Genius, but Amy's was not a life to admire

By AMANDA PLATELL

A friend of Amy Winehouse conceded after she drank herself to death on Saturday that, yes she had her problems, but ‘she never did anyone any harm’.

If only that were true. The packets of cigarettes and bottles of vodka, beer and rum left outside her home in Camden, North London, by adoring fans bear testimony to how much she affected vulnerable young people.



Along with flowers and farewell notes, this was their way of saying goodbye to a woman they worshipped and emulated — not just because she was a musical genius, but also, I suspect, because of her car-crash lifestyle.

How tragic that her fans think a bottle of Smirnoff is a fitting farewell to a woman they loved — for it was vodka that killed her.

Or that a packet of cigarettes was an appropriate offering to leave at this shrine, given she suffered from emphysema, a smoking-related lung disease.


Amy’s love of vodka was legendary. Even in her hard-drinking, rock  ’n’  roll set, no one had ever seen anyone drink so much of it so fast. In her final few weeks, she had been found comatose several times by her bodyguards after binges.

How can her lifestyle be seen as glamorous after she died in such terrible and lonely circumstances?

I’m not sure what’s saddest: that this recovering drug addict was annihilating herself with spirits, having been ‘clean of drugs’ — so her father says — for 18 months; or that it was not a friend, lover, mother or any other family member who found her body, but a security guard, someone paid to watch over her.


We’ve come a long way from the days after Princess Diana’s death when people left carpets of flowers outside Kensington Palace. Today, it’s bottles of the vodka that killed their heroine.

Amy’s music was so resonant not just because of her talent, but because she sang of her isolation and pain.


This was a young woman who came from a broken home and whose relationships always seemed to result in despair.

Her very public solution to easing this pain was to take drugs and to drink. Her life was a lesson in self-destruction. The tragedy is that it wasn’t just for her, but for countless other young women who hero-worshipped her.

The result was that, for the vulnerable and impressionable, I fear Amy Winehouse made crack cocaine cool. She made alcoholism attractive. She made abusive, violent relationships exciting.

Even when her ballet pumps were covered in blood after she’d injected heroin between her toes or when she was photographed battered and bruised after yet another encounter with her husband Blake Fielder-Civil, young women empathised with her.One obituary said: ‘Rock stars act out our wildest desires and darkest dramas on our behalf so we do not have to.’



Would that it always were the case. After all, if Amy Winehouse could get hammered and out of her head yet still tour the world and make millions, what was the problem with her lifestyle?

For an answer, you have only to visit any High Street on a Saturday night to find countless wasted young women so drunk they don’t care what man they go off with, so out of their heads on drugs they’re anyone’s.

And why should they think this is anything other than normal behaviour when their idol Amy Winehouse downed six shots of tequila for breakfast?



For all her talent, she was a role model of the worst kind. And her eight years in the music business mirror a shocking increase in alcohol among women.

Figures published in 2009 showed 250 girls were arrested every day for violence, mostly fuelled by alcohol. One in four were aged between ten and 17.

In the years Amy was a star, a generation of ladettes was born, out of their heads and out of control, but thinking they were oh-so-cool.








source: dailymail

Genius, but Amy's was not a life to admire

By AMANDA PLATELL

A friend of Amy Winehouse conceded after she drank herself to death on Saturday that, yes she had her problems, but ‘she never did anyone any harm’.

If only that were true. The packets of cigarettes and bottles of vodka, beer and rum left outside her home in Camden, North London, by adoring fans bear testimony to how much she affected vulnerable young people.



Along with flowers and farewell notes, this was their way of saying goodbye to a woman they worshipped and emulated — not just because she was a musical genius, but also, I suspect, because of her car-crash lifestyle.

How tragic that her fans think a bottle of Smirnoff is a fitting farewell to a woman they loved — for it was vodka that killed her.

Or that a packet of cigarettes was an appropriate offering to leave at this shrine, given she suffered from emphysema, a smoking-related lung disease.


Amy’s love of vodka was legendary. Even in her hard-drinking, rock  ’n’  roll set, no one had ever seen anyone drink so much of it so fast. In her final few weeks, she had been found comatose several times by her bodyguards after binges.

How can her lifestyle be seen as glamorous after she died in such terrible and lonely circumstances?

I’m not sure what’s saddest: that this recovering drug addict was annihilating herself with spirits, having been ‘clean of drugs’ — so her father says — for 18 months; or that it was not a friend, lover, mother or any other family member who found her body, but a security guard, someone paid to watch over her.


