Paparazzi

Celebrities abound in L-town, but for some strange reason I must have a natural aversion to them because unlike most everyone else I know around here I haven't seen a single one. Yesterday my celeb-sighting moment had arrived. There was a crowd of people gathered outside a rather unremarkable shop on Marylebone High Street. Once I realised many of these people were holding cameras with high power lenses, I knew someone important must be expected and joined in with the curious crowd. The excitement over my very first London celebrity sighting was slightly discomfited by the actual celebrity at hand, this girl . . .


Amy Winehouse

Not exactly Colin Firth or Emma Thompson, but it was still exciting. Although I couldn't resist snapping my own photos of her, it got me thinking. As I walked away I thought of all the lenses who captured her image and all the people behind those lenses and the different stories they would tell, the different captions they would post in their tabloid newspapers, magazines or websites. I thought about what truths or mistruths would be reported about Amy Winehouse reportedly "stumbling out of a London Waitrose in a drunken stupor" or "Amy Winehouse cursing at the paparazzi outside a central London grocery store." And in fact I did read one tabloid website's account of Amy at this very same sighting that I witnessed that reported things like this: "Amy and a friend were spotted grocery shopping near her new home in London. Yes, we're surprised she eats too. But what happened to our healthy-looking Wino from last week? By the looks of things, Amy's starting to let herself go again. Plus seeing her in those ballerina slippers isn't a good sign either, rather a reminder of her crazier days. We're just hoping she was having an 'off' day. Amy, get it together." What?!? Now I'm not about to come to Amy's defence as a whole, because there are plenty of, um, unflattering photos of her caught in some very naughty acts that need no captions. But I am a whole lot less likely to ever believe much of anything reported by the paparazzi now. And I will come to her defence for what I saw on Marylebone High Street yesterday afternoon. Amy actually looked very nice. Not my taste in style or makeup, but she looked nice. She also looked very healthy with a sound disposition. She was also very polite to the smothering crowd. That's it! No drama or ugliness.