Top Cat

Cat Deeley is the sort of girl you wish was your mate. She's got a great job, she's funny, she's sorted, she doesn't take any bullshit from blokes and she's got a great wardrobe (that she'd probably let you nick stuff from). Cat, it seems, has got it all. But it wasn't always like that. The presenter of SMTV and CD:UK and an MTV VJ (her whole career is based on abbreviations!), Cat started off as plain Catherine of Sutton Coldfield, a girl who was, in her words, 'too tall, with massive eyebrows and a bad perm'. Add to that a Brummie accent and it didn't look like a recipe for celebrity. But once she'd ditched the perm, plucked the eyebrows and lost the 'herine' bit of her name, she was ready to shoot skywards, first as a model, then on TV.
When cat arrives at the Company photo shoot she's wearing blue-tinted Dolce & Gabbana glasses, a scarlet leather coat and made-to-measure black leather trousers. She looks stunning but announces she's got a hangover and dives straight into the biscuit tin. Because Cat, 23, is as down to earth as your favourite flatmate (and she freely admits that she's extremely lucky), it's just one of the reasons why we all wannabe Cat's mate...

she knows how to party
You'd expect a rising star to spend her weekends at the Met Bar necking Bolly, but not Cat. She's a self-confessed boozer but you're more likely to find her down her local or in her pyjamas at home. 'Friday nights are a big no-no - I have to be up at dawn on Saturdays. I can go out Monday nights and Wednesday nights before my days off.' And it turns out that while she's not exactly a stranger to celeb hangouts, she doesn't turn up to the opening of an envelope - she's got better things to do. 'Last night we went round to Ant's house for his girlfriend's birthday. We played pass the parcel and Operation, and we had fireworks. It was a disaster - they weren't put in the ground properly so they were firing off everywhere.' She does admit to visiting the Met Bar but only when her mates are going, and not to pose for the paparazzi. 'God! Someone shoot me first!'

she isn't cool
While a lot of celebs are keen to dismiss fame as a total bore, Cat actually likes being spotted in the street. 'I don't mind at all, people are really nice. Mostly it's little kids who recognise me and they ask funny, upfront questions like, "Do you fancy Dec?" I don't see the point when people try to play it cool because I'm not a cool person. I'll never be the Gwyneth Paltrow of TV! There are certain people who are really co-ordinated, and you just know they've got matching underwear on. That's not me.'
Even Cat's childhood was as sweetly uncool as possible. 'I loved school. When I was little I used to come home and my mum would make me hot chocolate with sprinkles and swirly cream and we'd have a chat.' There was no sign of future talent, either. 'I wasn't wildly ambitious, I just went to Brownies and ballet classes. Now if I dance on TV, my mum says, "See, I knew those ballet lessons would pay off."' Having spent her formative years being uncool, Cat has no problem with looking daft on a regular basis, from her willingness to sing I Will Survive live on SM:TV to her enormous laugh. 'It's hilarious, I was voted eighth coolest person in a paper the other week, and I'm so not. Maybe uncool is the new cool!'

she gets star-struck
Cat admits that her non-famous friends are the most important. 'I have my main body of friends who aren't celebs, but when I go out to parties there are famous people there who I've met through work. Guests fall into three categories: old-time hero, people who I looked up to at school, and newly famous people. The new ones aren't intimidating because I feel on the same level, but meeting the ones I liked as a kid is weird. the strangest are the real old-time heroes. We once had Tom Jones and Ricky Martin on the same show. Ricky's a lovely guy but he can't compete with Tom. Tom was a little bit sweaty and he smelt of Old Spice - a proper bloke. And he's got a twinkle in his eye, not a disturbing glint, just a twinkle! And Debbie Harry from Blondie was amazing. She gave me her phone number and said, "Next time you're in New York, give me a call." I was like, "Oooh!"'

she's worked her way up
Many models-turned-presenters dismiss modelling, saying it didn't challenge them intellectually. Given that Cat has four A-levels you might think she'd be quick to put down her life as a clothes-horse, but she's just grateful for the break. 'When I was younger I was spotted by a model agency and they wanted me to leave school. I didn't want to, so i did my A-levels. Everyone was going to be doctors or lawyers but I didn't know what I wanted to be so i took a year out and started modelling.
'I liked it. When you're 18 it's fun - it gave me a good starting place. It's about making the best of the situation. Then I had a sudden inspiration that I should make a tape and send it to MTV.' We all have those (often vodka-fuelled) inspirations, but most of us never get any further than giggling inanely in front of a video camera. Cat got called in. 'I had to go for about four months' of auditions because I'd never donw anything like it. It was so nerve-wracking, in fact, by the end of it I'd developed a twitchy eye through nerves.' She turned the twitch into a cheeky wink and a star was launched.

