Rula Lenska - Celebrity Big Brother

Her work on tour with the London Gay Men's Chorus is assumed to have prompted her participation in the United Kingdom version of Celebrity Big Brother in January 2006. Her reason for accepting the invitation to go on the show was "I'm a crazy Polish countess who likes a challenge". During the show, she declared that she had been a “Tibetan Buddhist” for many years but had been practising “Buddhism for the common man”, which has no hierarchical structure (Nichiren Daishonin), for two years. On 13 January 2006, with fellow housemate, British MP George Galloway, she attracted the attention of the media by indulging in a role-play task set by Celebrity Big Brother, in which Galloway, as a cat, pretended to lick milk from her cupped hands, and Lenska stroked his ears and moustache. On another occasion during her time in the BB house, when accidentally locked in the toilet, singer Pete Burns quipped, "Oh dear, what can the matter be, clapped out actress stuck in the lavatory." Lenska was voted out of the show on 20 January 2006, the third housemate of the series to be evicted, after Jodie Marsh and Faria Alam.

On 23 January, three days after eviction, she gave an interview to UK radio station BBC Radio 5 Live berating Burns for his attitude and unfriendliness towards her. She also expressed disgust at Burns's wearing of a monkey fur coat. The "cat" incident with Galloway was highlighted, but Lenska insisted that there was nothing "untoward" about it, and laughed off any suggestion that she was romantically interested in the controversial MP. Her chosen charities were Wildlife Line and Children in Crisis.