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Guest · Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 7:01 pm Post subject:

WAG Coleen becomes Girl With A Pearl Earring

Stand back far enough and you might think this picture is the original Vermeer.

But look closer and you'll recognise Coleen McLoughlin as The Girl With A Pearl Earring.

Wayne Rooney's fiancee recreates the painting for photographer John Paul Pietrus in tomorrow's Guardian Weekend magazine.

It is one of a series showing Coleen, 20, in famous paintings including the Botticelli Venus, Manet's A Bar At The Folies-Bergere and David Hockney's portrait Mr And Mrs Clark And Percy.

Guest · Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:54 pm Post subject:

Very modern muse

Artists need them, photographers nurture them, fashion lovers seek them out and now, says Hadley Freeman, Coleen McLoughlin has become one - an inspiration and an icon

She arrives in a flattering jumper dress and simple, ladylike shoes. Well, what were you expecting - a tracksuit? Oh, please. For Coleen McLoughlin, the 21-year-old fiancee of this country's most gifted young footballer (it's almost always fiancee with a footballer, hardly ever "girlfriend"), the days of schoolgirl blazers, lemoncoloured velour, Burberry bikinis and Pucci wellingtons are as much of a distant memory as David Beckham's captaincy. Instead, Coleen has become one of the more surprising yet pleasing reinvented fashion icons of modern times.

Sitting in the make-up chair in between photos, flicking through a copy of OK! magazine ("I like reading the interviews, because then you know that's what the person has actually said. A lot of what you read is a load of rubbish"), she has a little smile at the thought: "It's an honour, really, because when I was growing up I really looked up to my auntie for her style." So she knows what it's like to look up to people for their style? "Exactly."
Rarely has a woman been so defined by and vilified for her clothes as Coleen. In her first appearance in the press in February 2003, a harbinger of things to come, the media expressed general astonishment at what she was wearing and it made the front pages. Admittedly, this was because she was 16 and wearing a school uniform, which did have a certain shock value, seeing as her 17-year-old boyfriend, Wayne Rooney, then with Everton, was being paid £13,000 a week.

Little was known about Coleen at the time: we were told she was clever, having just knocked up 10 GCSEs (she dropped out of her A-levels, mainly because her classes got in the way of watching Rooney's football matches); she came from a closeknit family from Liverpool and, as soon became clear, she had a very generous boyfriend.

And so she shopped. And shopped and shopped and shopped. No matter how many elegant Lanvin dresses and Balenciaga jackets she wears now, one of the defining images will always bethat of her emerging from the airport after a trip to New York in 2004, awkwardly pushing several suitcases, big as coffins, full of new clothes.

She vehemently insists that she didn't, and doesn't, shop that much - it's just that the only time the paparazzi could get photographs of her was when she was out and about. It's a good excuse, even if it does suggest that every time she left the house she went shopping. She still wriggles out of putting a figure on her general expenditure ("It's like anybody - up and down"), though she will concede that her most expensive purchase so far is an Hermès Birkin bag (rough price, £3,000) and the one thing she does think is overpriced is designer cashmere: "That really gets me - cashmere jumpers, like Missoni do them, and you pay hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pounds for a jumper. Or you can go to Gap or George at Asda and they're just as nice."

Looking back at the photographs from a few years back, does she have any regrets? "I wouldn't say regret, as that's quite a strong word and, you know, it's about expressing yourself and that was me then," she says with an unconcerned shrug. As she says, quite rightly and with an impressive lack of rancour, "I was 16! What 16-year-old is an expert on fashion?" And in any case, what would anyone expect a schoolgirl with a sudden flush of unimaginable accessible wealth to buy - a demure Chanel twinset?

Ultimately, the real criticism of the chavs in general - and the Wags in particular - was always a question of class. Aside from the beauty of the clothes, fashion is, at heart, about codes in which clothes are used to show off your demographic - ie, wealth, which at one point was synonymous with class. But now, huge amounts of money are swilling about in industries not generally dominated by the upper classes, notably sport. How dare these uppity young folk try to muscle in on this once carefully preserved system, flashing around their designer logos and Burberry prints? There are rules, you know!

Of course, Coleen made the occasional outfit choices that were a little off-piste ("The yellow moonboots keep coming to mind," she says), but the ensuing bile in the press suggested something else was at stake here, other than disapproval of Coleen's choice of colour coordination.

