It's easy for some of us to profess our distaste for certain popular entertainers, when we consider their work to be lackluster or lightweight, beneath our contempt.

But when a serious illness or accident, etc., strikes such a celebrity, it is immediately sobering: we realize ~ or certainly should realize ~ that this is a human being not unlike ourselves, at the mercy of fate in a manner that could happen to any one of us. Whatever we might have thought about the person's artistic output suddenly doesn't matter as much anymore.

As an American who is not especially tuned-in to popular culture, I have only a vauge idea of who Kylie is, but I realize that she's huge in the rest of the English-speaking world, and has been for years, sorta like Britney Spears here in US, except for being more established for a longer period of time.

Here's hoping that it truly is early-stage cancer and that they caught it in time to knock it right out. Like a number of others hereabouts, I'm living proof that a cancer diagnosis doesn't have to be a death sentence, and that complete recovery is not only possible, but it is becoming more and more common every year. The treatment can be pretty debilitating, though ~ Ms. Minogue will undoubtedly be resting quietly for the next several months. Good luck to her and her loved ones.