DAVINA McCall, Michael Douglas, Angelina Jolie and Jordan have all felt the sharp end of his tongue. So they can sympathise with Bono - the latest victim of a vicious, verbal savaging from Graham Norton.

"He goes to hell and back to avoid paying tax. He has a special accountant. He works out Irish tax loopholes. And then he's asking me to buy a well for an African village.

What has sparked this furious outburst is the news that Bono - worth an estimated £440million - and the rest of U2 have moved their business empire to Holland to avoid paying high Irish taxes on royalties.

"By most people's standards I am rich so I should pay tax because I can afford it. When I didn't want to pay it was when I didn't have any money."

Even so, his fortune is giving him something of a headache. Graham, who has no children and has been single since splitting up with boyfriend Kristian Seeber in February, doesn't know where to bequeath his money when he dies.

"I don't have a will and sometimes, because I earn a lot of money, I think, 'Who will I leave this to'?" he says. "But I don't think that's a good enough reason to have children. So far I haven't been broody.

"I'll leave some to a good cause because I want to spread the happiness around. And there are people in my life I give money to now, because now is when they need it." One of the sources of his wealth is his £5million golden handcuffs deal with the BBC. Tonight, Graham hosts the final of reality show How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? - the winner lands the starring role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's new West End production of The Sound Of Music. And on Monday he returns with a third series of his BBC1 chat show, The Bigger Picture.

Big names lined-up to appear include Dustin Hoffman, Minnie Driver, Patrick Swayze, Joan Rivers, Jackie Collins, Shane Warne, Dennis Hopper and the controversial TV funnyman Michael Barrymore.

The former Strike It Lucky host emigrated to New Zealand after the tragic death of Stuart Lubbock, whose body was found in the swimming pool of Barrymore's home in Roydon, Essex, in March 2001.

"If you want to see Barrymore cry and talk about his emotional angst he'll already have done it on Parkinson by then," says Graham. "I want him to come on and be funny.

"I don't think the Bigger Picture is the forum for an in-depth interview about his decision to run away from Britain. I'm not that kind of interviewer. People would be waiting for the joke, thinking I was going to tell a punchline about swimming pools.

"The sadness is that people have forgotten what Barrymore was good at. And his attempts to remind people, like Celebrity Big Brother, have back-fired.

"I felt sorry for my last boyfriend - a lot of people thought he was a gold digger because he's younger than me. But he so wasn't and I felt really bad for him," he says.

"We split up and tried to stay friends but it got bad and we stopped speaking. Then we started speaking and it got good again. We remembered why we got together in the first place.

"We are friends again now. I talk to him on the phone all the time. If we see each other we just have fun and hang out without the day-to-day drear of being in a relationship.

There is no significant other in his life apart from Bailey, his nine-month-old "labradoodle" - a cross between a labrador and a poodle. "My love life is non-existent at the moment," he says. "It's just me and my dog.

"I sometimes get down but I find being in a relationship is more upsetting than not being in one. I look at friends in relationships and think, 'Hmm, I don't want to be them'. I prefer to go home to an empty house with a big furry dog than that.

"I love having him," he grins. "Though he is a very naughty dog. He's chewed up some really expensive shoes and today he chased a little girl who was scared of dogs. "We've been to dog training classes and he knows all the commands. He just chooses when he wants to obey them.

THERE'S a lot of dog walking in my life. I also read a lot, I like movies and I'm a TV crime junkie - I love CSI, Law And Order, Midsomer Murders, Inspector Linley and Murder, She Wrote.

"My big luxuries - the things I p*** money away on - are my personal trainer and travel, I fly on the nice part of the plane now. I used to spend a lot of money on clothes but then I realised that I didn't wear or like most of them so I've weaned myself off the habit."

"I haven't had any cosmetic surgery done yet but I'd love to have the huge bags under my eyes removed," says Graham. "I'm hoping if I wait long enough someone will invent a non-surgical procedure.

SHE'S a real talent - really likeable, very confident and she works as a television personality. She can last if she wants to, but she's a 20-year-old millionaire so I'm guessing her work ethic isn't that great.

SHE'S brilliant when she's being herself but she doesn't seem comfortable with the mechanics of hosting a show. It doesn't seem like it's her. I'd be perfectly happy to spend an hour with Sharon every day - she's very good company - but for some reason she's not getting the viewers. Maybe they should turn it into a radio show and just have Sharon chatting.

SHE was quoted as saying the failure of her chatshow was the worst time of her life. I just pointed out that she is a recovering drug addict so that probably wasn't true. Oh God, I should probably write to her...

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