Through reasons only known to themselves, aspirational coffee chain Costa recently chose durable tabloid magnet Peter Andre to front its publicity drive around the launch of its ’flat white’ coffee, featured in these very pages (see Masterclass, pages 34-35).

However, professional celebrity tittle-tattlers, The Mirror’s 3am Girls, were less than impressed when they received the invitation from Andre’s management, Can Associates, to witness his flat white-making masterclass in a Costa store, as it featured a number of very specific stipulations:

l "The interview will be about Costa Coffee and the event only."

l "3am online agrees to give Can Associates Limited full copy and headline approval of the interview."

l "3am online understands that no images of Katie Price can run with this feature, relating to this feature at all."

l "3am online, under all circumstances, must accompany the photographs of Peter Andre with positive text/captions/headings."

While most journo’s hackles would be raised by such demands, the 3am Girls devised a suitably withering response: "The reason this bothers us so much is because it’s Peter bloody Andre. Should it really be a special privilege to get a cup of coffee and five minutes of his time? He’d do well to remember that if it wasn’t for his marriage, he’d probably still be getting paid by Costa... it’s just that a barista’s salary has a few less zeros on it." Ouch!