Boyzone's Mickey Graham has become the latest celebrity to be voted off ITV1's Dancing on Ice.

The Irish singer found himself in the skate-off after his performance to bandmate Ronan Keating's When You Say Nothing At All.

But former EastEnders actress Danniella Westbrook was saved in a close judges' decision, with three votes to two.

Graham said: "There comes a time when it's time to leave. It's been the most amazing journey - such an adventure."

The star, who scored the lowest marks with the judges, said he had found it hard fitting in rehearsal time around promoting his band's new single.

Judge Nicky Slater said Graham could "skate better" while Jason Gardiner said he expected more this far into the competition.

"It was an alright performance - there's a lot of time where you are looking down at the ice. We're at week nine. Come on, you've got to lift and project out," Gardiner said.

Former Emmerdale actress Hayley Tamaddon and partner Daniel Whiston scored a perfect 30 out of 30 for their skate to Jai Ho from Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire.

After a standing ovation from the panel, head judge Robin Cousins said: "You took it to another level tonight that I didn't think you were ready for yet and it was absolutely on the money." </p

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Women are outnumbered two to one on British television, a study commissioned by Channel 4 has found.

More than three-quarters of contributors to news programmes were men, a study of 386 hours of TV over three weeks on six main channels found.

Women did occupy half the roles in soaps, reports the study to mark International Women's Day.

Sky News is having all its programmes presented and produced by women for the day.

Researcher Dr Guy Cumberbatch claims the study is the most comprehensive analysis ever of people appearing on television screens.

"Accusations of sexism and ageism on TV are not new," says BBC media correspondent Torin Douglas.

"But this research gives broadcasters figures to measure themselves against."</p

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Stars have begun arriving at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles for the 82nd Academy Awards.

Mo'Nique, who is nominated for the best supporting actress award for her role in Precious, was among the first to arrive on the red carpet.

The Hurt Locker and Avatar will be going head-to-head for the coveted best picture Oscar later.

Jeff Bridges is tipped to take best actor for Crazy Heart, while Sandra Bullock is favourite for best actress.

James Cameron's 3D sci-fi juggernaut Avatar, which has taken more than $2bn (£1.32bn) at the box office, had looked like a favourite in early 2010.

But the Iraq bomb disposal drama The Hurt Locker by Kathryn Bigelow is tipped to take the prize.

Voting system

But with 10 films in the running for best picture and a change in the voting system, the way is still open for a major Oscar upset.

Quentin Tarantino's eight times nominated World War II fantasy Inglourious Basterds could benefit from a split vote.

Cameron and Bigelow, who were once married, also go against each other in the best director category with Bigelow heavily tipped to win.

Industry paper The Hollywood Reporter on Friday predicted wins for Bigelow for both best picture and director.

If Bigelow is named best director she would be first female to win - only four women have ever been nominated.

Bridges, 60, has swept the awards season this year, winning Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards for his portrayal of an alcoholic country singer.

'In the bag'

British hopes in the acting categories include Colin Firth, Dame Helen Mirren and Carey Mulligan.

But Bullock is expected to win best actress for American football drama The Blind Side.

But she has close competition from Meryl Streep, whose role in Julie and Julia has earned her a record 16th Oscar nomination.

The best supporting actor and actress awards seem to be already in the bag for Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) and Mo'Nique.

All of which leaves stop motion animation heroes Wallace and Gromit as one of Britain's best hopes of taking home an Oscar.

Nick Park, nominated in the short animated film category for A Matter Of Loaf And Death, is in line to win his fifth golden statuette. </p

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All eyes turned to Hollywood for the Academy Awards on Sunday night.

As well as finding out who would win the coveted statuettes, it was just as important for some to know which fashion trends were adopted by tinsel town's royalty this year.

The Oscars are the ultimate red carpet fashion show, with outfits ranging from chic to shabby.

One of the main trends this year - as seen on the runway for spring/summer 2010 - were pastel shades, mostly in blues and greys.

Rachel McAdams and Anna Kendrick, who was nominated for best supporting actress, both made this trend their own in Elie Saab.

