Has Katy Perry gone from cool to cringe?

By Eimear O'Hagan, 26/09/2010

She kissed a girl and she liked it. And we loved her for it.

When Katy Perry burst onto our radios in May 2008, we revelled in her outrageous brand of cherry-chapstick cheekiness. So when she hooked up with comedian Russell Brand in September 2009, it made perfect sense.

After all, as the two biggest exhibitionists in showbiz, with enough sexual charge between them to power a small town, they were made for each other. With these two firecrackers together, who knew what could happen?

We couldn't wait to find out.

When Katy strolled on stage at the MTV European Music Awards in November 2009, her curves clad in risqué knickers and a basque inspired by Russell's favourite football team, West Ham, we applauded her sassiness.

We even loved the fact that she had his nickname (Rusty) emblazoned across her bum. Take note Posh and your boring Mrs Beckham T-shirt. Zzzz

But since the pair got engaged in India on New Year's Eve, their lovey-doveyness has become more irritating than a pair of skintight leather leggings.

First up, the matching tattoos. Yes, that's right. Matching tattoos!

Following in the tragic footsteps of other matchy-matchy couples (remember Posh and Beck's biker suits and Peter and Jordan's perma-tans?), Katy and Russell both had a Sanskrit inking, which reads 'go with the flow' on the inside of their right arms. Why, we implored? Why had independent Katy entered into Holy Tatrimony?

We loved her because she was stand-alone and different, not because she was another soppy idiot who wanted to permanently brand (no pun intended) their relationship on to their skin.

L-R: Katy gets her kit on; tat for tat; those Russ-inspired talons

Next up, and we can hardly bring ourselves to utter these words, came the Russell-inspired manicure. Major cringe.

To celebrate their first anniversary together, Ms Perry had her nails decorated with images of her fiancé's face - then plastered photographic evidence all over Twitter. Pass the bucket!

And our adoration of Katy was finally and firmly extinguished when she gushily announced this summer that she and Russell had gained a "child" called Krusty - their newly acquired pet cat.

Note to Perry: Your cat is definitely not a child. Please stop subjecting us to this embarrassing nonsense.

Posing on a bed of pink candyfloss on the cover of her latest album, Teenage Dream, Katy today has more in common with a lovesick teen than the naughty but nice popstrel we fell in love with.

So what's next? Eau de B'erry, a rash-inducing range of his 'n' hers perfumes? A jointly designed PVC fashion range for a shopping channel? It doesn't bear thinking about

Katy Perry, hang your head in shame. As the woman who tamed wild-man Russell, we expected more.