YOU know what I really liked about Angelina Jolie and her double mastectomy?

That she didn’t tell the world until it was over. We could have had the agonyof- the-decision story, the agony-ofwaiting story, the-agony-of-surgery and the agony-of-recovery.

No. Angelina Jolie was much more dignified and didn’t tell us all about it until it was all over and successful – and even carried on working through it – including going to the Democratic Republic of Congo to speak about war crimes, where William Hague was photographed with her.

And now she has put the subject of breast cancer right up there on the front pages of just about every newspaper and got us talking about it.

Never underestimate the power of celebrity.

When famous people do good things, the rest of us listen. They get us talking. They make it easier for us to talk about tricky subjects. They even encourage us to go to our doctors and get ourselves sorted.

When reality TV star Jade Goody announced she had cervical cancer, the number of young women going for smear tests soared. Same with Kylie Minogue and breast cancer.

Discworld creator Sir Terry Pratchett widened the conversation about Alzheimer’s disease when he announced he was in the early stages and bravely gave a number of interviews.

And cyclist Lance Armstrong might have proved in the end to be a cheat – but when he recovered from testicular cancer he made men think that maybe taking their health seriously wasn’t a load of balls after all.

Most of the time, stars and celebrities provide the rest of us with a little innocent amusement. Sometimes they set us a good example – Coleen Rooney with her devotion to her disabled adopted sister, the Beckhams with their charity work, Oprah Winfrey and all the Comic Relief and Band Aid stars. Celebrities make a difference.

But maybe the biggest difference of all is when something bad happens to them, just like it does to ordinary people. And it jolts us into action.

That’s when one person can make a difference to thousands. And why celebrities matter.

RELAX! If you feel you should be a Tiger Mother, constantly chivvying your children to work harder, do better, banning them from television and frivolous play dates with friends, or never letting them lie in bed until midday, then you’ve got it all wrong.

A study in the US shows that children of fiercely controlling Tiger Mothers are actually more likely to fail than children allowed to amble happily through life.

Someone once invented the idea of “good enough” parenting. “Good enough” in its balance of care and concern, tough love and soft touch, actually turns out to be perfect.

And an awful lot less stress all round.

CARERS should be routinely screened for depression says the Royal College of GPs, as carers are so busy caring for someone that they neglect their own health needs.

Well yes, screening might be a good idea. But wouldn’t it be an even better idea to give carers more help and support so that they don’t get so ill in the first place?

WHAT makes teenagers do daft things? Researchers in Cambridge have started a £5.4m study looking at teenage brains to try to find out how they develop.

I hope they do the research on teenagers in little groups together.

The biggest influence on teenagers is other teenagers. One alone can be quite bright and sensible, two together are looking for trouble.

And by the time you’ve got a gang of them, you’d have more brain cells in a cabbage. Let’s see the scientists sort that one out.

SO Vicky Pryce, ex-wife of Chris Huhne, serves two months of an eight month sentence and comes out of prison with a publishing deal for a book about her experiences. Is that what they call prisoner rehabilitation?