Jenny Eclair opined in the Daily Mail, "that she's got one of those classic working-class bodies - it doesn't matter how gym-toned the girl might be, there is still something about her that looks like she was designed to bring in the washing". In a more recent article one writer, perhaps with a head full of HE Bates, waxed sentimental condescension about Coleen's "jolly, fag-puffing, beer-swilling proletarian culture".

This seems to raise Coleen's ire the most. "I mean, what did he say again? Jolly what? My parents don't even smoke! And yeah, they might have a drink at Christmas but they don't really go out." She vehemently insists that she "has never worried about money. My mum and dad have always worked - you can ask them", presumably because she's sick of her parents being made to sound like characters from Shameless. She doesn't mind the stuff about herself so much, and for someone who was once described in a paragraph that used the words "vulgar", "tubby" and "Vicky Pollard" one after the other, and whose boyfriend was gleefully outed in the tabloids as having enjoyed a youthful if baffling dalliance with a prostitute known as "the auld one", she has a surprisingly benign attitude towards the press: wise but not bitter or cynical. She shrugs at the frequently invoked label "shopaholic", and says, "The press just needed some kind of name to hang on me."

She once said that when she was being most heavily vilified, she felt like she was "being punished for something Wayne did". She doesn't like that quote so much now, because she thinks it makes her sound a bit self-pitying, but she does stand by its sentiments. "People were criticising me then for doing this and doing that, and I thought, now, there's no need for those comments, I haven't done anything wrong. I do think that with a couple, if they've got something on one person, they'll try to go through the other."

Perhaps she knows there's no point in getting too worked up about all this because she's got her revenge now, good and proper. For a start, she is looking empirically, undeniably lovely these days. Now that the immediate thrill of being able to buy designer clothes has dissipated somewhat, she is no longer quite so distracted by flashy patterns but instead favours simple, pretty outfits by the likes of Stella McCartney, Chloé and Lanvin. "It's not that all [the criticism] changed me. I just grew, and I've come to like other things that suit me - different cuts, different lengths, different whatever." She's already spotted quite a few pieces for the coming season that she likes the look of, particularly from Chloé and Temperley ("I like nice girlie stuff. I'm not really a short-skirt person") and, she adds with a naughty smile, Christian Louboutin shoes.

Aside from now being applauded for her style nous, she has written a style book, has a magazine column, has done the obligatory fitness video ("That was quite hard work, so I bought myself a Fendi baguette bag afterwards") and, with various advertising deals, is said to be worth more than £5m.

It must be nice, I say, to be earning money of her own. "Well, I always have, really," she replies. "When I was at school, I got a Saturday job in New Look and worked extra hours to earn money to buy Wayne's birthday present." Fair enough. What did she get him with her New Look money?

"Um, a jumper. Some wireless headset thingy. Oh, and a ring, like a Cartier style. Except," she adds, with a giggle, "it wasn't Cartier!"

There is still such a sweet smack of normality to Coleen. She is the face of George at Asda, and recounts delightedly how a man came up to her recently and slapped his bum at her. Slapped his bum, I cry, all set to be outraged at this blatant sexual harassment. "You know!" she laughs, shifting her weight in her chair to demonstrate what she means, "Like they do in the adverts!" She makes the little "that's Asda" double pat on her backside.

When I apologise for all the people poking and prodding at her during the fashion shoot, she chirps, "Oh no, I really like doing photo shoots!" Right, I think, you get to try on fancy clothes all day. "Yeah, I like meeting all the hair and make-up people," she continues. When I ask what the best part of the past four years has been, she makes vague noises about, "Ummm, meeting all the people, I guess", before alighting on, "Getting people to come with me to Manchester. One time I'll go with all my cousins, and one time I'll go with all my friends. I love that."

Unlike some of her fellow Wags, who now seem to mix solely among the kookier reaches of the A-list, Coleen's social circle is still her friends from home. When she went to Euro 2004, she took her best friend . "And good thing I did, because I didn't know everyone and most of them have children and all. We had a right laugh." For the World Cup, she again brought a friend, as well as her brother.

This turned out to be a good thing, too. Despite all the press photographs last summer of the Wags - namely Coleen, Victoria Beckham, Elen Rives, Alex Curran, Cheryl Tweedy, and Carly Zucker - patrolling the streets of Baden-Baden, cruising for designer boutiques like hungry, denim-clad lionesses searching for prey, she claims they didn't spend that much time together. "Everyone does their own thing. You might go to dinner with one or two of them , but that's it, really."

