Celebrity news -X Factor blog 17 December 2009

It's been wall-to-wall pop starlets over the past few days - and amazingly, not all of them hail from the fly-by-night world of reality TV. But first up, er, the fly-by-night world of reality TV (henceforth known as TFBNWORTV - snappy, huh?).

X Factor winner Joe McElderry has been fighting off hordes of fans and raising eyebrows the world over - alright, across west London - by insisting he doesn't fancy the judge from his neck of the woods, while Geordie TFBNWORTV figurehead Cheryl Cole (for it is she) basked in the glory of her latest gong: she's been voted the nation's favourite female drinking buddy.

In international pop news, Madonna and Fergie (the singing one) turned up at the US premiere of strange-sounding musical Nine, one with her daughter and one with her mum (can you guess which?). Does Nicole Kidman count as a pop star following her 2001 hit with Robbie Williams? Well, she was there too, but both mumless and kid-free.

Back in TFBNWORTV, 2008 X Factor winner Alex Burke, 2009 Strictly Come Dancing semi-finalist Laila Rouass and this year's X Factor LOSER (sorry) Olly Murs all decided to show their faces at, um, a ballet in London. And last and by all means least, Geri Halliwell wore hot pink (and fake fur) in the vain hope that somebody might care at The Sun's A Night of Heroes Military Awards. They didn't. Oh well. I am sure we will see them around the famous celebrity haunts like Mahiki and Nobu in the New Year.

Charlie Ivens is a journalist and editor working at Orange and writes articles about celebrity news, gossip and fashion.