That mutual manager also led to suggestions, often repeated throughout the sisters’ careers, that they should record something together. Neither Minogue appeared to be keen. ‘Kylie and I used to sing together at home when we were little but we’ve no plans to make a single at the moment,’ said Dannii at one point. ‘I’m just interested in establishing my own career. But I’m not new to this business. Even when I was acting at seven, because I couldn’t get stage gear to fit me, I used to design my own and my grandmother would make them up! If I hadn’t chosen an acting and singing career, I think I would have gone in to the fashion industry full time.’
‘It gets really boring when people keep implying that Kylie and I dislike each other,’ said Dannii wearily on one occasion. ‘We’re going to write some songs together this year and it will be a big “up yours” to everyone who thinks we’re bitter rivals.’
But still a slight tension pervades the atmosphere. Dannii is a wilder personality than Kylie, something that has been apparent from a very early age. Not for her the shy and virginal image her sister projected in Neighbours: when asked if she could look after herself at school, Dannii replied, ‘It helped that I was going out with the school tough guy, which meant I wasn’t completely roped in with the nerds. Kylie and my older brother Brendan were at the same school, too, so they’d back me up.’
There were some problems, though. ‘I was doing a TV show at the same time I was at school, so I was lumped in with all the nerdy kids with big thick glasses at lunchtime doing my homework – then I could go to rehearsals after school,’ she says. ‘I was an A+ student in class but I was really naughty. When the work is easy for you it’s easier to muck around and not get told off. It’s exactly how my personality is now: I like to work hard but I also like to go wild, play jokes on people and be the idiot.’
That wild streak – and perhaps the competitive edge with her sister – came out again when Dannii posed for Australian Playboy in 1995, an action some people felt to be ill considered. Dannii was unrepentant. ‘I saw it as a compliment they asked me, it was a real ego boost,’ she says. ‘My dad freaked out but when he saw how beautiful the shots were he came round to the idea. I even had my nan saying she thought they were great.’
The wild image spilled over into her stage performances, not least when it emerged that men had hurled their underwear at her when she was performing live on stage. ‘There was one gig where a guy threw a pair of Calvins on to the stage – a magazine reported it and I thought it was funny so for the next few gigs blokes did it again,’ relates Dannii, adding, ‘I didn’t want it to turn in to a whole Tom Jones thing. Big boxers are far less attractive landing on stage than bras and kickers.’
And woe betide the man who annoys Dannii Minogue when she is on stage. ‘There were two guys sitting in the front row who were completely out of their heads and just talked the whole way through,’ she relates of one performance. ‘I could see people in the audience pointing at them and telling them to shut up. But you shouldn’t ever fuck with someone with a microphone. For the next song, “So In Love With Yourself”, I went down to the front of the stage, stared directly at them and sang the whole song to them. Later in the show they both left and then arrived back together, so I turned to them and said, “I thought it was only girls who went to the toilet together.” They just died.’
Like Kylie, Dannii has suffered career lows, something that was rather cruelly pointed out when an interviewer asked her whether appearing in an advertisement for Penguin biscuits was the worst job she’d ever had to do. Dannii rallied bravely. ‘Some days on Home and Away were pretty grim,’ she countered. ‘I watch it now from London in the middle of winter and see these beautiful beaches and think maybe it wasn’t that bad. But a lot of the time you were handed the script five minutes before you had to record it and told you only had one take. I’d think, What the hell am I doing here?’
Given that the two sisters work in the same field, there is an almost inevitable crossover in what they do. Nowhere was this more apparent than when Dannii took the role of Rizzo in an Australian production of the musical Grease opposite Craig McLachlan. Craig, of course, is another ex-Neighbours star, while Kylie grew up not only adoring Grease but wishing to take on the Olivia Newton-John bad girl persona, something she attempted with a marked lack of success in The Delinquents.
