Amy Winehouse Goes To Rehab
Times Online:
Amy Winehouse visited a private rehabilitation clinic in London yesterday after she was caught on video apparently smoking crack. The singer will be hoping that the footage has not ruined her chances of conquering America, where her album Back to Black has sold 1.3 million copies.
Her record company, Island, part of Universal Music, is ready to abandon its American campaign to promote her. “It may be time to draw a line under it all and move on,” said Nick Gatfield, the label’s president.
She had been invited to perform at the Grammys, the US music industry’s most glamorous night, in Los Angeles next month. She is nominated for six awards, including Album of the Year.
Her well-publicised drug problems hampered her request for a visa. Winehouse, who cancelled her last US tour after an overdose, made a personal appeal for a visa after being convicted of cannabis possession in Norway. It is believed that the US authorities wanted evidence that she was drug-free before allowing her in.
Mr Gatfield described Winehouse as a hugely talented artist and said that she would be given time to deal with her problems. He said that she had America at her feet. “It’s a reflection of her status [in the US] that when you flick through the TV coverage [of the Grammys] it’s her image they use.” However, he added that there would be “absolutely no pressure from the company” to force her back to work. Universal Music said that it was deeply upset and disappointed about the latest revelations but would give her its full support.
Winehouse is due to appear at an awards ceremony in Cannes this Saturday alongside Kylie Minogue, Céline Dion and Rihanna. She pulled out of a number of UK concerts before Christmas.
Edward House is an outpatients department of the Capio Nightingale Hospital, which is known for rehabilitating drug users. The 24-year-old singer arrived at 4.45pm accompanied by her father, Mitch, a London taxi driver, and stayed for two hours. Wearing a dark top and pencil skirt, she appeared to be in good spirits and had returned to her black beehive hairstyle after a brief experiment as a bottle-blonde.
Pete Doherty, the Babyshambles singer and Winehouse’s friend, checked into the Nightingale Hospital for drug rehabilitation treatment last year.
Last night, Winehouse’s spokesperson insisted: “Amy has not been admitted into rehab. She has regular appointments with a doctor at the Nightingale Hospital and she will not be staying overnight. She is in good spirits and walking tall.”
Footage published in The Sun appeared to show Winehouse inhaling fumes from a crack pipe after a reported drug binge in which she was said to have snorted Ecstasy and cocaine and admitted to taking six Valium tablets. The video was said to have been filmed during a party at Winehouse’s home in East London in the early hours of last Friday, shortly before she attended a court hearing of her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil. He is awaiting trial on charges of assault and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
According to The Sun, Winehouse snorted powdered Ecstasy and cocaine before heading to her bedroom, where she inhaled crack in front of her wedding photo. When friends are heard in the video to go out with them, she replies: “I’d be useless to you because I’ve had about six Valium.”
Police said that they were unable to take action unless they received a complaint that a suspected criminal offence had been committed.
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This is not news.. this is gossip.
January 23rd, 2008 at 5:39 amShe’s sick and needs help,it would be a shame to see such a gifted singer to die needlessly.
January 23rd, 2008 at 6:13 amwho gives a @#$% !!!
January 23rd, 2008 at 7:20 amYou know, I’d like to say she looks like a train wreck … But she reminds me more of a graffiti-covered Metro bus and a city garbage truck (overloaded after a three month garbage strike in the scorching heat of summer) colliding.
There are NO “shooting stars” … They are meteorites … Lumps of useless rocks that hurl aimlessly through space with a total absence of rhyme or reason , flaming brightly just before impacting with the hard reality and shattering into so much equally useless gravel.
January 23rd, 2008 at 8:15 amdrillanwr, Perfect
January 23rd, 2008 at 8:43 amI agree with sal. And her record company is on the right track–it’s time to draw a line and move on. The almighty $ is the big driver, tho.
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:30 amMark Tanberg -
My beloved Grandfather worked 45 years on the wrecking crew of the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad after immigrating here from Europe. There is usually ALWAYS something salvageable from a train wreck. Grand-dad’s house, garage, barn and sheds were crammed full with “salvage” from the wrecks … (not to mention some of the salvage often provided for his seven kids during the Depression).
Anyhow, Britney Spears IS a train wreck … and quite possibly be of salvage. I am willing to cut Brit a little pity in that she is eternally 16 yrs. old due to the grinding of the celebrity machine from a very early age … and most importantly because of a mother who was obviously driven by pop culture and celebrity as a religion.
I have little pity to offer here. Amy Winehouse IS the bus/garbage truck collision (at which you clean up the dead bodies, wreckage, and trash to dispose of accordingly) … She started out as an adult in the business and decided “infantile stupor” is the right state of mind by which to drive your life and build a career. I am doubtful if there is anything of useful salvage there …
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:06 am