The lead singer for Destiny’s Child, Beyonce Knowles doesn’t like inheriting her mother’s maiden name.

“I hated my name” she moaned. “I just wanted to blend in. I kept asking, ‘Mama, why is my name Beyonce?’ It was interesting to see how teachers would pronounce it on the first day of school – Bianca, Bee-yonk, Bee-yon-chee”.

“But once I tell people it rhymes with fiance, they get it. I then grew to like it when I realized that many people had the same kind of names and mine’s special.”

In other scorching celebrity date-scene news, looks like Jay-Z and Beyonce Knowles of Destiny’s Child really are an item. The New York Post reports the pair have been publicly canoodling all over town the last few days.

Spies caught the two at a hot-and-heavy workout session at a Chelsea Piers Gym ealier last week, then having a romantic dinner at Nobu last Tuesday.

“They showed up in a limousine together, and there was definitely some canoodling over dinner” said a source.

Destiny’s Child star Beyonce Knowles revealed she had helped a girl on the edge of suicide by phoning her with uplifting advice. “I got this tragic letter from a teenage girl saying how sad and lonely she was and how she wanted to die. So I decided to call her at once” Beyonce revealed.

“When I rang, she was just about to commit suicide because she felt so unimportant. But after we spoke, she said that she felt visible again and decided that she wanted to live after all. It’s one of the things I’m most proud of in my career.”

Meanwhile, a journalist lately caught up with Beyonce who said she’s keen on dressing in a bikini. “Sometimes you think, ‘OK, the more I show, the sexier it is’ – but there is a limit” she said.

“I wouldn’t wear a bikini. I’m not saying I never will, because I’m only 20. At the beach it’s appropriate, but for a picture? People have tried to put me in teeny bathing suits and it’s like, ‘No, I’ll wear shorts.'”

Stay out of showbusiness!

That is the message from Destiny’s Child singer Beyonce Knowles to tomorrow’s wannabe stars.

The 20 year old said the industry is full of backbiters who “can drive you crazy and mess with your head. You have to be super-strong because people say things about you.”

Beyonce Knowles, interviewed by the Radio Times, said she and fellow group members Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland would “remain together as long as we have fun on stage and make good records. But I wouldn’t suggest this as a career for anyone.”

The singer, who is to co-star as Foxxy Cleoptara in the new Austin Powers movie, said “Sharks are all around and if you can survive them once you’re successful, that’s when the true you comes out.”

Destiny’s Child have said that they were determined to refer to God in their songs, despite ridicule from some quarters.

“We were praising God and acknowledging Him even when every other R&B group were not,” Beyonce Knowles told a web-zine, “I remember some people were like ‘They talk too much about God, they talk too much about God.'”

“We were getting that but we didn’t care,” the singer recalled, explaining, “We try to live our lives as Christians and we acknowledge Him in all we do.”

The trio’s Michelle Williams recently released a solo gospel album, ‘Heart To Yours’, with the full support of bandmates Beyonce and Kelly Rowland.

“When we first met Michelle I remember her saying she was gonna do a gospel album,” Beyonce recalled, reasoning, “That’s what she was doing before she got in Destiny’s Child. Now she’s getting the chance to do that and bless the world and hopefully inspire a lot of people out there.”

On the subject of negative comments from ‘haters’, the girls said, “God has bigger and better things for us.”