NAMES IN THE NEWS : Phil Collins Shrugs Off Stardom

British singer Phil Collins knows he doesn’t fit a pop superstar profile.

“I don’t like to think of myself as a star,” Collins said recently. “It makes me nervous. When you start thinking in star terms, you start thinking you’re better than everybody else.”

Collins, whose latest solo album “. . .But Seriously” hit the top of the charts three weeks after its release, said his success has little to do with his appearance.

“Do I look like someone who’s going to set feminine hearts aflutter?” the balding 38-year-old asked.

But the author of eight No. 1 tunes during the past decade and a member of the rock group Genesis bristles when critics call him a lightweight on social issues.

Many media critics said his recent No. 1 hit, “Another Day in Paradise,” is unconvincing.

“How dare these critics say I don’t know what I’m talking about. I know what I see for myself, what I read about and see on TV. I don’t have to be homeless to be touched by what’s happening to these people,” he said.