CRINGE AT THE FRINGE; Dannii's latest bid for fame is as Lady Macbeth ... honest.

IT is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Gadzooks - Shakespeare wrote those words in Macbeth.

But he couldn't possibly have been talking about a new play starring Dannii Minogue ... could he?

For the former Aussie TV soap actress, pop wannabee, topless model and little sister of similarly-inclined Kylie, is getting into Bard company.

On the Fringe of this year's Edinburgh Festival, the former Home and Away starlet will star in Jouney to Macbeth as Lady Macbeth, no less.

The play isn't likely to turn out quite as Shakespeare intended.

Following the current craze of modernising anything to do with the great playwright, Dannii's soliloquies will be performed outdoors in the city's Botanical Gardens against a soundtrack of trance, soul and Balkan rock.

And the three-week run is being promoted as "the fantastic Dannii Minogue in a great story of blood, sex and violence."

The fantastic Shakespeare might have been okay with blood, sex and violence - discreetly stage-managed, of course - but he might have cringed a bit at the soundtrack.

Well, "If Balkan rock be the food of love, play on" doesn't quite have the same musical ring, does it?

Anyhow, back to the lovely Dannii, who first washed up on these shores in 1991, in the wake of big sister Kylie, as a budding pop star.

At first the bright-eyed kid was accused of trying to cash in on Kylie's success. But she learned to live with flak.

She had to - she went through the trauma of a failed marriage and a public debate on the authenticity of her breasts.

Dannii was a brunette when she left Julian McMahon, another Home and Away veteran, after just 17 months.

But her fans were left stunned when she emerged from that relationship and joined the curvy blonde ranks of Melinda Messenger and Denise Van Outen, and it seemed her new head of long hair - and those boobs - were perfect for a raunchy shoot with Australian Playboy.

"I just had to do something rebellious and shocking" she says. "Some women dye their hair or have it all cut off. I got my boobs out."

But don't ask her about the apparent increase in cup size from 34B to 34D ... "Whatever I've had done, or not had done, is nobody's business but mine."

Can we take that as a `no'?...

Now 28, she's had a varied career which has included the kids' programme Fully Booked and taking most of her clothes off for racy photo shoots.

She has her own fashion label and still tours as a pop singer - despite being dropped by two record labels.

Until recently, Kylie had a monopoly on very famous boyfriends. Then Dannii suddenly appeared on the arm of former Formula One world champion racing driver Jacques Villeneuve, after splitting with her photographer boyfriend, Stephen Shaw.

But there's no danger of wedding bells ringing out in the near future, because Dannii never wants to marry again.

"I'm too scared," she says. "I'm still getting over the first."

But in recent years, her career path has changed more often than her latest boyfriend's hair colour.

And when the chance of playing one of the most difficult parts in English literature came up, she just couldn't say no.

It is believed that she was offered the role after being recommended by Kylie, who starred in the same company's production of Shakespeare's The Tempest in Barbados earlier this year.

For years there's been speculation that they can't stand each other. But both have recently been rubbishing the rumours, and even posed together - scantily clad - for Esquire to prove it.

So Danni arrives in Edinburgh this week, aware that many doubt her Shakespearean credentials. Defiantly, she says:

"I won't please everyone. But if I worried about what people thought, I'd still be living in Australia and I would never have tried anything."

With Scotland substituted for Australia, that's a soliloquy worthy of Mrs Mac herself...