1 star rating (Star Magazine)

Member Name: Gorjess

Product:	Star Magazine
Date:	02/10/08 (130 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap

Disadvantages: boring

I'd hate to admit that I like celebrities, but I think because I'm a girl, there is a part of me that is interested. The first magazine I ever bought was called Heat, I chose this purely because they showed pictures or sweaty celebrities, or ones with spots and gum on their shoes, nothing important at all, but my kind of photo!
I then became a regular buyer of this particular magazine, until I came to the conclusion that the people writing it were bitches, they were rude, rude to people writing in, and rude about celebs. That is the trouble with these magazines, it's now very popular to bitch about celebrities, and point out their flaws, I think this is down to jealousy really, us jealous readers, and the jealous magazine editors!
Star

I'd never read this magazine before, I always thought it looked like a cheap copy of Heat magazine, if you look at their covers next to each other you'll see what I mean. The writing of 'star' is identical to the font they use for 'Heat', I'm sure Heat has advertised star before, so maybe Star is a baby Heat, if you know what I mean.
I always thought, if the cover looks so much similar to a bigger more expensive magazine, it's obvious the whole content is going to be very similar, just, cheaper.

What is it?

Star is a magazine purely about celebrities, you'll find no important news here! If you like photos of celebrities you'll like this. They show of a load of photos of celebrities with nice clothes on, horrible clothes on, spots on their face or sweat patches under their arms. All the things you'd love to know about current celebrities.
They focus on fashion, and make up, just like most of the other celebrity magazines. Star is mainly aimed at girls, but I've found lots of my male friends would skim through all my girly mags and take longer than I would do!

My Star magazine

I think the easiest way to review this magazine, or any magazine, is to review what I see as I see it, so I'll try to explain what is in the magazine as I skim through it. (I've already read this once now, can't do it again, the last time took me three days to finish it!)
We're all talking about...

In this particular one I've bought, the first page you turn to shows you a what ''we're all talking about'' section. Most magazines like this tend to do this as a way of starting of their magazine with the hottest news and this example is about Lindsay Lohan's current girlfriend. This is very similar to Heat magazine's style.

On the cover

It lists what you can find in the book so it is generally quite easy to find a section you want to read, but usually if you're going to buy a magazine like this then you'll skim through the whole thing anyway.
I do think this magazine looks quite eye catching, it looks so much like Heat magazine and that was the only one I ever wanted to read. It has a white background with photos of the celebrities inside, and clippings from stories that are inside to make you want to read it.
Usually the main headlines go along the lines of 'Celebs are skinny again' or 'Celebs get fat!!'
Winners and losers

I turn the page to see a group of photographs of celebrities like Heidi Klum and Jennifer Love Hewitt, this double page is commenting on their clothing, with a big thumbs up or down to say whether they look good or not, again this is a very common thing for a celebrity magazine. They leave a little caption explaining why the thumb is up or down, and one good thing is where Heat magazine gets a bit too bitchy, this one seems a bit more friendly, so far.. Oh and this goes on to the next page too ( I have to point out I have already has to turn past a few advert pages too which annoys me, I never look at them).

Breaking news

This is where the most important celebrity news goes, in this case its 'Brad and Angeline in new crisis talks' and you read about their failing relationship to such detail you're not sure whether it's the truth or lies, but it's still fun to read, it's the girl gene in me that loves it.
I'm not sure I'd ever call celebrity gossip as breaking news, but it does make you want to read this section!

Oooh and the next page breaking news exclusion Rachel Stevens has lot a stone on strictly come dancing! I saw her in London once, she is a lot shorter than you think, and moody.

More adverts

I always think these are wastes of pages, I never get tempted by these phone adverts or make up adverts, but I guess the magazines need to get a bit of extra money, but you just can't get away from adverts these days...

Breaking news appears to continue on the next page and does a double spread on the latest celebrity enemies, this time it's someone calling someone else a horse face basically, all very entertaining to me!

The latest 7 stories you need to know this week!

