Aussies Nicole Kidman and Kylie Minogue were both at the Billboard Awards last night wearing black dress with beaded lace see-through sections. Both of their dresses were fug in unique ways. Nicole sported her usual matronly style and all her bits were covered. She wore a dress that looked like it should have ended mid thigh but somehow continued to floor length and gave us a glimpse of her legs on the way down. Nicole’s hair was really pretty in a loose side braid and I loved her earrings. I would have liked the dress if it didn’t have the see-through panel across the bottom and if she could have resisted sticking her hands in the pockets. She’s got an “aw shucks” look going on.

Nicole’s face is softening up a bit and you can tell she’s eased up a little on the Tox and fillers, although she’s still impossibly smooth and her lips look as plump as usual. When you compare her to poor alien-looking Kylie Minogue, she looks pretty normal. Doesn’t Nicole look a little high though, like she just smoked a joint in the limo?

Kylie has been cat-eyed and wrinkle free for a very long time, bless her heart. While she’s tried to claim that she doesn’t use Botox anymore, I think she means strictly Botox and isn’t counting any other injectables or work she’s had done.

Kylie wore a black crinkly-looking short dress with black sequins and rose details. The dress just looked like it would itch and it was bunching up slightly in the wrong areas. I could see her underwear through the skirt and it’s a good thing they were full coverage. She had on some banging black peep toe platform shoes with tiered fringe. I usually don’t like fringe on anything, but those shoes are awesome. She paired her dress with chunky white gem dangle earrings and a matching ring. It was all rather jarring put together, but I feel bad for picking on Kylie.

Photo credit: Fame and WENN

Over the weekend, I did a post about Kylie Minogue’s appearance on the new issue of Blackbook Magazine. I’ve always considered Kylie to be a cute girl, and it pains me how much work she’s had done to her face. It also pains me that we’re supposed to pretend her face is the product of some Botox that she no longer does. Another thing that bothers me? Kylie thinks she’s way more important than she is. Sure, I’ll give her the gay icon status, and yes, I’ll give her a “dance-music queen” title too. She’s made some good to great dance music, and she’s famous for having a great ass. She’s also a cancer survivor, and I can’t imagine how much she’s struggled over the past years, dealing with cancer treatments and then remission, not knowing if it was going to come back. But she reckons that she and Madonna are on the same field, and that she (Kylie) is one of Lady Gaga’s influences. The full Blackbook interview is here, and here are some highlights:

On her business savvy: “I have big ambitions,” says Minogue, once the most-groped wax figure at Madame Tussauds’ famed London gallery. “But I’m really quiet about it. What’s that saying? ‘Never let people know how much you know.’”

On her early acting career: “Acting was the first thing I did when I left high school,” she says. “I signed up for the dole when I graduated, but I never got a check because I started working on Neighbours. Fame wasn’t the driving force, but I can’t say I didn’t aspire to it at all. I used to daydream as a kid that my neighbor was a record producer and that he would hear me singing.”

On her career, post-cancer: “When I came back after I’d healed, I realized, more than ever, that performing is what I do,” she says. “It’s what I love to do. Strangely, I’m less stressed about getting in front of an audience now, and so the shows have gotten better.”

On her new album: “I don’t think I’ve ever felt like this about an album. Although I’m not taking the title too literally,” she says, “Aphrodite is the goddess of love, and as far as the music goes, there’s a feeling of euphoria on this one.” Perhaps this new sound reflects her current state of mind? “Am I happy right now?” she asks. “What’s happy? I have moments of happiness and sometimes they’re even strung together, but I definitely have dark moments, too. Thankfully, those don’t last very long. I can go down very quickly, but I won’t stay there.”

On being a gay icon: It’s hard to imagine where Minogue would be today without her gay following, a devout demographic she first encountered in 1998, when drag queens began performing her songs in Sydney, Australia. “I was ecstatic when I found that out,” she says. “Shocked, but ecstatic. Before I knew it, I was cradled in their arms.” Her star rose in tandem with her over-the-top stage show, suggesting that perhaps Minogue knew a good thing when she saw it. But, she insists, “As far as the music goes, I’ve just kept doing what I do, which is, I suppose, what endeared me to them in the first place.” But surely there are times when she caters to her gay fans? “I don’t know how to answer that question,” she says, before a considerable pause. “To be honest, I like not having an answer to that question, because it was never calculated in that way.”

