After all her past problems, you would think that Sophie Anderton would have developed a sixth sense for trouble.

It seems not. The model has lost one of her long-standing contracts after she was photographed using cocaine and offering sex for money in a News of the World sting operation.

She has represented fake-tan company Fake Bake since 2005. Not any more. A spokesperson for the company said that they have been “forced to terminate” her £100,000 a year contract in light of the allegations.

According to the newspaper, Sophie Anderton offered the undercover journalist sex for £10,000 and offered to supply a female friend for a threesome for extra money.

The model, who was wearing only underwear at the time, claimed she needed the money to pay for her new home in Notting Hill. “I’m great at sex. I’ll look great on your ******* arm. I’m a supermodel. I just think short term, and at the end of the day nobody gets hurt.”

Fame claims many lives. Its corrosive effects are demonstrated in the stories of many who make it as well as those who don’t.

One thing’s for sure, when celebrities go off the rails, they crash and burn big time.

Tim Berners-Lee is not a celebrity in the conventional sense, but an “influencer of the zeitgeist” he most cerainly is.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, OM

He’s the inventor of the World Wide Web (WWW), its markup language, HTML, and its protocols, like HTTP. Building on top of the backbone internet created by the US Military and the universites for research-sharing purposes, he created the popular internet of websites and email that most of us know today.

Last week Berners-Lee became a member of the most exclusive club of all : the Order of Merit.

The Order is limited to 24 of the most distinguished people on the planet. It’s in the personal gift of the Queen, not the politicians, so carries far greater kudos than other British honours.

There will be no fuss or fanfare, no procession of the great and the good. The members will wear simple lounge suits, and few onlookers will even notice the cars entering Buckingham Palace this morning, or know that the occupants will have lunch with the Queen and Prince Philip.

Before the main event, the Queen will have a private chat with the newest member, Sir Tim, and present him with his decoration, a small blue and crimson cross with a laurel wreath in the centre and a gold inscription : “For Merit”.

The Order has existed for 105 years and had a total of 174 members. Recipients have included, Thomas Hardy, Sir Edward Elgar, Florence Nightingale, Henry Moore and Sir Winston Churchill. More recently, Margaret Thatcher was made an OM, as was Betty Boothroyd, the first woman Speaker of the House of Commons.

It’s a suitable honour for Berners-Lee, whose work is made use of in some way by almost everyone on Earth on a daily basis. It’s hard to think of anyone who has had such an impact on the life of the planet and yet is almost totally unknown. Membership of this elite Order is perhaps the perfect decoration for such a modest man.

The words “For Merit” are well chosen. Today’s world is full of trashy icons with no merit except a talent for self-promotion, yet there are still people out there like Berners-Lee. Their depth of intellect and pioneering spirit are not valued by the majority, or the populist media that serve them.

Women are all over the place these days. You can’t get away from them — not that you’d want to, of course. They are undoubtedly the collective celebrity of the 21st century. Why so?

We have a new, magnificent shopping mall and chill-out zone in our town. It’s big, it’s spectacular, it’s state of the art. Just the place for hanging out and nosing around the stores then.

Er … it depends what gender you are. Apart from the cafes and restaurants, almost every unit is devoted to women’s fashion. You won’t see a man’s suit or a deerstalker hat anywhere.

Even worse, almost every women’s shop is devoted to extremely cheap clothing. Dresses for £7 ($14), tops for a fiver, bottoms (if there are such things) for virtually zilch.

What’s going on I asked a knowledgeable onlooker? It seems they specialize in “disposable fashion” — the new black. All fashion is by definition disposable, or it wouldn’t be fashionable. But this stuff is used for a few days then binned and, at that price, replacements are very affordable.

Weird, or what?

While I was mulling over the fact that our new, very expensive shopping mall is devoted entirely to disposable women’s clothes, I came across a piece by Daily Mail journalist Peter McKay in yesterday’s paper. He too is obviously feeling the pincer attack of the women’s movement :

“… most of the popular culture which makes us feel ill seems either to be made by women or for them, from ‘celebrity’ trash magazines to exploitation TV productions such as Big Brother and the Jeremy Kyle Show. And, of course, stick-thin models.”

Phew! Peter had better watch out for the monstrous army of … celebrities.