Myleene Klass

Myleene Klass

Myleene Klass is having a moment. As I wait on an angular leather sofa behind glass-panelled sliding doors, closed off from the rest of her manager's office by a red velvet curtain, the media starlet's shrieks can be heard from the other side of the building. Apologetic staff intermittently poke their heads around the door saying there has been an incident, that she is rather flustered and asking if I wouldn't mind waiting a moment. All I can make out is that there has been some kerfuffle about a photographer, and something to do with public transport.

It turns out Klass has been spotted and photographed on the way to the office after unwittingly drawing attention to herself by helping an old lady in a wheelchair who was stuck in the automatic doors of a bus. There is some concern in the office about the ensuing photographs - Klass has had so much media exposure recently that her team are worried she may be reaching saturation point.

'Well, what was I supposed to do? The woman's in a wheelchair, stuck on the ramp, and he's trying to drive the bus off!' the 29-year-old cries as she enters the enclosure, wearing a summery pink dress generously cut to show off her baby bump (she has been pregnant since February, in case you've been living on the moon) and with a pair of designer sunglasses carefully propped up on her head.

Unusually for one so over-exposed, she's also achieved the rather miraculous feat of being pretty much universally liked

You can see where her team are coming from. Since first coming to public attention as a member of reality TV pop band Hear'Say, Klass has hardly left our screens and billboards while her fellow band members have plundered into obscurity. She's appeared on every prime-time TV show you can think of, from The Graham Norton Show to Never Mind the Buzzcocks, and now she's got her own presenting slot on The National Lottery People's Quiz as well as shows on Classic FM and London's Capital 95.8. But right now she's probably best known - for better or worse - for her appearance in the latest series of ITV's I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!, where she finished a respectable runner-up to Busted singer Matt Willis.

At the moment you can't walk down your local high street without seeing Klass on a billboard, appearing alongside Twiggy as the new face of Marks & Spencer. You can't even turn on the TV without being bombarded with images of her promoting the high street chain looking radiantly pregnant in a floaty red dress. But unusually for one so over-exposed, she's also achieved the rather miraculous feat of being pretty much universally liked.

It's easy to see why EMI Classics has chosen her to front a new compilation series, the first instalment of which is due out on 2 July. Entitled Myleene's Music for Romance, it introduces a series of lifestyle-themed compilations of music from EMI's back catalogue put together by Klass with the intention of introducing new audiences to classical music. She's also going to be taking on an ambassadorial role for the label, doing her bit to help build profile for EMI Classics and its artists over the coming months.

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