On the comparisons to Madonna: “But it’s a bit of a lazy comparison now,” she says. “If someone were to look at it more closely, they’d see that I have a lot of influences that precede Madonna.” She adds, “We have friends in common. She’ll pass me a message and I’ll pass a message back to her. I’m sure we’ll meet one day and have a good laugh.”

On Lady Gaga: The terrain of dance-pop has shifted considerably over the last couple of years, namely because of Lady Gaga, whose oddball combination of couture and camp has endeared her to fans of all sexual persuasions. “I think there’s an element of me in her, but you’d also have to add into that mix all of the other women we’ve been talking about,” she says. “It’s all part of a chain. Inasmuch as dance music has gone mainstream, I’d love to think that I’ve played a part in that.”

[From Blackbook]

Am I crazy, or does Kylie only really have a devoted following in Australia and the UK? Sure, she had some hits in America, but is she really this global superstar? Eh. And maybe I like Lady Gaga too much (true story), but it seems like Gaga is out there doing her own thing for the most part, and handing the other dance hall favorites (Madge, Kylie) their collective asses. Gaga has had how many number one hits in the past three years? More than Kylie has had in her whole career.

BlackBook photos courtesy of The Fashion Spot.

Back in May, CB wrote about Kylie Minogue and her somewhat new catlike face. Now, I generally don’t notice Kylie either way – I’ve never thought much of her, but I did think she used to be a pretty cute girl. But at some point over the past year, Kylie has had some MAJOR work done. Take a look at the July cover of BlackBook Magazine - if I hadn’t told you this was Kylie, would you have known? This is getting into Madonna territory. As in, I feel physical pain when looking at a photo of Kylie, just because I can’t imagine being that insecure, that you would get all that sh-t done to your face.

Anyway, BlackBook hasn’t released anything from their interview, but Kylie did sit down with the Times Online to talk about cancer, Botox and boys. Full interview is here and here are some highlights:

She says she’s stopped doing Botox. “It gave me a bad rap. Isn’t that the saying?”

On beauty treatments, etc: “It fascinates me that I’m asked so much about it, when advertising for face products is forced down our throats. There are some things you can do,” she says. “Most people have done them. You can have microdermabrasions and micropeels. If these things are going to give you better skin, why not? My face has gone through a lot of changes. If you look back to before I was ill, there was nothing of me. I didn’t realise it at the time, but in a way I looked much older than I do now. All of me is just fleshier now, but my face changed. It filled out, it puffed up with the drugs. It’s not puffed now, but then it was because of the chemotherapy and steroids. Nobody saw me much — I was under the radar — but there are pictures of me. I could see my cheeks via my peripheral vision. I’d never noticed my cheeks before, but I could look down and I was like, ‘Those are my cheeks!’ ”

On aging and still having “it”: “Now it gets written about because I’m in that age group. ‘She’s in her forties and she’s still got it.’ I’m in the age range where you’re spoken about like that, and I’m like, ‘Shut up, because at some point it won’t be.’”

When she broke up from the French actor Olivier Martinez in February 2007, after four years together, she never bitched about him or was bitter. “I’m a fatalist,” she says. “I always feel that a relationship runs for the duration it’s meant to.”

On her new boyfriend, Spanish model Andrés Velencoso: They met in October 2008 at a birthday party for the burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese, and she says she’s still blissed out with him. “He just left this morning, actually. We had takeaway Spanish last night because I’m very good friends with the Spanish restaurant. I liked it before I met him.”

[From Times Online]

The interview goes on a lot longer than that, but it was annoying me too much and I didn’t finish reading it. I don’t know how many times that writer talked about how Kylie “refused to complain.” The writer usually mentioned it right after Kylie bitched about something. As is her right – it’s the contradiction in the text that bothered me, and the idea that we’re supposed to be seeing Kylie as a good-natured cancer survivor (which she is, honestly) that would never complain and always be upbeat and positive. So… it’s not enough that she survives, now she can’t even complain, ever? Oh, and Kylie is so full of sh-t about the Botox. Look at that magazine cover again if you don’t believe me.

BlackBook cover courtesy of BlackBook online.

I hate to talk smack about Kylie Minogue because she’s a lovely human being and a cancer survivor. In fact I went back and forth on whether to report on this and Kaiser finally convinced me it would be ok. She wrote “It’s not like we made her get a facelift, you know?” Kylie went to an event last week and she just looks so cat-like. She’s looked like this for years, but I never remember her being so utterly smooth and alien. It’s sad when beautiful women jack up their faces.

