Kylie Minogue and Danny O'Donoghue on The Voice Australia

Kylie Minogue and Danny O'Donoghue on The Voice Australia's shortlist for Keith Urban replacement

 

WITH their best and most-popular mentor Keith Urban now departed for American Idol, producers of The Voice Australia are continuing their search for a worthy replacement - and the television industry is abuzz with talk of who will fill the significant void left by the country crooner.

Confidential hears some unlikely names have been added to the shortlist, with Irish singer and The Script frontman Danny O'Donoghue said to be among them.
A member of the four-pronged mentor team on The Voice UK, O'Donoghue is due to arrive in Australia this Saturday for a round of PR duties and it's rumoured he will be meeting with executives from both Channel 9 and Shine Australia (which produces the show).
Should the Irish pin-up ink a deal, producers will no doubt be hoping he does better here than the show's British equivalent, which was a flop when it aired earlier this year.

So bad was its performance it's understood O'Donoghue - along with judges Jessie J, Tom Jones and will.i.am - were all "reconsidered" by the broadcast network before signing for a second season.
Also believed to be at the top of The Voice Australia's wishlist is the singing budgie herself Kylie Minogue. However, sources close to the diminutive diva say she is reluctant to enter into a "talent show rivalry" with sister and Seven stable star Dannii.
Meanwhile, Urban had his first day on the American Idol set yesterday as details of the one-time Brisbane pub singer's salary trickled out

Kylie Minogue talks about her career

Kylie Minogue talks about her 'disastrous' acting career

As Kylie Minogue celebrates a quarter of a century in the music industry – she is lauded in some quarters as one of the all-time greats – the former Neighbours star concedes that she seldom hit the same high notes in her film career. “Most of the films I've done were just disastrous,” the singer admits.

Her latest film, Holy Motors, had artistic aspirations, but at Cannes it left critics scratching their heads. Still, it’s a few steps up from The Sullivans. All she remembers of the series she made as a child was how the sets “wobbled.”

Original move

Prince Harry may have attracted some unwelcome headlines, but he still has a fan in Craig Revel Horwood, the Strictly Come Dancing judge. “I met Prince Harry at Westminster and I want him to be my new boyfriend, but unfortunately I don’t think it is going to happen,” the 47 year-old sighs at a party in the West End.

Conveniently, Horwood has an idea that could bring the prince some good PR following his disastrous sojourn in Las Vegas. “I would love to see him on Strictly,” he says. “Maybe, if it were a charity event, we might be able to convince him. He gives it large and he’s just amazing.”

Out of tune
John Suchet, the Classic FM host, has a bone to pick with the radio station that employs him.
The 68 year-old says he was disappointed to discover that he couldn’t play Rodgers and Hammerstein on his radio show. “Sadly Rodgers and Hammerstein is not considered to be classical music,” Suchet laments.
He is campaigning to include at least a few of his favourite shows in the play lists. “I’d love to have more of the old American musicals on Classic FM. West Side Story is considered to be classical, funnily enough.
Recipe for success
As Nick Candy prepares to wed his fiancee Holly Valance in Los Angeles later this summer, it is of little surprise to Mandrake that the vows will not take place in his native Britain.
The real estate entrepreneur says the British don’t encourage success like the Americans. “We have a very bad culture of being dismissive and jealous,” Candy tells me at a Piccadilly gathering. “America are fighting back quicker than anyone as they want people to be successful.”

 

Kylie Minogue

Kylie Minogue: “I’m not shiny and happy all the time”

 

We’re used to thinking of Kylie as a very happy, smiley, shiny lady. Someone who you could do well to describe as “bubbly”, if only “bubbly” didn’t also sometimes mean “a bit chubby”.
But, as it turns out, she has her off days like the rest of us, and how she’s feeling inside doesn’t always match up to the carefree person we see on the outside.
She admitted: "No-one's shiny and happy all the time. There are other sides of me that an experience like this has allowed me to explore,"
In the interview with Total Film, she said: "My persona is 'Kylie'. As soon as I step out of my house I have that projection of me. But that isn't necessarily who I am. What face do I show?"
She revealed that her desire to project this image, to play at being the persona, helped her overcome breast cancer, which she was diagnosed with in 2005.
"Possibly because I was diagnosed mid-tour, that was my goal, to get back and perform. I just realised that no, this is what I do, and I want to do it better than before."

And she did return to top form, with incredible songs like All The Lovers, which got her a number one exactly 22 years after her very first number one. Surely that helps put a smile on her face!
This isn’t the first time Kylie has told us how her stage presence is different from the real her. She recently admitted that despite wearing very little in her recent video for Timebomb, she’s actually quite reserved.
She admitted in a Vevo interview: "I wore a very cheeky little outfit. People don’t believe it but I do get very shy and timid. I was like… ‘Oh god, please can’t there be more to this.’”

