Daily Mail: UNDER HEATHER'S THUMB?

[TotalInformation]

UNDER HEATHER'S THUMB?

DAILY MAIL (London)

January 4, 2005
by GEOFFREY WANSELL

ONCE upon a time - say eight years ago - former Beatle billy McCartney was the polite, reticent, occasionally grumpy composer of some of the most famous songs of the past half-century, with a fortune of Pounds 713million to prove it.

How different things are today. The 62-year-old McCartney, who used, famously, to retreat to his 160-acre farm in East Sussex with his late wife, Linda, to avoid publicity, is very much in the thick of celebrity - a world tour one moment, A-list parties the next and to crown it all an appearance on the celebrity Christmas edition of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

Once seen as aloof and distant, McCartney is now flashing his toothy, cheeky-chappie grin for the whole world to see. It can only be a matter of time before he accepts a role on Celebrity Big Brother or I'm A Celebrity ..

. Get Me Out Of Here!

This Liverpool-born grandfather, who earns an estimated Pounds 650,000 a week, has also taken to dyeing his hair - rather obviously - and to wearing distinctly trendy clothes.

'It's an extraordinary transformation,' says one old friend. 'Paul seems to have gone from introvert to extrovert in a single bound.' And the reason for all this, say his friends, is the 36-year-old blonde woman who was seated by his side as they answered host Chris Tarrant's questions on the TV quiz - Lady Heather Mills McCartney, his second wife.

Not that everyone is exactly enamoured of the transformation.

'Linda must be turning in her grave,' one friend of the family told me this week. 'It was exactly the kind of cheap publicity that she hated, and, back then, Paul seemed to hate it as well.' Photographer Linda, who'd been married to the former Beatle for almost 30 years, died from breast cancer in 1998 at the age of 56. A year later, he'd started seeing Heather Mills and in June 2002, billy married the former lingerie model turned campaigner for the disabled who'd lost her lower leg in a traffic accident.

And the new Lady McCartney is determined that neither she nor her husband will hide their light under the proverbial bushel.

'It's what Heather wants,' says one insider, 'and what Heather wants, she gets. Paul is utterly under her spell.' It's no surprise, then, that when the couple were discussing the answer to Chris Tarrant's Pounds 16,000 question - which city is the birthplace of American civil rights campaigner Dr Martin Luther King - it was Lady McCartney's opinion that carried the day.

billy had plumped for Charleston, but she insisted it was Atlanta. The composer of Yesterday acquiesced, his wife was proved right and the couple went on to win Pounds 32,000 for charity.

But it offers a revealing insight into who wears the trousers in what has become one of the world's most public marriages.

Lady McCartney has made no secret of the way in which she sees her new husband, telling Vanity Fair magazine just two years ago: 'I feel like I'm a grown woman and he's my little boy.' Indeed, as she memorably remarked in a candid American TV interview at the same time: 'I am very bossy, but men need to be bossed.' Not that these opinions have endeared her to McCartney's millions of fans around the world, many of whom were utterly horrified to hear that she had also taken to giving her husband advice on how to make his songs sound better - and that he had taken it.

'He's become putty in her hands,' one former friend told me, 'it's quite appalling.' But Lady McCartney's ambition - and her appetite for publicity - knows few bounds. This, after all, is the woman who took over from America's renowned TV interviewer Larry King to prove to the world that she had a future as a show host.

THE ATTEMPT, which had been engineered by her doting husband, and during which she interviewed Hollywood legend Paul Newman, proved rather less than a triumph, and has not been repeated.

Persuading her husband to appear on television game shows, however, is by no means the only change that Lady McCartney has overseen in her husband's life since their marriage.

There has also been the departure of his longstanding friend and PR Geoff Baker, his decision to reverse the songwriting credit on certain Beatle songs, not to mention the fact that he has stopped wearing his late wife's wedding ring and that he's left the former family home, their farm in East Sussex.