The Wag phenomenon actually took a little bit of the heat off Coleen simply because, next to her flashier, skinnier, showier colleagues, her relative normality was emphasised. She denies reports about cat fi ghts - "Y ou might look at what one another's wearing, but that's, you know, how girls are. It's not like there's competition about who's the most dressed-up" - and insists that it wasn't quite the 24-hour catwalk show it seemed . "When we went to the matches most of us went in our tracksuits because it was so hot on the bus. And then we got there and put on our clothes..."

She prefers to stick with her mates from Liverpool. Yet this, too, has been cause for criticism: when Coleen bussed in her friends for her birthday last April, the Daily Mail, unable to have a go at Coleen because she was looking patently lovely in a pretty skirt and ladylike top, consoled itself by sneering at her friends with their "cleavages wobbling, thighs straining desperately against skinny-fi t jeans". Understandably, her friends now run down the road when they see photographers , muttering to Coleen, "We're not getting this again."

They're the ones who get upset on Coleen's behalf about what's written about her and Wayne, but she tells them not to be silly, it's not true, who cares? "They're not part of that world and they're not interested in it at all . With them around, it's like nothing's happened and everything's still the same." Does she wish it was? "No, because some of it's been brilliant and, to be honest , it hasn't changed that much. When it's just me and Wayne in the house, it's the way it's always been."

She is clearly besotted with Rooney. Every time she mentions his name - which she does, often - she makes a pretty little smile. They have been together for six years - "Our families always knew each other" - and engaged for two (he proposed when they were having dinner with her parents), and live in a £4m house in Chester. "I think we grew with [becoming famous] together, because Wayne had his football stuff whereas I was more on the front page. Now Wayne's more on the front page, but he'd prefer to be back on the back pages. But we support each other, with the bad press and the good."

Rooney's one fault, she reluctantly concedes, her voice dropping a little in disappointment, is that he's not much of a shopper. Sometimes when they're sitting about at home, he will suddenly say, "C'mon, let's go shopping", which always shocks her - but, really, he means going into just one or two shops, and that's not much good, is it? "Sometimes it's nice going with him, but if I wanted to get a special dress, I wouldn't go with Wayne because he wouldn't want to look around," she says, a little regretfully but fondly. He does, though, get good stuff for her, because he'll go to the shops she frequents most often - Cricket and Flannels, the Liverpool and Manchester designer boutiques favoured by the Wags - and the managers there will point him to things that she'd like, so that's good . If you asked him, though, she says, he'd really just prefer her in jeans and a T-shirt - "You know, normal stuff ."

Ultimately, the most surprising thing about Coleen is not that she's become a bit of a style icon - after all, most young women's taste will improve between the ages of 16 to 21 - but that, while her wardrobe has changed, she herself seems to have stayed relatively the same. Many chins were stroked and theories propounded about Chantelle, the fake pop star from Celebrity Big Brother, being the perfect celebrity for our celebrity-obsessed times, but actually Coleen suits that description much better. Her fame, originally by association, was created by the new breed of weekly celebrity magazines and increasingly celebrity- oriented tabloids. Her appeal rests on her accessibility, as opposed to the fearsome glamour that was once demanded of celebrities.

It's often said that today anyone can be a celebrity, and increasingly that's meant more in a hopeful, as opposed to cynical, way, and Coleen is the unexpectedly heartening proof of that. As she says of herself, "This is a girl from this, and now she's that and isn't that - well, you know."

· Welcome To My World, by Coleen McLoughlin, is published next month by Harper Collins priced £14.99. To order a copy for £13.99, including free UK p&p, call 0870 836 0875

http://www.guardian.co.uk

Guest · Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:06 pm Post subject:

Credit:Miss Fairy Tale

EXCLUSIVE: COLEEN MY STORY
MY HEARTBREAK AT THE REVELATIONS OVER PROSTITUTES BUT WAYNE AND I WILL DEFINITELY WED HE PROPOSED AT THE PETROL STATION HE'LL NEVER FIND ANOTHER GIRL LIKE ME

By Stephen Moyes And Beth Neil 19/02/2007

COLEEN McLoughlin today lifts the lid on her life with Wayne Rooney - the romance, the riches and the massage parlour revelations that nearly broke her heart.

Coleen, 20, admits she felt her world had fallen apart when stories about her boyfriend and prostitutes first emerged.

