Sadie Frost (above) was holding court at the Groucho Club this Thursday following her opening night in Touched…Like a Virgin at the Soho Theatre. The star had a new beau on her arm and told me: “His name’s Sonny and he’s a south east London guy. I’m very happy.” He’s very handsome indeed.
Earlier in the evening I sat behind Kate Moss as she puffed on Rolling Stone guitarist Ronnie Wood’s electric cigarette during the 60 minute one woman show penned by playwright Zoe Lewis.
Sadie’s fantastic in the show and the likes of Meg Mathews, Fran Cutler, Dave Gardner and Sean Pertwee all pitched up to show her support for the opening night. Freddie Flintoff and Radio One’s Greg James were also propping up the bar at the Groucho at the after show.

Get your tickets for Sadie’s play before it closes on June 9 at www.sohotheatre.com.

PARTY OF THE WEEK: P Diddy couldn’t get off his yacht to attend because the weather was so horrendous but that didn’t start me dancing the night away at the Ciroc sponsored CAA agency party at Le Baron. Gemma Arterton (above) sat engrossed in conversation with Gael Garcia Bernal and busted moves with hubby Stefano Catelli later on. Supermodel Karolina Kurkova worked the room and hung out with Gerry Butler and randomly celeb BB’s Bobby Sabel was there too.

THE HOTNESS: Zac Efron sounds like he enjoyed getting up, close and personal with Nicole Kidman in love scenes for new movie Paperboy. “It’s literally the best movie I’ve ever done,” he said at the Ciroc Erno Laszlo after show. “The love scene with Nicole was the highlight of my career.”

YAWN: Rent-a-boob Kelly Brook was out at blooming everything in Cannes. If there was a party (or an ill fitting swimsuit) then she wanted to be involved. She launched her role in Keith Lemon The Movie on the croissette before staying on to prance along the red carpets in various gowns. She was even overheard trying to persuade Keith to stay with her and attend to plush Vanity fair and Gucci party. That would have gone down well, Kel!

WEIRD FACT: Benecio del Toro STINKS of cigars. I bumped into him twice at the snazzy Martinez Hotel and the odour was overwhelming. Not cool.

THE BUZZ: Rita Ora was whizzing around Cannes. She performed on the Croissette for Le Grand Journal and the following night partied her socks off at the Replay Jeans part at the Martinez where Simple Minds warmed up for their world tour. Slick. I hear Rita will be a guest judge on X Factor this week. Not bad for a girl who hasn’t even had an album out yet.

UNLIKELY GUEST: Ronan Keating worked the Cannes crowd to promote debut acting role in new movie Goddess. He also hooked up with pal Jim Kerr of Simple Minds at the Replay bash.

THE PRODUCER TO KNOW: Avatar actress Michelle Rodiguez stayed with Saudi film producer Mohammed Al Turki on a super yacht in the French Riviera. Mo is making wave sin Hollywood right now with flicks including Arbitage, starring Richard Gere, Tim Roth and Susan Sarandon, and what Maisie Knew starring Julianne Moore, Alexander Skarsgard and Steve Coogan.

TALK OF THE FESTIVAL: Chris O’Dowd’s new flick The Sapphires went down a storm with a standing ovation. The film’s been picked up by Harvey Weinstein to distribute and received a standing ovation after it’s screening. It tells the story of an Aborginal Australian girl group and there dream to make it big. Chris told me: “It’s an amazingly cute film and to receive that sort of reaction was pretty incredible.” It’s out in the winter!

THINGS I LEARNT ABOUT BRAD PITT (above with Ray Liotta):
1. One of his favourite drinks is Kahlua and milk. FACT.
2. When Brad borrows clothes he never allows people into a fitting. He wore Gucci in Cannes and just requested clothes be sent over and he’d sort himself out.
3. He requested that he had to know all 100 guests personally at his Killing Them Softly after party sponsored by Johnnie Walker Blue Label at Villa St. George.

THE CUTENESS: Kylie (above with Harvey Weinstein) told me at the Killing Them Softly after show that she was extremely unprepared for her red carpet moment to following evening – she couldn’t decide what to wear! She said: “I’m petrified about the carpet – purely because I can’t find anything to wear. I’ve tried so many dresses on.” She eventually went for an amazing gold number. Above she’s in Cavalli. Natch.

