Women Affairs

Pop singer Kylie Minogue's breast cancer diagnosis triggered a surge in women being screened for the disease, according to a new study. But the University of Melbourne study found the increase in testing of women at low risk of developing the cancer did more harm than good, by lowering the capacity of the system to deal with high-risk cases. The study found use of mammography and breast ultrasound procedures soared by more than 30 per cent in women aged 25 to 44, in the six months following Minogue's diagnosis. There was also a sharp rise in women aged 25 to 34 who had breast biopsies but the surge did not lead to the detection of more cases of breast cancer. The study, published this week in the International Journal of Epidemiology, used Medicare data to examine the impact of the publicity surrounding the singer's illness on breast imaging, biopsies and operations to remove breast tumours. Study leader Margaret Kelaher, of the university's Melbourne School of Populati...

Pop princess Kylie Minogue has been spotted out on the town in Paris with her estranged lover, French actor Olivier Martinez, sparking rumours they may be back together a year after they split. The pair, who split in 2007 after a four-year relationship, were snapped walking arm-in-arm during a late-night stroll and the pictures were splashed in Britain's Sunday Mirror. The tabloid said Minogue arrived in Paris on Sunday and her chauffeur dropped her at her former boyfriend's apartment before Olivier walked her back to her hotel about 11pm. The next day, the two walked the dog they once shared, Sheba, who still lives with Olivier but often receives visits from Kylie. Minogue and Martinez also reportedly went shopping and visited a cafe. Martinez's father, Robert, told the paper: "We love seeing Kylie in Paris, especially Olivier. She makes everybody very happy." Asked whether his son was still single, Robert was quoted as saying: "But of course." Kylie fl...

Pop princess Kylie Minogue has denied reports she plans to adopt an Aboriginal child, but says she would like to have a family of her own "some day". Minogue, 39, who has successfully resumed her pop career after beating breast cancer, told Madison magazine's January edition she believed the incorrect reports of her adoption plans originated with the United Kingdom's News of the World. "There's so much noise and waffle about me and my future family," she told the magazine, which is on sale tomorrow. "But if asked if I'd like to have a family I say, yes, I would love to some day. "We'll see if and how that might happen." Minogue, who recently released her first new studio album in four years and the 10th album of her career, X, said some of the songs on it reflected her recent health battle, but mostly it was more light-hearted. "I just want to sing about the disco, which might seem flippant, but it would have been wrong to hav...

A Kylie Minogue fan has outed herself as the spy who dobbed in a Wellington strip club using Minogue's image to the pop star's management team. Melanie Wise, 29, said she took a photograph of a promotional poster, featuring Minogue in a saturated white T-shirt four years before the star had a partial mastectomy, in the window of Santa Fe Dreamgirls strip club in February. Her husband said Miss Wise went "apoplectic" when they saw the poster, immediately recognising the sultry shot as a promotional image from 2001's Fever album. Miss Wise, a devout Minogue fan since the 1980s, sent the photograph to record company executives acting for the star in Auckland. "It was just so offensive to me," she said, acknowledging she was protective of the star who battled breast cancer throughout 2005 and 2006. "It was just so obvious and so blatant." It took nine months, but this week Santa Fe Dreamgirls owner Garth Rosson received a letter from Minogue's ...

Christine Sams Kylie Minogue will definitely bring her new concert tour to Australia, says a source close to the singer. Minogue, who announced some of her European tour dates during the week, will include Australian dates on the roster. When asked whether Minogue would be playing concerts here too, the well-placed insider answered with an emphatic "yes". It will be good news for Minogue fans, who were left in doubt about Minogue's touring intentions after reports surfaced from Britain that the singer had initially cancelled tour plans because of continuing health concerns. Her management responded by saying it couldn't cancel a tour it hadn't announced (fair enough). The first official details of Minogue's touring plans were revealed last week. The KylieX 2008 tour will begin in Paris on May 6 and will take in European cities including Prague, Berlin and Budapest, before finishing in Britain throughout July. The singer will perform songs from her new album X,...

There are three things guaranteed to sell a story in the world of celebrity gossip: birth, death and incarceration. This year's hot list of limelight hogs queued up to face arrest ( Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie, Amy Winehouse), get knocked up or adopt ( Brangelina, Cate Blanchett) encounter the Grim Reaper (Anna Nicole Smith) or bounce back from a close brush ( Kylie Minogue). One thing that rarely sets tongues wagging are high achievers - with the exception of Blanchett, who reprised her queenly role in Elizabeth: The Golden Age and is now on the throne of the Sydney Theatre Company, and Big Brother reject Krystal Forscutt, now queen of the lads' mags. Any media studies textbook will tell you that tragedy sells, says University of Sydney media and communications lecturer Marc Brennan. "Additionally, it is often when tragedies impact on celebrities that they are perceived as being all the more human - more like us," he says. Measuring the...

