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Burnett and Downey
« on: Jun 29th, 2004, 10:43am » |
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New love served with regiment in Ulster
Derry star Roma finds romance with ex-Para
By Sean O'Driscoll
TWICE divorced TV star Roma Downey has found a new romance - former Parachute Regiment squaddie Mark Burnett, the producer of some of America's biggest reality shows.
Ulster-born Downey and Burnett have been seen together at an Elton John concert in Las Vegas and in New York at the opening of Brad Pitt's swords and sandals flick 'Troy'.
The couple have recently posed for photographers and Downey's fan website has confirmed the news.
Burnett, originally from east London, is one of the most powerful people in American TV, producing hit shows like 'Survivor' 'Casino' and the ratings super success 'The Apprentice', which featured contestants competing to work for property mogul, Donald Trump.
Trump has spoken of his close friendship with Burnett and hopes the two will work together in the future.
While Downey and Burnett share an outsider perspective on life in America, they come from very different backgrounds.
'Touched By an Angel' star Downey is from a nationalist part of Derry and her family knew some of those killed on Bloody Sunday.
She has often spoken about how the killings affected her family and community.
Burnett is a former member of the Parachute Regiment who served in Northern Ireland before making it big in the States.
In his autobiography he describes his Northern Ireland experience as "dangerous" and talks of how he hoped to make quick money by joining a mercenary group in Central America following his service in the Falklands war.
However, he stayed in the States, going through a series of low paid jobs before winning the US rights to a gruelling "eco race", which he later sold to MTV and a host of US TV channels.
Burnett is now one of the biggest producers in Los Angeles, arriving onto the reality show craze at the very beginning.
Downey, who is based in Salt Lake City, in Utah, has one daughter from her marriage to a film director.
Like Burnett, she came to the States to make it big, working as a cloakroom attendant before landing the part of Jackie Kennedy in 'A Woman Named Jackie'.
She later went on to star in her own religious-based hit serious 'Touched By An Angel', which was axed two years ago despite protests from family groups in the south and Midwest where the show was especially popular.
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