TOAST OF THE TOWN: Among the guests at Amanda Holden and Les Dennis's star-studded Bournemouth wedding were Su Hi-De-Hi' Pollard, Lionel Give Us a Clue' Blair and Roy Catchphrase' Walker

GO on, admit it. It's the only thing that makes the dentist bearable. Of course you'd never buy it for yourself, but you know women who do.

"It" is Hello! magazine, and it's celebrating its 20th birthday this week.

Hello! is the grandmother of them all. It came before Heat and OK!, before Big Brother, before Celebrity X-Factor and I'm a Celebrity.

Unlike other magazines of its era, Hello! didn't publish knitting patterns, "how to's" and tips for saving money. It didn't publish that many actual stories, either. Instead it featured dozens of pictures of what were known back then as "famous people" but are now known as celebrities. In fact, it practically invented them.

And it was a sensation. The first edition flew off the shelves, snapped up by people who didn't want a diet of misery and, er, diets, and who were eager to read about the doings of the Princesses Anne and Caroline, and about Burt Reynolds' wedding. At the time, established news publishers were puzzled. Why would anyone want to read about what happened when a famous person went shopping? Why would they want pictures of a Hollywood film star filling up her car?

Emma Scattergood, senior lecturer in magazine journalism at Bournemouth University, says: "Hello! realised that this was something people would respond to and pay money for." However, she says there was always a certain element of "I'm interested in this actress, or that pop star but who's this strange royal person from Europe that I've never heard of?"

She believes it is recognisable and accessible celebrities that make OK! and Heat magazine such a success. Aalthough she adds: "When I pick up Heat I wonder who are these orange women with bleached blonde hair!"

This week more than 400,000 people will buy Hello! to read "Posh reveals how Julia Roberts left her starstruck" and "Natalie Portman arrives in Cannes for film Festival".

Hello! has given us all that, as well as its famous alleged curse, said to strike at the marriage or happiness of anyone who appears in its pages.

The curse first struck in 1989, when Hello! featured "the fairytale wedding of Bill Wyman and Mandy Smith".

The couple parted a year later.

In 1990 the Duke and Duchess of York allowed Hello! to photograph them in their gracious palace and feature across 48 pages their happy life.

Two years later they had split.

In 1991 Liz Taylor found happiness at last with husband number eight, Larry Fortensky.

But that didn't last either, and the Hello!-featured weddings of Michael Jackson to Lisa Marie Presley in 1994 and Paul Gascogine and Sheryl Failes in 1996 went the same way.

The top-selling edition was the one printed in tribute to Princess Diana in 1997.

Seven out of the 10 best-selling editions have featured the royals on their cover and the wheel is about to turn full-circle: Princess Anne's son, Peter Phillips, has sold his forthcoming wedding to the magazine.

But what is the Hello! treatment like? In 1995 guests at the Bournemouth wedding of Les Dennis and Amanda Holden had first-hand experience.

They had to wait 40 minutes for the bride at the Richmond Hill United Reformed Church as Hello!, in the words of Su Pollard, was "faffing around". The resulting spread covered 15 pages and resulted in a front cover for the pair on June 17 that year.

They split in 2003.

But, like a thousand celebs before them, while their relationship with each other is no longer, their relationship with Hello! lives happily ever after.

7:00pm Thursday 15th May 2008

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