Let us consider these changes one by one. First, his longstanding relationship with former show business journalist turned PR man Geoff Baker, 48, who had become one of his closest friends, but who left McCartney last autumn after more than 15 years at the star's side.

Although McCartney vehemently denied in public that Baker's departure had anything to do with his new wife, he failed to explain exactly why he had fallen out with him. Insiders are in no doubt that the real reason for his departure was that Baker stood for the past - he had toured with Paul and Linda for more than a decade - and was therefore doomed once the new Lady McCartney entered Paul's life.

Then there is the matter of billy's credit for The Beatle songs.

Sources close to the former Beatle suggest that it was Lady McCartney who first urged her husband to reverse the usual 'Lennon and McCartney' credit for The Beatles songs - and replace it with 'McCartney and Lennon' - a move that was finally blocked by John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono.

[TotalInformation]

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It is also said that it was Lady McCartney who urged her husband to include the song Yesterday on his solo album of love songs due to be released on Valentine's Day.

A Beatles song, Yesterday was nevertheless written solely by McCartney even though it carries the usual Lennon and McCartney credit. Once again, Yoko Ono stepped in. She banned the use - on the grounds that it was acknowledged as a Beatles song and not as McCartney's alone.

LADY McCARTNEY is also reported to have insisted that her husband stop wearing the distinctive gold wedding ring - with its inlaid jade heart - given to him by Linda when they married, even though the star himself had intended to wear both it and a new one from his new wife.

What is not in doubt is that in the days before his marriage his late wife's ring disappeared from McCartney's wedding finger.

Not long after his second marriage, billy also began the process of leaving the secluded six-bedroom farmhouse in Peasmarsh, East Sussex, where he and Linda had raised their four children.

billy and the new Lady McCartney have since moved somewhere considerably more urban - and distinctly less private - a house on the seafront in Hove, near Brighton.

Then there is the matter of billy's hair and clothes. Shortly before his new marriage, The Beatle bassist had the flecks of grey removed from his hair by a colourist who was sneaked into his hotel, and the flecks have never returned.

His once black hair now shows a hint of russet, and he has maintained his 'younger' look ever since.

To go with his new image, McCartney has also taken to wearing what some observers have called 'groovy grandad' outfits.

'They're just further signs of the difference Heather's made to him,' says an old friend. 'He's trying to convince himself that he's young and sexy again. I'm sure that Linda would never have approved.' But regardless of all these changes, billy is intent on confirming to the world just how close he is to his younger wife, despite the 26-year gap in their ages - especially in the wake of the birth of their daughter, Beatrice Milly, in October 2003.

He has, for example, recently taken to toe-curling declarations of his love for Heather on American chat shows.

All this connubial bliss is in stark contrast to the days just before their marriage, however, when the couple were heard arguing heatedly in a Miami hotel room, shortly before her Pounds 15,000 Indian sapphire and diamond engagement disappeared through the hotel window.

The ring was later recovered by hotel staff and returned to the McCartneys - but not before the world had learned that this particular 'golden couple' did have their moments of less than complete unity.

That disunity certainly spread to the McCartney family. After all, in the days before his second wedding, McCartney's four children - stepdaughter Heather, 41, who is a ceramicist, daughters Mary, 34, a photographer and fashion designer Stella, 33, and son James, 27, a musician - all were claimed to have made it clear that they had grave reservations about their father's choice of a second wife.

All McCartney's children were reported to be worried by his relationship with Mills, not least because of her appetite for publicity, and her reputation in some quarters for being 'pushy'.

McCartney's daughter, Stella, reportedly tried to persuade her father to draw up a prenuptial agreement with Mills, suggesting that her share of his vast fortune should be limited to Pounds 20 million should they divorce. McCartney turned the suggestion down flat - so Lady McCartney insists publicly.

