PICS Cheryl Cole wins 2 BT Digital Music Awards

Cheryl Cole did not attend the BT Digital Music Awards because of work commitments

Cheryl Cole and JLS were the big winners at last night's BT Digital Music Awards - scooping 2 gongs each.

The X Factor judge, 27, was named Best Female and her track Fight For This Love was Best Song.

JLS were Best Group and took home the Best Video prize for Everybody In Love.

Lady Gaga, 24, was Best International Artist while Robbie Williams, 35, was Best Male.

Other winners were Tinie Tempah for Best Newcomer, Professor Green was Breakthrough Artist Of The Year, Dizzee Rascal was Best Independent Artist and Muse scooped Best Website.

Stars at the event at Camden's Roundhouse included McFly, Ne-Yo, Nikki Grahame and Scouting For Girls.

Gemma Arterton's gran died after stabbing herself through the heart

Inquest concludes Helen Sarfas committed suicide

Gemma Arterton's gran Helen Sarfas killed herself in January

Gemma Arterton's grandmother stabbed herself to death, it emerged yesterday.

A coroner's inquest in Maidstone yesterday ruled that Helen Sarfas, 69, committed suicide after a long battle with depression.

The 69-year-old - who was bipolar and had osteoarthritis - was found in bed with a knife in her heart by husband Rodney Peacock, 85, at their flat in Gillingham, Kent, in January.

'She was suffering severe pain from osteoarthritis and her joints,' coroner Roger Sykes ruled.

'I can only reach the conclusion she took her life because the physical pain and depression became too much.'

Gemma, 24, was in West End play The Little Dog Laughed when she was told of her Helen's death.

'This is a private family matter,' her spokesman tells the Daily Mail.

Gemma's new movie Tamara Drewe is out now.

Catherine Walker fashioner designer to Princess Diana has died

Catherine Walker fashioner designer to Princess Diana has died

Catherine Walker, fashioner designer to Princess Diana died on September 23, at the age of 65. Apart from designing couture fashion for notable women such as Joely Richardson, Shakira Caine, Darcy Bussell, and Queen Noor of Jordan, she designed more than 1,000 outfits for Diana.

Catherine Walker avoided too much public scrutiny during her career. This is so unusual for a someone in the fashion world that her evasion of fame may have garnered her more attention than her admission to it. She hardly ever gave interviews and did not display her fashions on the catwalk. Her no-nonsense approach to fashion kept her at its pinnacle of the business for a long time.

Catherine did not like the undue trends in fashion and did not give into them. She said that fashion was fast moving, but uniform at a time when a trend is in place. She said that she designed clothes to give real style to women. In 1990 she won an award for British fashion Designer for Couture and followed it up with another the following year for Designer of the Year.

She was reclusive and hardworking. After undergoing cancer surgery in 1995, she opted for a motorbike to help her relax, went on a specific health diet. She was a founding member and passionate supporter of the charity Breast Cancer Haven.

Catherine was French born and learned English while living above a butcher’s shop in London. Her PhD led to work for the French Embassy and the French Institute.

She started studying fashion at night school after the death of her first husband, John Walker, left her to raise two small daughters. During the day she would sell clothing form a basket. The popularity of her handmade clothes led to the opening of her own shop in 1976 and finally, the founding of her fashion label, Catherine Walker and Co. Ms. Walker is survived by her two daughters.

This is not exactly the result that disappointed Avatar fans were expecting.

THIS is not exactly the result that disappointed Avatar fans were expecting.

Oscar voters passed over the top-grossing film of all time, and instead gave Best Picture to The Hurt Locker, which sold the fewest tickets of any Best Picture winner in academy history.

The academy also made history by choosing Kathryn Bigelow of The Hurt Locker as the first woman ever to win the Oscar for Best Director - over her ex-husband, Avatar director James Cameron.

Avatar and Cameron seemed unbeatable in January after winning at the Golden Globes and becoming a genuine international cultural phenomenon.

Director Kathryn Bigelow attends the 82 Annual Academy Awards Governor's Ball

But experts say the film's Oscar campaign failed to capitalize on its momentum and allowed the flick to get swamped in the inevitable backlash.

Avatar was widely mocked by the chattering classes for being derivative. A lightly revised script for the Disney cartoon Pocahontas, underlining the similarities between the two films, circulated through the blogosphere.

Meanwhile, the film's campaigners pushed unsuccessfully to get a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Zoe Saldana, who appears in the film only in animated form.

"The campaign was overly defensive, focusing too much on convincing the voters that the motion-capture performances were real acting," said a veteran Oscar consultant.

"Instead, they should have emphasized on what a game-changer Avatar is for the way movies will be made."

It probably did not help that many Oscar voters still remember Cameron's boastful "king of the world" speech from the night when his Titanic won 11 Oscars in 1998.

So Oscar voters continued the recent trend of embracing small, art-house flicks such as The Hurt Locker.

Ratings up

Preliminary data from the Walt Disney Co.shows the Oscar telecast enjoyed a big ratings jump from recent years, though the company conceded that current comparisons may not be proven accurate.

Disney said the Sunday telecast on its ABC network - in which the small, independent film The Hurt Locker went toe-to-toe against box-office goliath Avatar and won six Oscars, including best picture and best director - scored a 26.5 household rating and 40 share in 56 key markets.

The household rating, which measures the percentage of all homes watching the Oscars, appears to be up sharply from the 20.6 reported last year, when Slumdog Millionaire won best picture. And the 40 share, or the percentage of all TVs turned on that are tuned to the broadcast, compares with 31 last year.

Disney officials pointed out that ratings monitor Nielsen Co. has changed its methodology and so year-to-year comparisons are unavailable in the metered markets. Further, last year's numbers are final, while the current figures only show highly populous markets, where ratings tend to be higher for Oscar telecasts.

The five highest-rated markets are Chicago; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Boston; Kansas City; and San Francisco.

The network said more comprehensive figures were due out later Monday.

Still, the numbers could prove to be a boon for both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, sponsor of the Oscars, as well as Disney, if the figures hold up. The academy had expanded its list of best-picture nominees to 10 from five in an effort to generate greater interest.

The telecast was helped by the fact that Avatar, which is now the all-time box-office champ with more than $2.5 billion in worldwide receipts, was one of the best-picture finalists and had garnered nine nominations in all.

NO-ONE can ever say music mogul Russell Simmons doesn't comes prepared.

NO-ONE can ever say music mogul Russell Simmons doesn't comes prepared.

While leaving the Haven 360 Oscar party for the documentary The Cove, about the plight of dolphins in Japan, the hip-hop impresario dropped a magnum-sized Trojan condom.

Russell Simmons

"Russell reached into his pocket to get his valet ticket and something dropped on the floor," a witness told the New York Post.

"He didn't notice and drove off. I rushed over to pick it up, and it was a black and gold packet containing a Trojan condom."

Simmons was at the event with Hayden Panettiere and director Fisher Stevens to toast the pro-dolphin movie, which won an Oscar for best documentary.

"This happened as he stood right next to a giant ad for his ex-wife Kimore Lee Simmons' new TV show," the source added.