This week the type of stories they have used are:
1 Carol Vorderman has put on ten pounds - because of stress', with before and after photos.
2 Jordan weighs herself on live TV to prove she isn't underweight, she is actually a whopping 8st, so still lighter than me, a normal 20 year old... anyway....
3 Jamie Oliver's wife is pregnant, wooo
4 Jade Goody returns home after hospital visit
5 The guy who plays Ali G has apparently caused an uproar by jumping on a catwalk during Milan Fashion Week
6 Dermot O'Leary swore!!!!
7 Javine is arrested ( I won't say why, just to make you wonder....)

Who is dating who?

This lists which couples are together, or have broken up, or might be together, again this is very typical of any other magazine like this I have read, there isn't much to really say about celebrities so you got to except most mags will be similar.

More breaking news

This is a story on Victoria Beckham this week, say how she now runs four miles every day, not that she needs to lose any weight at all, she makes me feel like an elephant. A funny bit is Her new daily high-intensity workouts means she even allows herself the odd slice of bread and the star claims she's happier for it. I don't know who's stupider (is that a word?), her, or me for buying this story!

Credits

It now lists who makes the magazine and what they do, on this section they ask all the editors and assistants a question and they all answer it, they do this in Heat magazine too, surely these magazines come from the same people as this is blatant copying now, I'd be annoyed if I made Heat magazine!

After more breaking news, we come to Scary skinny celebs are back

Here we have a double page of photo graphs of women with strange large lollipop heads and tight trousers, all looking rather miserable really.

The Party Crasher

This shows photos and says who is at what party, who is smooshing who.... This section is a little bit boring to me really.

What's hot, what's not?

This lists what is hot topic this week, here it is about cringeworthy auditions on The X Factor, and the Not hot topic is about how terrible corsages are now........I love how unimportant all these things are but these magazines make it seems like you can't live another week without knowing.

Big Picture

These are big photos that cover two pages somtimes, this time it shows Victoria Beckham putting a plaster on her son's head.... Or Cheryl Cole still wearing rollers in her hair...

This goes on for a few more pages, and a few adverts later I come to the Letters page.

This is where readers write in or text in about anything they like celeb related really, one thing i've noticed is the editor isn't replying to their comments, which is good in a way. In Heat magazine I noticed sometimes they were a bit rude to their readers which seemed a bit strange to me. For example, someone wrote in complaining that they swore too much in the magazine, and they replied to that comment with swear words..
The Letter of the week wins a prize, this week it's beauty products worth £60.

Celebs EXPOSED

The part of the magazine that is most suited to what I enjoy, here we have runaway boobs, wobbly knees and scabby feet, love it! The pictures are large and unflattering, with big yellow circles pointing out all the flaws with the particular photo. Another page in this section lists where celebrities have been spotted, with some photos to prove it. There is a bit where you can send in a photo of a celeb you have taken yourself the best photo gets a prize, and this week it's a phone.

Bad clothes

Here we have more photos of celebrities wearing horrible clothing with small captions saying what the magazine thinks.

More adverts and now we're onto Star Fashion + Beauty - Your weekly 13 page guide to shopping and style

The above sentence is pretty self explanatory really, here we have a large selection on what celebrities are wearing, where you can get similar products. The best shoes at the moment, and what dresses work best for the season. I never used to look at these parts, but now I've succumbed to being a girl, I can't help but look at the pretty shoes.

It's confusing, this 13 page guide only lasted for about 3 pages, and now i'm onto Hollywoods hottest gossip.
This double spread tells you all the little bits of information about who is dating who and who's not talking to who (I'm sure they already covered this earlier in the magazine).

After a few pages of photos of celebrities and boring info about them we get to more big photos with a slightly different theme, celebrities with their babies now, and then onto couples. I'm sure this magazine is repeating itself..

Coupons

There are two pages with coupons for particular newspapers you can cut off which I think it definitely good, if you read the daily star... which I definitely don't.

Rated or Slated

This section again shows celebrities wearing dressy outfits and has two of 'Star's style experts' giving their verdicts on this weeks outfits. This is why it took me three days to read this magazine, it's very repetitive, and just boring really.

