No Rock And Roll Fun

HE'S BITTEN HIS TONGUE FOR SO LONG IT MIGHT HAVE STARTED TO LEAVE A MARK: Husbands defending wives isn't so very unusual, of course, and it's noble to see Paul McCartney rushing to defend Heather Mills against "spiteful, nasty, personal and, untrue" stories. This is described, though, as McCartney "breaking his silence" and, indeed, on the defence on Heather's official site, Paul stresses that he doesn't do this sort of thing lightly:

Normally I ignore it, telling myself that I can’t answer every single point and that most people know better than to believe it, and prefer to make up their own minds based on what they know to be true.

Normally, yes, Paul keeps his counsel. Indeed, it's almost a year since Paul phoned the Sun to complain about the tales. And it's been a few weeks since he last gave an interview to the Daily Mail insisting that Heather had nothing to with the sacking of Geoff Baker, of course. But he's biting his tongue no longer, again, on that one, either:

The split between my former publicist Geoff Baker and me has also been attributed to Heather. The actual truth, which I had been trying to spare him the embarrasment of going public with, was that he had gradually been getting more and more unstable over the past few years. The last straw came when a group of friends and I went late one night to see the magician David Blaine doing a stunt by the side of the River Thames. I was keeping out of sight of a small crowd of photographers when to my horror I saw Geoff pointing me out to the paparazzi who then ran towards me in a feeding frenzy. None of us could understand why he had done this, but it was just another example of his crazy behaviour. After that I tried to let him down gently but it was my decision alone to let him go as I didn’t want that kind of instability around me. It was nothing whatsoever to do with Heather.

Interestingly, this - publicity person does a job of getting celebrity publicity in a public place - seems to be the only example ever offered of what Baker did wrong, and it hardly seems fitting to imply that a man is "unstable" unless you're prepared to back it up.

Then there's the constant rumours about the kids from his marriage to Linda not getting on with his new wife. Paul's got something to say about that:

The media sometimes suggests a rift between my kids and Heather, but in fact we get on great and anyone who knows our family can see this for themselves.

Where do the media come up with these crazy stories, eh, Paul? Perhaps the chap who told the Sunday Telegraph in 2002 that "[the children] find it difficult to think of me with another woman. But it's how it is and how it must be, and I think that more than anything, they want me to be happy - and this is what makes me happy." Telling the papers that your kids have a problem with your new partner, and then whining when the papers report your kids have a problem with your new partner seems a curious set of double standards.

On the other hand, you can understand why McCartney would want to hit back at the most shocking recent statement [...] that “losing her leg was perhaps the best thing that ever happened to Heather as it fed her desire for self publicity” Imagine losing a leg, and dealing with it as bravely as Heather has done and having to read that on top of it! There are some people in the press who go too far, and it is fair enough to slap them down when they do. (Besides being tasteless, it's not even accurate, as snaring a Beatle, surely, has done more for her profile).

Just one curious thing, though: If Paul is so determined to set the record straight, and is keen to make it clear he's not his wife's yeah yeah yeah man, how come his signed piece appears on her website and not his?

music beatles paul_mccartney heather_mills gossip