up a retread, starring another vacuous plastic surgery-enhanced UK tabloid couple unknown on these shores.

E!'s bought up the rights to the UK series Katie and Peter, which follows the romance of a pair who fell in love while competing on I'm A Celebrity! Get Me Out of Here!, and then, like Peter Brady and that messed-up Top Model winner who met on The Surreal Life, turned their romance into a reality series. The only difference is that Katie and Peter allowed full access into their empty lives, including their engagement, wedding and birth of their first child.

Katie is Katie Price, a model who for some reason is also known as "Jordan," is a tabloid celeb best known for her artificial breasts, sexual relationships with footballers and boy band singers, abortions, miscarriages, topless pix, appearances in Playboy-- and a sex video.

Peter is Peter André, sort of a straight George Michael with less talent: a Greek Australian pop crooner who had some success in the UK, but had faded into obscurity by the time he hooked up with the desert island reality show.

The couple taped three seasons and even received a BBC award as The Most Annoying Couple of 2006.

E! plans to air at least 22 episodes beginning April 21st. The show will be paired with The Girls Next Door (good tie-in-- Katie, as Jordan, was a Hefner fave and, at his invitation, lived in the mansion for a few weeks-- probably getting it on with the geezer-- back in 2002). And, perhaps as a warning, E! exec Cyndi McClellan says British celebrity couples are literally lining up to tape reality shows that will introduce them to US audiences.

Just don't expect the same level of access or reality from the Beckhams. The NBC series is being quietly scripted as a comedy, and word is they've even cast someone to "play" a bodyguard in order to inject some drama and conflict into their dreary British lives.

(See a Katie & Peter in action-- in a music video-- here.)

(See some NSFW pix of Katie, er Jordan, here).