Front Row Dress Circle

Today was cinema day for our family so we took the kids to see the new flick ‘Monsters Vs Aliens’ - it was a real treat and not only did the kids love it we enjoyed it too.

It’s a great film - 92 mins - so it’s long enough to give you value for your money and short enough to keep the kids attention. I always think that anything over 100 mins for kids under 6 is asking for trouble boredom-threshold speaking. But our two loved it and to tell you the truth I would even sit through it again - something I would rarely do with kids films…not including some of the old Disney classics of course.

Highly recommend it!

Popularity: 37% [?]

Jade Goody would have loved it. Thousands of people lining the streets of the funeral route from London to Essex, passing by all the places she knew and loved, throwing flowers, applauding, laughing and crying as she passes by on her last journey.

How many of us get to plan our last goodbyes as meticulously as Jade did, and in the face of such pain and heartache…? she is going out in style in the full glare of the media spotlight which both adored her and, at times, villified her.

Many of those people lining the route probably at some stage thought of her with disdain, just as many were proud that a normal girl, just like themselves grabbed at the star that is opportunity and ran with it until illness stopped her in her tracks. Many of those who had no time for Jade when she was alive have changed their opinion of her through seeing her courage when fighting her cancer; for holding above all else her fears and plans for her two young sons, Bobby and Freddy.

Jade was like few celebrities today; approachable, flawed and completely down to earth. She came from nothing, with no education other than that gleened from a tough early life and a burning desire to better herself and succeed. Where many celebrities will try to hide the truth of their less than ideal, less than glamourous roots, Jade embraced hers; she never apologised for who she was or where she came from even though that background influenced the way she spoke and behaved at times. In facing death full on she also drove a very strong message home to women everywhere - your future lies in looking after your health.

The scenes today are incredible; even though one might scoff at comparisons to Princess Diana - and they have been made recently and certainly scoffed at - the evidence is there to see. The masses of flowers on the funeral cars, the crowds, the tears. Where Diana was almost beatified in death, Jade has simply become loved.

Jade no doubt would be loving this send off today - a ‘Jade Goody Production’ as flamboyant, unorthodox and lively as the girl herself. You might say it is a shame she cannot be here to enjoy it…but I reckon she is

Popularity: 69% [?]

Many people probably forgot that Farrah Fawcett was fighting a major battle against intestinal cancer. Just recently you only seemed to ever hear about Patrick Swayze and Jade Goody, cancer’s other high profile sufferers. And it is so unpredictable - there is Farrah still fighting after two years, Patrick is still hanging on after a year of pancreatic cancer and Jade - dead within a few short months from diagnosis to the end.

Farrah was recently at a clinic in Germany to try alternative therapies in her quest to beat this insidious disease, by all accounts things are not looking good for her and this news is very sad indeed.

It is surprising how many young people do not know Farrah or have ever heard of her. Those of us who do, know that Farrah was the icon of the 1970’s; bigger than Posh is now, and much more desirable than Pamela Anderson ever tried to be.

Women, and girls, everywhere tried - but never managed - to emulate that hairstyle for themselves. What was not known until tried was that it was impossible to maintain that style for even 20 minutes without a fleet of hair stylists armed with blow dryers and spray. Even I drove my Mum crazy with my own school-girl attempt to ‘be like Farrah’.

Farrah was unbelievably perfect to women everywhere and yet they all tried to copy her style - that’s how she came across in those days before botox, liposuction, facial fillers and hair extensions influenced celebrity ‘beauty’…she was the real thing and, crazy as it seemed, her fans believed they could look like her too.

I don’t think anyone pulled it off though. There is only one Farrah Fawcett.

Farrah Trivia:

* Farrah Fawcett was once ‘Farrah Fawcett Majors’ when she was married to ‘Six Million Dollar Man’ actor, Lee Majors. She dropped the ‘Majors’ after their divorce.

* She was a minor actress before getting her big break in ‘Charlies Angels’. Her fame came after her husband, Lee Majors, made it big in the ‘Six Million Dollar Man’ tv series. She caught the attention of producers after a photo shoot with her husband.

* Farrah can be seen pre-Angels in an episode of ‘Marcus Welby M.D’.

* Farrahs hair was naturally dark, mousy blonde.

* Her famous fly-away hair style had to be retouched and styled every ten minutes during filming of Charlies Angels as her naturally straight hair went limp very quickly.

* Farrah broke free of the pin-up image when she acted on Broadway in the play ‘Extremities’ - about a rape victim fighting back against her attacker. She also acted in the film adaptation and earned rave reviews.

* She became a champion for sufferers of domestic abuse after starring in the film ‘The Burning Bed’ - the true story of an abused wife who killed her husband.

Popularity: 79% [?]