Dannii plays down the connection. ‘I hate musicals as they’re just so old and naff and disgusting,’ she says. ‘But I grew up when Grease the movie came out so John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John were my heroes. It was my first experience of musicals and so I did 70 shows playing to 10,000 people every night. There was a lot of dancing and my legs ended up covered in bruises. When I went to get my legs waxed the woman must have thought my boyfriend was beating me up.’ Kylie was generous about her sister’s performance. ‘She was a good Rizzo too!’ she said. ‘And that very concisely sums up the differences between us – she always wanted to be Rizzo, I always wanted to be Sandy!’
And where Dannii has something else in common with Kylie is that neither seems to have been able to settle down in her personal life. Dannii’s marriage to Julian ended years ago and like her older sister, she’s had a stream of boyfriends, including, more or less in this order, Paul Goldman, who used to direct Jason Donovan’s videos, a singer called Whycliffe, a model called Sean, her husband Julian, Mark Ellis, a City banker, photographer Steve Shaw, Formula One World Championship winner Jacques Villeneuve – to whom she was briefly engaged – Michael Edwards-Hammond, of whom more below and, as at the time of writing, Craig Logan, the former Bros bassist, to whom she is engaged.
‘When it comes to men, Kylie and I are just opposites in every way,’ reveals Dannii. ‘She likes scruffy-looking and natural men, the ones who are always on the move, the dreamers. I like clean-cut men who know where they are going. I like them to be in control of their lives. I also like the idea of committing for life but Kylie is more spontaneous with her choice of boyfriends. She is more here, there and everywhere and can get bored with a man in a second. I like to really get stuck in to a relationship.
‘But many men have shied away from my controlling nature. I’m not perfect. I have always lived by my own rules and tried to learn from my mistakes. Our parents taught Kylie and me that. But like a lot of Australian women, I don’t take any nonsense from men. We are as tough as nails and independent. I am opinionated and it’s never hard for me to tell a man he’s wrong. I like to run the show and that scares men, sometimes.’
In 1999, in an attempt to squash the rivalry rumours, once and for all, the two sisters gave an interview to Esquire magazine. Would they, asked the interviewer – getting straight to the nitty gritty – ever steal each other’s boyfriends? ‘No,’ said Dannii firmly. ‘We go for such different guys. Don’t even fancy the same ones.’ And what is Kylie’s type? ‘Kylie likes a challenge,’ said Dannii. ‘Someone who isn’t going to kiss her feet. Am I wrong? No, see. She wants someone who is going to really stimulate her, intellectually or artistically or whatever. And she does like a bit of a rogue.’
‘Absolutely right, Dan,’ agreed Kylie. ‘Let me see. I have never really thought of her type before. Tall is the first thing that springs to mind. She once had a boyfriend who was six feet four or five and thank God, that relationship didn’t last long because family photos would have been a nightmare – we are all short. So he would have had to spend his life on his knees. So, tall – stable. I am thinking of Steve [Dannii’s then boyfriend, photographer Stephen Shaw] here. Funny. Humorous, I should say. Artistic.’
Then came the big question: which one is the bigger flirt? Kylie’s hand shot up. ‘Always has been,’ said Dannii. ‘Anyone and anything. Male or female. She’ll flirt with it.’ ‘It’s just part of what I am,’ said Kylie coyly. ‘It does get me into trouble.’ ‘But it’s not a sexual thing,’ Dannii butted in hastily. ‘More a mischievous, naughty approach.’ ‘I do get excited and childish – still – before I go into a club or ba
r,’ interjected Kylie who, as it happens, was sounding more excited and childish as the interview wore on. ‘At one point I tried to bottle it up and suppress it, but it didn’t work. I couldn’t be someone I wasn’t.’
And so now on to temperament. Which has the shorter fuse? ‘I do,’ says Dannii rather surprisingly. ‘But I think we are both capable of putting people in their place. Most of the time the public are so nice but once in a while they, especially the guys, can be so rude and obnoxious and they just don’t expect a small, pretty girl to come right back at them. I think British girls won’t stand up for themselves, whereas we’re Aussie girls. I will not let someone treat me the way I don’t want to be treated.’