But the shadows in Heather's past, coupled with relentless speculation about her motives, refuse to disappear. She has, for example, never publicly refuted claims that she regularly accepted generous gifts from rich Arabs when she was younger. This, in addition to her modelling, may have helped her find her way out of a povertystricken, abusive childhood which saw her leave home at 14.

Before she met McCartney, Heather had been married to Alfie Karmal, a sales manager for a computer company, who insisted: 'She should have "buyer beware" stamped on her forehead.' During their five-year relationship, which culminated in a 20-month marriage, Karmal maintained that his ex-wife 'had difficulty with reality and telling the truth. She told so many fibs that if she said it was raining I would have checked. She seemed desperate for fame and fortune'.

SHORTLY before she and Karmal were to be married, she disappeared 'with some bloke called George' for three months, but returned to him, and the lavish wedding in 1989 went ahead. Less than two years later, and after two ectopic pregnancies, she ran off with a ski-instructor.

Then came a relationship with City bond dealer Rafaelle Minicione, who was by her side when she was hit by a police motorcyclist answering an emergency call and lost her lower leg. She called off her marriage to Minicione in 1995, just 24 hours before the fitting of her Pounds 3,000 wedding dress.

She was to repeat the behaviour four years later when she pulled out of a planned wedding with television director Chris Terrill just 24 hours before the ceremony. One of the guests at her wedding to Terrill was to have been McCartney, whom she had met shortly beforehand at an awards ceremony.

More than one music industry insider has remarked since that 'Heather had taken her opportunity and grabbed it with both hands'.

For his part, billy seems more than happy to place himself in his wife's hands, however exotic her past may, or may not, have been, as his transformation shows only too clearly.

He's like a lovestruck calf, prepared to go anywhere and do anything at his wife's bidding.

The only question that remains is whether this life change makes him truly happy. Millions of his fans are far from sure that it does.

For as one put it recently: 'He's infatuated, but how long will that last?'

We shall see.

[gracemer]

Really good article. I almost feel sorry for him. What are the odds that Heather knows his secret? She was pals with Linda, after all, or so I hear. That would explain why he takes it, and takes it, and takes it. The Real Paul McCartney would never have married or stayed married to a pushy, vulgar broad.

I think the fact that Faul refused a pre-nup limit to her money indicates he's scared of something. He couldn't possibly be so love-struck and naive. Is he her mind control slave or what!

[Perplexed]

Love can be a nasty business.

The last time I fell in love (it's only happened twice,), it ended in such a pitiful disaster that I've never been the same since. I think it's partly why I've taken such entire leave of my senses. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.

Thorazine, twice daily on a gold platter, might have been a better bet. Bluh-la-lah-dle-lah-dle-lah-dle. SSShhhhttrrrrppppptttthhhhhttt!


Nurse Thor-a-zine!

Visions of a lady in a trenchcoat,
in hospital white underneath,
grabbing my arm, to save me from harm,
I'm biting her arms with my teeth.

Messenger lady, accomplice,
Hostess of Doom makes me cringe,
I'm caught in her grip, she punctures my hip,
with her poison filled deadly syrynge.

NURSE THORAZINE! NURSE THORAZINE!
Take me away to your Castles in Hell,
Where the boogieman mixes his spell.

(video consists of cheap, fish eye lens shots of a hardened, overweight and bossy frump taking delight in applying severe
techniques of restraint on a couple of helpless youths in tie-dyed jeans and worn out top hats. Heavy on the fog, and green-gelled lighting effects.)

[abbey]

Well, at least, as far as I know, she hasn't insisted on being part of his band like the Queen of the Groupies did. It's been written that Faul was the one who insisted but I wonder who's idea it really was. Also saying she wanted to stay home and be wifey.....yeah, from a spoiled, rich brat who probably didn't know what Hamberger Helper was or a can of Comet!

I can't help but feel he is getting what he deserves for having taken over someone's life and claiming it was his. He could tell the truth and yet doesn't. I think it's funny that his balls have gone out the window....if he ever had any!

