HE SEEMS TO BE SPENDING A LOT OF TIME WITH KIRSTY WARK

Pete Doherty has done his second Newsnight interview of the year, and he now thinks he might have been a little bit hasty in quitting rehab in Arizona:

"Maybe it was a bit of a rash decision," he told Newsnight's Kirsty Wark. "But I missed London, I wanted to play my guitar and I wanted my books."

And you know what? It's all the paper's fault, boo-hoo-hoo:

But he insisted the truth was far less sensational, saying the real Pete Doherty and the one depicted in the media were "like two different people".

"The one thing that the tabloids have been consistent with is they haven't shown the slightest bit of interest in the music," he said.

In the interview, to be broadcast on Newsnight on Friday, he likens himself to late footballer George Best - a victim of what he calls "dead monkey brain tabloid fever" whose achievements were "swamped" by his later hellraising exploits.

"For me it's going to be the other way round," he said.

Which is, of course, exactly what Best thought it would be like - in his famous phrase, it was going to be the football that people remembered. But before we get too carried away, it's worth remembering that George Best wasn't killed by tabloid attention, but by drinking way too much, too often, for too long. And while Pete might wish the tabloids wrote about his music, perhaps if he didn't keep giving them interviews about how he loves Kate Moss, or has been going to have secret meetings in Paris with Kate, or showing off his implants, perhaps they wouldn't write about your drugs and lovelife.

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