Celebrities blowing me out!!

After an eventful week, I thought it was about time I filled you in with the latest "exclusive" celebrity gossip straight from the horses mouths.
Well, that would have been the case before I was blown out in FIVE days by two MAJOR celebs!!!

The MAJOR celebs were in fact the singer Lemar and Dancing with the Stars contestant, Aiden Turner (ok, well I may have exaggerated the MAJOR part!).

They may not be a-list stars but I was actually really excited about grilling them for a bit of showbiz gossip!
You can of course imagine my annoyance when just four minutes before Lemar was due to call me, his management called to say he could "no longer do the interview".

That's it.
There was no apology, no explanation whatsoever.

All this and he was earmarked for the front page of our Potters Bar edition. ARGH!
In the end I had to email his team the questions.
Yes I got a few answers back and it was the front page but obviously the story wasn't as good as it would've been if I had actually gotten to speak to him.

Right, so my next disappointment was my chat with MEGA fit former soap star Aiden Turner.
His agent phoned ME and asked me if i'd like to interview him, so of course I said yes!

So, we arranged for Aiden to call me at 3pm on Friday.
Well, in the words of Cilla Black, Surprise Surprise, the big American star didn't call me and I am still waiting for an apology and a tiny explanation as to why he left me hanging around like a weirdo!

Seriously, what the hell?!!!
I could understand being blown out by the likes of George Clooney, Brad Pitt or Samual L Jackson.
But god, Lemar and Aiden are barely c-list stars.
Surely they need ALL the publicity they can get?!

It may seem like i'm being a little harsh, but whatever happened to manners and professionalism?
I don't blame the "stars" themselves, they probably didn't know their management had arranged the interviews (like the Gok Wan incident, but i'll save that for another day!), I blame their managers.
One of their jobs is to gain publicity for their clients.

Isn't all publicity good publicity, even if it is "only" with a local newspaper?
One thing celebrities and their teams need to remember: without the media, the stars would be nothing!

That's my rant over!
Goodnight everyone,
Naiomi xxx

Popping My Cherry!!

My southern fiance and I!

From the title of this blog post i'm sure you'll be expecting me to talk about the first time i got down and dirty with a man and, err, lost my virginity!
Well unfortunately i'm not going to talk about that far-from-memorable-drunken-night but i am in fact referring to my first EVER blog post!!

I joined in January this year having been pushed to do so by my friend and author of a brilliant dating blog, Sarah Finley.
Over a few vinos we discussed the benefits of blog writing and how important it is to have one in this day and age, especially in the "glamorous" world of journalism.

As i am a local newspaper journalist i thought i would have a go, i mean surely it couldn't be that hard?
But actually it is harder than i first thought and now three months down the line i am only just writing a post!
I was so worried about how to start it and whether anyone would even give a crap about what i had to say for myself, that i decided to put it off.
Until now!

Ok, so as you know i'm a journalist on a local newspaper in Hertfordshire.
I crossed the border (!) and moved down south from the lovely northern city of Manchester (where i grew up) just over two years ago.
At first i didn't know a single person down here (southerners were alien-like to me) but suddenly i had made loads of new friends and even bagged myself a gorgeous (southern) fiancé in the process!

I love it down here now!
All in all, moving to pursue a career in journalism was one of the best things i have ever done.

I've wanted to become a journalist since the age of eleven.
The thought of actually being able to interview the Spice Girls and Five was the main reason why i embarked on this career (and because i'm SO nosey and LOVE talking to anyone).

On my 27th birthday, January 22 this year, my all-time dream came true...

I interviewed Scott and Abs from Five!!!!!!!!

To say it was one of the best days of my life would be an understatement!
I followed the guys (FIT guys) around the country from the age of 15 onwards and was their biggest fan (no, really) from the moment i heard their first track Slam Dunk Da Funk!
I was a proper teenybopper and waited outside to meet them for HOURS at a time!!!

Anyway, i met them at the University of Hertfordshire when they played a gig for all the students.
We talked about everything and i even got out the old photo albums of me and them together to show them!
I did a piece on them for the paper (working on a local newspaper does have its benefits at times!) and the article now takes pride of place on my mantelpiece!
It was a brilliant night and even though i have interviewed many celebrities, this was by far the highlight in my career.

So the moral of that story is "dreams can come true".

Hopefully you'll keep reading my posts and one day see my next dream come true - getting a job in London as a features writer on a real-life women's magazine.
It'll be a challenge but if you haven't got dreams then what is the point in life??!

Goodbye for now,
Love Naiomi xxx