ROBBIE'S GUTTED!
POP star Robbie Williams has been left fuming after being told he is TOO FAT to appear in his own video.
Robbie, 24, couldn't believe it when he found out that a body double had been hired to appear in the promo for the American release of his smash hit Angels.
The singer - who has repeatedly threatened to quit the music biz recently - has told record bosses he considers the video snub the "final insult". And his manager Tim Clark fired off an angry letter to execs at Robbie's EMI label complaining about the singer's American marketing campaign. A source close to the star said: "Robbie just couldn't believe what he was hearing when he was told about the body double.
"The video plot revolves around a sexy guy who finds his perfect woman. But for all the scenes of romance or nudity Robbie's role is played by somebody else."
Embarrassing
It is believed that American label chiefs were unimpressed with the original video made for Angels' UK release and ordered a remake to be shot in Los Angeles in August. They reckoned Robbie failed to make the grade as the George Clooney-style hunk they were looking for.
One US music critic who has seen both films said: "The director clearly felt Robbie's rather tubby shape wouldn't go down well with the American target audience. In fact there is precious little of him in the video at all."
Robbie was nicknamed Blobby when he piled on the pounds after leaving boy band Take That. He recently admitted: "I was called a fat joke and they were right."
But after a spell in a rehab clinic he shed some much of the weight. And only last month he topped a magazine poll of the world's sexiest men. But an insider on the singer's British record label said: "It suggests that American women have a much different taste in their men than we do." In his angry letter of complaint, Robbie's manager Clark criticises EMI bosses' decision not to release his best-known song Angels BEFORE he set off on his extensive American concert tour. It will be out in the States later this month.
He says: "The record company have now missed the opportunity to bring the song to the attention of millions of American fans."