She says: "It was a horrible time... heartbreaking. I was so young and so upset. My head was all over the place."

Coleen also tells how Wayne popped the question at a petrol station and reveals the couple's wedding plans.

She says he won't find another girl like her, adding: "We've grown up together."

When the story came out about Wayne and the prostitutes my life was suddenly turned upside down. I spent days sitting indoors thinking the whole world was against me.

Wayne and me were eighteen, we'd been together for nearly two years and were engaged to be married.

Suddenly the papers were saying that when he was 16 Wayne had been seeing prostitutes in a Liverpool massage parlour. I was just so upset, my head was all over the place.

The truth is, and I've never said this before, at that time in our relationship I'd never even slept with Wayne.

I was only 16 and we weren't having that kind of relationship at that stage. We used to meet at the chippy or the cinema. All this was going through my head and the more I read the more I became upset and annoyed.

The whole story was being put across as if it had happened the day before and so everyone was thinking 'Oh, she's with him and he's doing that behind her back.'

They were even saying stupid stuff like how Wayne might have a disease and how I should ask him to be checked out at the doctor's.

Then there was the accusation that I was staying with Wayne just for his money. What other reason could there be, they said.

When we first started going out together, Wayne didn't even have a professional contract with Everton. He was on the YTS and he only earned about £60 a week.

I think he bought me a pair of trainers once. But back then, in the early stages of our relationship, I would never take money from him.

I was still living with my mum and dad and I got my own pocket money. Not only that but we weren't old enough to go into pubs or at an age when you ate out at posh restaurants, so we didn't really need any money.

Further down the line, Wayne earned his first proper contract at Everton and then he'd buy me things or take me shopping, or if I was going into town he'd give me some money to treat myself.

He didn't give me money from the very start. Even if he had done, it's really not anyone else's business and I think a lot of criticism stems from pure jealousy.

It was a horrible time. My mum and dad were on holiday in Florida with my sister Rosie and my youngest brother Anthony, so when I found out I went straight to my Auntie Tracy and Uncle Shaun's.

There was no one else I could go to see or who I wanted to tell. I drove straight down there.

All these thoughts were racing through my head. How was I going to break the news to my mum and dad? How do you tell them that kind of thing?

Then I was thinking I needed to let my nan and grandad know what was happening.

For anyone to deal with that kind of thing is heartbreaking, but I was only 18 years old. I was so young and all of a sudden I was faced with something I could never imagine happening to me or my family.

For days I didn't want to see anyone. Tracy asked me: "Where's Wayne now?" I told her he was at our house in Formby.

Tracy said I needed to talk to him, that I needed to sort things out. She was right, so I told Wayne to drive over to Tracy's. He came over and that's how the two of us ended up staying there for two weeks working things out.

While all this was happening, Wayne finally decided to move to Manchester United and that caused its own problems and anxieties.

What Wayne had done in the past was wrong but he knew that and he was sorry.

So why did I stay with him? On the first night, when we sat in Tracy and Shaun's front room, I didn't know if I wanted to be with Wayne or not. I told him I didn't know what I wanted or whether we should keep the relationship going. All Wayne kept repeating was how sorry he was.

Everything wasn't all right straight away. But I knew that if there was a chance of us working things out then trust would have to be rebuilt over time.

After a few days hiding away in their house, we went to Manchester shopping one day. On another day we went to Blackpool Pleasure Beach, both of us with our hats on and collars turned up. Only a few people recognised us.

Over that time, things became clearer in my head and I realised that we would try to make things work between us. Gradually we started rebuilding our relationship. As I said, it's not a matter of one day waking up and saying 'I'm going to stay with you.'

It was a horrible thing that had happened, though people do much worse. Looking back, I went through some extremely difficult times, with things that you don't necessarily want to be seen up for public scrutiny.

It was hard. I know lots of people go through far more difficult times but that doesn't make your own problems any easier to cope with.

At such a young age I hadn't experienced anything like it previously.

Fortunately I had the strength of character to come out on the other side and I also had the love and support of family and friends, people who were there for me.

I will always be grateful to them - they helped get the normal Coleen back.

Touch wood, but I think that if me and Wayne ever did split up, it would be very hard for him to find someone he could really trust, a girl who didn't just want to go out with him because he's Wayne Rooney, the famous footballer.

I've grown up with Wayne and Wayne's grown up with me. I've learned from him and vice versa.