We’ve come a long way from the days after Princess Diana’s death when people left carpets of flowers outside Kensington Palace. Today, it’s bottles of the vodka that killed their heroine.

Amy’s music was so resonant not just because of her talent, but because she sang of her isolation and pain.


This was a young woman who came from a broken home and whose relationships always seemed to result in despair.

Her very public solution to easing this pain was to take drugs and to drink. Her life was a lesson in self-destruction. The tragedy is that it wasn’t just for her, but for countless other young women who hero-worshipped her.

The result was that, for the vulnerable and impressionable, I fear Amy Winehouse made crack cocaine cool. She made alcoholism attractive. She made abusive, violent relationships exciting.

Even when her ballet pumps were covered in blood after she’d injected heroin between her toes or when she was photographed battered and bruised after yet another encounter with her husband Blake Fielder-Civil, young women empathised with her.One obituary said: ‘Rock stars act out our wildest desires and darkest dramas on our behalf so we do not have to.’



Would that it always were the case. After all, if Amy Winehouse could get hammered and out of her head yet still tour the world and make millions, what was the problem with her lifestyle?

For an answer, you have only to visit any High Street on a Saturday night to find countless wasted young women so drunk they don’t care what man they go off with, so out of their heads on drugs they’re anyone’s.

And why should they think this is anything other than normal behaviour when their idol Amy Winehouse downed six shots of tequila for breakfast?



For all her talent, she was a role model of the worst kind. And her eight years in the music business mirror a shocking increase in alcohol among women.

Figures published in 2009 showed 250 girls were arrested every day for violence, mostly fuelled by alcohol. One in four were aged between ten and 17.

In the years Amy was a star, a generation of ladettes was born, out of their heads and out of control, but thinking they were oh-so-cool.








source: dailymail

Genius, but Amy's was not a life to admire

By AMANDA PLATELL

A friend of Amy Winehouse conceded after she drank herself to death on Saturday that, yes she had her problems, but ‘she never did anyone any harm’.

If only that were true. The packets of cigarettes and bottles of vodka, beer and rum left outside her home in Camden, North London, by adoring fans bear testimony to how much she affected vulnerable young people.



Along with flowers and farewell notes, this was their way of saying goodbye to a woman they worshipped and emulated — not just because she was a musical genius, but also, I suspect, because of her car-crash lifestyle.

How tragic that her fans think a bottle of Smirnoff is a fitting farewell to a woman they loved — for it was vodka that killed her.

Or that a packet of cigarettes was an appropriate offering to leave at this shrine, given she suffered from emphysema, a smoking-related lung disease.


Amy’s love of vodka was legendary. Even in her hard-drinking, rock  ’n’  roll set, no one had ever seen anyone drink so much of it so fast. In her final few weeks, she had been found comatose several times by her bodyguards after binges.

How can her lifestyle be seen as glamorous after she died in such terrible and lonely circumstances?

I’m not sure what’s saddest: that this recovering drug addict was annihilating herself with spirits, having been ‘clean of drugs’ — so her father says — for 18 months; or that it was not a friend, lover, mother or any other family member who found her body, but a security guard, someone paid to watch over her.


We’ve come a long way from the days after Princess Diana’s death when people left carpets of flowers outside Kensington Palace. Today, it’s bottles of the vodka that killed their heroine.

Amy’s music was so resonant not just because of her talent, but because she sang of her isolation and pain.


This was a young woman who came from a broken home and whose relationships always seemed to result in despair.

Her very public solution to easing this pain was to take drugs and to drink. Her life was a lesson in self-destruction. The tragedy is that it wasn’t just for her, but for countless other young women who hero-worshipped her.

The result was that, for the vulnerable and impressionable, I fear Amy Winehouse made crack cocaine cool. She made alcoholism attractive. She made abusive, violent relationships exciting.

Even when her ballet pumps were covered in blood after she’d injected heroin between her toes or when she was photographed battered and bruised after yet another encounter with her husband Blake Fielder-Civil, young women empathised with her.One obituary said: ‘Rock stars act out our wildest desires and darkest dramas on our behalf so we do not have to.’



Would that it always were the case. After all, if Amy Winehouse could get hammered and out of her head yet still tour the world and make millions, what was the problem with her lifestyle?

For an answer, you have only to visit any High Street on a Saturday night to find countless wasted young women so drunk they don’t care what man they go off with, so out of their heads on drugs they’re anyone’s.

