Alexander Matthew Wright (born July 8, 1965 in Croydon, Surrey) is a British journalist and Television presenter.He attended the John Fisher School in Purley, London at the same time as his good friend, the well-known artist and sculptor Diarmuid Byron O'Connor and DJ Gilles Peterson. Actor Bill Nighy was also an alumnus of the school.He was a showbiz journalist with The Sun before getting his own column with The Daily Mirror in the 90s. After quitting the Mirror in 2000 to launch mykindaplace.com, he went on to host his own daytime talk show The Wright Stuff. It was on this show that Wright inadvertently 'outed' John Leslie as the celebrity that had allegedly raped Ulrika Jonsson. Police investigated Leslie but never charged him with respect to the Jonsson case. Wright and Leslie later made fun of the situation in the video for Bo' Selecta's 2003 Christmas single.Matthew met one of his heroes, Dave Brock, leader of veteran rock band Hawkwind while working at LBC. Brock couldn't believe his ears when Wright started singing along to all the Hawkwind records they played that morning, getting all the lyrics right; something Brock has sometimes struggled with on stage. Dave invited Matthew to join the band to sing his favourite Hawkwind song, Spirit of the Age, at London's Astoria Theatre in December 2003. In 2005 he appeared on the Hawkwind album, Take Me to Your Leader, providing guest vocals on a new version of "Spirit of the Age".Matthew has presented Radio 2's arts and culture show The Weekender which airs every Friday night from 10pm. It is also available on the Listen Again feature on the BBC Radio 2 website. Recent guests have included Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, Jarvis Cocker and Damon Albarn.In March 2006 Wright was arrested on suspicion of riding a bicycle in a public park. On numerous occasions he has used his media ventures in order to express frustration that the police had "nothing better to do". Divorced, Matthew is reputed to be single.The Wright Stuff is a British television chat show, hosted by Matthew Wright, and currently airing on Five each weekday at 9:00amThe format is based upon the more traditional radio phone-in, featuring well-known guests discussing topical issues, and encouraging contributions from the studio and television audiences, text messages, e-mails and a phone vote.It first aired on 11 September 2000 and was created at Anglia Television who produced it for two years until their takeover by Granada. It is produced by Princess Productions. Originally broadcast from Anglia TV in Norwich, it is currently broadcast from Princess Productions studios on the third floor of Whiteley's Shopping Centre, Bayswater, London.Regular panel members include Janet Ellis, Dr David Bull, Lowri Turner, Cece Sammy, Anne Diamond, David Grant, Linda Papadopoulos, Ed Vaizey, Dave Gorman, Henry Bonsu, Martin Lewis, Richard Park and Kate Silverton. James O'Brien was a regular in the early days. Vanessa Feltz was also a regular guest until she had a radio show which aired live at the same time as the Wright Stuff, she has also been the guest presenter in Wright's absence. Piers Morgan, Emily Maitlis and Anneka Rice, have occasionally presented the show in Wright's absence also.A presenter sits in a booth to introduce the phone contributors; these have included Becky Jago, Beth Palmer, Sarah Hogan, Stef Aleksander and Korin Nolan.In 2002, the show was at the centre of a minor media scandal when Wright accidentally named John Leslie on air as the anonymous rapist mentioned in Ulrika Jonsson's autobiography. Since this time, Wright has been notably reticent about discussing issues that involve "unnamed" celebrities, such as the 2006 "football player and mobile phone" scandal - often remarking "given my previous record on certain issues, I feel more than a little nervous discussing this".Myspace Graphics
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