Posted by mennie on 12:51 AM
In what has to be one of the oddest couplings in showbiz history, veteran performer Cher has reportedly revealed on an upcoming Oprah Winfrey show that she had a brief fling with actor Tom Cruise.
According to the Daily Mail, not only did the singer fall madly in love, but she has revealed Tom was just 23-years-old at the time of the affair.
At 39, Cher was 16 years Tom's senior when the couple met in the 80s during the early years of his career and shortly after the release of his hit film Risky Business.
The paper reported that Cher, now 61, told Oprah Winfrey: "I was crazy about him."
In the show, which will go to air in the US next month, she spoke of Cruise, now 45, as an awkward young man who was struggling to adjust to his new life, the paper revealed.
"He was shy," she said.
"He said he felt like such a boob in school and nobody talked to him. We went on a date once for dinner in a New York restaurant and the waitress was from his old school.
"He told me she never talked to him back in school, but now he was recognised he got all her attention.
"It could have been a great big romance because I was crazy for him," Cher said.
It was recently announced Tom Cruise would be appearing on another Oprah Winfrey show.
His previous appearance resulted in the actor becoming the butt of jokes after he jumped on the talkshow host's couch declaring his love for then-girlfriend Katie Holmes.
Posted by mennie on 7:11 AM
An unhealthy obsession with celebrity culture is damaging the academic success of British students, a survey of teachers has found, with celebrity couple the Beckhams the favourite inspiration.
Many students are ignoring career aspirations to pursue the chance of fame instead, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) survey found.
Almost two-thirds of teachers said sports stars were the type of celebrity most pupils wanted to emulate while more than half of students wanted to be pop stars.
The celebrities students aspired to be most like, the survey said, were Los Angeles-based David and Victoria Beckham, arguably Britain's most famous couple.
Soccer player "Becks" topped the poll, with more than half the teachers saying their students modelled themselves on the 32 year-old. In second place, with almost a third of the poll's vote, was his 33 year-old wife and pop star "Posh".
In an era of reality television "stars" and a media fixation with celebrities, a majority of teachers sd ceailebrity culture negatively impacted the aspirations of their pupils.
Many bemoaned students who "wanted to be famous for being famous".
Almost half of the 300 teachers polled said pupils tried to look like and/or behave like celebrities they most admired, fuelling fears that girls particularly dressed in "unsuitable", or provocative styles.
"We are not surprised about infiltration of celebrity culture in schools - it reflects the current media obsession with celebrity and the effect of celebrity culture on society as a whole," Association of Teachers and Lecturers general secretary Mary Bousted said in a statement.
"Celebrities can have a positive effect on pupils. They can raise pupils' aspirations and ambitions for the future.
"However ... celebrity culture can perpetuate the notion that celebrity status is the greatest achievement and reinforces the belief that other career options are not valuable."
Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard ranked third on the favourites list with 26 percent, actress Keira Knightley fourth (25 percent) and "Doctor Who" star David Tennant fifth (23 percent).
Other celebrities on the list included US heiress and socialite Paris Hilton (sixth) and Leona Lewis, a winner of Britain's "The X Factor" television talent show (ninth).
One primary school teacher from Scunthorpe, in the country's northeast, Elizabeth Farrar, said: "Too many of the pupils believe that academic success is unnecessary, because they will be able to access fame and fortune quite easily through a reality TV show."
