There is something compulsive about watching a person pushed so far past their limits that they implode in glorious technicolour and if they do it in front of a camera lens then all the better. It is human nature, however uncomfortable, to sit transfixed as the culmination of months or even years of spiteful smears drive a person to react irrationally and 'lose the plot' so we can all tut loudly and shake our heads in disgust at the drama queen.
It wasn't that long ago when Britney Spears walked into a hairdressers, grabbed the shaver and sent her long blonde locks tumbling to the floor. Years of media abuse, accusations and relentless pressure had taken it's toll on a young lady who had gone from bright young thing to train-wreck in a few short years.
Now we have another celebrity, hounded by the media, making a very public meltdown that you would have to have a heart made of stone not to feel just the slightest tug on the conscience for.
I cared not one jot for either Paul or his estranged wife Heather, the former i always considered overrated while the latter came across as cold and carried the air of a spoilt child. Media darlings when they were wed, Heather became a target of some of the most hateful smear campaigns when they split and the protective barrier that being Mrs McCartney afforded her came tumbling down.
The fact that she lost a leg when hit by a police motorcyclist became the main focus of the jokes over the last 2 years as the vicious press articles branded her a prostitute, gold-digger, porn queen, liar and worse.
As she sat on the sofa with her voice cracking and telling of how she and even her 4 year old daughter had received death threats, she looked a broken and defeated woman, unravelling before our eyes.
Like Britney when the pictures emerged of her breakdown reached our newspapers and television screens I felt the media had taken things too far. Seeing Heather hounded into such a state for having the temerity of falling out of love with a former Beatle is shameful.
Cold and spoilt she may be but nobody deserves the horrendous treatment she has been forced to endure these last couple of years. I may not warm to her but I wish her all the best.
Agreed. Love makes fools of us all, sometimes. And the business of splitting up a marriage is harsh enough without it becoming fodder for the gossip hounds. But hey-it manages to keep plenty of sheeple distracted from the actual NEWS, you know?
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, i am not sure why, Paul McCartney seems to be free of criticism. It is just so wrong to see a person be hounded to such an extreme where as the people who do deserve it, do not get a fraction of the sustained hate campaign.
ReplyDeleteLucy, I couldn't agree more, it's a sad and distasteful sight, that happens way too often. On to your point as why Paul seems to get off the hook, I have a few theories.
ReplyDelete1. Paul is likable. Most people have a smile on their face, and a happy memory when they think of Paul.
2. Maybe this is a post for another time, but May-December romances are not considered "proper" for many people. ESPECIALLY when money is involved.
3. I think that most people are happy to see a long term spouse taken care of with half the fortune, if they spent their entire married life building it together, grown kids, etc. A women who marries a rich man with a great deal of money, and a large age gap, are looked on as Gold-Diggers, as well as cold and calculating.
This all being said, I still think it's overreach by the press, whether it's here, or over by you. I would like an invention, a reverse Google if you would, that I could punch in a name, and never have to hear about them again. I could type Tom Cruise, and my computer would filter all material related to him, and he would disappear from my life. Would be nice
I ain't sayin' she's a gold digga
ReplyDeleteBut she weren't messin' with no broke-broke...
I can't stand either of them. And I agree with you that the media should now pour loads of shite all over Paul, just to even things up.
"for having the temerity of falling out of love with a former Beatle is shameful."
ReplyDeleteYou're forgetting that she came out of the gate with plenty of mean stuff to say herself, including accusing Paul of beating her. No one believed her (and frankly I don't, either, since this is the one and only accusation of such in his 40+ years in the public eye) and she's suffering the backlash. She's seen as a gold digger, but hasn't she played the role as well? She picked a fight too big for her, and this is another play in the game.
So you want Paul to take his lumps. Is there anything he did in particular, or are you just hoping they can dredge something up?
For me, it's the duets with Michael Jackson that really tipped me over the edge. And there's also that vile "Simply having a wonderful Christmastime" song...
ReplyDeleteBut any of his post-1980 output would be legitimate justification, I reckon!
So don't buy his CDs. Next?
ReplyDeleteIt bothers me that she went on telly and said she thought of killing herself. Her daughter is four. If she doesn't understand the concept of a parent dying now, she will soon. Kids have that fear of losing parents and, in truth, she has already lost the traditional Mom and Dad home together, see every night, tuck into bed. HMM crows that she must protect her daughter. I don’t get it.
