KATE AND PETE: A DEVELOPING STORY ARC

Interesting watching the gentle shifting of the story in the Kate Moss Cocaine shock - clearly, Team Moss have decided that it's not worth the effort to try and pretend it was all made-up, and have abandoned any plan to plead "one off/moment of madness", which leaves just the one option: out with the sackcloth and ashes, and off to rehab. The Mirror, of course, is delighted: why, it only splashed her snorting in order to save her - you know, like a concerned friend would:

Friends also believe that the Mirror's exclusive expose of Kate's drug taking could be her saviour.

One said: "This is the best thing that could have happened to her. She is devastated and understandably so, crying uncontrollably. But she wouldn't listen to anyone who had been warning her about her lifestyle."

So, what we thought might have looked like a grubby little tabloid story was, in fact, an intervention. Why, we're sure that Kate will be ringing up to thank them. And when your friends are there for you, boy, are your friends there for you:

The Mirror published images of the model crushing and chopping out lines of cocaine in a West London recording studio as Doherty laid down tracks for the new group's latest album.

Her friend Sadie Frost is understood to have emailed the Mirror coverage after first telling her about it in a fraught phone call on Thursday.

Kate was said to have been "shaking and trembling" over her future as she sat reading the evidence on a computer in her hotel. She is believed to have sobbed: "My fucking career is over."

Incredibly, the millionaire supermodel first asked friends if she could tell the world that she had been "joking around" and "just pretending to take cocaine". But she was strongly advised she had been caught "bang to rights" and it was in her best interests to turn the negative publicity into a positive.

And she's worried about losing of her kid. Oh, yes, this is the best thing that could have happened. We're sure she keeps telling herself that.

Naturally, though, if Kate is going to work with the tabloids on this - turning that negative publicity into a positive - someone's got have a head on a plate to serve up. And who will it be getting turned into a bagman for this whole deal?

Lila's father, publisher Jefferson Hack, is considering going to court because he does not believe Kate will ditch her junkie lover Pete Doherty.

Horrified by our images of Kate snorting five lines of coke in 40 minutes, he told a friend: "That stupid bastard. She's not thinking of Lila.

"I know Kate is a good mother who loves our child. But I'm no longer allowing our daughter to be in the same room as Doherty. He's turned Kate into a druggie like him."

Yes! Pete Doherty. He's clearly the only possible explanation how somebody working in the modelling industry - and who has partied with every bloody rockstar this side of Paul McCartney; who has made a record with Bobby Gillespie - would be taking cocaine. If it wasn't for his evil influence, Kate would never be doing this, would she?

Jefferson, who visited her London home yesterday, believes that only by taking on rehab and dumping Doherty can she avoid a fight over access to Lila.

It is understood that besotted Kate has accepted that despite her intense love for Doherty, 26, there is no future in their relationship.

... but we bet the tabs are holding their breath and hoping for a reconciliation...

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