DIET | DETECTIVE^®

…when the parents get involved. In general, I’m never a big fan of Hollywood parents who air their kid’s dirty laundry—ahem, Lionel Richie, Michael Lohan, Nancy Aniston, Joe Simpson, Linda Carroll, and anyone else I may be forgetting—because it always reeks of publicity. But Amy Winehouse’s father is a taxi driver, not an aspiring singer/actor/whatever. So why is he running to the tabs with his plea for help?

Let’s start with the basics. By the time Amy Winehouse had made a dent in the American mainstream, she was already an emaciated mess—showing up to talk shows drunk, acting belligerent at awards shows, skipping out on concerts, beating up her boyfriend, and so on. It’s hard to imagine her as the semi-wholesome jazz ingénue she was a few years ago, back when her size could actually be measured in whole numbers.

Cut to this weekend. After Amy was rushed to the hospital for exhaustion—a rare condition that never seems to affect anyone except celebrities—her father told British papers, “She is barely eating. She is not sleeping…I know that if she doesn't eat she is going to die. There is no reason for her to want to self-destruct like this.”

Since then, more details have leaked out, supposedly from family and friends. According the The Sun—which, in fairness, is maybe as reliable as your crazy neighbor—Amy’s “exhaustion” was actually caused by a three-day binge of alcohol, heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, and ketamine. Which is a pretty impressive list. Horse tranquilizers?! I mean, wow.

Which makes me wonder: Is the scary-skinny trend finally reaching its breaking point? Nicole Richie is facing jail time; Lindsay Lohan is in rehab; Kate Bosworth is eating hot dogs. I worry that the final straw could be the death of Amy Winehouse—especially since a friend reports, “Amy says she will be dead within one year.” So maybe Papa Winehouse should try talking directly to his daughter instead of ringing the Daily Mail or News of the World.

Bookmark:

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed