IS it just me or did anyone else smell the stink of hypocrisy around Red Nose Day?

Every year millions of pounds is raised for charity by this event, and every year a few more Z list celebrities have their ailing careers revived.

Of course it is a good thing that money is raised to help people in need. But I always feel it is the public who do all the hard work, while rich ailing celebrities simply milk it to improve their image.

Bad boys suddenly turn out to have a heart of gold, soap stars do a little party piece to prove they can't sing and their agents laugh all the way to the bank.

Stars have long woken up to the fact that a bit of charity is good for the image.

We may have hated them before but they hope that as soon as we see them sitting in a field in Africa surrounded by poor people, our opinion of them will be transformed.

Who knows, perhaps we will even buy their crap records again or watch their awful films.

It's like what happened with rock stars in the 1980s: suddenly all those dull old forty-somethings you had hoped you had seen the last one of suddenly turned up with frowns on their faces and long tired guitar "licks" in their fingers.

The worst thing was how long it went on for, one cause after the other battered by some awful single and a gaggle of ageing hippies. Live Aid, Band Aid, Farm Aid. Lucozade, on and on it went.

The same old names hauled their aching frames round the world, showing a conscience and by happy chance selling a few more records at the same time.

More than £20 million was raised by this year's Red Nose Day, pocket money for these stars. It makes you wonder how much of their own money they have given.

These celebrities often make a big thing of how they have given their time for free.

Big deal. Millions of people round the country have given their time for free and put their hand in their pocket.

What I would suggest is that any so-called celebrity who wants to profit from all the free publicity they can gain by appearing on charity shows should be prepared to pay for it.

What a novelty it would be if these stars agreed to match pound for pound the money that was given by the public. It is not as though they can't afford it. That would sort out the real stars, the ones willing to help the charity, from the ones who have simply become charity cases themselves.

And watch too how quickly Red Nose Day becomes red face day as the stars are faced with having to dig their hands into their own pockets instead of reaching into ours.