Turn up the Heat (Heat)

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Product:	Heat
Date:	18/06/02 (68 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's a fun read

Disadvantages: It's a bit embarrassing to admit you like it

I am an intelligent woman. I have O Levels and A Levels and a degree. I have a higher than average IQ. I can complete the Times and the Guardian crosswords. So why, oh why can’t I stop myself buying Heat Magazine?

It is a source of endless shame to me. Every Saturday I slink into the newsagents with my hat pulled down and my dark glasses on. I furtively pick up my copy and hide it between the pages of my extra thick weekend snoozepaper, like a dirty old man with a girlie mag.

I refuse to meet the sales assistant’s eyes as she rings up the sale. Then I slink guiltily home, put on the kettle and sit and read my illicit material from cover to cover, whilst swigging gallons of tea and pigging out Cadburys Twirls.

Heat is, first and foremost, a gossip magazine and therein lies my dilemma. Gossip isn’t important is it? Shouldn’t I be guzzling my tea and choccy bars and leafing through Time magazine or something equally worthy? Heat is trash, isn’t it?

Very cleverly, Heat’s advertising opines “the higher the IQ, the greater the need for gossip”. That makes me feel a little better about my dirty little secret. A very clever bit of marketing that, trying to pitch the mag away from the Shar and Trace brigade and towards the intelligent, independent career woman. Clever marketing or not, I’m hooked. Like an alky at an AA meeting, it’s time for me to stand up and say “My name is Allie and I am addicted to Heat”. Shameful, but true.

So what is it about this magazine which gives me such guilty pleasure, you may ask? Well, it’s a weekly and costs just £1.45, so it’s fast moving and up to date, and cheap. It champions all the populist shows we say in public that we hate, but secretly watch and video to watch again (like Pop Idol and Big Brother). In the three years or so since its inception, Heat seems to have put itself in the enviable p
osition of being the mag everyone important in the world of showbiz wants to talk to, so it is usually the first place with the hot new interviews and photos.

You want pictures of Spencer from Big Brother with his shirt off – they got em! You want to know the hot new fashion trends for the coming season – Heat can clue you in, and tell you where to buy the budget version.

Plus, Heat has a very good television listings section, which saves me the cost of a TV times.

Along with the usual crop of topical interviews and features, there are the regular items.

 Everyone’s talking about – the week’s hot gossip.
 Letters page
 The week in pictures – one of my favourite sections…normally gorgeous stars photographed looking terrible and unkempt (that’s gotta brighten up your day!)
 On or Off – Celebrity relationships, who’s luvved up and whose relationship is down the toilet.
 100% Unapproved – stars making utter fools of themselves!
 First Look – exclusive pictures from new films, videos and tv shows.
 Starstyle – the hottest new fashion trends amongst the showbiz glitterati.
 Spotted – celebrities spotted out on the town.
 Party people – pictures and gossip from the week’s hottest celebrity knees ups.
 Reviews and top ten lists – films, dvd, video, television, books, music.
 Crossword and horoscopes
 Say What – the week’s best celebrity quotations (these are hysterical!)

This week’s issue, number 172, boasts exclusive pictures of Darius’ new video shoot and a surprisingly interesting interview with “shamed” TV presenter Jamie Theakson, where he discusses that evening in that brothel. There is also a fascinating pictorial feature entitled “Just how o
range are they?” which is a scream, and a feature on celebrity thongs. And it runs to a very satisfying 130 pages. What more could you ask?

All in all, Heat is quite a useful magazine. The television listings are usually accurate and quite well laid out, although they only cover the basic channels. The reviews section is surprisingly good, covering a wide range of film, music and reading material and the quality of the reviews themselves is surprisingly high.

It’s a bright and easy read, vaguely glossy, but not quite. It has a zingy, poppy layout, which is fun without being a pain to read and the articles are generally light, funny and interesting.

On the whole, I have to give it a red-faced thumbs up. And how did I begin this terrible addiction, you might ask? Well, I was in the casualty department waiting to have my ankle x-rayed and there was a choice between a Cosmo so old the model on the front was wearing a beehive, and Heat. I chose Heat and a new friendship was born. Give it a go. You might like it. Let me know when you are going to buy it and you can borrow my dirty mac and sunglasses!

Heat is widely available in newsagents and supermarkets.

It is published by Tower and subscriptions are available at £73.95 (including postage) by calling the hotline on 01858 438884 (so you don’t have to risk being seen buying your copy!)


© ajools 2002

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