Women we love to hate

Some women bring out the bitch in all of us, and although men like to reduce our bitchiness to a dislike of any woman who is skinny and gorgeous, it is far subtler than that. Here are our top eight celebrity women we love to hate, and our reasons why

Nicole Kidman The Let-Down Catherine Zeta Jones The Bigmouth Gwyneth Paltrow The Snob Liz Hurley The Phoney Jennifer Lopez The Egotist Naomi Campbell The Psycho Victoria Beckham The Wannabe Madonna The Fanatic Sod girl power, what women really enjoy is rolling their eyes in disbelief as they witness some jumped-up tart fall out of a dress, or a supposedly intelligent beauty profess undying love for a clearly hopeless dud of a man.

To be loathed by your fellow sisters you have to possess a complex formula of irritating character traits that make it impossible for women to root for you. Men will look on bemused, hoodwinked by a pair of fake breasts or a demure smile, but we can see through it all.

All these women have one thing in common, plenty of success - after all, there is absolutely no fun to be had in savaging a dead sheep (Whitney Houston is successful and obnoxious but predominantly sad).

These infuriating women owe a proportion of their fame to their ability to provoke. The bitch or the cow is staple fodder for today's celebrity culture. They put meat on the bones of gossip columns and celebrity rags.

There are plenty of fabulous female stars whom women are either indifferent to or actually like. Gorgeous babes like Uma Thurman, Michelle Pfeiffer, Charlize Theron, and Cate Blanchett, who possess qualities like humility, discretion, intelligence, and class. We will even give props to 'It' girls with no talent if they have a sense of humour and don't pretend to be something they are not.

So sit back, latte in hand, and enjoy a good bitch fest.