Little Mix are preparing to launch their debut single within the coming weeks. I’m already hearing from one eager source that it’s “the song of the year” and then some. I caught up with the X Factor winners this week as they launched a campaign for M+M’s limited edition Union Jack Pack.
The girls told me their fairly new star status hasn’t changed them much at all. Perrie Edwards, who’s happily dating Zayn Malik these days, told me: “I bought a jacket for ￡250 from Arrogant Cat and felt like dying inside as it was so expensive. I haven’t even worn it yet because I’m scared of ruining it.
“The truth is I like Primark’s plimsoles. I’ve got ten pairs of them.”
Jesy Nelson added: “We won’t ever be carrying Mulberry bags and designer wear now that we are a bit famous. We’re never going to be girls that have a t-shirt with the word Burberry on it for ￡100. You might as well get one from Asda for ￡2.” They’ll learn….
To celebrate British summertime Little Mix are launching M&M’S limited edition Union Jack Pack, featuring red, white and blue peanut M&M’S. Available now.

Fearne Cotton continues to plough away with her ‘Fearne and…’ TV series. The first star is James Blunt in the ITV2 series and she’s currently working away on persuading three other big names to take part. “James was amazing,” she told me at the launch of Isaac Carew’s Mercy and Wild t-shirt label launch. “You really get to see a different side to him. We get totally trashed in Verbier and go clubbing in Ibiza. He would turn up to film and need a Burger King immediately and would always wear one of those BK crowns afterwards. He got me more drunk than I’ve been for years in the ski resort.”
Isaac – boy toy of Kirsty Gallacher’s glam sister Laura – has launched the trendy Mercy and Wild t-shirts to raise funds for Dyslexia Action. Check out the designs at www.mercyandwild.com.

Congratulations to Rita Ora on her first solo number one in the charts with RIP. It’s a stonker of a pop tune and this girl is preparing to take flight into the pop stratosphere. Her debut album ORA will be out within weeks and she’s spent two and a half years being trained and prepared by rap legend Jay-Z (she is on his Roc Nation label). Not bad for a girl from Earl’s Court, London!
I met the star at her single launch bash this week at London’s plush Asprey jeweller’s and she told me Jay and his wife Beyonce have been huge inspirations to her. “Jay has been with me since day one and being part of the Roc Nation family is amazing,” she said. “He’s involved in everything I do and at the end of the day he wants his company to be a success and he believed in me.
“The first time I met Beyonce she was in the crowd at a show in New York and she came with Jay-Z and I sang Say My Name by Destiny’s Child and she was there. I didn’t know she was in the crowd when I did it. But she gave me the seal of approval afterwards. It was a massive deal. She’s one of my Idols. I was crapping myself meeting her at first but she’s one of the nicest people. I didn’t think she’d have time for me but she did.”
The star has some surprises in store on the debut album too – she says there’s heavy rock influences and she cites No Doubt as a big inspiration. I can’t wait to get some more Rita in my life….

Picture: Thanks to Richard Young

Paloma Faith is back with a fantastic second album, Fall To Grace, and I met up for tea and cake with the star this week at Soho’s amazing Maison Bertaux.

The singer tells me she’s sick of being dubbed weird, zany and kooky and admitted she could never do what Lady Gaga does planning her outfits and image weeks in advance. Paloma said: “I think in my first record I found sometimes the branding of me as a weirdo, zany, kooky and quirky was mildly annoying. I felt like I had almost set myself up so if I wasn’t like that one day people would be like ‘What’s wrong with her?’

“I feel like everything about this record is me being honest. The album cover is completely dramatic but I am dramatic. I just decided this time around to be wholeheartedly me and not to set myself up to have to maintain any characters or persona. I really couldn’t do what Lady Gaga does and i think it must have to take such a tremendous amount of energy to always be on in that way.”

And was Paloma inspired ala Adele to write about the men in her life to make song lyrics for the album? “There are probably a few men in there,” she laughed gobbling a strawberry tartlet. “I’m a serial monogamist and I can’t seem to get past the two year mark. Then there are a few other relationships with human beings which aren’t romantic. I’m trying to turn all the sadness into something hopeful. That’s why it’s called Fall To Grace rather than Fall from Grace.”

Paloma’s single Picking Up The Pieces is out May 20 and album Fall To Grace is out May 28.

She’s pretty special so check it out.

P.S. Thirty-Minute Love Affair is a real stand out track on the album…..I”m obsessed.

It’s not everyday you get the opportunity to fly to New York to hang out with an American Idol winner.

I jumped on a flight from the UK last weekend to go and meet up with music star Carrie Underwood.

In the UK she’s not a big name…yet. But she’s clearly got fans – after all, tickets to her debut UK tour date at the Royal Albert Hall in June sold out in a matter of minutes last week.

