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For stars like Holden, bad news is always someone else's fault: JAN MOIR on why Amanda needs to look closer to home for the cause of her current troubles


Published: 21:00 EDT, 26 February 2015 | Updated: 04:21 EDT, 27 February 2015 Amanda Holden has sacked her publicist of 20 years over the fallout from the image of her daughter dressed as Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman being tweeted from her account

February has not been a good month in the house of Holden.

Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden first blamed her husband for her current troubles.

Then she sacked her publicist for failing to turn those troubles into a golden puff of PR triumph. When is she going to wake up and punish the real villain of the piece — herself?

It all started when a picture of her daughter, Lexi, appeared on Holden’s Twitter account a few weeks ago.

The nine-year-old was wearing a tight, strapless dress, lashings of make-up and posing next to a piano.

The caption underneath read: ‘1990s day at school. Julia Roberts. “Pretty Woman.” ’

Uh oh. I know. Totally inappropriate. Especially on a public Twitter account that would be retweeted thousands of times, not always among users with wholesome intentions towards little girls.

I’m sorry, that is an absolutely awful thing to say — but it is the truth.

Older readers might remember when a television show called Minipops was taken off the air in the early Eighties.

After only six episodes, Channel 4 bosses realised the concept of pre-teen kids wearing make-up, singing sexy lyrics and pretending to be pop idols such as Madonna and Kylie was not only ethically and morally unsound, but might be appealing to an insalubrious section of the populace.

And, sadly, the same principle applies here. More than 1.7 million people subscribe to Holden’s Twitter account, meaning her reach is bigger than many newspapers and television stations.

She ought to be more responsible for her own popularity.

It didn’t take long for the rabble-rousers among her followers to catch the scent of fresh blood in their nostrils.

There was a stampede to condemn the photograph, Holden’s parenting skills, her right to be a mother, her silliness at exposing a child in this way, her very existence.

Amanda scrabbled to excuse herself from the blizzard of accusations. First she said Lexi was dressed as Cindy Crawford, not Julia Roberts.

Then that her husband had tweeted the image and the incorrect caption by mistake. Of course he did!

This week, she went further and sacked her publicist of 20 years for failing to manage the situation and resulting fallout properly. Very telling. Poor showbiz publicist!

In another lifetime, I was one myself, and what I know is that when stars like Amanda Holden get good publicity, they claim all the credit for themselves.

Anything negative is someone else’s fault, never theirs — no matter how reprehensible their behaviour might have been. Holden with husband Chris Hughes, who she said had tweeted the image and the incorrect caption by mistake

Yet in this instance, if Amanda looks bad, and she does, it is entirely of her own doing.

However, it is important to get things in perspective and to say that whatever she is, Holden is not a bad mother.

Oh, come on, call off the pitchforks. Posting the pictures of Lexi might have been a silly mistake, particularly one for a celebrity to make, but mistakes happen.

Don’t forget that with age and her own health issues against her, Amanda fought hard to become a mother and to have a family of her own. Holden with daughter Lexi, whose outfit for the 1990s day at school attracted Twitter opprobrium

Her two daughters look like the adored and cherished little girls they undoubtedly are —and how do I know this? From Amanda’s very own personal Twitter feed, of course.

And it is in this area, not in her qualities as a mother, that she is guilty on all charges.

Celebrities such as Holden make it their business to harvest and cultivate followers on social media sites.

They do this not because they want to be friends with the dumb clucks who follow them, but because these sites are an important marketing tool; a barometer of popularity and a deal-negotiating strategy which is manipulated by media-savvy celebrities.

Millions buy into these sham online friendships, feeling that they are now a pal of the stars, privy to succulent tweets about their home life and relationships.

The truth is that they are being suckered into a marketing exercise, not a friendship. Not that Amanda would ever let on.

A glance through Holden’s Twitter feed contains recent photographs with her boss Simon Cowell, snaps from Lexi’s fairy-themed birthday party, toddler daughter Hollie splashing in a puddle, assorted red-carpet shots and a photo of the family’s Christmas lunch.

All of it calibrated to show gorgeous Amanda enjoying her gorgeous life in the best possible light.

Like many celebrities, Amanda’s tweets are a mixture of the personal and the professional; some are written by her, most of them I imagine are run through a media sieve by a watchful publicist.

For the star, it is wonderfully helpful — until it goes wonderfully wrong.

If she is guilty of one thing, it is chronic oversharing — then of going mad when she is criticised for it.

She would be wise to remember that she is the one in showbusiness, not her daughter, Lexi.

And that if you choose to expose yourself and your life on social media, then you must accept that you live or die by the Twitter sword.

Perfume for babies? Ugh, a terrible concept — but one that’s apparently the latest trend.

There can be no sweeter smell on the planet than the peachy, talcum-powdery innocence of a new infant.

