SHARON Osbourne is the woman of the moment, or so it seems from the column inches devoted to her, particularly in the tabloids. She has a book to sell, of course, which accounts for her "sensational" admission in one national daily that she has suffered from bulimia for more than 30 years. The newspaper's decision-makers were so impressed by Sharon's revelation that it was splashed on the front page, which tells you all you need to know about that particular publication and its assessment of its readers' IQ.

That is not to say I don't have sympathy for Mrs Osbourne and her ailment, which affected the late Princess Diana and other high profile personalities, rather less free with information about their personal eating disorders than Sharon and The Divine Di.

In my days as racing columnist for Eddie Shah's ill-fated Today newspaper, I became friendly with a jockey of international fame who ate enormous meals, then excused himself from the dining table, slipped unobtrusively into a toilet and brought up the lot. My press colleagues and I had an idea what was going on, as you can't regularly take in enough food to fuel a Russian shot-putter and not put on weight without employing drastic methods of getting rid of said food before the calorie content kicks in. However, the jockey in question was a very agreeable chap, so no-one said or did anything. The thoughts of a "sensational" exposure in a tabloid never crossed our minds.

Mrs Osbourne has chosen to go public, so every time she sits down to eat at one of the numerous grade A celebrity functions to which she is invited, the whole room will watch her down mountains of grub and feverishly bet on how long it takes for her to make her excuses and head for the ladies' loo.

Sharon became a grade A "celeb" by an unusual route. She is the wife of legendary Black Sabbath rocker Ozzy Osbourne, whose career-long addiction to drink and drugs almost ended his life. In one passage of her book, Mrs Osbourne recounts how Ozzy tried to kill her while he was off his head with booze and prohibited substances.

He had accused her of having an affair. It could well be that Ozzy, aggrieved by his wife's eating habits when much of the world was starving, was so angered by Sharon's propensity for shovelling down food, then bringing it back up, that he decided to show his displeasure in as graphic a way as possible.

More recently, Sharon has been brought to the public's attention in two major television shows, one starring her dysfunctional family in their Los Angeles mansion which included Ozzy's expletive-filled rants against, among other targets, dogs which hadn't been toilet trained. Entertaining? Amusing? I think not.

As Ozzy's career has gone into terminal decline, Sharon's has blossomed. She now sits in judgement on legions of showbiz wannabes in The X-Factor, the series which generates bundles for its makers by shamelessly exploiting the unrealistic dreams of thousands of talentless people, then keeping the cameras running while they crumple in tearful rejection.

I don't suffer from bulimia but that's one show which makes me want to throw up.