In real life she’s cute, bubbly and very easy to talk to and I’m pleased to report very normal considering the fact she’s mobbed everywhere she goes in the States.

I’ll set the scene, we met for a drink in the plush London Hotel in NYC and loads of fans were waiting to say hello whilst we enjoyed a glass of wine in a quiet corner.

Managed by Spice Girls creator Simon Fuller, this week Carrie releases Good Girl – her first proper single in the UK. Then her debut album for UK fans, Blown Away, follows on June 18.

Enjoy the interview and I look forward to meeting this young lady again when she comes to the UK in the summer.

Hello Carrie, First of all – your gig in London has sold out with ease which is great news. Have you been to the UK before?

I can’t wait to get to London and perform at the Royal Albert Hall. I’ve been there as a visitor and been running around like a tourist but never performed there. I remember doing the whole double decker bus tour and going past Buckingham Palace. I went to Wimbledon too. I went with my mum and my sisters and it was an amazing trip. If I’m honest though I’ve got no idea about tennis and what happens in the games so I just sat there completely jetlagged and zoned out trying not to fall asleep or faint.

And tickets sold out in ten minutes? That’s crazy.

I can’t believe the tickets have already sold out. I’ve never been to the Royal Albert Hall so I’m looking forward to actually stepping out into the arena and seeing it. People keep telling me it will take my breath away. I’ve got a fear about performing at a venue and it comes to the night of my show and I step out and nobody has shown up. I’ve heard the Royal Albert Hall is like ‘starting at the top’ in the UK. So I’m very excited.

Where is home for you these days – I’m imagining you’re in LA an awful lot?

I live in Nashville these days actually. I really like LA – I love the weather but I’m a space girl and I love loads of space around me. So LA is OK for me but not totally perfect. A friend of mine lives in Sussex in England actually and we stayed there too and got to take a ride in a helicopter over the fields. It was glorious. Sussex was very spacious indeed.

Do you live on an amazing plot then?

I’ve just bought 450 acres or so of land just outside Nashville to live on with my husband and it’s beautiful.

Tell me about Blown Away – what’s the general feel of this album?

The album is diverse. We basically decided to use as many different styles as possible. I love music in general and pride myself in feeling like I can sing whatever I want. I don’t ever want to be locked into one type of song or style. I never want people going, “oh, that sounds like Carrie Underwood”. I want things to sound different from song to song and that’s what we’ve done with this particular album. There are dramatic songs that are dark, big and bold. And then there’s tracks that are so sweet and organic and swell. There’s some pretty country in there as well.

And how involved are you with the process of writing an album?

I’m involved in everything when it comes to the album. People might think I’m just an Idol puppet but not these days. When I came out of Idol it was so important to strike while the iron was hot so there wasn’t much of an option but to rush things. We went on the road with the Idols tour and during that I was recording and then it was ready to go straight away afterwards. Tonnes of people came out to see that tour but it was very hectic behind the scenes. It was a good time for me to learn a lot but it did happen so fast. I never went in there saying that I knew everything.

And you learned the game form good people around you, I assume.

I wanted to learn everything from scratch and in the beginning I would always say: “I know enough to know I don’t know anything about the music industry.” But now I do. I was never going to try and dominate the situation or be a diva. I had never done that before and had to trust the people around me.

I have people around me who are wonderful. Simon Fuller, in particular, has been brilliant from the very beginning. He’s all about what makes the people that he works with happy and what makes me happy. He asks me all the time if I’m happy with every aspect of my career. He’s a supporter and a friend and there’s opinions, guidance and loyalty with Simon.

Were you a Spice Girls fan before you met him?

I loved the Spice Girls back in the day and to know him now on a personal level and what a great guy he is in real life is brilliant. Being on idol, he didn’t have to be nice to me or approach me about management. He could have given me to somebody else – but he didn’t, he believed in me and had a vision.

And were you a fan of British music in general growing up?

I’m a fan of the Brit music scene right now. Adele’s brilliant and obviously there’s been a big history since the British invasion in American. So many people have managed to make it big around the globe. My iPod is very random to be honest. When I was growing up my parents used to listen to the oldies station when I was young. I always used to hate it and would moan but now that I’m in the industry I’m so appreciative of what they did making me listen to it all. It gave me a knowledge of music and grounding.

Often I will cover those songs in my shows today. I would listen to the Carpenters and the Rolling Stones and lots of rock music. My mum loved a little bit more a laid back style. My sisters were teenagers when I was little so they listened to all the eighties top 40 like Debbie Gibson and Culture Club. A little bit of hair metal too like Motley Crue and Guns n’ Roses.