So what is this? Is this too much Botox? I think it’s a face lift from several years ago in conjunction with Botox, but I’m by no means an expert. Kylie is just 42 years old!

I looked up some older photos to compare, and it’s hard to see when she may have had (more) work done, if it was recently, as she always wears sunglasses when she’s out. Kylie was looking pulled just as tightly at Fashion week in early March, though. (Those photos are with the nude-colored top.) She looked like she could move her face more in February, although she’s had that oddly arched right eyebrow for as long as I can remember. (February pictures are with the black and red outfits.)

In fact I had to go all the way back to 1997 to find a picture of Kylie without those unnaturally high eyebrows. A photo from 2004 (sea green dress below) shows her with the same odd face. So I’m voting for a facelift or eye lift over five years ago, plus way too much Botox. It’s a shame and I hope she sees what it’s done and lays off the stuff for a while.

All photos credit: WENN.com

Kylie Minogue has been out talking about her breast cancer, and two things about it have really struck true with me. First, is that she has not been given the all clear from doctors yet, that she still has to have regular checks.

“It’s not over,” quotes the Sunday Mirror, “I still go for regular check-ups. The ‘voyage’ doesn’t end suddenly. That’s why it’s so difficult to talk about it.”

However, despite admitting some of her management team feared her decision to announce her condition in May 2005 could harm her career, Kylie says she’s sure she made the right decision in going public.

“It’s wonderful to know that in talking about it, I’m perhaps helping women, families and also some men with breast cancer,” she explains.

Entertainmentwise

Secondly, that she was misdiagnosed initially and told everything was fine, and she only discovered the tumor on a second investigation.

“Listen, this is an opportunity for me to say something that I have not said before,” a nervous Minogue said.

“I was misdiagnosed initially.

“So my message to all of you and everyone at home is, because someone is in a white coat and using big medical instruments doesn’t necessarily mean they are right.”

Minogue did not give the date of the misdiagnosis, how long she went before the second check or if the misdiagnosis occurred in Australia or Britain.

But, she said the misdiagnosis happened before she embarked on her Showgirl concert tour.

Sydney Morning Herald

This is so important, to not feel intimidated when you go to see your doctor. If you feel something is wrong with your body, then something probably is. There is no need to feel embarrassed by getting a second opinion, or coming back for further tests. If your doctor makes you feel stupid, tell him he’s not doing his job properly by making you feel that way and get a new doctor.

Kylie also took the time to point out that getting married and having babies would be marvelous, but that she doesn’t “absolutely have to have children to make my life complete”.

Kylie is currently promoting her new album, titled X. She turns 40 in May.

Kylie Minogue is shown at The Brit Awards on 2/20/08, thanks to PRPhotos.

I just love when a couple divorces – wait, don’t judge me yet – and then they trade up. I’m so happy that they’ve met someone new, with a little bit of revenge factor in it for their ex. For example, Angelina Jolie splitting with Billy Bob Thornton and getting together with Brad Pitt is definitely trading up.

When it comes to the Natalie Imbruglia divorce from Daniel Johns, I’m not sure if her new man is an improvement. Daniel Johns is sexy and talented and they share a passion for music, but Sam Branson would have to be one of the most eligible bachelors in England. The thing is, he’s 23 while Natalie is 33.

Natalie Imbruglia is reportedly romancing Sir Richard Branson’s son.

The ‘Torn’ singer – who recently split from husband Daniel Johns – was seen canoodling with the Virgin tycoon’s son Sam during a bash at London’s Kensington Roof Gardens.

The £100,000 ski-themed party was held to celebrate Sam – who at 23 is 10 years Natalie’s junior – leaving to go on an Arctic expedition.

An onlooker said: “They are pretty besotted with each other and Natalie is even talking about meeting him in the Arctic.”

Sydney Morning Herald

Natalie was last linked to Razorlight rocker Johnny Borell. He managed to get hold of her phone number and called ‘constantly’, according to the Daily Mail. How does this guy meet all these beautiful women? He’s been linked to Kirsten Dunst and Emma Watson too – what do they see in him?

Natalie went on holiday last month with fellow Australian and Neighbours alumni Kylie Minogue. They traveled to Maritius, where they had a girlie good time, with massage and beauty therapy. That sounds like a fabulous idea, but at £3,000-a-night maybe it’s a little out of my reach. I’ll just go take a bubble bath.

Note by Celebitchy: Picture of Sam Branson from 2/8/07. Natalie Imbruglia is shown on 12/5/07.