she's good at her job
Unlike some presenters on kids' shows ('I want to do grown-up TV'; 'I want to show my bum'), Cat's more than happy with her lot. 'I'm doing something I love,' she explains, 'I meet other people in TV and they say, "What would you like to do?" Well, we do comedy, music, interviews, location work - that's hard to beat.' Cat says she's only had one problem guest, the wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin, of all people. 'I introduced myself and the next thing I knew, he'd left. He just said, "No, I don't want to do this." So we turned it into "even wrestlers aren't hard enough for this show." It's live so you just have to get on with it.'

she won't strip off
Not surprising for one so foxy, Cat's a regular on the cover of mens' mags. Despite being harassed by feminists for posing in underwear, Cat's more than capable of defending herself. 'My covers have been pretty tame and if people think I did it to further my career, well, it may help me but it won't keep me there,' she says. Besides, it's hardly top-shelf territory. 'I'd never do anything that raunchy. I've never had any nasty comebacks because I wouldn't do anything hair-raising,' she adds innocently. Does it bother her that blokes are muttering 'phwooar' over her bikini'd image? 'they can look at me on TV and go "phwooar", as long as it doesn't get too weird.' By weird, she means the guy who once wrote to her from Belgium. 'He wrote all these random thoughts, saying, "so-and-so should commit suicide". I can laugh about it now, but at the time... God!'

she isn't a man-eater
Cat likes men but she's not a man's woman. She co-presents with Ant and Dec ('my boys'), grew up in a houseful of blokes and went to a boys' college. 'I get on well with men. Dad's a very manly man and my brother's a big guy, so it was never a girlie household. I've got my core female friends so I flit between the two.' She's currently single after a fling with Huey from the Fun Lovin' Criminals. When I tell her we don't have to go into detail, she relaxes and sighs, 'Okay'. But what does she look for in a man? 'A bit rough looking, dark, someone who can make me laugh. I'm a drama-queen, so I need a laid-back person. And I find men who are doing well very attractive.' Hmm, wonder who she just described. Still, Cat claims she's not on the lookout for a guy. 'If you're not looking, things fall in your lap.' Has she ever had a broken heart? 'Well, break-ups are never nice, they always get a bit messy. I'd like to meet somebody but I don't get asked out much.' Could it be she scares men off? 'No! I don't think I'm intimidating, unless someone said they were scared of me I wouldn't even think that.'

she can't boil an egg
'I've just bought a flat in north London. It's gorgeous, I live by myself - I thought it'd kill me at first but now I love it.' paint charts aren't part of her repertoire, though. 'I haven't done any decorating yet, I keep getting interiors magazines but one minute I think "that's what I want" then I buy the next one and I think "no, that one". I'm so indecisive.' She can't cook, either. 'You know the Naked Chef, Jamie Oliver? He's all a little bit hey, a little bit whooh, he just throws it together and it works a treat. But he lulls you into a false sense of security. I had people coming round and I thought I'd make pasta like one he did. It turned into the biggest blobby mess you've ever seen! Mind you, they ate it 'cause we'd drunk loads first.' At least she's hardly home enough to poison herself with her culinary (non) skills. 'I go out most nights, but I go to my mates' for a Chinese more often than not.'

she's down to earth
Much as she loves life right now, Cat isn't prepared to give up her happiness for the fickle finger of fame. 'If I got to the stage where I thought it was affecting me unpleasantly, I'd walk away.' And she's not one to put herself down just so people will chorus 'oh no, you're gorgeous!' 'Everyone has bad days, but I'm not going to go "omigod I hate this or that" then everybody looks at it! I admit the raw material's there, but some days it's rawer than others.' Please don't say you exist on mineral water and live for the gym? 'No, I've been blessed with good genes. I used to relax by drinking but I'll be a worn-out old hag by 26 at this rate. I see a personal trainer twice a week. I'm not an exercise person, but she gives me a massage afterwards so I look forward to that. I still drink vodka, though!'
Cat's flung herself into success like a sky diver leaping from a plane and she knows she's lucky. 'This isn't a dress rehearsal. I always want to feel, "Yes! I did that!" I don't want to have any regrets, I want life experiences. And so far it seems to be working.'

[Photo] [Photo] [Photo] [Photo]