Nicole Appleton On Her Night With Dicaprio

The Mirror - 13th May, 2000

WITH a toss of her expensively styled hair, All Saints singer Nicole Appleton dismisses the Leonardo DiCaprio myth.

The idolised star of films Titanic and The Beach is, she says, a stupid little boy who makes her seven-year-old niece seem mature.

And what's more, the rumour that she was closeted in a bedroom with him after a celebrity bash makes her angry - very angry.

She remembers the occasion: "Basically we were all hanging out in this VIP bar at The Beach premiere.

"A friend of mine introduced me to him and he said 'Yeah, I heard your song. It's really good and the video - I saw it twice. Come on, let's have a drink to it'.

"He's a sweet guy. he didn't say anything nasty to me. He was just observing the room and seeing girls, the way they were with him. And that's what really f***s me off because he probably did go off and get someone and sleep with them. And I get the blame for it."

She says mysteriously: "He was already wasted before I met him. And, er, it's not my scene, the whole thing - I can't get into that."

Nicole adds heatedly: "He's quite like a child. Like a big, immature child. And he's surrounded by a bunch of idiots as well.

"To be honest with you, he acts like a spoilt brat. A big one though - he's very tall."

Friends of 25-year-old Leonardo come in for a roasting too.

Nicole, 26, says: "They all seem really young. Like one of his friends kept on coming up and pulling my hair. I said 'Ohmigod, your friend is a freak'. It was like little schoolboys having fun. It totally changed my impression of Leonardo DiCaprio. My niece doesn't even act like that and she's seven years old."

Soccer ace David Beckham and his Posh Spice wife Victoria also get a sideswipe after an interviewer for Esquire magazine mentions that the couple can't even walk down the street without being besieged.

Nicole exclaims: "But they want that. That's the whole reason they are doing that.

"I feel so sorry for them because they are going to live sheltered lives.

"Nothing's going to make me like this big wrapped-in-cotton-wool type person.

"I won't put myself in horrible dangerous situations. If I go to a concert I'm going to want one of our security to go with me because there's going to be fans there, fans of mine and I'll get harassed - but that's it. There's no way I'd stop going to Sainsbury's or any of the things I do, no way, because sometimes it just reminds you that life is normal."

Nicole talks about her All Saints colleagues Mel Blatt and Shaznay Lewis. And she reflects: "Mel calmed down a lot when she had a kid. But you life changes.

"It will be nice the day it stops - I'll go 'Thank God'. I'll still be friends with Mel and Shaz but I won't miss the whole party scene."

She also speaks of her screaming matches with Shaznay.

"We were doing Jools Holland's show and Shaznay and I got into this big fight," she says. "Then we had to do a soundcheck and the fight broke out across the microphones.

"We went down to the dressing room and we had the biggest fight and I said I'm not going to America. I need a break'." She recalls that she stayed with singer Robbie Williams for two weeks.

And she says: "The next thing, I hear on the radio 'Nicole from All Saints has left'."

Nicole, still single after her relationship with Robbie, is enthusiastic about her role in the All Saints film Honest, directed by Dave Stuart.

She says: "All Saints got me in the position to get this film in the first place, so there's no way it would ever result in me leaving All Saints - unless no one likes us any more and we all fall out."