Speculation that Kylie Minogue may have cancelled a planned tour because of health concerns has been put to rest with the poppette announcing a European tour next year. The tour, to promote her new album, X, was described by Minogue on her website as "a new and exciting experience for both the audience and myself … After two celebratory tours, X will be a look to the future but will definitely include favourites alongside the new." Starting in Paris on May 6, three weeks before Minogue's 40th birthday, the tour will travel across continental Europe, Scandinavia and Northern Ireland before finishing in London on July 27. The former Neighbours star had to suspend her Showgirl tour in 2005 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, but returned last November with the Showgirl Homecoming Tour. RED CARPET She may not be getting an award, but our tip is that an Armani-clad Cate Blanchett will be the star attraction at the Australian Film Institute Awards in Melbourne next Thurs...

A documentary about Kylie Minogue's battle with breast cancer has gone to air in Britain, showing dramatic footage of the pop star's collapse during a show in Manchester. Footage from the concert, filmed before her diagnosis, shows a distressed Minogue trying desperately not to cry as she walks the stage trying to make it through one more song. But the diminutive singer is forced backstage, where she collapses, crying, as her team try to comfort her and cool her as she lies crumpled on the floor. "I hate to let you all down but I'm just going to do one more song," Minogue, wearing a skin-tight catsuit, tells the audience. But she simply could not go on. "I was really weak, dizzy and couldn't sing," she says in the documentary White Diamond: A Personal Portrait of Kylie Minogue , which aired last night on Britain's Channel 4. "I was hyperventilating and panicking and in tears and then we stopped and there was this gap that seemed like i...

Pop princess and style icon Kylie Minogue has confessed to a secret desire - to "go feral". Minogue, who is due to release her 10th studio album, X, this month, says if she ever gave up her successful pop career she'd pack her bags and go travelling with friends. "I would love to have a backpack and just go," she said in a lengthy interview with music magazine Q. "I'm thinking about it. But I'm a little snowed under right now. "I need to go feral! "But what you don't realise is I actually am like that in certain situations. "We have a holiday farmhouse in Australia, the family, and it's all about gumboots and flies and barbecues and there's one store. I love it." On a darker note, Minogue said she feared she was going to die after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer in May 2005. "I was upset and I was angry and I was terrified," she said. "I thought, 'Well, this is quite unbelie...

Pop princess Kylie Minogue has admitted she was not prepared for how much her weight would balloon while she was being treated for breast cancer. It was on the eve of her Australian tour in 2005 that Minogue discovered she had a malignant lump in her breast and underwent surgery at Cabrini private hospital in Melbourne. Two years later, Minogue has released a documentary film, White Diamond, about her Showgirl world tour, which she revived following her recovery from breast cancer - and called the Showgirl Homecoming Tour for its Australian leg. She said the biggest surprise for her during her intensive cancer treatment was the dramatic fluctuation in her weight. "I went from next to nothing then I just ballooned with the drugs, and I guess now maybe I'm just curvy Kylie," Minogue told the Nine Network in an interview filmed in London and broadcast this morning. "I've been every other Kylie, who'd have thought it would be curvy Kylie," she said. "As...

Two years after recovering from breast cancer, Australian pop star Kylie Minogue says she still dreams of having children and could one day get married. "A family, yeah, that's still something I would love to happen," said the 39-year-old, who earlier this year split from Frenchman Olivier Martinez after a four-year relationship. Kylie, who is about to release her first album since beating cancer, was more cautious on the prospect of marriage, suggesting only that in terms of organisation she would be prepared for it, she told the November edition of Glamour magazine. "There have been times when we were getting ready for a big event, like the opening of my exhibition at the V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum, London), and there's a last minute hoo-ha and we're all running around like headless chickens and I've said, 'Imagine if we were getting ready for my wedding'. "We'll see. I honestly don't have a feeling one way or the other if ...

39 year old Kylie Minogue has reportedly censored parts of a fly-on-the-wall documentary tracking her comeback from breast cancer, which happened to coincide with her break-up with long term lover Olivier Martinez. Minogue censored the documentary by cutting scenes which reveal glimpses of her body after reconstructive surgery. The documentary follows the singer through her emotional return to the stage last year after she was forced to take a year off after being diagnosed with breast cancer. But the 39-year-old star has opted to remove scenes which show the physical scars following surgery. A source says, "Kylie wanted a warts-and-all documentary, but there are loads of scenes fans will never see. "She wanted to show other cancer survivors there is nothing to be ashamed of. "No scarring is visible because she had clever reconstructive surgery after the partial mastectomy to remove her cancer. But she felt it was too much and was extremely unhappy so got it chopped....