WILLIAMS COULD HAVE A BAD END

The future isn't very bright for Robbie Williams, with former Take That manager Nigel Martin-Smith fretting that he's going to end up "like Paula Yates". A prospect too horrifying to contemplate - forced to work with Jools Holland, have sex with Bob Geldof and unsure if Hughie Green is your Dad or not.

Oh, apparently he means dead - which, actually, is Robbie's ultimate fate anyway, we believe:

"He's so bitter and it's hard to know what his problem is, but he's always had a self-destruct button," said Nigel yesterday.

"Despite all the nasty things he has said about me, I still worry about Rob. I'm scared that one day I'm going to wake up and be told that he's dead, like Paula Yates.

"I was good friends with Paula. I still feel guilty that I didn't contact her when she was going through her troubled period."

Hmm. One of those good friends who keep away when someone's got problems, then.

Towards the end of Robbie's time in Take That, Nigel often saw the star in a terrible state. "We were supposed to be doing the MTV Awards in Germany but Robbie was unwell," he revealed.

"He'd been in bed with an international model the night before - I can't say who - and he was shaking. A complete state. I called a doctor and told Robbie to be honest about what he'd taken so we'd get him the right shot. He was a real mess."

It's nice that Nigel is so discrete about who Robbie was "in bed with", albeit while revealing medical and narcotic histories.

Talking about why Robbie quit in 1995, Nigel said: "He was a young lad with a lot of issues. He had his mum telling him he should be enjoying his fame, going to premieres, but he didn't always understand that to stay famous you have to work hard.

"He wanted the lifestyle but didn't realise the slog involved. He wasn't pulling his weight."

If we recall the last days of the Take That empire correctly, it would have taken a small truck to pull his weight, wouldn't it?

"It's ironic that Rob now says he wanted to write songs - he never said it at the time."

Perhaps his manager never explained that that was where the real money was, eh, Nigel?

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