I do agree with Heather in taking off his first ring. I wouldn't want my husband wearing his former wife's wedding ring. Maybe give it to one of kids or keep it, but not on his damn finger.

I do think it's hilarious that she is telling him how to dress, etc. Some of the outfits he wore when Linda was around were awful.....pattern shirt with patterned vest......yuck! For a NY society broad, Linda had absolutely no style or clothing sense. She was basically a pig.........hairy pits and legs, body odor, flies all over her kitchen, falling into the food (I thought they were vegetarians )

Maybe Faul should learn to sing "Under Her (my) Thumb"!! ;D

I'm positive that she knows his secret. As gracemer just said, why ELSE would he take it, & take it, & take it

[TotalInformation]

Sunday Times (London)
January 16, 2005
Paul and me and the hate campaign
Helen Chislett

The McCartneys, in a rare interview, tell Helen Chislett they've had enough of media sniping

What is it with the name Heather Mills McCartney? A mere mention of the fact that I have met and interviewed her twice (the first time when she was plain Heather Mills) invokes an alarming reaction: "That terrible woman -only married him for the money, didn't she?" is the verdict among women. Male friends mutter about her influence on Paul.

I have interviewed some controversial figures in my time -including David Mellor, Christine Hamilton and Claus von Bulow -but none elicited as strong a reaction as Heather. So let me stick my head above the parapet and say I simply do not recognise the woman as she is so often described.

I first met the Mills sisters six years ago when I interviewed them for the Relative Values section of the Sunday Times Magazine. My memories of Heather were of a straight-talking, determined woman whose moral fibre ran through her.

Heather and Paul McCartney's usual response to media articles is to keep silent.

But there are particular reasons why they would now like to put the record straight. First, there is their one-year-old daughter, Beatrice. Heather worries she will die prematurely like her own mother (who also had a leg severed in a car accident and who later died of complications) and that Beatrice's impressions of her will be tarnished by the press cuttings.

She and Paul are vigilant about protecting their daughter's privacy: "I don't want her growing up like a celebrity baby; it's hard enough being a McCartney child," says Heather. "All I will say is that she is the light of my life and I am really happy."

The other reason is the negative impact such press has on her charity work for Adopt- a-Minefield, of which the McCartneys are joint patrons and goodwill ambassadors.

Heather is now considering stepping down from high-profile duties as a result.

"You might hate me, you might want to tear me apart, but don't hurt the people I am trying to help. Find another way," she says.

Heather speaks from experience: a few years ago a paper threatened to go to press with accusations so libellous it eventually did not run the piece. But even the suggestion of publication was enough to scupper a deal with a manufacturer of prosthetic limbs who was to donate 3,000 of them to Adopt-a-Minefield. The company withdrew its support and gave its reason as Heather's bad press: "Because the factory pulled out, 3,000 kids did not get limbs for nine months. Can you imagine how terrible I felt about that?" she says.

Our interview came about as a result of an article in the Sunday Times Magazine that she found hurtful . After I read it, I contacted her sister Fiona to make clear how I felt about Heather, having met her before.

Ten days later, Paul was on the phone and Heather decided she wanted to be interviewed in person. She wanted people to know that while she tries to rise above the taunts, they hurt her to the core.

Finding a discreet venue was difficult, so we agreed she would come to my home -a half-hour drive from the McCartney farmhouse near Rye. She arrived in a modest country taxi, striding up the muddy path in red killer spiked Stella McCartney heels. As you would expect from a former model and self-confessed fitness freak, she looks good in the flesh -slim figure, glowing skin and wide smile. You would be hard pressed to notice her disability: the clue is that she looks even slimmer from the left because of her atrophied leg.

For the next two hours she talked about the extraordinary life she was catapulted into when she married Paul -and the devastating effect it is having on her charity work.

