Kylie Minogue wins British power award

Go Kylie! The Aussie diva has just been voted the UK’s most powerful celebrity! Kylie Minogue beat David Beckham, Jamie Oliver and George Clooney in the poll, which was carried out by research group Millward Brown.

The decision was made after analysing each star’s brand, familiarity with the public and their overall popularity. Kylie beat Cheryl Cole, who came second and Beckham, who was placed third. Apparently Kylie took the crown because there is no ‘negative buzz’ surrounding her.

I think she’s worthy of it. I have to say, that with the recent split between Cheryl and Ashley Cole after his alleged cheating, and the fact that Beckham has cheated on Posh in the past, Kylie is a much better role model. Not that it was Cheryl’s fault, but she did stay with Ashley after the first allegations – making it seem as though it’s ok to stray.

Personally, I think it’s nice to have a career woman win the award. Not only is Kylie a successful pop artist, she is also a very successful business woman, with underwear and perfume lines.

“Choosing which celebrity to work with is a tricky business for brands,” Millward Brown’s Mark Husak said.

“And since millions of pounds are often invested in the association, getting it right is as critical for brands as it is for celebrities.”

At the bottom of the successful celeb list was Amy Winehouse, Katie Price and Paris Hilton – no surprises there!

Lara Bingle… why do we care?

Lara Bingle...shock horror! She has her tits out... never seen that before!

The news this week has all been about Lara Bingle and Michael Clarke. So Bingle got her kit off a couple of years ago (what’s new?) and someone took some photos of her (again, what’s new?) and now, probably because of the way she’s dealt with it, Clarkey and her have called it quits.

Bingle kicked up a big stink about the photos, most likely in an attempt to win back some long-lost publicity, and ended up selling her story to a woman’s magazine for a large sum. I can’t see why else she made such a big fuss of it, seeing as most of the nation has seen her near-topless in the past. Clarke wasn’t happy with this extra spotlight on his life and, as a result, seems to have told Bingle to get a life.

But tell me this? Why do we care? And we must have some interest in the story because apparently most of the Australian news stations ran it as one of their top stories. The news (well commercial news anyway) will only broadcast stuff that sells. Does this mean that the news in Australia is worse than news in other countries (such as the UK) or does it mean that the Australian public wants trashier news than is served up in other nations?

I must admit, since I have been in the UK I have really enjoyed the news. The newspapers are much, MUCH better than those in Australia, especially those in my hometown of Perth. Don’t get me wrong though – there are trashy newspapers here too. The Sun and The Daily Star, to name a couple. However, the current affairs and news programs here are also much better than those in Australia. I think it just comes down to the fact that there is much more variety over here, which I suppose is what you get when you have a bigger population. Surprisingly, here I think that the commercial stations are often better than the BBC, whereas in Australia the ABC often broadcasts more interesting news than the commercial stations.

There have been a lot of scandals in English football at the moment, with affairs and so on, and it times it has been the lead story on some of the news stations. But they don’t seem to carry on about the issue for weeks and weeks like they seem to do in Australia. I like this. I also like the fact that there is always a lot of international news available over here. It’s perhaps due to the country’s proximity to other countries but whatever it is, it’s great.

As for Bingle and Clarke? Who cares! I haven’t heard anything about it being reported over here, even though it apparently has – just must not have been much because I haven’t seen it! (But check out http://www.australiantimes.co.uk for more coverage.) 

Just like the Ben Cousin scandals, no one has even heard of who Lara Bingle is outside of Australia. In fact, speaking of Ben Cousins… no one has heard of Australian Rules football outside of Australia, let alone its ‘celebrities’! Same goes for you Bingle! The best thing Clarke ever did was get rid of you.

I’m sure if your case, Lara, is successful against suing Brendan Fevola for $200,000 you will be able to dry your tears. And perhaps you’ll soon feature on this website of the top ten most stupid celebrity court cases: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2dYJs6/www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1970915_1970917,00.html/r:t Oh hang on a minute, can we call you a celebrity?