Remember how everyone was getting those terrible helmet bangs about a year and a half ago and how Janet Jackson popularized it? My hairdresser had a big poster up from Jose Eber featuring that style, and when I asked him about it he just shook his head and said he hoped it would pass.

The severe bangs were flipped to the side until they slowly grew out to make way for more classic hair trends, but now they’re back again in all their forehead-blocking glory. I blame Katie Holmes for bringing back this questionable style. She manages to pull off a severe interpretation of her daughter’s bowl cut, but only because she has either naturally thin straight hair or enough volume has been taken out of her hair to make it flat and sleek. In my opinion this style just doesn’t work with thicker hair and looks silly.

Here are some celebrities who work it, and others who just should flip it to the side and wait for the trend to pass. Rather than group them according to my opinion, I’ll just post the photos and let you discuss. I don’t think this style works with hair that isn’t straight and thin, but you may disagree.

It’s just hair. It will grow out eventually and can be styled to compensate, but unlike a bad outfit you can’t just switch it for something else the next day without some effort.

Shown are Katie Holmes, Heidi Klum, Kate Hudson, Christina Ricci, Elle Macpherson, Selma Blair, Kylie Minogue, Kelis, Paula Abdul in a messy interpretation of the style, Rihanna, Myleene Klass, and Janet Jackson.

Can it be possible that the British tabloids have got it wrong? Only yesterday we reported that Kylie Minogue was spotted with handsome ex-boyfriend Olivier Martinez, and speculation was rife that she had a new life plan, complete with marriage and babies. Now it seems that their un-named source was wrong! As we reported, Kylie and Ollie were meant to be together again, after a year apart, and planning “to start a family, to marry her and to settle down.”

But, Kylie today released her new range of linen for your home, and denied the reports at her launch. It seems a bit coincidental that the range came out the same week as the rumours – was it a clever ploy to get more publicity?

Minogue told the Press Association: “I had dinner with my ex-boyfriend and next thing I know there’s a debate about whether we’re having a family. “We didn’t even talk about that. As I’ve maintained, we’re friends.”

Press Association

I’m actually not surprised about this, and according to relationship advice gurus, it’s a bad idea.

Paula Hall, relationship psychotherapist for Relate, said, “I don’t think there’s anything wrong in going back to your ex as long as you have resolved the problems which caused the break-up in the first place.

“Some couples get to the point of a break-up before they realise what they really want and it gives them the motivation to resolve their problems.”

But she said people should not return to a former partner just to have a family. “To get back together purely to have a baby is not necessarily a good idea – it depends on your expectations for both the relationship and parenting.”

icWales

That’s probably not bad advice, considering the stress a baby places on everyone around it!

Can you believe that Kylie is releasing a range of goods for your home? You can now not only listen to Kylie, but smell like her, wear her undies and swimsuits, and sleep with her sheets. How does she have time to actually maintain a music career? It’s probably a good thing that Kylie isn’t having a baby, as she’d have no time to raise the little one. Although, a rage of tiny Kylie Baby clothes would be really cute…

The new range of linens include bedding, towels, cushions and curtains in luxury fabrics and covered in sequins, diamantes and semi-precious stones. It is called At Home With Kylie.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Kylie Minogue is shown at the launch of At Home With Kylie in London yesterday, thanks to PRPhotos.

Kylie Minogue is just my favourite little Aussie, and ever since her break up with Olivier Martinez we’ve been hoping that she would find new love and have some babies. Now it seems she has a plan.

“Kylie has taken him back – with a new set of rules,” a friend of Miss Minogue’s told the Daily Mail.

“Ollie has agreed to try for a baby. That was always the stumbling block in their relationship. They have both been single for a year and Kylie has realised she has never had anyone that has matched up to him.

“A month ago, a mutual Parisian friend passed a message on to Kylie that Ollie was pining for her and deeply regretted the break-up. Two weeks later, Ollie called her late one night when he was a bit drunk. That was their first conversation in almost a year.

Before the break: Kylie and Olivier at the Laureus World Sports Awards in 2003

“Since that time, they have been regularly calling, having intense conversations and texting incessantly.

“Ollie has told her he is ready to start a family, to marry her and to settle down. It was against that background that this first meeting happened last week.

“They have decided that if they have no success within a year, they will try to adopt.

“Olivier was always unsure of adoption before and neither did he want to have a baby naturally. He did not want to marry either. But after being apart for a year, he has obviously had a change of heart.”

