TRAILBLAZER: Star site, star bright - They've got the limo and the agent, and now they want a web site which reflects what they do, not just who they are. Hilary Burden tells Lisa Simmons how her company helps celebrities get online

Burden is now ringmaster at her own TV production house-style new-media

agency Talentcircus (www.talentcircus.com), and has celebrity brands in

her spotlight. Davina, with her baby due any day now and a new web site

born this week, is her latest catch.

The two women's lives had already crossed last summer, when Burden left

publisher IPC's women's site Beme.com to set up Talentcircus. Burden got

to know Davina's agent John Noel Management while she worked at

Beme.com, and subsequently Talentcircus landed the task of creating This

Morning's agony aunt Denise Robertson's site, which went live earlier

this year to rapturous reviews. This week, Davina.tv is set to

launch.

"As the nation probably knows, Davina is pregnant. She wanted to have an

outlet for her creative talent and a way of reaching her fans while she

takes a bit of a back seat for a while," says Burden. "Our mission is to

ensure that the celebrities we work with have as much creative input as

possible and that we get to know the celebrity and understand their

brand."

Burden adds: "Denise Robertson didn't even have a computer before

DearDenise.com. But she now runs the site, adding advice and content up

to six or seven times a day. The site is not about promoting Denise just

as a personality - it's about showing what she can do in terms of

helping people with serious problems."

Davina McCall didn't have an official web site before Davina.tv, which

has been created in conjunction with design and animation company Great

Giant. "Like Denise, Davina wanted to produce something that reflected

what she does, rather than who she is," says Burden. "She wanted to do

something new and independent which reflected her personality. Above

all, she wanted to have fun. We don't produce fan sites, but sites that

showcase people at what they do best. In Davina's case, that's a natural

TV host.

The site is not just about her, it's about entertainment."

Housed in a small mews in London's Soho, Burden has just a handful of

staff in the ring, preferring to work with third parties on a

project-by-project basis. "These people don't expect a job for life.

They want to go snowboarding for six weeks if the mood takes them. I'm

all for a new way of working, which means I get the best of people,

dedicated to a project, and free to be as creative as possible, and not

dictated by the rules of the tools," she says.

"I've always felt that the potential for creativity on the web is

thwarted by technological and business concerns. I want to work with a

network of clever people, animators, Flash designers, and voice-over

experts, to make sure that the talent that is out there is best

exploited," she adds.

"It's the only way to keep new media alive."

More celebrity sites are expected to be announced later in the year,

with revenues being generated from advertising, sponsorship and

e-commerce.

Burden has also got contract publisher John Brown as a client and is

working on Orange's online magazine O, a web version of the print

magazine that has already reached around five million Orange

customers.

"We can work to translate non-celebrity brands into exciting,

entertaining online properties, because to me a celebrity is a brand,"

says Burden.