Heather Mills sets up filter on "hag", "harlot", "golddigger"...

This morning's NOTW reports that Heather Mills is increasingly coming to see herself as something of the Diana of our times, persecuted and crushed by a house seen as a national treasure; misunderstood and only wishing to do good.

This may or may not be true, but it's hard to see how Mills could be convinced she's the People's Princess II while she's having to wade through more hate email than a Farepak director every morning.

The Sunday Mirror reports:

Since her split from Sir Paul McCartney, she has been shocked to read hundreds of venomous emails sent to her website from around the world. Heather has been left so distraught by some of them she has asked her staff to weed them out.

We love that idea that hitherto, Heather has been sat at her Dell laptop diligently providing first eyes to her own inbox. Although, maybe she has, as the only other possibility is that her PA has been printing out the acrid emails so her boss can read them each morning.

The Mirror then wobbles a little over the science of all this:

The messages were all sent using an email facility which has now been removed from the website and didn't appear online. It means genuine fans have been unable to communicate with her.

Is it just us, or does that make no sense whatsoever? If it's been removed from the website, how could it have never appeared online?

It's heartbreaking to think that anyone who still likes Mills is unable to send her messages online, although there is still an easy way for the Heather fanbase to communicate with her: she can look in the mirror and talk to herself any time she chooses.

Still, she's putting a brave face on it, telling US TV:

"When all this happened I just thought everybody would blame me so I sort of had my head down. But I get nothing but support - people want to come up and give me a hug."

"Shaking warmly by the throat", as the old music hall routine would have it.

Still, it can't be easy for Heather, who has to present this positive image to people while - according to "close friends" - feeling so wretched inside. It's not like Heather has any experience of saying one thing while meaning something else, is it?

music heather mills paul mccartney