Not that I disagree with what you mean here, but I don't think enough is made of his brain injury. There's absolutely horrendous choices made, but I think having an untreated and incredibly damaging brain injury might be a major factor in said choices.
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I agree but there is an old Welsh saying "if you want true respect - die" and I think because they both died young they have been romantised to a ridiculous extent. People in general were sick of Paula and her star was fading fast, no doubt she would have made a comeback after awhile but she would have been less attractive and older and the flirting would have been pathetic. When Paula was alive she wanted to drag the kids out of school to follow Michael and his band all over Australia which would have probably ended up with them being palmed off onto various people/nannies aquaintances and God know what would have happened to them. She always put herself first. Bob may be grumpy and sullen and probably mean but he made sure that didn't happen he was by far the better parent.
I've just remembered an odd thing I heard about Paula's alcohol choices. Her favourite thing was lots of those mini bottles of spirits like you get in hotel mini bars. Maybe she thought in some way that didn't count?
Yes.
I don't hate Paula but she was old fashioned even in the early 80's. Everyone at school watched The Tube but to us teenagers Paula was like someone's embarrassing Mum! Just so outdated. She wasn't the second most famous women in the UK as the program claimed - at the time she was just seen as a silly tart who'd slept her way into TV, not to mention the dodgy tat. Maybe these days she would be judged less harshly but I'm afraid her friends are misremembering how she was perceived back then. And that was before the true extent of her other men was revealed.
Hislop does behave badly but I think he expected some witty retorts from Paula, but once she realised she couldn't flirt her way out of it there was nothing left. Basically that's all she could do.
I don't feel sorry for Paula - she chose to have multiple affairs, dump the kids with the hired help and then overdose with her daughter in the house. However I do feel very sorry for all of her children - Peaches never stood a chance did she?
I remember seeing her on that bed and it did make me cringe she was not backwards in coming forwards and put it about and fed her own ego and narcissm. The earth mother image is what really made me puke, none of it was her at all she put herself first and kids second or even third after Michael H. I agree on HIGNFY Hislop (whom I dislike anyway not because of Paula) and Merton thought she would come back at them with witty comments and give as good as she got but no she wasn't that bright at all and by then she was unpopular in general and she shouldn't really have gone on the show.
I agree. No one in this sorry story should be glorified. Also I got the impression that the 'intelligence' of both Paula and Peaches was overstated.
Perhaps she was taken by surprise - all nods to the nature of the programme and the Arch Bishop of Banterbury cuntishness therein - the reality of someone being vile to your face is often you lose you words. Then think of and refine them over a long night of the soul.
That is so true.
I said similar on here once about Jade Goody and got absolutely dragged. But I stand by it - she was very flawed and messy and, if she’d lived, would have no doubt become a celeb like Kerry Katona selling every burp, every new partner and every pregnancy to OK Magazine. But in death she’s been almost deified.
She and Finley met in rehab several months (maybe a year) after Michael died. I can't remember whether he sold a story, but when their relationship became common knowledge, there was an awful, portentous feeling that they were the last two people who should be together. She was trying to get over Michael, and Finley, I guess, was just up for a good time. It didn't last long, but it showed that she was out of her mind with grief.
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Does anyone know what Paula’s tattoo was of? In some pics it looks like a swallow with a scroll underneath but then in others it looks bigger, like she’d had it covered up but I can’t make out with what.
Oh my goodness me, I forgot how incredibly handsome he was! My teenage feelings have just stirred
I think it was some Japanese style koi or something? This is going from memory, I haven’t looked it up. Definitely a cover up.
But compared to what he used to look like, this is someone in a bad wayOh my goodness me, I forgot how incredibly handsome he was! My teenage feelings have just stirred
3 years before he died this was
And this is after he met Paula
I don’t think she was tee-total Ithink that’s a bit of a myth, I understood that she wasn’t a “drinker” as in she might have a glass of something, but wasn’t fussed on it, or in the habit of doing it often or excessively. Any info in her biography?
Yes this is how I thought of her too. Couldn’t bear all the flirting and 1950s housewife stuff. She made me cringe. I never thought she was sexy, just desperate. She was an attractive woman who didn’t need all this artifice . I’m a couple of years younger than her and yes, she was outdated even then.
I honestly believe his head injury was the beginning of the end for him.
I think his relationship with Paula was a symptom of a problem rather than being the actual problem
I was too young at the time to appreciate the tube and when she was on the big breakfast I just found her embarrassing. I remember watching the interview with Michael Hutchence and cringing. I didn’t think it was electric chemistry, I thought it seemed desperate and sad.
I do see things differently now. I have compassion for the woman who quite obviously was carrying a hell of a lot of childhood trauma. She was incredibly selfish though and caused so much damage to her children. I’m glad the other girls seem to be breaking the pattern like poor Peaches couldn’t.
I never saw her and Michael as a big love story. It was 2 damaged people who came together in a toxic whirlwind. I don’t think they would have stayed together if he hadn’t died. The way she described their big love story was very immature. All she cared about was holding onto him and fulfilling her own needs and wishes. Everyone else (including her children) were collateral damage.
Just watching the documentary I wouldn’t have recognised Grace Dent. In my head I was envisioning her in her early Big Brother days of fame.
On a separate note I saw the Boomtown Rats at a festival a few years back. I had no interest in watching them but they were brilliant. Bob is an excellent front man.
I do see things differently now. I have compassion for the woman who quite obviously was carrying a hell of a lot of childhood trauma. She was incredibly selfish though and caused so much damage to her children. I’m glad the other girls seem to be breaking the pattern like poor Peaches couldn’t.
I never saw her and Michael as a big love story. It was 2 damaged people who came together in a toxic whirlwind. I don’t think they would have stayed together if he hadn’t died. The way she described their big love story was very immature. All she cared about was holding onto him and fulfilling her own needs and wishes. Everyone else (including her children) were collateral damage.
Just watching the documentary I wouldn’t have recognised Grace Dent. In my head I was envisioning her in her early Big Brother days of fame.
On a separate note I saw the Boomtown Rats at a festival a few years back. I had no interest in watching them but they were brilliant. Bob is an excellent front man.
Had he not died I don’t think they’d have lasted either, in all honesty.
I know Gerry Agar seems to be a bit of an unreliable narrator, but in her book she said Michael was getting bored of Paula towards the end and was trying to get out of it. Had his eye on someone else. He was also getting bored with all the wrangling with Bob over the children and the way it took up Paula's attention.
(Btw she always described her tattoo as a 'vomiting fish').
I saw the boomtown rats in 1978 they were very good. I remember reading one of Paula’s book and crying with laughter at her description of Bob driving them to their country house, she was a good writer but very much of that time. I think her upbringing massively effed with her head, her mother is a dreadful woman, total narc, jess the dad who brought her up was clearly bipolar, Paula never had a chance really. I think MH should have had more testing and treatment for his head injury, I think there was a lasting impact that was not properly recognised. As someone else said, 2 damaged ppl drawn together in a folie a deux, and bringing a child into it. At least Tiger seems grounded, I wish her the best life.
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