julian_craster

Natasha Kaplinsky: the million pound autocue reader...

Is she a real person or a CGI ?

Read the full version of this interview in this month's 'Glamour', on sale
today !


Daily Telegraph
07/02/2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml?xml=/portal/2008/02/07/ftkaplinsky107.xml



Everyone has a view about Natasha Kaplinsky, the newsreader who swept to
stardom on the dance floor. Celia Walden meets a firecracker in lipgloss

'Not bloody 'Spangles'," erupts the cab driver when I tell him who I'm on my
way to interview. "Bet she's a piece of work." Everyone has a view about
Natasha Kaplinsky, the polished newsreader and Strictly Come Dancing star
whose reputation as TV's ambitious golden girl is as hermetically sealed as
her lipgloss.


Lately, people have been given another reason to be more vocal with their
view: Natasha recently signed a contract with Five for £1 million a year,
making her not just the best-paid newsreader on television, but the
best-paid British newsreader ever.

When I meet "Spangles", as she has been dubbed, the tiny brunette is wearing
a cardigan that keeps falling open. Having explained to Natasha that the
accidental breast-flashing may have helped further her career until now but
won't swing it with me, I relay the cab driver's comments.

"Female newsreaders have this image," she explains. "Because you have a
jacket on and you're reading the news, you're seen as cold-hearted and that
is so far from the person I am. I'm horrified that people think I'm cold -
I'm actually the complete opposite. The point about being a newsreader is
that you are there as a vessel of information. I'm not sitting there saying
the story is about me. I'm saying that the story is about the Prime Minister
or an earthquake. You should not be the story; if you're blank, you're doing
your job."

The problem with this statement is that Natasha is the story. The
35-year-old from Barcombe, East Sussex, became the story three years ago,
when the sexual chemistry between her and dance partner Brendan Cole on
Strictly Come Dancing was so tangible that it spelled the end of Cole's
engagement to another dancer, Camilla Dallerup, and had the tabloids camping
outside the BBC newsreader's front door for three months.

advertisement"I really didn't see that coming," she says, still visibly
uncomfortable. "I was shocked and horrified by the attention I received. The
paparazzi were following me on motorbikes, rummaging through my bins and my
parents' bins - even interviewing my old Brownie leader! They ravaged my
life and I was like a rabbit caught in headlights. One day I'd had enough
and actually moved house in the middle of the night."

Adamant that there was no affair with Brendan, Natasha concedes: "There was
chemistry, of course, and I certainly fell in love with dancing, but I did
not fall in love with Brendan."

What Natasha really took exception to, she explains softly, was being
labelled a man-eater. "I might be a lot of things, but I'm certainly not a
man-eater. I was with one man for 12 years and I've only been with a couple
of people besides him." Suddenly, the intensity dissolves and her naughty
laugh starts up.

"One weekend, I was supposedly cavorting with three different men: Tony
Benn, Christopher Parker [the EastEnders actor] and some other man. I read
the papers on Monday morning and thought, 'What a busy weekend I've had - no
wonder I'm shattered!'?"

Still a source of grievance to Natasha is the fact that she was not
originally a willing participant in the show that was to open up her life to
such scrutiny. "I was desperate not to do Strictly, but I'd just joined the
BBC and I was the nearest and weakest victim. I said no and then got taken
into a dark corner and told, 'I'm sure not doing it won't penalise your
career,' which was said in such a way that meant if I didn't do it I was
history. I desperately tried to break my ankle in the week prior to filming
because the thought of the humiliation was too much. Then the show became a
success."

A year later, Natasha once again became the story when a microphone mix-up
on the red carpet at the Baftas meant viewers could hear her complaining
about her make-up and accusing production staff of running off with her cue
cards. But Natasha refuses to be labelled a diva. "I am an ambitious woman
and I make no bones about that," she counters serenely, "but I haven't
trampled over anyone to get where I am and I don't think ambition is a
negative word. You never hear about a man being ambitious, do you? It's
perfectly possible to combine ambition with being a nice person, a good
colleague and a decent friend. Would I do anything to get a job? Absolutely
not."

Having dreamt of becoming an actress as a child, Natasha's professor father
and Jungian analyst mother insisted she complete a university education
first. She studied English at Oxford, by which time fledgling presenting
roles had already set a golden career in motion.

Asked whether her looks have been a help or a hindrance, Natasha becomes
unexpectedly bashful. "I don't know whether I would say I am beautiful, but
I think I look OK on television. Otherwise, I'm too short and fat and I've
got cellulite." Fat? Even bearing in mind your average woman's body
dysmorphia, it's hard to let this one go. "I have an unbelievable amount of
fat days," she insists. "I'm 5ft 4 inches and I wish I was taller. I pay a
hefty gym subscription, but I'd pay twice as much never to have to go again.
Then again, as a newsreader you're not supposed to have your appearance
noticed too much because then it's a distraction. If you are just thinking,
'That lady's earrings are caught up in the curl of her hair,' you can't
concentrate on what she's saying."