Trust in any relationship is important but especially so when you're in the spotlight.

The overall effect on me as a person was that I lost a lot of my usual confidence.

I'm normally a happy and out-going person but back then it felt like some of that had been taken away.

I remember sitting in a Liverpool hairdresser's and I could hear this woman in the back having her hair washed and talking about me.

Me and Wayne were going through a rough patch and the newspapers were full of me throwing my engagement ring away in the squirrel park near to where we used to live.

I was sitting there and the next thing I heard was this woman say "Oh yeah, so-and-so's taken the kids to the squirrel park.

"You know, where that soft girl Coleen McLoughlin threw away her engagement ring!"

In the mirror, I could see the girl who was washing the woman's hair and she just looked embarrassed. Eventually the girl told her that I was only a few feet away. For once, I couldn't stop myself from putting her right.

She said: "Oh, I didn't know you were there! C'mon, then, let's see it!"

She was talking about the ring. I was fuming but I also felt really ashamed because I could sense everyone in the hairdresser's staring at me.

SO I showed her my ring, the one I was meant to have chucked away, still on my finger, where it belonged.

She just looked and went, "Ah, it's lovely, isn't it?" She never apologised.

Me and Wayne got engaged on Monday 1 October 2003. It was romantic, but not in the traditional sense. We were meant to be going out for a Chinese meal but halfway there I decided that I didn't feel like it. So on the way back Wayne pulled into the garage, either to get some petrol or to use the cash machine, probably both.

We were parked up when he reached inside his pocket and brought out this beautiful emerald-cut diamond engagement ring and asked me if I wanted to marry him.

He was going to give it to me while we were having our meal but he ended up proposing in the car. I didn't have to think about it. I said "Yeah, yeah, I do." On the way home, I phoned mum to tell her that we'd decided to come home for our tea and that we were engaged!

When we arrived back she'd laid the table and had candles and a bottle of champagne out. A glass of champagne and a plate of my mum's corned-beef hash, sausage and beans, that was our engagement dinner!

I was only 17 and was worried about whether I was a little too young. But I couldn't imagine being with anyone other than Wayne for the rest of my life. Wayne never officially moved into our place. What happened was that his mum and dad had moved house so he was spending most of the time round at our place.

While he was there we didn't sleep in the same bedroom or anything. It was only after we'd moved out and bought our own house that we were allowed to do that.

When Wayne asked me to marry him, it did make a difference to our relationship. I know that sounds obvious but being engaged gives you that extra bond. It is natural step towards marriage and the future.

The experiences we've been through together, both personally and in our careers, have forced us to grow up quicker than a lot of couples our age. Going through all we have done has only brought us closer.

Me and Wayne would like to get married in the near future and then we can think about having children. Wayne would love to have a child right now but I think I'm too young.

Extracted from Welcome to My World by Coleen McLoughlin. To be published by HarperCollins on March 5 price £14.99.

Guest · Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:08 pm Post subject:

COLEEN AND WAYNE'S MAD MONDAY!

19/02/2007

I'M sure there are people who imagine Wayne and me live this fabulous lifestyle with servants at our beck and call and celebrities popping over for dinner every other night.

But when we're at home alone we are no different from any other young couple who live together.

We have a laugh, we sometimes argue, we sometimes irritate each other. I have my bad habits, Wayne has his, so we're normal - and it's that normal part of our life that I love more than anything else.

If I were to describe a typical night then I'd choose a Monday. Wayne's usually played a match at the weekend so he'll be allowed to relax at home before the next game.

If I'm cooking, then it'll more than likely be spaghetti bolognese and we might have the odd glass or two of wine.

Then it's a night in front of the telly. We call Monday nights "Mad Monday" because we'll watch Emmerdale, Coronation Street, EastEnders, then Corrie again - that's our night in, watching the soaps.

Wayne never used to watch them but I think I've converted him into a fan.

If there's nothing on or I'm not doing anything then I'll go to bed. If I've had a big weekend I can easily go to bed at 9.30pm.

Wayne is more likely to sit and watch a film for a couple of hours or maybe play games on his computer.

When we moved into our first house, I cried non-stop for two weeks. We'd been living at my family home in Croxteth and that had been great but by the end of 2003 we decided we should to get a place of our own.

HAVING viewed a load of properties, we eventually found this lovely detached house by the sea in Formby, a quiet coastal town just on the border of Liverpool.

