It's a given that most stars are smaller in real life than they appear on screen.
Indeed, the traditional greeting for any celebrity is pretty much, "Oh, I thought you'd be taller". In the case of Kylie Minogue though, I knew she was going to be small.
Heck, this is the woman who made Jason Donovan look tall, rugged and manly.
And so it was that when the diminutive diva was ushered into the room, I almost expected her bodyguard to lift Minogue up on to her chair. Thankfully not. She's small, but not that small.
Kylie Minogue is also, of course, perfectly formed. Achingly so.
It was there, underneath all that stoned-washed denim, big hair and billowing scarves, when she played Charlene Mitchell in Neighbours. It was still there when she started strutting her musical stuff for Stock, Aitken & Waterman in 1988, her debut hit, I Should Be So Lucky, being the first of many.
It wasn't until our cute little pop poppet decided to put her innocent girl-next-door persona out to pasture that the sex kitten we know and crave today first began to emerge.
So, when was it exactly that Kylie Minogue realised she had an ass that could knock TVs off their stands?
"Oh, I don't know if I've ever managed to do that," she laughs in response. "It would have to be a two-way effort for the TV to fall over. That would be me and the viewer working together..."
Progression
I blame Nick Cave, myself. It wouldn't be the first time he's led a girl astray, no doubt, the towering fellow Aussie having drafted Minogue in for a rousing duet in 1994, the murder ballad Where The Wild Roses Grows.
"Yeah, I blame Nick," nods Minogue. "A terrible influence, not just on me but, as you say, just about every girl he's ever met."
She lets out another laugh.
"Seriously though, I think it was just a natural progression. You look at any pop artist, there's usually quite a difference between that first year of success and, say, five years later.
"It's just a natural thing to want to grow, to change with your audience. No point in repeating yourself again and again. That way, you'll become a nostalgia act before you're 30. And no artist wants that."
Take that, Spice Girls! Yep, that need to move on isn't only artistic though; there's always a very good chance that the kids will simply get bored with the latest pop sensation after a few years, and, hey, necessity is the mother of reinvention when it comes to pop.
And Kylie Minogue certainly reinvented herself. She may have stumbled through the end of the century (her largely self-penned 1997 album, Impossible Princess, sinking without a trace), but the resilient Melbourne moocher scored one of the biggest hits of her career with 2000's Spinning Around. The following year, she went one better and delivered one of the greatest pop songs of all time (fact), Can't Get You Out Of My Head. Dang, that track was so good it helped Kylie finally break America.
This particular pop princess's finest three minutes and 49 seconds, right?
"Hmm, I would have to concur," says Minogue, "but you always hope that there's something even better going to come along, something that will knock everything else you've done right on its axis.
"I felt that way about Spinning Around and I felt that way about Can't Get You Out Of My Head. I think that hunger for something even better has to be there all the time, otherwise, you know, you're just not moving forward.
"There are tracks on the new album that just knock me out, and I would love to see one of them become my new anthem, so to speak. But, hey, like kids, I love all my songs equally."
Kylie shrugs her shoulders.
"Well, almost all of them."
Kylie's new album, Aphrodite, will be hitting our shelves on July 5, right about the time that her new fragrance, Pink Sparkle, attacks the celebrity perfume market. Which should go nicely with the six other fragrances with Kylie's name on it. And her lingerie range. And the bedlinen.
"Well, it's business as usual," she smiles when I list off the ever-growing list of Kylie merchandising and branding. "A girl's got to make a living! I enjoy it all though, and certainly much more so after my scare."
Ah, yes, the scare, Kylie now celebrating five years since her treatment for breast cancer. That she has also just turned 42 -- on May 28 -- means Kylie is in a somewhat reflective mood.
"I've come to realise just how special life itself is," she muses, "and how we should embrace every moment. Every up, every down, it's all part of this incredible thing we call life. And you have to enjoy what you do, make choices that you know are good for you, good for your soul. I love doing what I do, and I think it's been a big part of my beating this thing."
As for turning 42, a single woman with no kids, Kylie's clearly been thinking about that too.
"I don't know many women who don't dream of that perfect partner, settling down, and everything that comes with that," she says.
"It's what pop music, in many ways, is all about. Finding the perfect love of your life.
"We live in a time when people have become incredibly independent, and that's been a great leap forward in many ways, but, you know, as you get older, you still hope that you'll find the one."
Ethic
Right now, it might just be 31-year old Spanish model Andres Velencoso, Minogue's current boyfriend. Either way, Kylie is determined, she says, that she intends to live life in the moment from now on.
"It's all about the moments," she finishes, "and being completely in each moment.
"I would certainly have been guilty in the past of just working all the time, running from one appointment to the next, partly out of a belief in a strong work ethic but also out of a fear of failure, of dropping the ball.
"I realise now that you have to put the ball down every now and then, and just go sit with your friends. Go lie out in the garden and read a great book. Just enjoy life.
"After all, I've been lucky in life..."
Lucky, lucky, lucky, in fact.
Courtesy of www.herald.ie
