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Film career As the Green Fairy, in Moulin Rouge! (2001)In 1989, Minogue starred in The Delinquents, which told the story of a young girl growing up in Australia during the late 1950s. Its release coincided with her popularity in Neighbours, and while both the film and Minogue's performance were the subject of derisive comments by critics, it was a commercial success. She appeared as Cammy in the action film Street Fighter (1994), based on the fighting game series of the same name. The film did nothing to further her acting career, was dismissed by fans of the series, and received poor reviews by critics, with The Washington Post's Richard Harrington calling her "the worst actress in the English-speaking world." [26] Subsequent films such as Bio-Dome (1996), Sample People and Cut (both 2000) failed to attract an audience.

Image and celebrity status Throughout her professional life, Minogue has been the subject of intense media interest in both the United Kingdom and Australia, which has remained constant even while her success as a recording artist has fluctuated. Her efforts to be taken seriously as a musician have sometimes been hindered by her high profile as noted by The Australian, who wrote in 1997, "When you have to lug around an image the size of Kylie's, it's difficult for any music you produce to match the hype≈especially in a country that gives scant credibility to pop". [27] Her relationships, including her current relationship with French actor Olivier Martinez, have been extensively reported as well.

Minogue is regarded as a gay icon, which she encourages with comments such as "I am not a traditional gay icon. There's been no tragedy in my life, only tragic outfits." While part of her appeal lies in her flamboyant costumes, her confident sexual posturing and her sense of fun, she acknowledges the gay community throughout the world by performing at gay venues and events, and by openly supporting AIDS and gay rights causes. She has said that she believes gay fans responded to her apparent distress when the news media began heavily criticising her in 1989, and that those fans have remained loyal, explaining, "My gay audience has been with me from the beginning... they kind of adopted me".

Indie Kylie, Dance Kylie, Sex Kylie and Cute Kylie in the 1997 music video for "Did It Again".After playing the "girl-next-door" in her early videos, Minogue began to touch on adult themes≈an interracial relationship in "Better the Devil You Know", lesbian posturing and drag queens in "What Do I Have To Do", telephone sex in "Confide In Me" and prostitution in "On A Night Like This". She performed a slow strip tease in the Barbarella inspired "Put Yourself In My Place", and wore revealing costumes in many of her videos, most notably "Spinning Around" and "Can't Get You Out Of My Head". She satirised her image in the video for "Did It Again", in which the four major incarnations of her career, "Indie Kylie", "Dance Kylie", "Sex Kylie" and "Cute Kylie" battled for supremacy. Her evolving image and often overt sexuality led some critics to accuse her of attempting to duplicate Madonna. Minogue has admitted her admiration for Madonna and has cited her as a significant influence.

In 1993, Baz Luhrmann introduced Minogue to the photographer Bert Stern, notable for his work with Marilyn Monroe. Stern photographed her in Los Angeles and, comparing her to Monroe, commented that she had a "similar vulnerability and awareness of the camera". She has gained credibility by her association with people such as fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier, photographer Stephane Sednaoui, and designer John Galliano, who described her as a "blend of Lolita and Barbarella".

During her career she has chosen photographers who attempt to create a new "look" for her, and the resulting photographs have appeared in a variety of magazines, from the cutting edge The Face to the more traditionally sophisticated Vogue and Vanity Fair, making the Minogue face and name known to a broad group of people who might never buy one of her records. William Baker has suggested that this is part of the reason she has entered in the mainstream pop culture of Europe more successfully than many other pop singers who concentrate simply on selling records. [31] She has appeared in guest roles in television series such as The Vicar of Dibley and Men Behaving Badly in Britain, and Kath & Kim in Australia, that have capitalised on her celebrity status and image for comedic effect. In the latter she played a Melbourne teenager on her wedding day, referencing her role as Charlene in Neighbours.

Despite her commercial success, and her acceptance by a large audience as a contemporary sex symbol, her critics describe her willingness to display her body as an attempt to disguise a lack of talent. Her detractors, such as those discussed in the book La La La, have described her as a "one dimensional performer" and "pretty, but mindless and talentless". Miki Berenyi of the group Lush said "I have a massive problem with her because she epitomises the acceptable role ... it's a shame she gets so much credibility when there are so many women worth a hundred times that. It's war≈you shouldn't stick up for Kylie, she should be fought at every turn". [32] She continues to attract discussion, both positive and negative, and in Paul Morley's study of the evolution of pop music, Words And Music: A History Of Pop In The Shape Of A City, Minogue is the vehicle by which pop is explored.

Minogue has often spoken of the stability of the team she works within. Her parents, Ron and Carol Minogue, are actively involved in her career; her father, an accountant, is her financial advisor and her mother has joined her on each of her tours. She has been managed by Terry Blamey since 1987 and the close network, along with her Stock, Aitken and Waterman origins, have led to comments that she is "manufactured", an assessment which she has freely admitted is partly accurate, saying, "If you're part of a record company, I think to a degree it's fair to say that you're a manufactured product. You're a product and you're selling a product. It doesn't mean that you're not talented and that you don't make creative and business decisions about what you will and won't do and where you want to go... Ultimately, yes, it's my name and I have to deliver the goods. But it doesn't happen without a team. So I try and work with the best people I can and take from them what I can. Hopefully I enhance what they do as well" [33] William Baker has described her status as a sex symbol as a "double edged sword" observing that "we always attempted to use her sex appeal as an enhancement of her music and to sell a record. But now it has become in danger of eclipsing what she actually is: a pop singer". Minogue has suggested that although her career will inevitably change direction she expects to continue as a singer, and move away from the "sex-pot" persona she has created. In 2003 she received positive reviews for some low key performances in Paris clubs where she performed jazz standards, and she indicated she may take her career in this direction. Rather than identify herself as a particular type of singer, she has assessed herself with the comment, "now more than ever, I consider myself a performer... on stage is where I have given and received so much energy and enthusiasm".

Cancer The Sydney Dome following the announcement of the postponement of Minogue's tour, following her cancer diagnosis.On May 17, 2005, it was reported that Minogue had been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer and would receive medical treatment in Melbourne. The remainder of her Showgirl, The Greatest Hits world tour was postponed and she withdrew from participating at the Glastonbury Festival.

The announcement of Minogue's cancer diagnosis resulted in a brief but intense period of media coverage, particularly in Australia where the Prime Minister John Howard issued a statement supporting Minogue. As media and fans began to congregate outside the Minogue residence in Melbourne, the Victorian Premier Steve Bracks warned the international media, that any disruption to the Minogue family's rights under Australian privacy laws, would not be tolerated. [36] His comments became part of a wider criticism of the media's overall reaction with particular criticism directed towards paparazzi.

Minogue underwent surgery on May 21. Friends such as Olivia Newton-John, herself a survivor of breast cancer, urged the media and fans to respect Minogue's privacy. However, it was only after it was announced that the surgery had been successful that the intense scrutiny of the situation began to diminish. Soon after surgery, she commenced radiotherapy as part of her treatment regimen.

Minogue issued a public statement, thanking her fans for their support and urging them not to worry. On July 8, 2005, she made her first public appearance after her surgery, when she visited a children's cancer ward at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital. She returned to France where she completed her chemotherapy treatment at the Institut Gustave-Roussy in Villejuif, near Paris.

In November 2005 Minogue's tour management in Australia announced that she will continue her Showgirl: The Greatest Hits Tour in late 2006.

It was reported in the The Times Online in January, 2006 that Minogue had completed her chemotherapy treatment however it also noted that her publicists were unwilling to speculate on its apparent success, as Minogue required a further six months of radiotherapy to prevent a recurrence of tumours.