I was 17 and had just left school and Wayne was only 18. We were at an age when, under normal circumstances, we'd be moving into a rented one-bedroom flat - if we were lucky - and here we were buying this £1million house.

Four bedrooms, all with en-suite bathrooms. Then there was an indoor swimming pool, which was just crazy when you think about it.

I could have got an interior designer in to give me ideas but I'd left school, wasn't really doing anything and I wanted to have a go myself, so the design and decorations were left to me. But as much as I loved the house I never fell in love with living there and being away from Croxteth and Liverpool.

My mum and dad's house was only half-an-hour away down the motorway but in my head it seemed like miles and miles.

My mates lived so far away that they couldn't pop round like they normally would have done. They had to drive to get to us and most of them didn't even have a licence.

In the end, around about Christmas in 2005, we found a house set in two acres of land in a quiet village in Cheshire where quite a few of the Man United players live.

It's my dream house and I couldn't be happier. It's taken a while - I've still got boxes of shoes in the garage - but finally, after over a year, I feel like we've properly moved in and got it exactly how we want it.

Since we moved in, we've tried to be tidier than we naturally are. We have a cleaner and gardener who both come in and help out.

Janet comes in five days a week for a couple of hours. It's nice to leave the place in the morning and come back to a clean house and everything's done.

I'm fairly tidy but Wayne is just a mess. No, maybe that's unfair. Ever since we moved into this house he's been good. Before, at night he'd just step out of his clothes and leave them on the floor. But now he'll either put them in the washing basket or take them down to the laundry.

Once you get your own house I think you make more of an effort. That's why when I invite my mates over I tell them there can't be any parties. I'll have a night when we'll all have a drink but it's nothing like when their mums and dads go away. Why? I'm not getting my house messed up!

Last summer we had a few friends - Wayne's brothers Graeme and John, and a few of his cousins - round for a barbecue and everyone was partying until we ended up in the swimming pool.

We look around and there's this bunch of mates who've grown up together in Croxteth, known each other for ages, and here we are messing about in this swimming pool in a big house in Cheshire that belongs to us.

We're just a bunch of kids. I think it's mad but at the same time it's so lovely.

We've got a tennis court in the garden but we've only had a couple of games and I'm not very good. I'm determined to get better.

One time we had a few friends round for dinner and hired caterers to come in and do everything. And it was lovely but it does feel a bit weird when you have these strangers in your home cooking and serving and doing everything for you.

Wayne's not really one of those boys who spends too much time in the kitchen.

Although there was one time, in our house in Formby, when he made steak, chips and sweetcorn, with peppercorn sauce over the steak. He told everyone he did it by himself but I helped him - with a little extra assistance from George Foreman's grill.

If we're treating ourselves, our favourite meal out would be either a Chinese or an Italian. If it's a Chinese then we go to a restaurant in Manchester called Wings where a lot of our friends go. We turned up one day and the manager asked Wayne: "Do you like your chopsticks?" We picked them up and they had our names written on the side.

It was really sweet of them. The manager said that every time we came for dinner we would have our own chopsticks. Wayne was made up.

At home I think Wayne would like to have a few dogs around the place but I don't want any animals. Apart from anything else, we are not at home enough so it wouldn't be fair.

Wayne bought me a chow named Fizz and later on I bought a white fluffy bichon frise called Daisy but because we've moved backwards and forwards over the past few years they now both live at Mum's.

AS far as pets go, I'm happy with the rabbits and squirrels in the garden and the odd badger and fox that we see wandering around.

If I want anything more exotic then I can go round to my mum and dad's house.

They've still got the terrapin, Jack, that my uncle bought me when I was one-year-old. There were two, Jack and Jill, but Jill fell down the hill, so to speak, and died when she was young. But Jack's still going strong.

Then there's Bob, the talking parrot. He says all sorts, like "Rooney... Goal!" or he'll go "Coleen" then he'll give out a wolf whistle! Charming. I don't know who taught him that one.

One of the things me and Wayne have always said is that where we live now is our sanctuary away from the public spotlight.

Not that we ever want to be locked or hidden away from real life. Both me and Wayne are always aware of where we've come from and we go home enough to our mum and dad's houses to never lose touch with normality.

From the Everton first team to the England team, to the move to Manchester United with Wayne's work, and now my work, everything has been a gradual stepping stone to where we are now.

Well, gradual in terms of this accelerated life we're living.

