Women Affairs

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...

As far as unaccomplished celebrities go, Tila Tequila, the most popular person on MySpace, makes Paris Hilton look like a Nobel laureate. Discovered in a US mall by a Playboy scout eight years ago, Tequila, whose real surname is Nguyen, sits among the new breed of do-it-yourself celebrities who shot to fame using little more than provocative photos and a flashy MySpace page. She boasts around 2.4 million MySpace "friends" and claims she personally attends to 10,000-20,000 friend requests a day, in between posting blogs and making video diaries. "It's like being the most popular girl at school," Nguyen said in an interview. "Everywhere I go I get recognised from all my [MySpace] friends because they feel like we're really friends and they're not just like fans. We have this deeper connection." Named Playboy's first Asian Cyber Girl of the Week, Nguyen, 26, has modelled in all states of undress for Stuff, Maxim, Penthouse and impor...

The singer was reportedly granted custody of two-year-old Sean Preston and 14-month-old Jayden James for Christmas Day during a closed Los Angeles court hearing yesterday, according to TMZ.com. It is believed the 25-year-old singer was granted custody of the boys by Superior Court Commissioner Scott M. Gordon for the holiday because her ex-husband Kevin Federline, 29, had the boys for Thanksgiving last Thursday. Britney currently has three weekly visits with her sons, including one overnight stay, all supervised by a court-appointed parenting coach, while Kevin has been awarded temporary full custody. The couple's next hearing has been scheduled for January 23. Also discussed at yesterday's hearing, which was attended by Britney's lawyer Anne Kiley and Kevin's attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan, was the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services' request for access to the former couple's case file - in particular documents, which have been sealed. A...

Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and their daughter Suri were treated to a private performance by the Spice Girls at the weekend. The Cruise family stopped by the girls' Los Angeles rehearsal rooms and watched an exclusive impromptu performance by close friend Victoria Beckham and her bandmates. The Spice Girls were also on hand to cheer on Mel B at the final of the US version of Dancing With the Stars last night. The girls looked delighted with Mel's performances, which saw her take on the other remaining contestants, Marie Osmond and Helio Castroneves. According to People the girls sat in the girls sat in the front row next to Mel B's husband, Stephen Belafonte and hooted and hollered after she finished the cha-cha, which was the first dance of the night. After the show, Geri Halliwell told People that she was "so proud of Melanie ....We have come as her sisters to support her." Mel B will find out if her sassy moves were enough to take the title on the results show ton...

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...

Another day, another photographic flame for Paul McCartney? Rosanna Arquette is the latest woman to be photographed with the 65-year-old ex-Beatle. The News of the World published pictures of McCartney and the 48-year-old actress walking together outside of what it said was McCartney's north London home. The paper's website could not resist highlighting the likeness between Arquette and McCartney's ex-wfie Heather Mills, going so far as to include a picture of Arquette that rolls over to show a similar looking picture of Mills. The encounter took place last week, the British tabloid said — only a month after McCartney was photographed embracing Nancy Shevell, a New Jersey trucking heiress and member of New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority board. McCartney's love life has been the subject of intense scrutiny amid his messy, multimillion-dollar divorce from Mills. The rock legend has previously been spotted with Renee Zellweger and Christie Brinkley. ...

The widow of opera star Luciano Pavarotti has sued two friends of the late tenor for 30 million euro ($50 million), claiming their comments about her marriage were defamatory, her lawyer said. Nicoletta Mantovani filed the lawsuit last month after warning that speculation about the state of her marriage to Pavarotti would not be tolerated, her lawyer said. Pavarotti died on September 6 of pancreatic cancer at age 71. Soon after, friends close to the tenor told Italian media he had been unhappy in the marriage, and Mantovani was fighting his grown daughters from an earlier marriage over his estate. "Since the comments did not cease - and were, in fact, reiterated - Mantovani had no choice but to file the lawsuit," lawyer Anna Maria Bernini said, confirming weekend reports in the small daily L'Informazione, based in Pavarotti's hometown of Modena. "She is doing it to protect her sense of respectability - privately for the sake of her daughter and the memory of the ...