Kendrick played it safe in a floor-length blush number, while McAdams was slightly more daring in a floral print strapless dress with draped bodice.

Michelle Lee looked stunning in her Grecian inspired Naeem Khan frock, as did Kate Winslet in Yves Saint Laurent.

With pastel colours leading the way, a general air of softness and femininity seemed to sweep the red carpet, with ruffles, frills and glowing faces galore.

Among the very best dressed was Zoe Saldana in a fresh and fashion conscious purple Givenchy haute couture gown with matching shoes and bag - perhaps unsurprising for a fashion week front row regular.

Sequin overload

Up In The Air actress Vera Farmiga, who was up for a best supporting actress statuette, channelled her inner little girl in a red fan-pleated Marchesa strapless dress and Fred Leighton jewellery.

The Oscars would not be complete without an overload of sequins and embellishments and this year did not disappoint.

Sandra Bullock, who won the best actress Oscar for The Blind Side, was stunning in a champagne-coloured Marchesa gown which made her look like the statuette she took home.

Cameron Diaz went for a gold paillette explosion in Oscar de la Renta, while Carey Mulligan made a bolder choice with her embellished black strapless Prada dress and Fred Leighton jewellery.

In pictures: Oscar fashion

Along with Saldana and Bullock, Maggie Gyllenhaal in hand-painted Dries Van Noten and Meryl Streep in a perfect white Chris March dress, were the most elegant ladies in the room.

Gyllenhaal may have gone home empty-handed, but deserved to win the prize for most fashion forward outfit. Flame-haired 1980s teen dream Molly Ringwald drew attention in her purple draped dress that complemented her colouring to perfection.

The main fashion faux-pas came courtesy of Melanie Griffith in black sequined Versace as well as Diane Kruger and Sarah Jessica Parker who failed to impress in Chanel.

Nicole Richie in Reem Acra looked like a sardine in a can, while Jennifer Lopez and Amanda Seyfried, both in Armani Prive, appeared to have wrapped themselves in shiny quilted blankets before taking the stage.

As usual when it comes to fashion at the Academy Awards, the focus was very much on women, but some men wanted a piece of the action and tried hard to stand out from the tuxedo-clad crowd.

Daringly different

We can often count on Mickey Rourke to play that part, but this year it was a (bow) tie between Robert Downey Jr - wearing a Lanvin suit, trainers, tinted glasses and a bow-tie that may or may not have come directly from 1976 - and Nick Park wearing home-made plasticine neck wear.

A special mention went to Burberry for dressing the entire male cast of the Hurt Locker, plus Jake Gyllenhaal, Gerard Butler and Woody Harrelson.

Style-wise, this year's Oscars were predictable. Strapless, floor-length gowns dominated with only a few daring to be different.

Perhaps when stylists no longer rule the red carpet we will see a little more individuality and personality shining through.

Laetitia Wajnapel is the editor of fashion and lifestyle blog MademoiselleRobot.com</p

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In Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, the 82nd Academy Awards featured the first presenting duo since 1957. How successful was it

Well, while their onstage energy was for the most part fine - once a slightly stilted start was negotiated - the schisms in the writing were less easily overcome.

The jokes veered crazily from the almost dangerously dark and pointed, to the sort of ludicrously banal stuff that has all the side-splitting mirth of a car accident.

Especially in the beginning, there were some absolute zingers: discussing the nominations of the divorced James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow, Martin quipped, "She sent him a beautiful gift basket, with a timer. And he reciprocated by sending her a Toyota."

Or this, discussing Inglourious Basterds' scene-stealing Jew Hunter: "Christoph Waltz played a Nazi obsessed with finding Jews. Well, Christoph [gesturing to the audience]: the mother lode."

But equally, there were some moments where the script seemed to have been found in a Christmas cracker. Some dragged-out banter about forgetting The Hangover, for example, would have sounded old when Ug The Mildly Humorous was handing out stone tablets for Best Supporting Mammoth.