But everything that's happened, moving from my mum's to the house in Formby to the bigger house now. Owning a Ford Ka, then a Ford Focus, then up to the Bentley I'm driving which Wayne bought me for Christmas - it's all been equally as exciting. I don't want to lose that feeling of excitement."

TRUTH ABOUT THAT PUFFA COAT

EVERYONE asks if I hate the photograph of me in the puffa coat but it was me in my childhood at 8am going to school.

I walked around the corner and a snapper popped out of a hedge. I just kept walking.

My friend still has that jacket. I must get it back and put it on eBay!

I've always been interested in fashion. Even if I only had money for my bus fare home, every Saturday I'd still go round the shops to have a look.

TRUTH ABOUT THAT HAIR DRYER

When he comes to bed Wayne sticks the hair dryer on - the noise helps him sleep.

It used to be the Hoover when he was a kid. Nowadays it's the fan or the hair dryer and he rarely gets the vacuum out any more.

When we're away and staying a hotel, I'll come back from shopping and he'll be lying there fast asleep holding the hair dryer, which is on a cool setting.

There have been times when he's been travelling with the team and I've seen him packing it away into his suitcase. He'll say it's to do his hair. "It's not!" I'll say, "I know what it's for!"

These days, just to keep the peace, I've got used to the fan going all night at home.

Guest · Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:11 pm Post subject:

WAYNE AND COLEEN TO WED IN 2008

19/02/2007

WAYNE and Coleen are to wed some time after summer 2008 - because they simply cannot find the time to tie the knot any sooner.

The planning will be put on hold until after England's bid for glory in the Euro 2008 finals.

Coleen said: "We'll have to think about it pretty hard and start planning around the tournament.

"It's hard to organise when you don't know when the tournament's going to finish for England. But Ashley Cole and Cheryl Tweedy got married after the World Cup last year, so it can be done.

"It might just mean not having a honeymoon afterwards.

"But I'm not even 21 yet and I've got my birthday to think about first."

Coleen is dreading picking out her dream dress for what will be the most lavish wedding of the year. She's read dozens of bridal magazines but is no further forward.

She laughed and said: "I haven't got a clue. I'm terrible picking a dress for a Saturday night, let alone for my wedding.

"I see different styles and think 'Oh, that's nice,' but I haven't got my heart set on any particular one.

"I think I'd have to get something that suits me and my shape."

Coleen, 20, will take charge of the outfits but the wedding tunes will be up to music buff Wayne, 21.

She said: "Wayne's much better on his music than I am . If it was up to him he'd have the Stereophonics playing live. Not in the church, mind!

"He likes his bands. Maybe the Arctic Monkeys could play at the reception. We'd have to think about that."

Getting hitched this summer is out of the question - Steven Gerrard and Alex Curran and Gary Neville and Emma Hadfield got in first.

Coleen said: "There's loads of speculation that me and Wayne are getting married this summer but no, we're not. A few friends are getting married but not us."

Coleen and Wayne are also looking forward to having a family and raising a brood of mini-Rooneys

She said: "The subject of children does come up now and again. We do want them but we haven't made any plans - I'm still only young and enjoying what I'm doing at the moment.

"I wouldn't want to stop that yet. I know you can carry on your career when you've got kids, but it's not the same. We haven't decided what we'd call them. I don't think Wayne's that interested in baby names just yet!"

Coleen told how Wayne keeps their romance bubbling - by buying her flowers from their local garage.

Despite his bulging bank balance, the striker is not one to splash the cash on amorous gestures.

Coleen said: "The other week we'd had a little argument over something stupid and he went to to the garage and got me a bunch of roses. "He brought them in and said 'There you are, I got you them.'

"They weren't exactly the nicest flowers in the world, but it's the thought that counted."

Guest · Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 2:26 am Post subject:

Coleen: I am not just a WAG

COLEEN McLOUGHLIN is seen as an airhead shopaholic who blows fiancé Wayne Rooney’s fortune. But she is determined to show she is her own person with her own money.

In this exclusive extract from Coleen: The Biography, she reveals her achievements, hopes and ambitions.

THERE’S no denying Coleen likes to shop, spending up to £10,000 in a single spree.

She has more than £30,000 worth of handbags and haute couture outfits worth more than £200,000.

Add to that the shoes and perhaps it’s not surprising some labelled her a gold-digger.

But today she’s turned her image around, even trumping Victoria Beckham in the style stakes.

The fashion world has taken note. And so have the critics. But Coleen, 20, a bright girl, isn’t about to forget the sniping.