ReplyDeletePaul is not a victim here, he was a willing participant in the marriage and they had a child together so to
ReplyDeleteblame everything on Heather for a grown man's choice is just wrong but the post was not so much about who is right and who is wrong for the marriage failing. It was more about the subsequent sustained hate campaign against her and where it has driven her to.
I could see what it was about. What I'm saying is that she isn't the innocent little victim just because she says she is. And he had a very good track record on his previous marriage, didn't he? So I'm suspicious of the things she's said about him, and very cynical about the idea that she deserves the amount of money she's getting. If the worst thing anyone can verifiably say about him is that he hasn't written anything great since "Maybe I'm Amazed", then that says something, too.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that he wouldn't be in this fix if he had married another heiress who wouldn't need any of his money.
I don't think she is innocent, i wouldn't describe myself as even remotely a fan of either of them but the persecution she has suffered has been terrible and i do not really know why.
ReplyDeleteLucy, I will say it again, women who are considered gold diggers evoke a visceral reaction in most people. Unfortunately, myself included. The bigger the amount of money, the bigger the reaction.
ReplyDeleteDid Anne Nicole Smith get a constant bad press there Cody?
ReplyDeleteAnd there's also that vile "Simply having a wonderful Christmastime" song...
ReplyDeleteLOL ! ! And to think it's on its way down the pipe again soon :(
Anne Nicole Smith is the poster child for this, and yes she got a ton of bad press, she turned around and did the very American thing,got her picture in People, Playboy, and the Weekly Standard(kidding about the latter). Hooked up with a diet company to become a spokeswomen, and got her own T.V. show. Even in death, I dare say, she got more bad press than anyone since Stalin. The difference is that she seemed to revel in it.
ReplyDeleteThis all reminds me of what someone (can't remember who) said when the honourable Robin Cook and Mo Mowlam died in fairly quick succession... "New Labour are like The Beatles. They're dying in the wrong order".
ReplyDeleteJust thought I'd throw that one in because I'm ODing on Heather jokes at the moment. I think they're really prosthetic.
Paul is not a victim here, he was a willing participant in the marriage and they had a child together so to
ReplyDeleteblame everything on Heather for a grown man's choice is just wrong
Lucy, I think exactly the same as you about the whole thing. So Paul McCartney brings a smile to some people's faces, is that any reason for this media witchhunt against this unfortunate woman? Someone above said they 'don't believe' that Paul McC hit her...Whether or not some people don't believe her, doesn't make it not so. He may or may not have hit her, but why is it that any other woman would at least be permitted to have her say and listened to but not this one?
If he did hit her, it should be out in the open. Making a pariah out of Heather because she was married to a Beatle is just wrong. A Beatle is no better and no more above the law than any other man out there.
Great post, Lucy.
Not QUITE what I said, Aurora. What I did was remind everyone that Heather didn't go find a quiet place to be and find media dogs chasing. She came out of the gate with accusations and plenty of bad-mouthing for Paul. She seemed to be hoping that the media and the law would flock around him. It backfired. She evidently used the wrong pawn to open her game with.
ReplyDeleteThank you, however, for keeping perspective on my opinion of the alleged battery. Some would have flown off with the "you think" stuff. I'll admit that I DON'T KNOW. I find it difficult to buy, however, because he and Linda (who also caught some crap during her life, as I recall) spent only 11 days apart during their marriage, by all reports. She wasn't a woman that would have to feel stuck anywhere. She had a career as well as a lot of family wealth ( They were the Eastman in "Eastman Kodak") before she and Paul hooked up. If he had stepped out of line the way Heather says, Linda could have walked and still been a millionaire many times over even without Paul's money.
Then his next wife, who was not rich before marrying him, bolts after a few years with harsh things to say and accusations of violence and stands to get one of the largest settlements in history.
I think we can see where the suspicion comes from, hmm? I'm not saying it can't be proven, but has she even tried to prove anything? She's had ample time, I should think.
"Making a pariah out of Heather because she was married to a Beatle is just wrong."
It's worked just fine with Yoko, hasn't it? :-)
Evidently, Heather's lawyers and PR people aren't part of her pity party, either.
ReplyDeletehttp://www6.comcast.net/music/articles/2007/11/09/People.Mills.McCartney/?cvqh=itn_mills