Queen of Clubs

With five years to go before 40, Kylie Minogue is not just a grown-up pop star. She’s a realist. Though her figure remains sensational—otherwise she wouldn’t call her new dance-pop CD Body Language—she says she no longer flaunts it like Britney (“Flesh is just everywhere, it’s kind of boring”) or risks reprising” Janet Jackson‘s wardrobe malfunction. “Now I know why I get those extra stitches before I do a performance,” she says. “If anything’s a bit loose, ‘Stitch this.’ ”

She has got celebrity sewn up too. Already a superstar in Europe and her native Australia, she introduced herself to the U.S. with the 1988 single “Loco-Motion” but hardly caused a commotion costarring in ’96’s Bio-Dome with then beau Pauly Shore. “I came here for vacations, which was great—no one really knew me.” That ended with her aptly titled 2002 hit “Can’t Get You Out of My Head.” And this year brought a Grammy award and a No. 1 dance hit, “Slow.”

Plus, she upgraded in the boy-friend department. When she met sexy Unfaithful star Olivier Martinez, 38, in Los Angeles last winter, “I’d only seen him on a 2-in. screen on a flight—he was good,” Minogue says, giggling. “It’s nice to know there’s something solid when the craziness stops.” And the wild nights begin? Not quite. On free evenings, “I just sit quiet, like an insect,” she says. “When you’re content, you don’t need much.”