The rise and fall of celeb popularity

Over 36,000 music fans think Kylie Minogue is the celeb growing old most glamorously as she celebrates her 40th birthday this weekend, a poll by new celebrity barometer xRankTM (live.co.uk) reveals today. Almost half (45%) of those polled rated the antipodean songstress above fellow 40 year old Australian, Elle Macpherson (14%) and queen of pop, Madonna (8%) who turns 50 in August.

The poll by xRank from Live Search also reveals it’s not such a happy picture for some celebs, with almost a third (30%) wishing Amy Winehouse would hang up her coat and retire early before her image suffers any more blows, followed closely by scouse scandalite Kerry Katona (23%).

OLD AGE PERFORMERS (O.A.Ps)

As far as celebrity performance longevity goes, Kylie again takes top spot, with Brits voting her the celeb we would most like to see strutting her stuff on stage into her seventies (28%), followed closely by Madonna (23%).

THE NEW IDOLS

When it comes to the bright new talent that will be most likely to experience enduring fame and become the next living legend, Keira Knightly tops the polls as the people’s favourite, taking more than a third of votes (38%), followed by Harry Potter heroine Emma Watson (20%). Girls Aloud favourite Cheryl Cole suffers in the rankings, with 94% of the nation seeing her as a flash in the plan celeb who won’t last in the public eye.

Paul Stoddart, Live Search UK Senior Product Manager says: “With so many celebrities reaching milestone birthdays this year, we wanted to get the public’s opinion on who they think will still be on top of their game in years to come. We all know how quickly celebrities can rise and fall out of favour, and with xRank from Live Search you can see exactly who the public are searching for the most, with an up-to-the-minute ranking of where they sit in the pecking order - so keep checking the site to see who’s hot and who’s not on the net!”

Celebrity xRank is a new entertainment experience within Live Search that charts celebrities and ‘news-makers’ by the total number of daily web searches they receive. People can track the popularity of their favourite celebrities at http://search.live.com/xrank.