How is married life? (Carrie is married to ice hockey player Mike Fisher)

Married life is great – I’m not going to lie. It’s nice to have a constant fulfillment in my life – in all aspects. I’m so happy with Mike.

You seem to be good at keeping your private life private.

I’ve always been about keeping my private life private. I’ve never been some club girl falling out of bars and all of that. Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing my girlfriends and chilling out and having some wine. But I’m just not to interested in going out – I feel really old these days. I honestly feel so old when I go out to clubs. It’s just not me to be in a nightclub and drinking. I have a lot of friends and we do what we do – we don’t need to world to see us.

What’s the secret to your longevity as a couple?

It’s nice that Mike has his thing and I have my thing and we support each other fully but in all honesty our world’s rarely collide and that helps things and keeps them working. They never really collide. I look at Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin and how their marriage works and think that’s a great way to make things work. They support each other through thick and thin but they’re still independent and have a life together behind closed doors.

You seem to have managed to stay on the straight and narrow easily dealing with fame.

It’s really easy to look at people and think how easy it is to fall off the wagon in this industry and fall into drinking or going out too much. I remember the first time we were on Idol we were herded up like cattle – because there are so many of us – and then when we made the top 24 we were doing a photoshoot and a girl standing next to me said to herself: “Man, I’m thirsty.” And then somebody standing there suddenly rushed forwards with a bottle of water. I was like, “oh my gosh, we have gone from being yelled at to people doing stuff for us.” It was a big defining moment in my life. It would be easy for me to fall off the wagon but I can’t do that to the people around me. I’m too responsible for so many people I work with.

How do you chillax?

Reality TV is crazy in our town. I watch loads of it. The Kardashians, Dog the Bounty Hunter and Jersey Shore. It’s kinda funny that it makes news in the US when things happen on those shows though. But it’s mindless television and I’m guilty of watching it. When I’m sitting in a room all day writing I work hard and when I come out I need to watch ‘nothing’ television. I could be sitting there for three hours but I couldn’t even tell you what I watched. It’s forgettable TV. But you need that kind of escape sometime

What about starting a family?

Children are definitely in the distant future.

Well, you’re still young?

Well, not really. We do have busy lives but I guess Mike and myself are wanting to get everything we want to do out of the way now before we have children. And also I do think as a mother it’s tricky in this industry. I know so many men that have kids and just carry on with life as normal but for women it’s a far bigger deal in this industry to take time out to have a child. And I’m not done yet. It’s fine for a man to be there on the road away from his family – as long as his wife’s there looking after baby. But it’s different the other way around. I’m not sure why that is but it’s obviously trickier. Right now, Mike’s so busy, I’m so busy and neither either one of us are willing to compromise our careers to start a family.

It’s not like it’s unusual to wait until later in life to start in life….

We waited late to get married compared to where I’m from. We waited late. Where I’m from people are generally married out of high school or college. You’re married at 21 or 22. That’s just the norm. Most of my friends I went to school with are still married and almost all of them have children.

I’m glad I didn’t come out of college married. I wanted to date and enjoy myself and figure out who I was. I didn’t have a clue what kind of guy I wanted at 21. I had no idea. I definitely think I’ve played it all the best way by waiting. I’m the last one out of my friends to have kids. Everybody else has. Everyone. I went back to my 10-year High School Reunion recently and that was a real eye opener.

Carrie’s single Good Girl is out to download today and Blown Away is released June 18

Professor Green is set to swap his low-slung jeans for a pair of chinos as he undergoes a Chelsea makeover. Some may have thought the Hackney rapper’s relationship with Made In Chelsea star Millie Mackintosh (both pictured above) was going to be a fleeting affair but I can reveal it’s just been notched up to the serious stakes.
In a bid to impress his girl Pro has bought a pad in Chelsea and the couple – who have been dating since the beginning of the year – are set to move in together.
My source reveals: “Pro really wanted to impress his girl and show her that he’s serious about their relationship.
“He’s always been an East London boy so people are shocked. He’s also going to be moving in his best mate Lewis The Giant and his backing singer Felix in too.
“Since they’ve been dating, Millie has introduced Pro to the area and her friends. It’s going to be a massive change for him but he’s decided she’s worth it.
It will be interesting to see how his hardened fans will react to this image change as he’s always been someone that has traded on his tough routes. Don’t forget – he previously hit out at Leona Lewis and insisted he was from the real side of Hackney. But it appears no more!