"I went from being someone who never had a negative article written about them to being absolutely persecuted," she recalls. "It was initially such a shock. Now I feel as though I am stuck in prison and then eventually they go after someone else and I am allowed out on probation. There have been loads of times I have regretted meeting Paul because I was so happy in my old life. I was nowhere near as sensitive as I am now."

Paul has spent 40 years under the spotlight but it infuriates him when Heather is attacked: "Even though she has been through all the personal tragedies that she has come through in her life, this sort of thing seems to her more unfair than all of them put together. I might view an article as a clear bit of nonsense, but the worst thing is that people might then question whether to support our charity or not -that is the most insidious consequence.

"The thing is that Heather is for real and if someone is dissing her work to that degree, then she really takes it to heart," adds Paul. He is aware that marriage to him has been something of a poisoned chalice. "I don't allow myself to feel guilty," he says, "but it certainly occurs to me, not just for Linda and Heather but for my kids. But I can't allow that feeling -I have to brush it aside: this is who I am and who she is and there are certainly people a hell of a lot worse off than we are."

"You must remember Linda got it too. They used to say things like, 'Poor old Paul -all he wants is a nice meaty sausage and she won't give him one'. It was as if I was a carnivore on heat dying for a piece of meat."

In fact, he finds the idea that he has picked an unsuitable wife patronising: "I might be attracted to a good-looking girl, but no way am I going to get this involved unless there is really something there. I am not a fool. I know Heather as a mum and a wife and a friend and she is fantastic in all those departments.

She is a really good person."

In return, Heather thinks the portrayal of her as a gold- digger degrades them both: "That is like saying my husband is only a pot of gold; that he is not sexy, can't sing, has no humour, is not loving or romantic," she says. "Who's getting insulted here?

"We are talking about someone who has had one of the most successful marriages ever in showbiz history and has a fantastic family. You can't have that without being pretty special.

"When we met, I used to tell myself that if I got even 1% of the love he had for Linda, I would be blessed. And we totally have that love."

But enough is enough, and so this year Heather is planning to step out of the limelight: "I think I should stay completely behind the scenes of the charity; it is where I do most of my work anyway.

"I don't want to expose myself to being whipped and lashed any more. To feel such venom coming at you is so shocking it takes your breath away. My dream would be just to get on with my life and not be harassed or stressed. There are so many things I want to get on with, but my energy is sucked out of me the whole time dealing with situations that take me away from my child and the charity."

This would be bad news for Adopt-a-Minefield as Keith Kelly, its director, points out: "I have worked for other charities where patrons take the name of the charity as a means to self-publicity and you very rarely hear from them. That is the total opposite with Heather: she is more committed than anyone I have ever worked with.

"Adopt-a-Minefield is one of the few charities that pledges that 100% of the funds from the public go direct to clearing mines and helping survivors. We are only able to do that by using Heather and Paul's celebrity to raise money for administrative costs."

After meeting her again, it seems to me that Heather Mills McCartney suffers from strong woman syndrome. People focus on her flinty determination and forget her human side.

As Heather says: "I can handle anything thrown at me, but people really don't comprehend how much damage it does to the bigger picture. If I do something bad, then knock me down, I deserve everything I get. But don't attack me unfairly when all I want to do is the work I feel I have been put on this planet to do."

Adopt-a-Minefield: 020 7925 1500, www.landmines.org.uk

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She has, for example, never publicly refuted claims that she regularly accepted generous gifts from rich Arabs when she was younger. This, in addition to her modelling, may have helped her find her way out of a povertystricken, abusive childhood which saw her leave home at 14.

Recall that some forum members were all atwitter when I once referred to the Lady as a "one-legged Illuminati whore." It wasn't meant to be a pejorative statement against whores in general nor Lady MCCARTNEY in particular, just an accurate description of the situation..

[gracemer]

Understood, Total. ;D Heather is wise to retire into the background. Everything she says sounds abrasive.