Neighbour in search of the truth > 01.07.2005

Party in the Park star Natalie Imbruglia must have been camping out in the queue ready for the day God was dishing out from the looks and talent box.
With a boat race beauteous enough to catapult her into the fragrant ranks of the 'Because I'm Worth It' brigade plus a number one album and a burgeoning film career, she seems to have pretty much everything.
In fact life hasn't all been Bolly and beach barbies for the Aussie songstress, as her new album bears out. Rumour had it that Natalie's two-year marriage to rocker Daniel John was close to hitting the skids some months ago because he didn't want to move to the UK and she didn't want to go back to Oz.
She describes how her chart- topping album 'Counting Down The Days' - which she spent three years perfecting - was shot through with the theme of missing a loved one and the tribulations of maintaining a long distance relationship.
But the couple have come through it, with Daniel finally settling at 30- year- old Natalie's London home.
"I'm happily married and my husband has been here since Christmas," she asserts. "Counting Down the Days is about missing my husband and being in a long distance relationship. It's about missing them.
"It's quite an honest thing about what I was going through, and the connection with the audience you get is a bit hard. It's easier to hide what you are feeling behind a lyric and song and to protect it."
She ditched many of the songs for being too dark and spent two years longer than planned honing them for the final collection.
"I'm at a happier place now so it's so much more uplifting. It's produced by my husband.
"I try to write songs that have an emotional truth. A lot of commercial hits don't hit you in that way. There's nothing better than that, resonating with people. I'm not very good at resonating with what the industry wants."
Natalie first became a household name aged 17 playing Beth in the teatime TV soap Neighbours. Like many of her fellow Ramsey Street alumni, and despite the huge success of her debut single Torn in 1997, and Left of Middle, the album it was taken from, she is perhaps best loved in Britain for her sunny soap character.
"I'm really proud of Neighbours," she says. "It was my first big job and it made me a household name overseas. People always talk very fondly about Beth. I'd be crazy to regret something like that.
"But after being on it I can't really watch it properly or remember it. I've got a different perspective on the storylines, you think 'it's rehashed, didn't that happen with those other three characters?'
"When I watch it, I look at the sets. It's like someone else in your house, all those different people. It's a bit strange and a bit sad when things change."
She said she never considered TV to be her real medium, though, seeing it more as a launching pad for the rest of her career. Despite being committed to her music career for the immediate future - with a tour planned for the end of the year and a new album in 2006 - she longs to have a crack at the movies.
"I don't feel I've really had a chance to investigate that yet," she said. "I'm going to do a little independent film in Australia. It's a great opportunity because I can only do it between records and people aren't willing to work around you. I was very fortunate to find that."
Before Daniel - front man of Australian band Silverchair - came along, Natalie was often linked to other celebs on the gossip pages. And when it was reported that she and Daniel were having difficulties, stories hinting at links with other stars appeared, Craig David for one.
"I met him once," she scoffs. "There always used to be lots and lots of people (it was reported) I had been with that I hadn't. I didn't like being single and attached to whoever they felt like."
But, she said, when you had people in a privileged position with a great life and a great job, there was nothing worse than hearing them complaining about it.
"That's part of the job and you can avoid it. If you are going to go to some places you will get photographed all the time. You don't have to court it. Madonna doesn't have a choice but a lot of people can be more private but they choose not to be."
She's settled and perfectly happy in England, but at heart remains a beach-loving, laid back Aussie.
"I'm an Aussie, though I've lost the accent a bit," she said. "I like going home three times a year but I love my house in London and the countryside here is stunning. I used to feel everyone was not as friendly and open as in Australia and didn't drop round people's houses. But I've got used to that."
What she really thrives on is performing live to an audience, and she's looking forward to her spot at the Party in the Park.
After the show on Sunday she's spending the evening in Birmingham. But - whoa there fellas - she's got her heart set on a quiet night in with a fellow Aussie expat.
"My friend has just moved to Birmingham from Oz so I'm hoping to spend the night with her. She has just had a baby - we'll stay in, catch up and I'll meet the baby."