Celebrity survivor

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Surely all this can't last forever, can it? I ask an exhausted Piers Morgan at 7am New York time, as he lies recovering from another 18-hour day in his palatial king-size bed at the Trump International Hotel. "I mean fame and celebrity are temporary and in a couple of years everyone will have forgotten who Piers Morgan is, won't they?"

"I'd hope I'm not on the way out yet mate, but thanks for your cheery thoughts," the former decade-long editor of the UK's tabloid newspaper The Daily Mirror and now international media superstar jokes amicably. "I'd literally rather be in Dantés inferno than what I'm going through here," he adds, complaining about his shattering routine. If only I'd asked him a few hours later it would have been funnier.

Whatever you people may think of Piers Morgan, on one side many call him a great writer, editor and TV personality, and the other a man with no morals who allegedly faked a series of photos showing British soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners, he's one of life's survivors. But he knows how lucky he is.

"My grandmother always used to say ‘one minute you're the clock on the wall, the next you're the feather duster'."

In the media industry, where fame today lasts far less than the previously clichéd 15 minutes, those that live to tell the tale are few and far between. Fortunately for him, and following an incredible amount of grit and determination, he's one of them. "Who do you remember from the industry who's been through what I have and come out on the other side smiling?" he asks. On the spot I can't think of a single name, and even as I write this I fail to do so.

Morgan has had his fair share of negative events throughout his career and personal life. He's been through endless court cases and litigation battles, a failed marriage, been in front of the UK's Press Complaints Commission on numerous occasions, been subject to more investigations that I've had hot dinners and crucially, and most spectacularly, fired from his dream editorship at the Daily Mirror in 2004 after 10 years at the helm of one of Fleet Street's institutions.

"I didn't have any choice in the matter," he admits. "It was either sink or swim. I wasn't going to get another editorship in the short-term as I was deemed too controversial and too dangerous and it had all been too much of a firestorm, but that was my trade, that was what I was good at so I had to work out an entirely new career for myself."

In a similar way to previous events in his life he took the punches, but at the same time, and as any successful media chameleon, spotted the change to re-invent himself when it mattered most.

"Just to get to where I was on the Mirror was a long, hard process. By the time I'd done 10 years I was earning very, very good money and one day it's all taken away from you and you suddenly find your whole standard of living is imperilled and so I had to go out and work very, very hard," he explains vividly.

"I'm actually quite proud of the portfolio of different types of work I've built up because a lot of people when they're fired as editors either just become PR men, because there's very little alternative, or they just melt away into obscurity. I was absolutely determined that wasn't going to happen to me.

Morgan's resolve can only be admired. His principal charm, however, is that he just doesn't care, he just does things by his own terms and has somehow managed to create what many media professionals dream of - a life of variation, opportunity and complete and utter freedom. Why should he care, he tells me bluntly.

"Right now I'm in the number one summer show in the US, I'm in the number one show, period, in England and I've got my own interview series for BBC1 which is doing very well and has just been re-commissioned.

"I've got the book, the GQ interviews, the column [in the Mail on Sunday], and the public speaking so I wouldn't say I'm on the path to poverty and obscurity at the moment, would you?" he jokes.

Morgan loves firing back questions to the ones I pose him, that's what he does best - smart, witty, quick-fire remarks - and thats's why he's managed to turn what could have been a disastrous career-ending, publicly drawn-out drama into a multi-million dollar celebrity manoeuvre right slap bang in the middle of the big time.

As many have written before the previous celebrity writer has now ironically become one of the most recognised celebrity faces on television. His big break came at the BBC with a programme entitled The Importance of Being Famous charting the manner in which celebrities were covered by the modern media. This was swiftly followed by a more serious current affairs programme called Morgan & Platell alongside Amanda Platell, former head of media for the Conservative Party, a show he admits "no one watched".

"It's all very well interviewing Michael Portillo [former Conservative chief secretary to the Treasury] and some grizzly bearded bloke from the Labour Party [he hints at a description of Charles Clarke], the problem is nobody watches them.

"It was watched by half a million people whereas the final of Britain's Got Talent was watched by 14 million people. You work it out."

Not surprisingly Morgan has never ventured back into what he calls "serious work". Since the Channel 4 political chatshow was axed after three series due to poor ratings and allegations chairman Luke Johnson reportedly disliked the programme, he has stuck to what he's best at: performing.

"This is what I do," he explains. "There was no plan. It's like anything. I enjoy all the big shows I'm on because I love performing. In the days of the Mirror I used to treat the morning conferences like a performance, the only difference was that there wasn't a huge round of applause at the end of it, in fact there was a crescendo of low-level booing and they'd all shuffle out," he sniggers down the crackly phone line.

His big TV break however, came as late as the summer of 2006 when he was asked after a long audition and pilot process by NBC to appear as a judge on the ‘variety' equivalent of Pop Idol, America's Got Talent, alongside R&B singer Brandy and cult 1980s icon and former Knightrider and Baywatch star David Hasselhoff, aka ‘The Hoff'. The reality television series featuring amateur singers, dancers, magicians, comedians and other performers of all ages competing for a top prize of US$1m was an instant hit and brought with it fame, fortune and instant recognition for the previously deposed editor.

"Why would I want to do serious work when I can walk out in front of 1000 people in the audience on America's Got Talent and 25 million Americans watching at home and perform?" Morgan asks quite sensibly.

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