Please don’t let perfumers spoil that, too.

Why they'd never make a film like Love Story today

Love means never having to say you’re sorry. But good grief, how old are you?

The 1970 film Love Story celebrates its 45th anniversary this week. That does, I must say, make me feel like the decrepit old crone I am under my usual dazzling crust of glamour.

Love Story was (almost) the Fifty Shades of its day, a film that every girl and woman rushed to see — even though there wasn’t a whip or a sex scene in sight. The stars of Love Story Ali MacGraw (left) and Ryan O'Neal reunite to celebrate its 45th anniversary

Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal played Jenny and Oliver, two students who fell in love at Harvard across the class divide — until (SPOILER!) she died ever so prettily of some unmentioned but ghastly incurable disease.

Now the old flames have been reunited for a photo — and don’t they look lovely?

Love Story has been called the most romantic film ever and it certainly harks back to the innocence of another age. Can you imagine if it were made today?

A story of passion, love and loss without a single sex scene? That would never happen.

Then again, neither would there be a scene with doctors telling a husband that his wife was dying — without telling her. When it happened in Love Story way back then, no one blinked an eye.

Progress. Of sorts.

Sack-spuds Madge: My part in her downfall

Ooof! I was in the audience at the O2 when Madonna fell over this week.

Some have speculated that this was a stunt — and, after all, she does have form in this department.

Me? I don’t think so. For there is nothing more ageing than falling flat on your bottom, be it in front of ten people or ten million.

And there is nothing Madge hates more than being associated with old age.

After a flurry of flailing fishnet legs, she went down like a sack of spuds. Believe me, no 56-year-old woman would ever plan that. Or to be haunted by it for ever, which is her sad fate.

During the live broadcast, I was sitting near where Madonna waited for her cue. She had her hood up and her gaze forward, like a thoroughbred in the stalls before the race. Madonna takes a tumble at the Brits, but the singer got right up and carried on dancing shortly afterwards

An aide talked quietly to her and patted her spangled shoulder encouragingly. And then . . . splat! Any number of women her age, had they taken a tumble like that, would still be lying there, quietly whimpering.

Which is why I can’t bear it that some people, particularly other celebrities, have taken a spiteful glee in her misfortune.

Madonna could have broken her back or neck. She fell down and was clearly stunned — but then she got right back up and started dancing again.

If that isn’t a great metaphor on how to live a life, then what is? And I, for one, applaud her for it.

P.S. Have you noticed how polite pop stars are these days? The class of 2015, including Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith, were all gracious winners and losers at the Brits.

And on the night, the highlight was not Madonna nor ridiculous Kanye West. It was Sam Smith’s simple but spine-tingling rendition of Lay Me Down. What a star. Formula One driver Fernando Alonso of Spain gives a thumbs up as he leaves hospital in Sant Cugat, north of Barcelona, after crashing on Sunday during testing

I love the pictures of F1 racing driver Fernando Alonso checking out of hospital in Spain after his crash. He is being kissed goodbye by a pretty blonde doctor and a pretty brunette doctor.

We should have treatments like this on the NHS! That would free up a lot of beds, in a manner of speaking. David Cameron with wife Samantha, who revealed this week she chooses her husband's casual clothes

Gah! Imagine if Dave chose his own togs

It was revealed this week that Sam Cam picks out her husband’s casual clothes. Of course she does. Thank God she does. Let us just pray she keeps on doing it.

Most British men, be they Prime Ministers or not, can just about manage to struggle into a suit, shirt and tie on their own.

They can dress themselves on a work day and get out the front door with minimum fear of being arrested.

Yet when left to themselves to put on something halfway decent for weekends and leisure time, the madness descends.

Tragic red trousers. Jumbo cords. Double denim, sometimes even double stonewashed denim. Anoraks with hoods.

Sandals that showcase goblin families of big hairy toes, with misshapen Dad Toe always marching out in front of the pack.

Shorts that sag like a flytip sofa. Midi-trousers with calf toggles. Sports clothes instead of casual clothes. Slogan T-shirts. Cornish pasty shoes. Socks on show.

An inexplicable attraction to anything ill-fitting in a colour henceforth known as Saturday Concrete.

And the look they all seem to go for is Madman Driving A Tractor Into A Bog. Why? Why? French and Italian wives don’t have this problem.

Like many British women, I spend half my panicked life saying things like: ‘Don’t tuck that jumper into your jeans,’ and (whimpering voice) ‘I thought you threw those trousers out years ago.’

Now there is a fresh horror to contend with — leggings for men.

Sam Cam is no doubt going to steer Dave well clear of ‘meggings’, but will the rest of us be so successful?

Yes, they are worn by Russell Brand, yes they are hideous and unflattering, but when has that ever stopped our boys before? So long as they are comfy, they are on.

