BEN CHRONICLES LIFE ON THE A-LIST

Thursday June 26,2008

AS the handsome young star of The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian, which opens today, British actor Ben Barnes now regularly rubs shoulders with Hollywood A-listers – instead of pretending to meet them as he once did.

At 19, he successfully auditioned for a Sunday morning children’s TV series, S Club TV, created by Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller.

One of the other successful wannabes was Holly Willoughby.

“I don’t think I was a very good TV presenter,” accepts Ben, 26.

“My job was to interview stars but every week they had me putting the questions to a floating tennis ball while someone else went off to meet the star and added my bit in later. It was bizarre.”