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YOU can’t expect Madonna to use a kettle. Yes, she can sing. Yes, she can contort while wearing a ludicrously tight leotard. But it’s just too much to expect the material girl to make her own hot drinks. So Madge gets her skinny soya mocha from the Starbucks on Marylebone High Street. Not that she goes herself, of course.

Marylebone is all about stars, past and present, real and imagined. Sherlock Holmes had his home at 221b Baker Street . John Lennon and Yoko Ono got busted in their Montagu Square apartment for possession of cannabis. Kate Moss and Pete Doherty are rumoured to be planning a wedding at the register office on Marylebone Road, where Liam Gallagher and Patsy Kensit took the plunge before them. So why are they here? Is there a celebrity ley line?

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The real star of Marylebone is the High Street , which I visited for our new Times Online web TV series . W1 wouldn’t be the same without this street . It’s like Barbara Windsor (another local) without her wigs. Thanks to management by the Howard d e Walden estate , it remains relatively chain-free.

Savour the individuality. Skandium, Century Noho and Cath Kidston provide the dream interior. Kitchenalia fans worship at Divertimenti , where you will find a whole range of nutmeg graters. Then take your perfect cheese knife to La Fromagerie , where the smell shouts.

It’s a posh street indeed where Waitrose looks cheap. Yet more stars — this time Michelin ones for the Orrery and Locanda Locatelli restaurants. And what other Job Centre could attract a visit from the French p residential candidate , Nicolas Sarkozy ?

Daunt Books is one of those places you can’t believe still exists : g alleried, Edwardian and gorgeous, it’s a sweet shop for the soul. “I try to choose only the books that I would read,” says the founder , James Daunt . After a successful career in banking , Daunt decided to pursue his real dream. “I started with travel books and ventured from there.” Staff here actually read. Daisy has devoured every work by my favourite author, Molly Keane . The air is thick with words.

Daunt has a more or less captive audience at the massive BBC building across the road. Staff stand outside his shop waiting for the shuttle bus to White City. The High Street is a hub to the meeja types who have made Marylebone their home, even if most can’t afford the mansion flats that characterise the area. Peering through intelligent spectacles, they rush out to Le Pain Quotidi e n to grab lunch before dashing back to their desks. Celebrities roll up here , doing the interview rounds as autograph hunters prowl the street in packs. Yet another reason for Madonna to avoid fetching her own coffee.

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