Sinead O'Connor a bit like a bucket

Sinead O'Connor has popped up on the Oprah Winfrey programme - bravely overcoming her dislike of ever talking to the popular media - to reveal some details of her difficult life. Which, it turns out, is a metaphor:

"It's like being a bucket with holes in it. Just leaking tears from every pore."

We're not entirely sure why a bucket would be full of tears, or, indeed, why a bucket would have pores in the first place. And if the bucket was porous, why would you fill it with anything. Still, we know what she meant.

She also issues a vaguely Charles Spencer style warning to the press over the hounding of Britney:

"She had two babies within the space of two years, (there) doesn't seem like a terrible amount of support from the people around her," O'Connor said.

O'Connor said it seems the media is constantly watching for Spears to make a mistake raising her children, but that no parents are perfect.

"I think to attack someone as a mother is very dangerous," she said. "I would say that's what puts a young girl on a precipice which is very, very dangerous, in my opinion. Some people may end up really regretting the way they're treating her."

When the National Enquirer passes comment on how Britney's raising her children, it's tattle driving her to the point of suicide. When Sinead O'Connor does the same thing, it's sisterly concern.

There may or mayn't be any truth in the claim that Britney got no support from those around her (funny that Sinead's alright with judging them on a chat show) but shouldn't it be easy for a woman of Spears' means to buy in any extra support she felt she needed? Having two babies in two years doesn't make you incapable of asking your management team to sort out a cleaner or a nanny or whatever, and millions of women manage to cope with similarly sized families without going to pieces - perhaps because they have no choice.

Likewise, it's easy to blame the press - but while they might increase the pressure by running photos of her tumbling out of bars when she's preparing for custody cases, they can hardly be blamed for her being there in the first place. If you don't want the papers to keep running stories about you, stop giving them stories to run.