She wants to carve out her own career and has earned a whopping £5million in the past two years — she even has her own account at posh bank Coutts & Co.

Coleen says: “I enjoy working. I’m dedicated and I would hate to be just sitting around the house waiting for Wayne to come home.

“He is glad for me to work, he is proud of me and it means I can buy him little gifts out of my own money. It doesn’t feel the same if I do it by spending his money.

“I’ve never been workshy. I worked as a sales assistant in New Look when I was at school, on Saturdays, and sometimes after school in the lead-up to Christmas.

“I used to be a cleaner too. My auntie used to clean chalets at Pontin’s. I went with her.

“So I’m a lucky girl for what I have now but I don’t take anything for granted.”

Coleen has taken her opportunities. Countless fashion shoots followed a Vogue special, as did lucrative endorsements with Nike, LG phones and Asda.

And she pocketed £150,000 when Universal hooked her up with a personal trainer so she could share her exercise secrets on a DVD. Making the video was hard work but she relished it.

Coleen is also pursuing work in journalism. She once did work experience on a local magazine and fantasised about having her own column. Now she does have one — in a best-selling weekly glossy magazine.

She reveals: “I write it on a Sunday while Wayne watches football.”

Coleen’s first foray into TV presenting was also well-received when she featured on the hard-hitting Tonight With Trevor McDonald, talking about funding for children’s hospices.

It was a cause close to her heart — her nine-year-old sister Rosie, fostered at birth by Coleen’s parents, suffers from the degenerative genetic condition Rett Syndrome and needs hospice care.

The show, which reduced Coleen to tears, dealt with Rosie’s condition and cast Coleen as a serious role model for the first time.

Coleen says: “It was really hard to film as the subject matter was so upsetting but it is something I care deeply about because of Rosie, so the end result was worth it — the Government pledged an extra £27million to help hospices.”Rosie’s health has deteriorated gradually and now she can’t walk or talk and is fed through a tube into her stomach.

Coleen says: “I love her to bits and so does Wayne — she’s my only rival for his heart. He’s her godfather and lifts her up on the bed, lies next to her and sings nursery rhymes to her.

“We would all do anything for Rosie and at first Mum and Dad tried to be there for her 365 days a year. But nobody can do that.

“That’s why hospice care for families is so vital.”

Determined to make the most of her own life, Coleen reveals her burning ambition is to be an actress.

She says: “I was always involved in productions at school. I was never the lead because it was all musicals and I can’t sing, so I’d just get the next part, but I was always a man.

“We did Bugsy Malone and I was Fat Sam. Wayne used to come and watch — he took the whole cast out for dinner one night. I was really made-up.”

Coleen enjoyed a brief appearance in Hollyoaks but wants to make it in acting on her own merit and is taking drama classes and elocution lessons to soften her Scouse accent.

She says: “I love the idea of being in Corrie. When I saw Kym Ryder in the show I thought, ‘Great, that is the kind of role I could pull off’.”

She plans to join a local drama group before deciding on whether to go to drama school.

And she says: “My big dream is to follow Jennifer Ellison or Billie Piper — I’m big fans of them both.”

Her ideal role would be as Mickey’s girlfriend in Willy Russell’s musical Blood Brothers. It’s set on Merseyside and is a show she studied at school.

Coleen adds: “Wayne is dead chuffed for me. But I wouldn’t say I have changed much.

“My lifestyle has certainly changed, but not me. “Yeah, I get invited to fancy premieres and stuff, which is dead nice, but that is the only thing that’s changed.

“The only thing I want is to come across as myself. For who I am. For going out and having a go.”

Guest · Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 2:27 am Post subject:

I love to play Cat 'n' Moss

She is a huge fan of sexy TV babe Cat Deeley because “she never looks as though she is trying too hard”.

Coleen adds: “Kate Moss is someone whose sense of style I’ve always loved. Sienna Miller used to be a favourite but I really like girls such as Lindsay Lohan and Mischa Barton.”

She believes experimenting is the key to individual style — but says you must have fun.

Mixing trendy designers with vintage and High Street fashion can have a dramatic effect without being too pricey. Coleen also reveals her attitude to diets.

She admits: “I have never been one for fad diets. That’s why I go to WeightWatchers with my mum.

“No one should feel embarrassed about joining a club.”

Coleen says she still can’t resist a chip buttie or McDonald’s.