Friends point out that Mrs Clinton's star tends to rise whenever such gossip is at its fiercest.

ECONOMIST: Hillary Clinton

Mrs Clinton's star quality and intelligence might have been able to disguise these flaws in a different state and against a different candidate.

ECONOMIST: Hillary Clinton

As Mrs Merkel's star has waned, so that of Edmund Stoiber, leader of the Christian Social Union, the Christian Democrats' Bavarian sister party, has brightened.

ECONOMIST: The opposition in Germany

At one time, Mrs Whitman was regarded as the brightest female star in the Republican firmament.

ECONOMIST: Christine Todd Whitman

The Oscar-nominated star, 40, will play Mrs Lovett, a murderess who dispenses her victims' bodies in meat pies.

BBC: NEWS | Entertainment | Bonham-Carter joins Sweeney movie

Mrs Rossiter said that despite being a well-known movie star, she had not seen any of his films.

BBC: NEWS | UK | Wales | South East Wales | Depp on location in Crickhowell

Mr Mullany, a student physiotherapist, and Mrs Mullany, a doctor, were shot in the five-star Cocos Hotel on 27 July, 2008, just over two weeks after they were married.

BBC: Mullany Antigua murder trial: Insufficient proof claim