And why should they think this is anything other than normal behaviour when their idol Amy Winehouse downed six shots of tequila for breakfast?



For all her talent, she was a role model of the worst kind. And her eight years in the music business mirror a shocking increase in alcohol among women.

Figures published in 2009 showed 250 girls were arrested every day for violence, mostly fuelled by alcohol. One in four were aged between ten and 17.

In the years Amy was a star, a generation of ladettes was born, out of their heads and out of control, but thinking they were oh-so-cool.








source: dailymail

True Blood star Alexander Skarsgard sets pulses racing as he bares his muscular body in racy scenes

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Sexy: In stills from hit HBO series True Blood, Alexander Skarsgard is seen emerging from a lake nearly naked


It is know as one of the sexiest series on television with its racy plot lines and sultry scenes.

And a recent episode of cult vampire series True Blood certainly didn't disappoint.

In stills for the show, 34-year-actor Alexander Skarsgard is seen emerging from the water near naked, his fangs in full effect.


Fit: With water merely covering his lower body, the 36-year-old shows off his toned torso and biceps


With water merely covering his lower body, the actor, who plays lead character Eric Northman, shows off his toned torso and abdominal muscles.

The sexy snap is from an episode titled 'I'm Alive And On Fire', which aired over on Sunday night in the U.S.

In one of the scenes, Skarsgard is seen emerging from the lake with help from the show's female protagonist Sookie Stakehouse, played by Anna Paquin.


Bloodsucker: The actor, who plays Eric Northman in the series, is seen with his fangs in full effect


Even more muscles are seen in the form of two of the show's other male stars, Australian actor Ryan Kwanten who plays the role of Jason Stackhouse, and Joe Manganiello who plays werewolf, Alcide.

Sookie (Paquin) is seen enlisting the help of Alcide (Manganiello), who is also seen naked, his ripping abdominal muscles on show.

Meanwhile Jason (Kwanten) kills the Felton Norris, the front-man in the Norris family drug business, after he escapes from HotShot where he had been taken captive.



Ripped: Actor Joe Manganiello, who plays werewolf Alcide, also puts his impressive abdominal muscles on show as he shares a scene with Anna Paquin, who plays the show's female protagonist Sookie Stackhouse


Built: Manganiello also flaunts his toned chest in the scenes from the show


Twice as nice: Barely clothed Manganiello and Skarsgard are seen in a scene together


In trouble: Ryan Kwanten, who plays Sookie's brother Jason Stackhouse, is seen tied to a bed with wounds covering his bare body


Lucky break: He is later seen covered in blood after making an escape


'I like the way that in America you walk into a coffee shop and the girl asks how your day is,' he told GQ in a recent interview.

'When I first moved here I loved that. I know it's shallow and superficial and she doesn't give a f**k about my day, but I still like it,' he said.

'Sweden is a lot more reserved,' he added.

It's difficult to get to know a Swede but once you do you're in.'

The 6,4' tall actor said he thinks Swedish people have a stronger sense of privacy and boundaries


Hunk: Later in the episode, Skarsgard is once again seen shirtless once he has been rescued and dried off


His father Stellan Skarsgard, 59, is one of the most famous actors in Sweden and has starred in Pirates of the Caribbean, Hunt for Red October, Mamma Mia! and Thor.

It looks like Alexander is also headed for the big time - but he says he'll never put his personal life on show.

'You're never going to see a TV show called The Skarsgards,' he said.


source: dailymail

True Blood star Alexander Skarsgard sets pulses racing as he bares his muscular body in racy scenes

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Sexy: In stills from hit HBO series True Blood, Alexander Skarsgard is seen emerging from a lake nearly naked


It is know as one of the sexiest series on television with its racy plot lines and sultry scenes.

And a recent episode of cult vampire series True Blood certainly didn't disappoint.

In stills for the show, 34-year-actor Alexander Skarsgard is seen emerging from the water near naked, his fangs in full effect.


Fit: With water merely covering his lower body, the 36-year-old shows off his toned torso and biceps


With water merely covering his lower body, the actor, who plays lead character Eric Northman, shows off his toned torso and abdominal muscles.

The sexy snap is from an episode titled 'I'm Alive And On Fire', which aired over on Sunday night in the U.S.

In one of the scenes, Skarsgard is seen emerging from the lake with help from the show's female protagonist Sookie Stakehouse, played by Anna Paquin.