Isn't her trademark lipgloss equally distracting? Natasha shrugs. "Well, I
find it amazing to go into meetings and discover that your boss has been
discussing you changing your hairdo. And this is the same middle-aged man
who has failed to dress himself and is telling you to wear less lipgloss."

Natasha the firecracker pops up sporadically throughout the interview - and
I like her. And nowhere is that feistiness more apparent than when I bring
up the infamous "autocutie" epithet - a tag given to newsreaders who have
supposedly been hired more for their beauty than brains and therefore have
to rely on the autocue.

"I would challenge anyone who uses that expression to do a live broadcast,
with breaking news and 16 people speaking in your ear," she flashes. "The
pressure of looking composed and serene amid absolute chaos - come and call
me an autocutie then. You know? Come and try it."

While there's no doubt that Natasha is at the top of her game, does she
think she's worth her much-publicised £1 million price tag? She looks
slightly anguished. "I wish that the whole money thing hadn't come out
because, and don't tell them, I would have taken the job at Five for a
quarter of the salary."

Far from going on a massive spending spree, once she had signed on the
dotted line, Natasha bought everyone in her family a present and left it at
that. "I'm not a labels girl, so I didn't go shopping for myself," she
sighs. "I find very trendy people scary. I like high-street shops, like
Zara."

After years of newsreader straightjackets, does she ever get the urge to
kick back and have some fun with her clothes? "God, yes!" she practically
screams. "Although my husband always says that he gets to sleep with two
different women, because I've got corkscrew curls but have my hair
straightened for work. So he goes to bed with one woman and wakes up with
another."

The husband is Justin Bower, a banker she married two years ago after dating
him for just six months. Although children are still at the "at some point"
stage, the couple live a domesticated life in their two homes (a flat in
London and a converted 17th-century barn in Sussex). "We go down there at
the weekends and bake," she says. "My idea of the perfect day is taking our
dogs for a walk and then spending the evening in front of the telly."

Although she says she finds it easy to relax, Natasha is clearly
disciplined.

A vegetarian, she is also "unintentionally teetotal".

"I have an intolerance to alcohol. I couldn't conceive of having half a
glass of wine - it makes me ill for days."

Having broken ground as a newsreader, Natasha has set herself a new goal.
"I'm determined to make the news an enjoyable experience," she declares. And
I have no doubt that she will succeed, even if her detractors hate her for
it.

stevie boy

There is a woman in the Daily Mail or some other rag that always slags Natasha off, I think that she is a bit of all right

knobbykins

Little Knobbykins really,REALLY has a soft(?) spot for Natasha ever since she read the local news with Fred Dineage.
I loved the way that when she laughed you could see her eyes sparkle....i've become all soppy again!
Didn't know she was a veggie,though,her reputation suggests more meat!!!

When the king's off his arse nobody sleeps!

batman

Bats.

"Boom boom a baby .... Banham Zoo .... Banana pants! Hahahaha"

knobbykins

Now,that's a piccy worth repeating!!!

When the king's off his arse nobody sleeps!

Harleybloke

All I have to say on the matter.sssshhhh....in case Mrs Harley is listening..is that if Tash plays her cards right she can have me............

.....You couldn't hear it, if they were shooting at me with howitzers!

Joenoir

Hey, that back scratching smilie is cute!

Start every day with a smile and get it over with.

Steve Crook

She's not always quite so elegantly or tastefully dressed


Yes, that's a hat made from a walrus!

Steve

Dame Starry

It's hard to tell the difference, isn't it?:



(Miaow!)

YDSL x.

The Christmas countdown has begun - don't leave it all until the last minute!

batman

Was it a real walrus?

Bats.

"Boom boom a baby .... Banham Zoo .... Banana pants! Hahahaha"

Steve Crook

You don't see many fake walruses walking around.
And if it was a fake then it wouldn't be made from a walrus.
It was made by Jason Christopher and she wore it to the premiere of Beerfest in September 2006. See The Spine — The News With Added Backbone » Blog Archive and various other reports

Steve

DB7

Her and Kate Garraway just appear so desperate for fame despite having no obvious talent (apart from hosting brekkie tv).

batman

As the Boy Wonder would say ... GROSS!!!

Bats.

"Boom boom a baby .... Banham Zoo .... Banana pants! Hahahaha"

Harleybloke

When you look as good as Tash does, who needs talent anyway?

.....You couldn't hear it, if they were shooting at me with howitzers!

julian_craster

I think Tash should star in a video game series and become the next LARA CROFT......this is her true destiny.....