Leona Lewis and Amy's public disgrace

Leona Lewis loves Amy Winehouse, she does, but, oooh, that woman is a a worry with her image and all:

“A performer’s privacy is taken away. The media are always there. You can’t make your mistakes in private,” Lewis said.

“I have the advantage of a great support structure. I get honest opinions from my family and friends.

“They aren’t always telling me what I want to hear, but the truth helps keep my head straight.”

It's not as if Amy didn't have people telling her truths, either - there are very few addicts who don't have someone they've chosen to ignore as they embrace their habit.

And is Lewis really saying - as she appears to - that the problem is less that Winehouse has got substance abuse problems, than the papers write about them? "If only she could have got on smoking crack in private..."?

It's easy to blame the press for everything, but this seems a little odd. And even if somehow a crack habit is only a problem when it's in the papers (does a crack pipe smoked in the woods matter if nobody films it on a cameraphone?) then isn't Winehouse a little to blame for not exactly having tried to protect her privacy, what with the parading down streets in Camden smoking drugs, posting videos to YouTube of her doing stuff to mice, her husband beating up people in pubs and so on. The papers might have been unflinching in their stare, but she did cry "look at me" rather a lot, didn't she?