Bloodsucker: The actor, who plays Eric Northman in the series, is seen with his fangs in full effect


Even more muscles are seen in the form of two of the show's other male stars, Australian actor Ryan Kwanten who plays the role of Jason Stackhouse, and Joe Manganiello who plays werewolf, Alcide.

Sookie (Paquin) is seen enlisting the help of Alcide (Manganiello), who is also seen naked, his ripping abdominal muscles on show.

Meanwhile Jason (Kwanten) kills the Felton Norris, the front-man in the Norris family drug business, after he escapes from HotShot where he had been taken captive.



Ripped: Actor Joe Manganiello, who plays werewolf Alcide, also puts his impressive abdominal muscles on show as he shares a scene with Anna Paquin, who plays the show's female protagonist Sookie Stackhouse


Built: Manganiello also flaunts his toned chest in the scenes from the show


Twice as nice: Barely clothed Manganiello and Skarsgard are seen in a scene together


In trouble: Ryan Kwanten, who plays Sookie's brother Jason Stackhouse, is seen tied to a bed with wounds covering his bare body


Lucky break: He is later seen covered in blood after making an escape


'I like the way that in America you walk into a coffee shop and the girl asks how your day is,' he told GQ in a recent interview.

'When I first moved here I loved that. I know it's shallow and superficial and she doesn't give a f**k about my day, but I still like it,' he said.

'Sweden is a lot more reserved,' he added.

It's difficult to get to know a Swede but once you do you're in.'

The 6,4' tall actor said he thinks Swedish people have a stronger sense of privacy and boundaries


Hunk: Later in the episode, Skarsgard is once again seen shirtless once he has been rescued and dried off


His father Stellan Skarsgard, 59, is one of the most famous actors in Sweden and has starred in Pirates of the Caribbean, Hunt for Red October, Mamma Mia! and Thor.

It looks like Alexander is also headed for the big time - but he says he'll never put his personal life on show.

'You're never going to see a TV show called The Skarsgards,' he said.


source: dailymail

Can you guess who it is yet? Risqué 26-foot statue of Marilyn Monroe to be unveiled in Chicago tomorrow

Covered up for now...sort of: A worker puts the finishing touches to a 26-foot tall statue of Marilyn Monroe in Chicago


The statue, by artist Seward Johnson, replicates the actress's famous subway scene in 1955 film The Seven Year Itch and will be unveiled on Chicago's Pioneer Court tomorrow.

That pose, that dress, those erm, assets...

The 26-foot tall statue towering above tourists in the middle of Chicago could only be one person - Marilyn Monroe.

But that hasn't stopped workers, desperate to keep her identity a secret until tomorrow, placing a rather unsightly cloth bag over the poor girl's head, albeit it one in red, white and blue.



What did you do at work today darling? One man touches up the statue's under carriage with paint


In the scene Monroe stands over a subway grate as a breeze from a train passing below blows her skirt over her panties.

It was shot in New York but as the Windy City, Chicago seems like the second best location for such an art work.



You missed a bit: Well, Monroe always did have men at her feet


It will be on show through the Spring of 2012.

The stainless steel and aluminium sculpture, which weighs a whopping 34,000lbs, has raised more than a few eyebrows.

Not least because visitors to the plaza are at once confronted with Monroe's pert bottom in gleaming white panties and her perfect pins bedecked in white, open-toe kitten heels.



Spectacle: The stainless steel and aluminium sculpture, which weighs a whopping 34,000lbs, has raised more than a few eyebrows and is sure to be a tourist attraction


Men have been spotted gawping while their wives get cross and attempt to shield their eyes and lots of people have stopped to take a quick snap of the giantess before she goes public tomorrow.

Not all are happy of course. Abraham Ritchie wrote on Art Chicago Blog the statue was a 'creepy schlock from a fifth-rate sculptor that blights a first-rate public art collection.'

But the Zeller Realty Group, which owns the plaza and now its statue, wants Marilyn to make people think.



...And the real thing: Monroe cools off via the subway in front of Tom Ewell in The Seven Year Itch


'(Paul Zeller) likes to bring in things that cause a conversation,' said a spokesman from the company. 'They might be controversial, but he likes art that makes people think.'

And if that fails at least her skirt will be a good place to shelter from the rain.


30 ft. Marilyn going up on Michigan Ave.


Marilyn Monroe Subway Scene (Full)


source: dailymail