Gail!

Host of The Movie Chart Show (about the best thing on Channel 5), defunct Channel 4 net series 'dotcomedy' and around 1100 websites, Gail Porter is at the top of her tree right now.

She may have split with Keith Flint from The Prodigy had her flat burgled, and been the centre of attention after her companion, Finley Quaye, got a black eye at the X-Men movie premiere, but you'd hardly think she was down in the dumps considering her ever perky demeanour.

(She admits she did bubble (cry) her eyes out after it - she was very drunk at the time.

Gail is notorious in the UK for appering nude, projected onto the Houses of Parliament (on May 10, 1999) although she rose to fame by pulling faces like an angry beaver and having a soft spot for vacuum cleaners.

Gail Porter, as you may have gathered, is no ordinary presenter.

Despite such odd passions, the Edinburgh-born star has become one of the brightest things to emerge from Scotland since Ewan McGregor.

Two years ago, if you did an internet search for the name Gail Porter, around 100 matches would pop up on your friendly screen.

These days, it's closer to 1100 which perhaps illustrates the Scots presenter's stratospheric rise to fame in that time.

Of course, the fact that she appeared nude in a few lads' mags - not to mention that projection on the Houses of Parliament last May - helped increase her on-line exposure.

As more households go online and net cafes spring up around the country like a rash, the Gail force looks like spreading but not all of the surfers are sad old anoraks with a passion for The Movie Chart Show host.

Among the thousands of point-and-click jockeys are Gail herself. "I am a Net-head, yes. I love a good surf. I'm also getting into buying things online, like books and CDs."

At the moment though, all this has had to be put on hold. "I got burgled and they took everything. The worst thing was my computer - I lost all my email addresses and I haven't been able to get in touch with anyone. My friends probably think I hate them."

Last year, Gail recently left tabloid editors rubbing their hands with glee when she appeared without a stitch in an issue of GQ and again after appearing nude on the cover of FHM, the same photo which was projected onto London's illustrious landmark.

BBC executives were naturally protective over their rising children's TV star, and after the drugs incident with Blue Peter veteran Richard Bacon, it looked like there was trouble at CBBC. Whatever next? Otis the aardvark in a centrefold shocker?

Actually, the nude snap of Gail was all done in the best possible taste and the now 29-year-old Scot managed to come away from the media scandal with her reputation intact.

If it's part of a grand plan to increase her public, er, exposure, it seems to be working.

She's had more than her fair share of toiling in a host of jobs with TV production companies.

Gail broke into showbusiness after writing to cable channel suggesting that she could help present their coverage of the Edinburgh Festival.

"I completely blagged it," she remarked recently.

"I'd never presented anything before and now there was a live camera crew expecting me to get it right first time."

Luckily, she took to it like a duck to water.

After cutting her teeth on kids favourites Scratchy and Co, then Fully Booked, she found something of a fan in Radio One DJ Chris Moyles. She still makes the odd appearance on the show, usually when Chris gives her a ring out of the blue. One morning in October she ended up plugging her 2001 calendar without the usual hype of a glamourpuss. You get the feeling Gail couldn't care less whether blokes buy it or not.

Moyles has spent spent two years waxing lyrical over her talents and it wasn't long before her fanbase grew beyond the usual kids' market.

Her summer 1998 stint on Fully Booked sent viewing figures through the roof thanks to the added attention from hungover party goers and red-blooded fans eager to get a glimpse of the absurdly photogenic presenter.

While the fame is very welcome, Gail is still coming to terms with being starstruck.

A tricky problem, especially when a personal hero pops in for a chat.

"I had Suggs in my dressing room the other week," she recalled a couple of years ago.

"He just walked in and I got really tongue-tied because I used to worship Madness when I was little. I said "Sorry, you'll have to come back because I'm not ready to talk to you yet.

"He looked at me slightly oddly and walked off - I just can't cope with icons in my dressing room." She was also gob-smakced when she was asked to nip off to Paris to intervierw Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal.

Impressive enough. But as a Slade fan, I like the fact that Gail took Noddy Holder out for a pint at her local and spent the night pulling pints.