The BBC single, Perfect Day, has already made £750,000 for Children In Need, it was disclosed yesterday after it shot to number one in the British charts. The star-studded version of the Lou Reed song is also third favourite at 4/1 to clinch the Christmas number one in four weeks.
Recorded as an illustration of the value of the BBC licence, it includes contributions from Elton John, David Bowie, soprano Lesley Garrett, Boyzone, Gabrielle and many others. It has already gained a platinum disc and knocked Aqua's Barbie Girl off the top of the charts.
Bookies Graham Hill rate the song third favourite at 4/1 for the Christmas number one. But the Teletubbies, whose single Say Eh-Oh is out next Monday, is odds on for the Christmas number one at 4/5, ahead of the Spice Girls at 7/4 and with Perfect Day in third place.
The Spice Girls are taking no chances by releasing their single Too Much on December 15th in the week of the Christmas charts.
Prime Minister Tony Blair has settled questions over the fate of Humphrey, the Downing Street cat, by allowing a photographer to visit him at a secret location.
Conservative MP Alan Clark had suggested that reports Humphrey had been removed because of bad health had been invented to conceal the fact that Tony Blair's wife Cherie was allergic to cats.
But a photographer who knows the cat well was taken to its new home. The former first cat "recognised him and was delighted to see him again," a Downing Street spokesman said.
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun star Cyndi Lauper is discovering the joys of motherhood. The singer (43) has just returned to her New York home from hospital with her first child. Declyn Wallace was born weighing 8lb 15oz last Wednesday.
Germany's police union called yesterday for a ban on concerts by US rapper Coolio after he urged fans to steal his records from shops if they did not have enough money to buy them.
His group was caught up in a shoplifting scandal in Germany last week, when they were detained by police after trying to take $2,000 worth of clothes from a sports shop in the south-west town of Boeblingen. Although quickly released after posting bail, the singer infuriated police with his subsequent "steal-my-records" call.
Coolio's biggest hit, Gangsta's paradise, has sold some 17 million copies.