[Red Moon]

Dannii: I don't fancy Simon

EVER since Simon Cowell picked Dannii Minogue to sit beside him on the X Factor panel, rumours about their relationship have been rife.

Speculation reached fever pitch when they were pictured seemingly holding hands in the back of a cab last week.

But today Dannii reveals she does NOT fancy pop mogul Cowell — and prefers a “man’s man”, such as celebrity chefs Gordon Ramsay or Marco Pierre White.

In a candid interview, the Aussie singer tells how she is desperate for LOVE and feels BULLIED by her fellow X Factor judges Louis Walsh and Sharon Osbourne.

She also tells for the first time how she helped her pop princess big sister Kylie through her breast cancer battle — and why she is fiercely protective of her sibling.

Dannii confesses: “Simon and I do flirt in a really fun way and I’m pretty tactile. We click and get on really well. But that man could flirt with a book, a wall, anything.

“That picture looked so wrong but it wasn’t at all — we weren’t even holding hands. Simon was just stretching out his arms.

“I don’t fancy him and I don’t have a type I go for but I like a man who makes me laugh, who’s intelligent and speaks his mind.

“Maybe I should go for a chef because an ideal date for me would have to involve food.

“Gordon Ramsay’s sexy. I met him at the GQ Awards and thought, ‘Yeah, you’re lovely.’

I haven’t met Marco Pierre White but my friends adore him. You could never be with a guy like that, he’s too outrageous, but it doesn’t stop you liking him.

“Marco and Gordon are proper men’s men. I need someone to sweep me off my feet, a knight in shining armour to give me a fairytale romance.”

Not that Dannii, 36, is short of admirers — comics Russell Brand and David Walliams have each chatted her up recently.

But she says: “Russell looks like he needs dipping in cleaning fluid. I just don’t go for that look.

“I go for clean cut, so I think David is quite sexy, but he tries it on with everyone.

“It’s not like he could go, ‘Oh, I picked you out from the crowd.’ It’s got to be real for me.”

Dannii’s video for her new single Touch Me Like That sees her strutting her stuff in a sexy leather outfit. And with nearly 30 years in showbiz — since childhood fame in Australia as a soap and talent show star — you would expect her to be made of stern stuff.

But during our interview, as she sits with legs curled up, wrapped in a scarf, she shows a vulnerable side — and confesses she is devastated at being frozen out by X Factor co-stars Louis and Sharon.

She admits: “It’s tough being the new girl. The hardest thing is, I really admire them. I’ve looked up to them for years and I wanted to be part of that gang. But when they’re slating you, you think, ‘Please don’t, I really like you.’

“I’ve certainly had to toughen up.

“I’ve had my ups and downs with Sharon and expected that. And Louis, who’s had a rough year after being kicked off the show then coming back, is thinking, ‘Who is this young chick? What does she know?’

“But to even go there with the arguments is giving power to them, so I ignore it. They may rubbish my experience and, OK, I’ve never had a No1 — but I came damn close with a No2 (her 2003 hit I Begin To Wonder).

“I only got beaten by Christina Aguilera’s Beautiful, which is an incredible song. I can’t be bothered to retaliate, though. It’s catty, it’s almost become bullying to me, and I don’t want to entertain that.”

Dannii is the only judge on the ITV show with two acts in the four semi-finalists — bookies’ favourite Rhydian Roberts and Leon Jackson — and she is desperate for one of them to win next week’s grand final to prove Sharon and Louis wrong.

She says: “It’s bloody satisfying to be the only person with two acts left. It just shows that when you focus on your acts, and not on sniping at each other, you get the job done.”

Dannii’s X Factor troubles have forced her to confront a lot of issues — as did her sister’s illness.

In a candid moment, she admits she fumes when people assume she envies Kylie’s huge success.

Dannii says: “I find it unfortunate it took the fact that Kylie went through cancer for everyone to accept I love my sister. I will do anything for her.

“We do not fight, we’re not jealous, we’re just sisters. That was a boring story until she got cancer.

“Everybody’s perception of both of us changed then. Particularly me — before, people thought, ‘She must be jealous, she must feel in Kylie’s shadow.’

“But I’m flabbergasted that it took something like cancer to change their minds. Nobody wants to believe that two sisters love each other, and it p****s me off. I’ve never spoken about this before because we wanted to keep that side of ourselves private.

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“But from day one, people said we hated each other — and that has never, ever been the case.

“Nobody can describe how Kylie felt going through her illness. I’ve been so close to her but still don’t know exactly what she must have felt. I can only ever be there to support her and that’s all I’ve done my entire life but nobody has wanted to believe that. A lot of other people would come out and say, ‘Oh, I stepped in to help Kylie out, I saved her’, but I’m not like that and never will be like that.”

Kylie recently released a behind-the-scenes documentary, White Diamond, about her post-illness Homecoming Tour.

One scene in the film, shown in cinemas and on TV, showed her and Dannii singing Kylie and Robbie Williams’ hit Kids together — although Dannii had to be cajoled into the duet for fear of seeming to step on her sister’s toes.

She admits: “I felt strange about it — I felt like, ‘This is her return, it’s her moment.’ But it was only when she said to me, ‘Please, I’m getting really tired, it would give me a lift’ that I agreed.

“It was difficult for me to watch. I was almost a bit upset. I was, like, ‘That’s MY sister.’ The fans, the media, you’re allowed to have Kylie Minogue — but not Kylie. That’s MY Kylie. I did feel a bit, like, ‘I don’t want people to see everything of my sister.’

“I may make a heap of mistakes but nobody can say I don’t love my family or am not passionate.”

Source: The Sun

[Jackie]

Stretching out his arms ummmm