CHERYL spent years unconvincingly pretending she actually liked bandmate Nadine Coyle – let’s hope her acting has improved since then.
In a move unlikely to trouble the Olivier Awards, the former Girls Aloud singer-turned-X Factor-judge-turned-hair-extensions-model-turned-basically-unemployed was yesterday unveiled as the latest “actress” to play Jenny, the leading lady in West End show 2:22 A Ghost Story.
In joining the cast she follows in the footsteps of such theatre luminaries as sulky Lily Allen, even sulkier Laura Whitmore and James Buckley, aka Jay from The Inbetweeners.
I’m not sure this one is for the theatre purists.
Still, it will be nice to see Cheryl back on a stage again after becoming a relative recluse in recent years — at least in the sense that the last telly show she was in, The Greatest Dancer, bombed and got canned in 2020, and her most recent single peaked at No57 in the charts in 2019, so don’t feel too embarrassed if you missed it.
You probably won’t remember, but it was called Let You, by the way.
Announcing her news yesterday, Cheryl said: “I am SO excited to be starring in the West End thriller 2:22 A Ghost Story. I will be playing the role of Jenny from January to April!
“I went to see the show with a previous cast and LOVED IT!
“It is a totally new and exciting experience for me, so if you’re looking for a fun night out and some entertainment in your new year, tickets are available now . . .whenever you’re ready.”
It’s unlikely she’ll be calling up fading star Lily for tips, mind — the pair traded insults for almost all of the Noughties.
The role sees Cheryl’s character living in a new home which she believes is haunted — presumably by the truly terrifying ghostly memories of X Factor USA, Easilocks and her marriage to former footballer Ashley Cole.
But if things get too much in the new part there’s a perfect stand-in readily available, after Madame Tussauds in London decided to remove poor Chezza’s waxwork from its displays.
I’m sure it still looks the part — and it will probably be less wooden . . .
SHANIA TWAIN showed why she won the Music Icon gong at yesterday’s People’s Choice Awards with four red hot costume changes
As she turned up she rocked her look from the 1998 That Don’t Impress Me Much video with a leopard-print hooded shawl and matching bra.
She then went on to steal the show with an epic medley of some of her biggest hits Any Man Of Mine, That Don’t Impress Me Much, Waking Up Dreaming and karaoke classic Man I Feel Like A Woman.
Her looks saw her going from a red PVC jacket and chaps to a sequin-covered nude bodysuit and red leather cowgirl outfit.
After getting her award in Santa Monica, California, she told the A-list crowd: “It’s always my wish to inspire people with my music.”
Shania hasn’t played live here for five years but I’m sure she will inspire – and impress – when she brings her Queen Of Me Tour to the UK next September.
SHE was one of the most memorable contestants on the X Factor and a decade on from her turn on the show, Lucy Spraggan wants to bring it back.
The singer-songwriter has just announced a new album called Balance and a memoir called Process, both due next year, and has signed a deal to write songs for former boss Simon Cowell’s publishing company.
Now that she is pals with the talent show judge again, she reckons she can get involved in a reboot of the singing competition.
In an exclusive chat, she told me: “I actually do think working class people and northern people don’t get as many opportunities as people in London. I would never have got my shot if I hadn’t gone on X Factor.
“By becoming close to Simon I’m in the best position to make that show safer for contestants’ mental health and give them aftercare.”
That said, Lucy admitted her book, out in July, will drop major bombshells about her experience during the show back in 2012.
She said: “There’s things that I’ve been waiting to say for a really long time and I had to get myself to a position where I genuinely felt strong enough to do that.
“Now that I don’t drink or do drugs and can self-regulate, I feel like I’m truly ready.”
ROCHELLE HUMES has told how she had to keep her relationship with JLS’s Marvin a secret from her The Saturdays bosses for fear of getting the push.
She recalled a label meeting after they started out in 2008: “We had really grafted. We hadn’t launched overnight, we didn’t have the backing of an X Factor, we had to do every dodgy club on the way up to make some noise.
We’d just got to a really good point and they were like, ‘It’s really hard to get girls to like other girls and it not to be a threatening thing. It’s going really well, the worst thing anyone can do now is date someone in a boyband’.”
She explained on the My Love Is podcast: “I remember thinking, ‘Am I going to get sacked?’”
LITTLE SIMZ has rounded off a stellar 2022 by announcing a new album.
The Brit singer revealed on social media that the record will be called No Thank You yet didn’t give a release date. She wrote: “Emotion is energy in motion. Honour your truth and feelings. Eradicate fear. Boundaries are important.”
She won the Brit for Best New Artist in February, the Mercury Prize in October and Album of the Year at the Mobos last week for 2021’s Sometimes I Might Be Introvert. Expect big things.
AYDA FIELD is so worried hubby Robbie Williams will relapse into drug abuse that she locks away painkillers at home.
The singer has been clean for two decades but told the On The Edge podcast: “Something’s always lurking around the corner and I still can’t be trusted with pills.
“The wife has to put them behind lock and key . . . They can be there for 18 months, every single day. Vicodin, whatever, every day, see them, go to bed. One day, for no reason – not being sad, not being happy or not feeling vulnerable, whatever – all of those pills go.”
MIMI WEBB and Raye looked sheer perfection as they attended last night’s National Lottery New Year’s Eve Big Bash.
Both singers opted for see-through outfits at the VIP event at the OVO Arena in Wembley.
The evening, hosted by Jason Manford and Alesha Dixon, featured a performance from one of my favourite singers of 2022 Tom Grennan, as well as chart-topping DJ Joel Corry and vocal powerhouse Katherine Jenkins.
