Is Kylie’s bondage act a step too far?

Kylie Minogue“Kylie Minogue wows US audiences with bondage performance” screamed the headlines.

In a bid to crack the American market, which she has surprisingly yet to do, Kylie dressed up as nothing more than a high-class call girl to perform Can’t Get You Out Of My Head on the Us version of Strictly Come Dancing, Dancing With The Stars.

The thing is, shouldn’t Kylie be a bit beyond all this ‘shock factor’ by now? Isn’t this act just a bit ‘ewwww’?

Maybe she feels she has something to prove after her battle with breast cancer, but now she’s into her third decade of a pop career, can’t she just settle for producing good music and not try to fool people with a lot of flim-flammery?

‘Cracking’ America can take years and, although not exclusively, is a young person’s game.

Given that Kylie is unfeasibly successful throughout most of the rest of the world, it surprises me that she feels the need to try and make it in the US.

I also look at the Minogue now and just see a slightly tired once-youthful pop star desperate to keep her star bright.

Kylie, just keep it simple – make good pop songs and people will come.

The fear of the long-distance runner

Comedy runnerA cheesy local radio DJ pointed out the other day that “the running season is in full swing” – as if I needed any reminding.

I work a literal stone’s throw from the South Bank of the Thames and so any foray out of the office at lunchtime requires me to do battle with the hordes of vest-and-shorts-clad runners who are pounding the concrete in their desperate attempts to keep fit.

Runners (never, ever call them joggers – a word that conjures up images of middle-aged women in flannel tracksuits) seem to think that they own the towpath and pavement in the area of London where I work.

Red-faced and sweating profusely, they hurtle towards the humble pedestrian, narrowly changing their course at the last minute to avoid a violent collision.

They never speak, probably because they’d expire if they tried, but issue angry glares at anyone who causes them to deviate from their set route.

I have never yet collided with one of these ‘athletes’, but I go out in constant fear that my next lunchtime will be my last.

Yet another reason why I shun most forms of exercise!

Is getting older something to be applauded?

Donald SutherlandDonald Sutherland appeared on Jonathan Ross’ show last Friday to promote his new series Dirty Sexy Money.

When Ross asked him his age and he admitted to being 72, the entire audience applauded!

Sutherland looked bemused and made a gag about it, but it did make me think why people feel the need to clap someone simply for being a certain age.

I know they were also doffing their proverbial caps to his continued career in acting, but it’s not exactly that much of a shock, is it?

I also found the recent tributes to Bruce Forsyth slightly baffling. OK, so he’s 80 and he’s still working, but is that really deserving of such a huge kerfuffle that the BBC made of it?

The entertainment profession is one of the few where age doesn’t seem to be a barrier, so carrying on past the age where you’d get your bus pass shouldn’t exactly herald a need to hang out the bunting, should it?