'I wrote that speech'

Neither host actually opened the show. Instead, that task went to Neil Patrick Harris - best known until recently as Doogie Howser MD, but who has now carved out a reputation as a song-and-dance performer at big awards shows.

Harris carried off the innuendo-laden opening number, about how "no-one likes to do it alone", to good effect. Would his forthcoming turn in The Smurf movie signal great things for blue-skinned CGI critters everywhere

From then on it was over to the Martin/Baldwin partnership - a partnership that grew increasingly one-sided over time.

In all comedy double acts, there has to be a straight man. After a few jokes it became evident that this was to be debutant Baldwin - who, by the time the show was over, had appeared significantly less that twice-previous host Martin.

On the plus side, this gave Martin the freedom to ad-lib to good effect.

Precious writer Geoffrey Fletcher, for example, accepted his Oscar with words so touching and heartfelt there was genuine emotion in the audience. Martin then brought a big laugh by immediately responding with, "I wrote that speech for him."

And there were a lot of digs at the stars in the audience. "Look, there's that damn Helen Mirren," said Martin. "See, that's Dame Helen Mirren," Baldwin replied.

Or this barb from Martin - "He directed A Single Man, and she weighs a single pound: please welcome Tom Ford and Sarah Jessica Parker."

Indeed, there seemed to be much more self-referencing than usual this year, leading to a show curiously deprived of energy. Even the Autocue seemed to be jammed at 70% speed.

Perhaps it was simply that there was nothing else to really joke about.

Fey's star turn

Martin's best performance was back in 2003, when the backdrop of the Iraq war gave him a genuine tightrope to walk - which he did both brilliantly and hilariously.

But this time around there was nothing in the background - no strike or credit crunch for the writers to really get their teeth into.

Couple the in-jokes with the complete lack of surprise winners in almost every single category - at least until the very, very end - and large parts of the show were left oddly inert.

And co-stars coming on to tell all five nominees in their categories how wonderful they are really slowed everything down.

"Ladies and gentleman, this show was so long that Avatar now takes place in the past," Martin said at the end, and he was not wrong.

Avatar itself did prompt some laughs when Ben Stiller appeared as one of its Na'vi creatures, aptly for Best Make-up, and speaking in the native tongue before translating: "This seemed like a better idea at rehearsal. It was between this and the Nazi uniform."

But of the guest presenters it was - as last year - Tina Fey who got the biggest laughs, when she came on to present Best Adapted Screenplay with Robert Downey Jr.

The pair traded about the worthiness of writing against acting, ended by Downey Jr in brilliant style: "It's a collaboration. A collaboration between handsome gifted people, and sickly mole people."

Fey was having none of it, and sharply directed Downey Jr towards the Autocue.

Surely it is only a matter of time before she gets the whole gig - and shows her erstwhile 30 Rock co-star Baldwin exactly how it's done.

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Sound of 2010 winner Ellie Goulding has gone straight to the top of the album chart with her debut release Lights.

Singer-songwriter Goulding, 23, who also won the Critics' Choice Award at the Brits, knocked Lady Gaga's The Fame from the top spot into second position.

In the singles chart, London MC Tinie Tempah went straight to number one with his debut single Pass Out.

Last week's number one, Jason Derulo's In My Head, dropped to three. Rihanna's Rude Boy moved up one place to two.

Elsewhere in the singles chart, the next highest new entry was Never Be Your Woman by Naughty Boy presents Wiley featuring Emeli, which went straight in at number eight.

The cast of the television show Glee were down two places to 20 with their cover of Journey's Don't Stop Believin', with the original version at number 27.

In the album chart, Alicia Keys stayed at number three with The Element of Freedom.

The cast of Glee took the fourth position and Florence and the Machine's Lungs was in fifth place.

American R&B singer Derulo's self-titled debut release was a new entry at number eight. Doctor Who and Torchwood star John Barrowman's first album went straight in at number 11. </p

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Rock singer Mark Linkous, frontman with US band Sparklehorse, has killed himself, according to a statement from his family to Rolling Stone magazine.

"It is with great sadness that we share the news that our dear friend and family member Mark Linkous took his own life today," the family said.