 

Kylie Minogue overlooked to carry Olympic torch in London 

 

OLYMPIC torch relay organisers have ruled out Kylie Minogue as a celebrity torchbearer, but have bestowed the honour on a Harry Potter actor and a rap group.
The former Neighbours actress turned global pop superstar is adored by Britain and calls London home.
It had been rumoured for months that the 44-year-old singer would carry the flame during its final journey through the capital.
“Pop queen Kylie is considered the ideal Australian to carry the Flame and will be cheered on her way by her thousands of dedicated fans,” British newspaper the Daily Mirror declared in February.
But Torch Relay organisers tonight dispelled the Kylie rumours, confirming Harry Potter actor Rupert Grint, 23, and Little Britain’s David Walliams would run with the torch instead.
“We will have some big name torchbearers,” LOCOG torch relays producer Deborah Hale said.

 “Kylie is not currently one of the torchbearers, no.”
Other A-list torchbearers carrying the flame in the final London leg will be former decathlete Daley Thompson, boxer Lennox Lewis, rower James Cracknell, rappers Rizzle Kicks and Britain’s Got Talent dance troupe Diversity.
The flame will make a dramatic entrance in London on Friday as a marine abseils with the torch from a Royal Navy Sea King helicopter into the Tower of London.
The torch will then pass landmarks including Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Downing Street and Trafalgar Square before journeying down the Thames on the Gloriana on July 27 ahead of the Opening Ceremony flame lighting at the Olympic Stadium.
Up to nine million people have seen the torch as it travelled across the UK and a further three million people are expected to flood the streets of London to cheer it.
Mayor for London, Boris Johnson, refused to comment on London’s anticipated crowd numbers but said it would be “substantial”.
“The arrival of the Olympic Flame is a huge moment for the capital and an incredible opportunity for Londoners to experience, right on their doorsteps, the growing excitement as the countdown to the start of the 2012 Olympic Games moves ever nearer,” he said.

 

Kylie Minogue gets emotional over award

Kylie Minogue was 'emotional' as she picked up an award at the Nordoff Robbins O2 Silver Clef Awards on Friday.
The Australian singer was honoured with the 25th Anniversary O2 Silver Clef award in recognition of her lengthy pop career and she admits she never expected to be given such an accolade.
She told BANG Showbiz: 'I never would have thought 25 years ago I could have got an award like this and I think that's why I was so emotional up there. It's really hard to comprehend and how to express my gratitude.'
Meanwhile Michael Buble was delighted with the 'great honour' of winning the Raymond Weil International Award, which has previously
been picked up by artists including Brian Wilson, Meatloaf, U2 and Brian Adams.
Speaking at the ceremony, which took place at London's Hilton Park Lane hotel, he said: 'It's such a great honour to receive something like this, the people that have been honoured are some of the most amazing people in the world so to belong to that group is a huge privilege for me.
'And of course music is such a huge part of my life and it's a pretty incredible thing that it has the power to change people's lives.
'It makes you really proud of what you're able to do. Money and fame are all great things but the fact you can really have an impact on people is a truly amazing thing.'
Other winners today including Manic Street Preachers, Fatboy Slim, Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Jessie J.
2012 Nordoff Robbins O2 Silver Clef Awardsþÿ list of winners:
Kylie Minogue - 25th Anniversary O2 Silver Clef award
Fatboy Slim - Investec Icon Award
Emeli Sande - American Express Innovation award
Conor Maynard - TAG Newcomer Award
The Manic Street Preachers - Hard Rock Cafe Ambassadors of Rock Award
Laura Wright - PPL Classical award
Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber - Sony Mobile Lifetime Achievement Award
Jessie J - Royal Albert Hall Best British Act
Michael Buble - Raymond Weil International Award

Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue

Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue to reunite for duet

IT'S the other royal celebration that is set to rock London, with Australian pop princess Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan to reunite for a duet honouring the British record producers who made them both music stars.
Donovan will wrap filming on Ten's Priscilla-style star search series I Will Survive on July 4, then rush back for the Hit Factory Live concert in London's Hyde Park a week later, celebrating the careers of Stock, Aitken and Waterman.
The Aussie pair will croon their chart-topping ballad Especially For You, which sold a million copies for the pop label - and put the two young actors on the world music map.
The song was propelled up the British Christmas charts in 1988, timed with the broadcast of the television wedding of their Neighbours characters Charlene Ramsay and Scott Robinson.

Donovan, 44, said it would be the first time the one-time lovebirds have performed the song since appearing on the iconic Brit music show Top Of The Pops.
"If I remember right, it was a great mime," he told The Daily Telegraph yesterday. "It is going to be a good moment and very exciting."
Minogue told her fans: "I don't think we'll even need to sing it, I'm sure the audience all went through the Neighbours wedding. It's going to bring the house down!"
Also on the '80s retro bill will be Rick Astley, Bananarama, Steps, Pepsie and Shirlie, Dead Or Alive and 2 Unlimited.
Donovan, who sported a mullet during the decade fashion forgot, said he wasn't tempted to pull on a wig to re-create the look 23 years later.
"I think we'll probably take it a little more seriously," he grinned. "Both of us are a little older and wiser this time."
Donovan is in hot demand at the moment, joining the Andrew Lloyd Webber reality series Superstar, searching for talent to play Jesus in a new production of Jesus Christ Superstar.
A good-humoured Donovan said: "Most people take a lifetime to find Jesus, we've got six months."
He is expected to arrive in Port Augusta, South Australia, today - the latest stop on the TV Priscilla tour.