Kylie adds, ‘I think Dan can be stronger, more forceful. I think I have quieter strength. But yes, there are times when I would like to be a little more like her.’ ‘Whenever people ask me what my sister is like,’ said Dannii, ‘I think of us as cartoon characters, Kylie is a fluffy, purring pussycat and I’m like a bulldog. Both have their strengths. Sometimes I wish I didn’t bulldoze quite as much in every situation. I wish I could be a little more flirty and free. A little more pussycat.’
For what it is worth, Dannii is the more physically adventurous – ‘It comes from being the youngest and following my brother, trying to keep up with him and his mates. Boys will ride a bike down a hill without any thought of the fact they will crash at the bottom. I started to be the same’ – and the one who’s keen on cars, while Kylie is more of a taxi girl herself. It then emerged that the girls can think of only one row between them in their lives: when Kylie came home and caught Dannii wearing her clothes.
‘Well,’ explained Kylie, ‘when you are 14 or 15 you are very possessive about clothes, especially if your little sister has them on. It was, “That’s mine”, but you grow out of it. Now we’re Jackie and Joan, darling.’ (It would seem that Kylie was not trying to impart a veiled message here – she just didn’t know that the Collins sisters are rumoured to be as big a rival of each other as … well, the Minogue sisters.) And then, having received the news that they are taller than expected – ‘We love you,’ trilled Kylie – the two rushed off into the rain.
Certainly, the Minogue sisters do a great deal to support one another in public. Dannii turned up for the televised An Audience With Kylie Minogue in 2001 and shouted and applauded with the best of them. Kylie, meanwhile, showed up on the opening night of Notre Dame de Paris, based on the Victor Hugo novel, in which Dannii was starring as Esmeralda. ‘I can’t wait to see the show. I am so excited for her,’ said Kylie. ‘I think this is something she really excels at. I am just really glad to be here tonight with my brother Brendan and my parents will be over here in a few weeks, so it will be a real family affair.’
The role was a success for Dannii, but with a bitter-sweet edge. Dannii had briefly found romance with theatre producer Michael Edwards-Hammond, but the relationship ended at his instigation and a dreadfully upset Dannii was off sick for two weeks, after which she decided not to renew her contract when it came up after six months.
Since then, Kylie has been increasingly generous towards her little sister – perhaps, given her new-found status as icon, she can afford to be. In 2002 she said of Dannii, ‘I used to be very competitive with her when I was younger. People ask who I think is the sexiest and I have to say her. And she is taller than me.’
Equally, Kylie’s success in later years has reflected well on her little sister. Since watching Kylie turn herself from mid-Nineties embarrassment to early Noughties überbabe, Dannii has also begun to reshape her singing career. After she sang on Riva’s hit single ‘Who Do You Love Now?’, which reached number two, London Records outbid five other labels to sign Dannii up for a six-album deal. The deal, said a spokesperson, was worth a ‘huge amount’.
But still the fascination about the sisters’ relationship persist. An assistant in one of Kylie’s favourite shops, VV Rouleaux atelier in Sloane Street, which sells ribbons, trimmings and braids (and which is also a favourite with Dannii), observes: ‘They never come in to the shop together – always separately. They are quite similar although Dannii is more friendly than Kylie and looks a lot older.’
Kylie probably came closest to the truth of what lies behind a clearly complex relationship when asked what would happen if Dannii got to number one and she didn’t. What would she do? ‘I’ll cross that bridge when and where,’ said Kylie. ‘I’ll screen my calls! Ha, ha. No, she knows I’m there if she needs me. I think we both have feelings for one another bordering on jealousy and admiration.’
Clearly, the pattern has repeated itself throughout their lives: when they were children, Kylie muscled in on Dannii’s act and got the part she wanted and as an adult, she just can’t help stealing the limelight. Kylie has over-shadowed Dannii; it’s a fact. But then again, Kylie has overshadowed just about everyone: Jason Donovan, Victoria Beckham, with whom she battled in the charts, Gisele Bundchen – the two posed for a photograph and Kylie came out best – and if he’d lived, she’d more than likely have ended up overshadowing Michael Hutchence, too. As for Dannii, she’s talented, good looking and has done a lot with her life already. And who could ask for more than that?
13
Is Kylie An Alien?
