Get used to it - publicity is 'part of the game', says Louis Walsh

If we get a record out, I like Westlife or Samantha or Ronan or whoever it is to be everywhere."

Louis Walsh, pop group promoter, sees celebrity magazines as "part of the game" and neither he nor the acts he manages have a problem with appearing in them. "You play the game with them; it's worse if you are not in the magazines. Ultimately, they don't sell records, but they help the process of selling records," he says.

Is there any way of keeping bad stories from the celebrity press? Walsh says he tells all his acts they are public property, and "it is up to them to keep their noses clean.

"If there is anything hidden, somebody is going to rat on them and something is going to come out sooner rather than later about them. They are better off realising they are public property and there is always going to be someone looking at them, somewhere, often with a camera."

Walsh has no sympathy for celebrities caught in flagrante by the media. "They are old enough and big enough and tough enough to take the flack... I don't blame the press for going there."

He says no matter who they are with or what club they're in, if a celebrity misbehaves, someone is going to tell. "People love to say: 'Guess who was in the club last night?' and 'He was drunk' or 'Guess who he left with?' People can't wait to tell."

Last week, Samantha Mumba pulled out of the MTV awards because she was sick. The story was all over the newspapers and magazines.

"She's genuinely sick and in bed. There was no story," says Walsh. "People are asking: 'Why is she sick? What's wrong?' There's no story at all. But people will look for a story."

And if anyone is wondering what has happened to Bellefire, Walsh's all-girl band - the scheduled Bellefire documentary didn't go out on RT╔ last week - RT╔ lost the tape, nothing more, Walsh says.

At the end of the day, all his acts love being celebrities, says Walsh. "These people love it. That's why they're not in normal nine-to-five jobs. It's because they want to be celebrities and they want to be in the papers." It's the price of fame, after all.