Seen it? Buy it!

Here is where you write in saying which top you have seen on which celebrity and where can I buy it? The magazine generally gives a cheaper alternative that doesn't really look 100% like what the reader was asking for.....

Inside the wardrobe of....

Here they pick a celebrity and show you things that they wear, how much they cost and where you could get it.

Trend spotter

This lists what is in fashion at the moment, this week it is Headbands, they are showing four different celebrities wearing completely different headbands, and apparently that makes it the hottest item of the week! (I'm getting a bit stressed and sarcastic now having to go through this magazine so slowly...)

A few pages of make up, and 'spa of the week', we come to New mum's diet tricks

This is where you read about celeb mums losing a ridiculous amount of baby weight so quickly that you probably feel fat and pathetic reading it if you're struggling to lose weight. I think it's terrible reading about celebs losing weight, their lifestyles are usually so different to ours that they pay trainers to help them, pay for people to monitor their food, whereas we can't really always do that, so we feel lazy compared.
For example Isla Fisher losing three stone in four months, why are they putting that into a magazine? It's not healthy.

The star interview

This week it is with Lorraine Kelly, I have to admit I didn't read this, you'll only like this if you like who they are interviewing, as this goes on for three pages, and three pages of Lorraine Kelly doesn't interest me.

We're all heading for...

A double page spread on this weeks favourite place to visit, they give information about the place and which celebrities you'll find there, how to get there... where to eat... where to stay, basically lots of info to fill the pages up.

Reviews - films

I think the rest of the magazine is all about television, it starts with a small review on a film, and the rating they give the film, whether they recommend it or not. This is a section I sometimes skim through in magazines, you can imagine what it's like, it's kind of like the Radio Times actually.
Its listing films that are in the cinema at the moment with the magazine's ratings out of five stars.
There are reviews on current DVDs, again with ratings.
Reviews on Books, presumably celebrity themed.

Reviews - music

Here we read reviews on current albums that are out, this week one of the singers are Will Young, and a few others, then they review singles again with their 5 star rating system.
There is a small interview here with a singer too.

Oh dear Starscopes

Here we have horoscopes, but listing which celebrities are on each months starsign. I've never been interested in horoscopes, I think it's all rubbish really, and no matter what you read you will some how relate it to your own life. It's even worse when it's mixed with celebrities!

Star TV

Now we're onto the tv listings which usually means we are near to the end of the magazine, we have a few celebrity presenter interviews here. It says what's happening in the soaps, and again rates the episodes. A short section on This weeks best radio and we're nearly done!

Mouth almighty

Here they list what celebrities have been heard saying, and the editor leaves sarcastic comments on what they have said.

The end of the magazine

Woooo I have to say this was the slowest review I've had to do, these magazines are absolutely fine if you enjoy celebrity 'news', stories about what glamorous lives they lead, and what fashion is doing at the moment.
Buying this magazine purely to review it has made me remember why I stopped reading these types of magazines in the first place. They are very repetitive after a while, and you realise how much money you are wasting reading the same thing over and over again. The news they portray is not as important as they try to make out, and it always annoyed me how bitchy the magazines tended to be.

Their website

Their website is www.star-magazine.co.uk, the website looks pretty much like this magazine, but the first thing that happened was an annoying pop up advert appearing on the screen, so after doing this tedious review, I can't be bothered with that, so have a look for yourself if you want to..

Conclusion on Star

This is the first time I have read this, and I probably never would have had it not been for ciao, my first impression was that it was just like any other magazine I had read like this, but because this isn't the first ever magazine of this type I had read, I couldn't help but feel it's just a cheap imitation of all the others.

Price it's 99p, Heat magazine is considerably more expensive than this, and pretty much the same, just more of it. So price wise, go for Star.

These magazines get quite boring, and to be honest I didn't know how else to review it without just listing what was in it like I did, so this is probably a very dull review.

A dull review for a dull magazine I'm afraid.
I would re-read my review before I post it, but I don't think I can..

Summary: Boring