I could see myself as a glitter hippy
KYLIE MINOGUE
Kylie Minogue has always been aware of her looks. Closely resembling her mother, Kylie is tiny – 5’1” – and that hairstyle from her Neighbours days, which was always assumed to be a perm, is actually her natural hair. It’s hardly surprising that she’s been constantly conscious of her appearance, though, given that her first appearance on television was at the age of 11 and she was still in her teens when she first began talking about her looks. ‘I’ve proved to myself that I can make an impact,’ she said at the age of 18 after she’d become famous in Neighbours, ‘but I hate being short.’ Not that it didn’t have some uses. ‘Short people,’ she observed on another occasion, ‘are often very strong minded.’
And of her naturally curly hair? ‘A friend and I used to try and straighten our hair with an iron,’ she revealed, shortly after that distinctive head of hair had become famous. ‘I’d be scared to do anything now, knowing it’s such a trademark. I also hate my teeth,’ she continued. ‘And I don’t like my voice but I don’t want to have lessons to speak prop-er-lay. It wouldn’t be me.’ Even Kylie, though, couldn’t think of a way of complaining about her weight. ‘You wouldn’t think I could lose weight,’ she once said, ‘but I do. I just burn it up.’
It was the News of the World that, to Kylie’s great amusement, first asked if she was an alien. This was some years ago, before she turned into one of the world’s most beautiful Australians, but her looks truly are extraordinary. She is so tiny that she can still sometimes resemble a child: in the video for ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’, for instance, Kylie comes across as part sex siren, part 13-year-old – and even when she waggles that famous bottom, there is as much of the schoolgirl about her as there is of the sex bomb.
Exasperatingly, Kylie doesn’t even diet. ‘I eat anything I want,’ she says. ‘My weakness is chocolate, dark chocolate. I seriously don’t think it’s bad for you.’ She was once asked if she ever did Geri Halliwell-style diets: ‘I’m so petite it’s something I’ve never done. I mean, if I had any weight fluctuations, no one would know. My work keeps me busy. I can only say what works for me. If you have some chocolate, enjoy it. I mean, what do people in your office think about Geri?’ she asked the interviewer. ‘There’s such an air of determination that goes with her look, you wonder: aren’t there any other things she wants to do? It’s just so hard to find balance in your life.’
‘The thing about Kylie is that she never works out – ever,’ says Paul Flynn, editor of Attitude magazine. ‘She does watch what she eats – she’s particularly partial to duck breast – but her only exercise is walking up and down the Kings Road.’
Of course, she does very physica
l work in her videos and performances, all of which will help keep her slim. Rafael Bonachela, a dancer with the Rambert Dance Company, worked with Kylie for her Brits routine in 2002 and will be choreographing her in the future. ‘I was asked to work with Kylie at the end of 2001 after her creative director, William Baker, saw my last piece for Rambert – Linear Remains, at Sadlers Wells,’ Rafael says. ‘Kylie is very serious about what she does and works very hard. She is lovely to work with and is open to trying new things. She is incredibly professional and committed and pays great attention to detail.
‘I don’t know what sort of training she has had before but she is a natural mover, with a great sense of rhythm, and has great flair and picks up new movements quickly and easily. Our time together is very focused on rehearsing so we talk about the movements, the style and the feel of whatever performance she is preparing for. We don’t discuss her private life. She has a great sense of humour and is a very sweet person.’
Will Baker is not just Kylie’s creative director. He also is her stylist, an association that goes back to 1994 when he was working in Vivienne Westwood’s shop at the age of 19. He had wanted to be Kylie’s stylist ever since he saw her in ‘What Do I Have To Do’, so when she unexpectedly appeared in the shop one day, Will made the most of his moment. He leapt at his idol, gabbled out ideas, persuaded her to have coffee with him and won the day. The two have worked closely together ever since, becoming close friends in the process. Will does much more than just choose Kylie’s outfits: he has an enormous amount of input into which songs are released, with whom she chooses to dance and even the costumes her male dancers wear. The two go shopping together, to haunts such as Portobello Road and Knightsbridge.
Kylie Queen of the World Page 15