Daily Mail

The Daily Mail adds that the couple spent much of the weekend together, with Olivier’s dog Sheeba. Kylie has had a long history of spending time with the pooch, often being seen taking her on walks in Paris. Which probably means that the phone calls of the last few weeks aren’t the first contact the couple have had.

While Martinez’s family are happy to see the couple together, apparently Kylie’s aren’t pleased, although the Daily Mail offers no explanation. Maybe it could be those rumours about Olivier’s sex scene with Diane Lane in the film Unfaithful – some viewers thought they were a little too convincing.

The steamy sex scenes in the 2002 thriller, which also starred Richard Gere, were made to look so lifelike that internet gossips have claimed that the actor’s went one step further during taping.

But 42-year-old Lane – who is now happily married to ‘No Country For Old Men’ actor, Josh Brolin – insists that the rumours are not true.

Mercy me, no no, no. That was wishful thinking on somebody’s part,” Lane told US talk show host, Tyra Banks.

“That’s not for me. That’s a whole different thing, and I like this industry better than that one.”

Celebrity Truth

How could you possibly manage to fool everyone on the set? Surely someone would notice – I hope that there is big difference between fake sex and real sex. Actually, I can’t imagine many things less appealing than sex, on a film set, with strangers watching.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Images are older ones of Kylie Minogue and Oliver Martinez at the Laureus World Sports Awards in 2003.

\Every year the Australian government holds a G’Day LA convention to promote Australia to Hollywood, and this year Kylie Minogue and Olivia Newton-John turned up. Three’s no chance of the sweet-natured Olivia turning down a request for a tune, and since John Travolta was in the audience she thought it was a good time to belt out a number from Grease.

They (Travolta and Newton-John) snuggled on the red carpet first, but it was widely tipped the real prize would come later: the two of them singing together for only the third time since they did so to some public acclaim in Grease 30 years ago. Newton-John hit some other high notes first, restricting herself, she said, to hits written or produced by compatriots: Magic (John Farrar); Physical, slowed to a bossa nova (Steve Kipner); Hopelessly Devoted to You (Farrar). The latter has rarely been sung with the subject of the devotion present, so the room was charged and ready for something special. The possibility came next with another Farrar tune, this one requiring a male partner.

“I’ve got chills, they’re multiplying,” it starts. But no Travolta. He stayed resolutely seated, ignoring shouts from the crowd to assume his rightful place – and leaving the bloke from Newton-John’s backing band who took on vocal duty for You’re The One That I Want to face a bunch of historic stage nerves, and a story beyond compare to tell the grandkids. The Grease reunion thus foiled, Newton-John then let rip with her traditional closer, I Honestly Love You. Peter Allen wrote it, she’s sung it a million times, yet this time she seemed to find something else in the ballad again. The room stopped; a falling pin would have seemed an explosion.

Sydney Morning Herald

Given all the negative publicity John Travolta’s Scientology friends are getting lately, you would think it was time to try and indulge in some good, clean fun. For the cameras, of course. But John Travolta just doesn’t know when to say yes.

He was happy to get up and speak, paying tribute to Kylie Minogue and her representation of Australia. I wasn’t sure what he was actually doing at the Australian event, but it seems he’s a goodwill ambassador for Australian airline Qantas.

In some nice news for Olivia Newton-John, she seems happy and is planning on getting married again. In 2005 Olivia’s long-term partner went missing at sea, amid mysterious circumstances. She’s is now dating Australian businessman John Easterling, and told Extra that he is the man she wants to marry. Hopefully the feeling is mutual Olivia, or you’ve just let him know in a less-than-subtle manner!

Note by Celebitchy: Despite not singing with Newton-John, People quotes Travolta as saying “We see each other a couple of times a year. I love seeing her. She’s awesome.” He is also said to have yelled “Olivia, I love you. I honestly love you” when he was on stage after her performance.

Travolta also defended his friend and fellow cult member Tom Cruise’s near-intelligible rant watched ’round the world saying “We all have the right to practice how we feel. It finally becomes unfair.” What’s unfair is that your personal brand of “religion” costs tens of thousands of dollars, separates people from their families, works hard to suppress any amount of exposure of their methodology, and uses slave labor camps for members that aren’t towing the line. Video of a person who seeks out publicity freaking out while using terminology previously unknown to the general public is fair game.

Thanks to PRPhotos for these pictures of the G’Day USA Australia.com Black Tie Gala on 1/19/08, which took place in Hollywood, CA. Callista Flockhart and Harrison Ford, Kylie Minogue, Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna, Bindi and Terri Irwin. Olivia Newton John looks great – she’s 59!