His four acclaimed Sparklehorse albums led him to be regarded by many as a hero of the US alternative rock scene.

His work included collaborations with Tom Waits, PJ Harvey and Danger Mouse.

His family said in the statement: "We are thankful for his time with us and will hold him forever in our hearts. May his journey be peaceful, happy and free. There's a heaven and there's a star for you."

Virginia-born singer-songwriter Linkous - thought to be in his 40s - released the first Sparklehorse album Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot in 1995.

The following year, he "died" for two minutes after ingesting a dangerous mix of Valium and antidepressants while supporting Radiohead on tour in the UK.

He recovered, but the incident almost left him paralysed - after lying unconscious for 14 hours, with circulation to his legs cut off.

He suffered a heart attack when doctors tried to straighten the limbs, and he had surgery seven times to save his legs.

But despite that ordeal, he went on to record 1999's Good Morning Spider, 2001's It's A Wonderful Life and 2006's Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain.

Linkous was working on a new Sparklehorse album, which was due to be released by the Anti- record label.

In 2009, Linkous's multimedia collaboration album with producer Danger Mouse - real name Brian Burton - and the director David Lynch, entitled Dark Night Of The Soul, was made available online ahead of its official release this summer. </p

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The campaigner, who led the Western relief effort in the 80s, said there was "not a shred of evidence" Band Aid or Live Aid money was siphoned off.

The report included claims 95% of the $100m (£66m) sent to the province of Tigray was used by rebels to buy arms.

The BBC World Service has said it stands by its report.

Mr Geldof told BBC One's Andrew Marr show he would personally sue the Ethiopian government and spend the money on aid if any evidence was produced.

'Credible voices'

He said: "Produce me one shred of evidence and I promise you I will professionally investigate it, I will professionally report it, and if there is any money missing I will sue the Ethiopian government for that money back and I will spend it on aid.

"There is not a single shred of evidence that Band Aid or Live Aid money was diverted in any sense, it could not have been."

The World Service report featured interviews with two former members of a rebel group who made the allegations dating from the mid-80s.

They told the BBC they posed as merchants in meetings with charity workers to get aid money which they used to fund attempts to overthrow the government.

One rebel leader estimated that $95m (£63m) from Western governments and charities, including Band Aid, was diverted.

The CIA also alleged aid money was being misused.

A 1985 report from the crime agency concluded: "Some funds that insurgent organisations are raising for relief operations, as a result of increased world publicity, are almost certainly being diverted for military purposes."

Mr Geldof, who was speaking to the BBC from Nairobi, also said one of the sources quoted in the report was a "dissident political exile" who was "not credible".

The anti-poverty campaigner and the Band Aid Trust are reportedly taking their complaint to the broadcasting regulator Ofcom.

"There is a clear public interest in determining whether some money given as famine relief ended up buying guns and bullets"

BBC response to criticism

They and a number of other agencies, including Oxfam, the Red Cross, Christian Aid and Save The Children, are also writing to chairman of the BBC Trust, Sir Michael Lyons.

John Kennedy, a co-founder of the Band Aid Trust, said: "The trust is writing to the BBC and Ofcom to complain about the broadcast."

A Christian Aid spokeswoman confirmed it was planning to support the complaint.

Mr Whitehead, the news and current affairs editor at the World Service, said the BBC "stands by" its report.

Writing in the Editors blog on the BBC website, he stated: "It presents evidence, compelling evidence, that some of the famine relief donations were diverted by a powerful rebel group to buy weapons."

Mr Whitehead defended the journalist who made the documentary - the World Service's Africa editor Martin Plaut.

He wrote: "He has a particular expertise in the Horn of Africa, and indeed reported from there on the famine back in the 1980s. He has spent almost a year gathering material and doing research for this documentary - and the BBC stands by his journalism."

Mr Whitehead admitted the two former rebels quoted were "at odds" with their old leader, who is now prime minister of Ethiopia, but added: "They are credible voices".

He also said their claims were backed by a former US diplomat.</p

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