Celebrities

BBC Radio 1 announced today that the station will kick off the 2008 festival season with Madonna headlining Radio 1's Big Weekend. The event takes place at Mote Park in Maidstone, Kent, on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 May.

Pop star Geri Halliwell told GMTV today she’s ready to quit the music business to concentrate on her writing. Speaking on LK Today, Geri said: “I feel like I’ve done it. I feel really comfortable doing the writing. I think as a pop star I’ve had my day.”

Russel Brand has revealed he was almost fired from his latest film, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, before he’d even began filming. Speaking on LK Today, the comedy lothario said his efforts to negotiate with American movie makers backfired spectacularly.

Playing to well over half a million people, the tour is her biggest ever and has cost over £10 million to stage! Kylie Minogue returns to her true home – the live stage - when she opens her greatest ever tour KylieX2008 in Paris on May 6th.

Jamie Hartman, singer/ songwriter with chart-storming London band Ben’s Brother, has been nominated for the ultimate songwriting accolade, the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically & Lyrically.

Seduction. You either have it or you don’t and according to new research a worrying 49% of British women don’t think they have it. Yet what we Brits lack it seems Hollywood has lorry loads of but who is the most seductive female in Tinsel Town?

Gemma Atkinson will be joining Olivia Newton-John and a host of stars from the UK, America and Australia to take part in ‘The Great Walk to Beijing 2008’. Olivia Newton-John has been walking The Great Wall of China since the 7th April in an extreme 21 day trek to raise money for cancer, and change the way cancer is treated around the world. Gemma will meet Olivia and the rest of the team at Stage 4 on the 19th April.

On the 27th April at 2.40pm on T4, George Lamb hosts “4Music Presents... Duffy”. In this one-off music special Duffy gives a candid interview in which she talks about her rise to success, rumours that her dad is Shakin’ Stevens, being mistaken for an intern at her record label when she made cups of tea for everyone and the reaction to her rise up the charts back home in Wales.

Whilst the London Marathon was underway, 130 runners took to the Island of Tresco to run the world’s smallest marathon to raise funds for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. GMTV presenter Ben Shephard, who is a patron of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, came in 31st with a fantastic finishing time of 3 hours and 47 minutes.

Sony has announced the launch of the Sony DAB ‘Rising Star’ Award at the nominations for the 26th annual Sony Radio Academy Awards, the UK’s top radio honours. The winner, voted for by the public, will be announced at the radio industry’s gala night, held at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel on Monday 12 May.