Paula Yates was the other Diana (3/15/2023)

[quote]Paula Yates was the tabloids’ darling for a while, when her on-screen flirtatiousness was neutralised by its distinctive Carry On Interviewing vibe and the fact of her rockstar boyfriend, Bob Geldof… When she had an affair with Terence Trent D’Arby in the late 80s, the disapprobation from the press felt neurotic, as if a collective ego wound had been inflicted. … But we might still look at the headlines – “Bob’s Paula caught with black star”, in the News of the World… That cocktail of racism and sexism – they acknowledge Trent D’Arby is a star, yet it’s still more important that he’s black than what his name is. Paula Yates is Geldof’s chattel.

[quote]It was only when Yates left Geldof for Hutchence in 1995 that Fleet Street turned remorselessly against her… the 60-plus photographers camped permanently outside her house… Then the voices of the moral majority chime in, the “who does she think she is?” brigade. Then the supposedly sympathetic media wing, the feminists, the satirists, bring up the rear: “You seem like such an intelligent woman, why did you flaunt yourself in this way?”

[…]

[quote]By 1997, the most appalling tragedy has struck: she has lost the love of her life; and in the same week the red tops have broken the story that her putative father wasn’t her father. She attempted suicide the following year, as a result of which she lost custody of her children to Bob Geldof. And still it doesn’t stop. “Pathetic Paula makes mockery of love and loss”; “Why poor Paula is only as good as the last man she slept with.” She tells Townsend at one point that she got sent her own obituary by accident, by one of the tabloids: “Headline, suicide blonde.” But that was sent in the post, to her address: how was that an accident? The cruelty was unmitigated, and the responsibility wholly distributed.

[quote]The fundamental charge, here, is not that Yates was promiscuous or adulterous; culture was not united, certainly by the mid-90s, on promiscuity being an untrammelled evil. No, it was that Paula Yates was an attention-seeker, uppity, spoilt, self-promoting.

[quote]A coroner found that Paula Yates had not tried to take her own life when she died: she was the victim, rather, of her efforts at recovery. She had fallen off the wagon after rehab, and if she had been a habitual drug user, that amount of heroin wouldn’t have killed her.

I thought Terence Trent D’Arby was gay?

The documentary on Channel 4 was very good. She seemed to be a real nymphomaniac but a generally nice person. Sad how her life unravelled.

Very little sympathy for her. Her whole schtick was flirting with guys- she had nothing beyond that. And this became patently obvious with her appearance on Have I Got News for You- faced with a bunch of middle aged farts who held no attraction for her, or vice versa, they're ridiculing of her made her crumble.

Throwing the leg over male interviewees might be cute in your 20s, but by the 1990s she looked like a desperate middle aged frau.

Yes, she and Diana were alike. A pair of one-dimensional women who used doe eyes and batting eyelashes to get attention.

If only life were as simple as what your world view dreamed up in that unwitting self-assessment masquerading as one of Paula Yates, R3. She was a mixed bag, that Paula.

A mixed bag of unfaithful, needy, and ultimately vacuous.

Pick any Paula interview, from any stage of her career, it will be the same shit;

male interviewee=flirt

female interviewee= "and did you snog/sleep with him".

The idea of her having been a "dark timeline Diana" is preposterous. She was a junkie tart who married one mid-level star and then trailed around after a much more major star who she hooked through his heroin addiction, and who she made so happy that he hanged himself.

Her only job was making a fool out of herself on morning television by dressing for a strip club and throwing herself at everything that walked through the door. Perhaps she had redeeming qualities, but she was intensely ridiculous. I remember she'd wear her fake tits in pushup bras and you could see all these blue veins crisscrossing her tits. I'd never seen that before. She made me cringe.

If the Carry On film franchise had a 'randy roving reporter' character, Paula would have been the template.

Not really, r7. There was joy and hilarious innocence/unawareness in all the Carry On ladies' characters that Yates' knowing-but-dim groupie persona would have ruined.

Hopelessly out of her depth. Four middle aged guys with no interest in her, so she flounders.

Outside of the UK she was and remains a nobody.

[quote]The People’s Princess turned to Little Miss Hypocrite (I’m selecting two of their tabloid epithets from a smörgåsbord) and said: “I love it when you’re on the front page of the papers because it means I’ve got the day off.”

Ridiculous to call Diana a hypocrite in this situation. She was making a wry joke at their circumstances.

People forget that the international tabloids were vicious to women until pretty recently, although the UK tabloids still continue to wish death on a chosen few they've decided to be the targets of the hate. No one felt that sorry for Paula Yates, not until Bob Geldof went fully psychotic on her, and even then the press sometimes ignored or downplayed what he did, because Bob had a lot of influence back then.

You have to experience nasty British press/media people to believe it.

Serious punitive streak throughout the UK culture at-large, too. They rip people to fucking shreds and make sure they feel it deeply.

