Call her a chav, dismiss her as trash or try to ignore her and hope she implodes in a thunder-flash of glitter, paparazzi and silicone.

But do not underestimate the genius of Jordan or her ability to make the media dance to her tune.

The one-woman soap opera who started life as plain Katie Price has once again taken control of her own story, turning a series of setbacks and negative stories into yet more wall-to-wall coverage of her life.

Price (31) returned to the Celebrity Jungle last week in her customary blaze of publicity.

Totally overshadowing all the other celebs on ITV's I'm A Celebrity -- Get Me Out Of Here, she was voted to complete seven straight "Bushtucker Trials" by a viewing public that obviously could not get enough of her ample charms.

It was all Jordan, all of the time as the pneumatic glamour model jumped into a pool with crocodiles, munched kangeroo anus and shoved her face in a bucket full of maggots and frog slime.

And when the viewers nominated her for challenge number seven, the arch-media manipulator dramatically announced; "I can't take any more! The way I've been treated on the show by the viewers, you'd think I was the most hated woman in Britain," she said as she made for the exit.

The show's producers spent two hours trying to persuade her to stay but Jordan was already moving on to the next phase of her publicity campaign, the arrival of boyfriend Alex Reid from England with a sparkly engagement ring.

And Australia can now brace itself for the latest act of the Jordan roadshow with the script likely to include a couple of bust-ups, some very public snogging, a quick flash of the ring and anguished appeals from ex-husband Peter Andre for Katie to think of their children.

This is what Katie does best. And there is no embarrassment, no negative story or setback that can halt her chilling march to world domination.

When the media recently laughed at her boyfriend's predilection for dressing as a woman, the glamour model-turned-best-selling writer knew exactly what to do.

She launched her latest book with the help of four men in drag -- and one of them was none other than cross-dressing boyfriend Alex Reid himself.

Katie donned an outrageous Marilyn Monroe-style blonde wig and totally OTT red gown at the launch of Standing Out: My Look, My Style, My Life in Selfridges in London.

She also decided to hold the event on the day her divorce from Peter Andre was due to be finalised, once again stealing the headlines and relegating her hapless former husband and father of two of her children to the status of also-ran.

Jordan rolled up to her book launch along with boyfriend Alex Reid, her brother Danny Price, horse trainer Alex Gould and friend Phil Turner, who were all dressed in women's clothes.

The 31-year-old had promised the "stunt to end all stunts" to launch her latest magnum opus. And once again, she delivered in spades.

As the paparazzi clambered over each other to get the photos that would appear everywhere over the coming days, Katie wore the look of a woman who knew exactly what she was doing.

The men's costumes had even been themed to reflect the recent big events in Jordan's life, ensuring that the headline writers and newspaper columnists had ready-made material for the next day's papers.

Her boyfriend, the latest male accessory to get roped into the Jordan circus show, was dressed in the trashy gold lamé leotard that Jordan had paraded around Ibiza in after splitting from Andre.

And Alex Gould, with whom she drunkenly cavorted in for the snappers while her marriage to Andre was on the rocks, wore a pink fairy dress and tiara that was inspired by her wedding dress.

Her new book, her fourth autobiography in five years, is an "in-depth look at her changing wardrobe down the years" according to the publishers, or the "chav fashion bible" to just about everybody else.

It will share shelf space with her best selling kiss'n'tell confessions, her sex-and-sun chick-lit (dubbed "chav-lit" by her detractors) and her children's books.

Ms Price's latest literary effort is also part of her ongoing campaign to make the world care about her greatest creation, Jordan.

Ruthless, calculating and apparently immune to all criticism or convention, Katie Price has kept Jordan in the public eye by refusing to follow the celebrity handbook.

When her marriage to Andre broke down at the start of the summer and rumours of wild partying circulated, she declined to follow the standard celeb-in-trouble script of rehab, contrition and a promise to behave.

Instead, she flew to Ibiza, partied hard with a professional cage-fighter and let it all, literally, hang out.

Her hard-man boyfriend was encouraged to talk about his love of cross dressing and declare; "I'm very gay! I love the world! I'm trisexual, I'll try anything ... I am just a man who is in love with his girlfriend."

As Peter Andre attempted to stake out the moral high ground, telling the gossip mags that he was heartbroken and staying at home with the kids, his ex cranked up the outrage.

"Katie and I split months ago now and I did all my grieving for the marriage at the time," Peter told a gossip mag last month.

"I won't be celebrating the fact that it's all over, but I have the kids on the day it's finalised, so we'll have a nice dinner and watch a movie."

Jordan hit back by going on Graham Norton's chat show and hinting that her ex-husband was getting cosy with his manager Claire Powell.

She spent a quarter of a million euros on a dressage horse called "Cross Dresser" and told a Sunday tabloid that she had been raped several times as a younger woman, but refused to talk about it.

The tit-for-tat with Peter Andre continues almost daily, with the 36-year-old singer promising to bring out a book for Christmas that will "tell the true story" about their marriage.

Meanwhile, internet gossip sites have claimed that the couple have secretly recorded a love-song that will be released when they reunite, in a blaze of publicity and paid-for photo shoots, in the new year.

The "Jordan: My Rape Hell" story was seen by many as a major miscalculation, but predictions that the public would finally turn on her appear to have been wide of the mark.

This modern-day Romeo and Juliet story is set to run and run, with every twist and turn lapped up by a gossip loving public.

And at the centre of it all is a very clever, media-savvy woman who knows exactly how to manipulate us all.

- Joe O'Shea

Irish Independent