KEY POINTS:
"I told you so," sing-songed the Blonde. "You swore you'd be immune, didn't you?" she whined rhetorically. "But I knew you'd get it. Didn't I tell you?" Bitch. Frenemy. Christmas card outcast.
To be fair, it wasn't much of a bet. The odds that I'd get struck
down with the flu this gloomy winter, is a pretty safe assumption to make. Topped by the fact the only self-medicating I do is of the white grape varietal kind. The day the doctor prescribes Veuve over Augmentin, is a happy day indeed.
Where's bloody Madge and her ziplock bag of B12 injections, when you need them?
Chicken soup and oranges are all my friends managed to bring me on my sick bed over the weekend. Hardly original, is it? JT wouldn't have dropped his jocks if Madonna had arrived bearing a thermos and cut oranges like a soccer mom at half-time.
Maybe I need new friends: celebrity chums who are up with the play on those sorts of odd star health trends and elixirs. My mates couldn't give a hoot about Gwyneth and her macrobiotic tofu diet, or Samantha Hayes' "delicious" honey and wheatgerm porridge. Hayes who, they'd ask.
My friends, like the Blonde, don't inhabit the world of fame I'm employed to uncover. They don't understand how I chase stars for stories and prattle into their private lives for any fleshy bones. They humph when I drag them to dull events so I can selfishly juggle work commitments and friendship. My pals are dreadfully normal, and I cherish that about them.
Whereas celebrities, on the other hand, appear to hang out with other celebrities. What's that about? AA Gil reckons the reason famous people all seem to know each other, marry each other and hang out together is because they're all they've got. "Celebrity is a roped-off VIP leper colony where the public stare in and the famous stare out."
Hollywood big-shot signs up Bic
Singer-songwriter Bic Runga may be world famous in New Zealand, but now she's taking Hollywood by storm and has some heavy-hitting support behind her.
The petite brunette with the big voice was performing at a New Zealand Trade and Enterprise networking event at the Beverly Hills Hotel recently when Oscar-winning producer and Hollywood mogul Barrie Osborne, (Apocalypse Now, Little Fish, The Matrix, The Big Chill, the Lord of the Rings trilogy etc), who was a VIP guest at the event, took it upon himself to quieten the crowd in between Bic's set.
Osborne, 64, jumped on the stage, took the mike and told the room packed full of movers and shakers they had to listen to Runga "because she has something interesting to say".
Then he announced it's his wish to sign up Bic to write the end title song for his next movie! What a coup for the Kiwi. To put it in perspective, one entertainment lawyer who has worked extensively in the US and is now based in GodZone, told Spy: "The opportunity to write the end song for a movie when the credits roll up is the pinnacle for all artists on a movie soundtrack. It's the song that everyone leaves the theatre listening to. Unlike here, moviegoers in the States sit and watch all the credits at the end of the movie - especially in LA."
The movie Osborne is signing Runga up for is believed to be the yet-to-be-titled biopic about Bruce McLaren - the Auckland-born racing driver who overcame a crippling childhood joint problem to be the youngest winner of a Formula One race at the tender age of 22.
Runga has also performed alongside Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie (aka The Flight of the Conchords) at the Largo in West Hollywood. Roger Donaldson and Cliff Curtis were in the audience.
Campbell's Angels
Bic Runga isn't the only Kiwi songbird making a name for herself in Los Angeles.
Brooke Fraser's album, Albertine, soared into the top five on the iTunes chart and hit the Billboard 100. And to top off her chart success, Fraser's current tour has sold out, and her September-October concerts in London are expected to be a sell-out too.
Meanwhile, Bic's older sister Boh is writing and recording songs for her solo album which is expected to be completed this year, and is also designing her second collection of fine jewellery for the New Zealand Mint.
All three singer-songwriters are signed to the prestigious CRS Management, under the watchful eye of Campbell Smith (Boh's hubby). With the incredible success of all three stunning brunette artists, Smith is being affectionately dubbed the "Charlie" of the Kiwi music scene - with Bic, Boh and Brooke his Angels.
Coach boutique at DFS Galleria photos
The latest offering at DFS Galleria is the new and extended Coach boutique, which opened last week to VIP customers.
For photos from the launch, click here. Photos by Norrie Montgomery.
Rachel Glucina