Things Are Hotting Up (Heat)

Member Name: zoe_page_1

Product:	Heat
Date:	26/03/02 (198 review reads)
Rating:

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Being a nosy little girl when I was younger, gossip magazines naturally enough seemed to make their way into my hands over and over again. I’ve tried them all and, if the spare wardrobe in my room is anything to go by, I still have them all. It’s Easter holidays at the moment and I’m supposed to be revising. As you can probably guess though, I’m not. I’m doing anything but, in fact, from writing ops to prancing around to my old exercise videos to tidying my room. It was while doing the last of these that I happened across part of my old stash. Box after box of ‘Hello’s and ‘Ok’s. A couple of shelves of ‘Here’s (who remembers that?) and a couple more of ‘Now’s. A scattering of National Enquirers sprinkle liberally over the top like hundreds and thousands on ice cream finished us off. Under my bed I have mags too, although they’re not your average under the mattress affairs – instead of glossy pics of naked unknown types, these are full of, erm, glossy pictures of known famous types, because this is where most of my ‘Heat’s seem to have accumulated.

Heat’s cover’s by-line is “This week’s hottest celebrity news”. The issue in front of me has a grinning Gareth Gates and a stroppy Spice girl (no prizes for guessing which one) on the front with previews of 5 of the stories to be found inside the cover. Once you delve in you’ll find it’s your average run of the mill gossip weekly. There are stories, in this issue, about everyone from Britney to Vic Reeves along with reviews of soon to be released films, books and videos. There’s a full TV guide for all terrestrial and most sky / digital channels and behind the scenes pics and interviews.

I don’t buy heat every week or even regularly, but now and then it’s not that bad. They seem to be on a bit of a promotions kick at the moment, and I’ve r
ecently picked up free copies in Tesco and WH Smiths which is always nice – unlike with some other publications, these are full sizes issues and not taster copies. My favourite part is the very last page where they publish a bundle of quotes from celebs who, in their words, are “oversexed, overpaid and overheard”. Some of these are just classic, illustrating fully how completely insane / up themselves / boring the majority of celebrities really are. They also have original interviews unlike a few too many other mags I’ve read recently whose staff have never even met the celebrity involved, preferring instead to pay to use someone else’s data.

On the negative side? There’s an awful lot of photographs which while occasionally nice to look at, don’t provide me with much reading material. Why have a huge humdinger of a picture of Tom and Penelope when you could have a juicy story? Or am I missing the point? Maybe I am. This magazine is hardly aimed at serious readers as an alternative to a book. It’s the type you’d pick up at my Dr’s surgery if they ever decided to switch from Hello which, if it’s possible, has even more pictures and even fewer words.

Their idea of fun is to poke fun at those in the public eye, from pointing out their cellulite and sweat patches (bleugh) to publishing pictures of, wait for it, famous men bawling like babies. Each week’s issue includes a detailed look at various couple’s love lives with triumphant exclamations of delight when they reveal who has split up in the last 7 days. Some articles are interesting while others simply worrying. When someone devotes an entire page to the fact that Jennifer of Jennifer and Brad fame has finally changed her surname to Pitt, there’s something a leeetle wrong.

Heat has been going for a couple of years now and seems in no way to be slowing down. I suppose it’s lucky for them that the worl
d of celebdom is so fickle, with new faces appearing all the time. The average issue is 100 pages long and contains the odd competition, maybe a voucher or two and a pop culture based crossword. It’s published weekly, on Tuesdays I think, with a bumper double issue for Christmas and the New Year. Copies are slightly larger than A4 and nice and bright. There are’t all that many annoying inserts falling out as you flick through – I found only a scratchcard and a book catalogue.

Heat seems to be aimed a little lower than Hello and Ok, if only age-wise. If the advertising men have done their jobs properly then the average reader of heat is also a More reading, in HMV shopping, Fiat driving, herbal tree drinking, lip moisturizer. Or something like that. While I’ll not be turning down a free or dramatically cheap issue of this, it’s also never going to be the top item of my shopping list.

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