[quote]Yates was the Diana of the dark timeline: two epoch-making blondes, one bottle, the other natural

Was Paula Yates a natural blonde? Because Diana wasn't.

R11, the hypocrite referred to Paula not Diana.

Only in the UK. I remember Diana all over American tabloids, but the only thing I know about Yates is that she was linked to Hutchence and that she’s dead.

Also for a second thought she was the woman who drowned her many children.

There is good and bad on British media. They do tend to tear people to shreds, but they also show none of the deference and credulity to celebrities that mars US culture. Compare an Emily Maitlis interview to an Oprah Winfrey interview.

You're right, r14. I read "turned" as "changed."

Calling Paula "little miss hypocrite" was shitty, especially given the way the tabloids operate. As if they're above judgement somehow.

Where is this documentary streaming?

R13 there are photos of Diana going back to childhood where she's blonde. Not sure what game you're trying to play here but Diana was obviously a natural blonde from birth.

The UK press were significantly nastier to Yates than Markle. And you'd never find dozens of reporters/photographers staking out the Harkles when at home, running errands, etc. The Yates/Hutchence household was stalked relentlessly. Another problem was that Yates would try to manipulate the press and when with Hutchence could only make money by writing her autobiography, selling interviews with OK! and Hello! and writing a name-dropping showbiz column for The Sun.

In the documentary Mystify: Michael Hutchence, most of the people around Yates and Hutchence admitted the couple had been on drugs, particularly heroin, when together. Pretty bad with three kids and a baby in the house. Hutchence's friends and family have admitted since his death that he was rampantly cheating on Paula and often talked of leaving her. The press knew these things and trailed them constantly, waiting for the inevitable implosion, probably expecting more physical and verbal abuse from Hutchence, not his shocking death.

Also the confirmation within weeks of Hutchence's death that Yates's father was Hughie Green and not Jess Yates seemed to pummel her further into the sand. It was always going to be hard getting over that, particularly with all the drugs and alcohol around. A friend of Yates wrote a book and unintentionally damned her by describing the abundant use of alcohol in the immediate aftermath of Hutchence's death and around the time of the funeral. Other sources describe heavy drug use by Yates as well after he died.

Yates was known to tell fibs and I never believed that story about Diana talking to her about being in the front pages of the tabloids. It only came out after Diana died.

[quote]the only thing I know about Yates is that she was linked to Hutchence and that she’s dead.

Same here, R15.

[quote]Where is this documentary streaming?

R18, it's on the Channel 4 website but you need a login. So far I haven't been able to find it anywhere else.

r21 You need to use a VPN with an English server and sign up, providing a (fake) UK address.

Thanks, I'll try that, R22.

I found the first part on youtube by typing in PAULA YATES DOCUMENTARY. The second one is listed under PAULA S01E02

She looks trans in OP's pic.

I once read - probably about 20 years ago - an article in Vanity Fair about Yates. It was long, fascinating and probably, in my opinion, the best article they ever published.

I can't believe Hutchence dumped Kylie Minogue for THAT.

Worse. Helena Christensen.

Paula who? Seriously, I've never heard of her.

[quote]Paula who? Seriously, I've never heard of her

What about her daughter Peaches Honeyblossom Geldof? (RIP)

Both ladies were vulgar, as evidenced by their wedding gowns. Paula Yates chose a BRIGHT RED wedding gown. Lady Diana chose a ridiculously over-the-top gown with that endless train and ballon-inflated sleeves.

Their demise was predictable and expected.

She really gushed over her guests. Not sure that would go down as well today. But it seemed she was very much adored in England in her prime. That News of the World headline : Bob's Paula Caught With Black Star is offensive in many respects.

What was odd: the part where she said she could never be with someone who couldn't fill stadiums. Strange criteria to use to look for a partner to have children with. By the time she was with Hutchence, he was playing to arenas (capacity of 1,000s) and his stadium (capacity of tens or hundreds of thousands) days were long gone.

Very sad she was addicted to drugs for two years after his death - and probably beforehand. Only to have a lapse that proved deadly.

The timing and detail of certain things discussed was a bit off: she and Hutchence were both using Prozac, Rohypnol and heroin before he died. Also the allegation about Hughie Green being her father was made months before Hutchence died and was proven true immediately after. That allegation and their drug use would have seriously caused disruption to the bliss of their household she described. We now know he rampantly cheated and had spoken to many people of leaving her, marrying her and never marrying her.

Her life with Hutchence had been cleaned up a lot when it's on record about their drug use.

The articles written about them, particularly her, were nasty. But the press knew about their drug use, just couldn't prove it, so they wrote venomous articles about them. As stated in the series, articles like that wouldn't be written (as much) today. And dozens of cameras following them, outside their home does seem like harassment.

A very sad end to someone who had once held a country in her hand. But would love to see the earlier documentary The Real Paula Yates again.