h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You seem to have mentioned that Paula lost the custody of her children to Bob twice, which might be due to moving the sections about.

In the Michael Hutchence section:
Bob divorced Paula in 1996, and the particularly harrowing battle for custody of their daughters continued. Paula was originally granted custody, a decision which Bob fought through the courts and won.

Then in the downward spiral section:
In June 1998, she lost custody of her daughters by Geldof.

It reads a little weirdly, because if she had custody when she was with MH, then Bob couldn't have prevented her from leaving the country with the children - you can take your children out of the UK for a month.

This is a very good entry about someone who deserves some comment. I think a bit more of a critical tone might help: she always struck me as a deeply selfish person who wouldn't shy away from any chance at self-publicity, even when it meant she had to drag the name of Hutchence through the mud. Does anybody apart from me remember that 'documentary' into his death when she advanced the theory that he died of auto-erotic strangulation? And what purpose did that server, apart from getting Paula's name in the news again? I also find it hard to imagine that Geldof was behind the stupid (and attention-seeking) names the children got.
Of couse, this comment is mainly speculative in nature, and probably unsuitable for an EG entry, but comments like 'Having this all played out in public for the delectation of strangers must have been doubly humiliating for Paula' evince very little sympathy for the woman from the likes of me. She courted the media incessantly, and he who sups with the Devil etc...

Thank you for reading my entry FM

<>

She's not the only one who thought that. I do too. If you're going to hang yourself, and mean to kill yourself, then you loop your neck and jump from a height so your feet don't touch the floor.
Hutchence had a belt tightened around his neck whilst knelt naked against his hotel door.

My own suspicion is that he was with a prostitute who was pleasuring him whilst he tightened the notches. She either didn't release the belt for him in time, got scared, or thought "my chance to rob the idiot"

But that is supposition, I wasn't the inquest judge, and I'm not putting that in the entry.



Mina - I've corrected that error.

A5034070 - Paula Yates (1959-2000) - Author and TV Presenter

forgot to post the thread turn-over link to the entry

I thought it was rather good, I've never really had any interest in Paula Yates but this had me in a state of grippedness until the end.

Although I do have to take issue with your descrbing Andy Warhol as one of the "greatest modern artists in the world". But that's mroe down to my own predjudices against the guy.

Thanks Mr.D!

I can see your point, how should he be described then? (please keep it clean)
Suggestions please...!!

I think you just need to add a "man who is regarded by many as" before the "greatest" and that should cover it... personally I'd go for "shameless hack who contributed nothing substantial to the art world and was the very thing he claimed to hate." but that's just me

Well, this is what it says on a website (and avoids the use of 'the greatest'

'He is considered by many as the most influential American artist of the second half of the 20th century'.

(and it also avoids comparing him onb a World level )

On the death of Michael Hutchence, it really depends on where your moral line is. What would be harder for a wife to accept - that her husband's sexual appetite was immense and different from the norm? Or that life with her wasn't worth living?

In those terms, Paula's view wasn't surprising.



Okay, now I get to read the enrty (hurrah!):

In the first section, you can link to an entry on 'Live Fast, Die Young' etc.: A1037927

Bob Geldof - first para. You have a repetition of the word 'typical' there. You could change the second one to 'traditional' and the meaning would be the same.

On the Bed with Paula (great header!) - You have a heinous misplaced apostrophe in '1990's' - the shame! And while On the Bed was her last high-profile work, The Tube remains much more important culturally (The Tube launched Frankie Goes to Hollywood; The Big Breakfast launched Zig and Zag in the UK). It's this, and not The Big Breakfast, that she'll be remembered for most as she was the main presenter throughout the Tube, but just one fill-in presenter out of many on the Big Breakfast (where she was replaced by Vanessa Feltz and Lily Savage). I'd strongly recommend losing that line about the BB being what she's best remembered for.

And here we step sideways for an anecdote. Decide for yourself if it's at all appropriate. Paula interviewed film star Mel Gibson on the bed and after flirting throughout the interview to no avail she openly begged him to kiss her. Mel tactfully pointed out that his wife was an excellent shot and managed to duck out of the desired clinch.

Might work as an illustrative footnote or something.

Back to the entry:

Michael Hutchence - the first paragraph gets a little confused because it's trying to throw so much detail in at once. Try rewording it a bit, like this maybe:

"... but ended when Paula left Bob for Michael Hutchence, the lead singer with Australian rock group INXS. Hutchence met Paula in February 1995 when she interviewed him on The Big Breakfast."

There's no need to give his birth/death dates there. Nice bit of detail but it actually breaks the flow of the paragraph.

(By the way, I had no idea about Terence Trent D'Arby! It's a bit odd when you consider he replaced Hutchence for a while in INXS).

Paula's True Parentage: Pop a tag after the quote and before 'Bobby Crush' in the blockquote. You might want to add 'Opportunity Knocks winner' in front of Bobby's name to explain the link between him and Mr Green.

As I discussed this with Natalie, one of our colleagues piped up with 'He's my friend's uncle' and proceeded to tell us that Crush is his real surname. It is, absolutely, a small world, when you discover you're only three degrees of separation from Bobby Crush.

Downward Spiral - first para: Where you write 'was divided equally between them', it'll be clearer if you say 'equally between him and Paula'.

Third para, same section: "Mrs Fairley Sams went round.." a bit colloquial that. Try "came to the house".

Epitaph: The line " Her story is a warning to others about the dangers of drink and drug abuse" comes across as unnecessarily judgmental. The paragraph would work better without it to be honest. I think the facts speak for themselves so it's not really appropriate to guide people's opinions quite so strongly

As before, the final blockquote could be separated with a brief tag, and you should day that Gray was a co-host on The Tube.

Okay, so a few pick-ups there, but this is a superb entry and these notes aside, I'm sure it'll have Scouts swarming over it.

Jimster

And I agree with the use of the word 'influential' over 'greatest'. The former merely suggests a lot of people copied him; the latter suggests he was worth copying

"On the death of Michael Hutchence, it really depends on where your moral line is. What would be harder for a wife to accept - that her husband's sexual appetite was immense and different from the norm? Or that life with her wasn't worth living?"

Don't want to even speculate about that. Just coming at it from the 'dirty linen' perspective, that's all.

Updated, thanks everyone. Three degrees separated from Bobby Crush eh? I added that quote because it gave the exact effect of what must have been a surreal moment in time, not because he's a relative of a friend

It's certainly an interesting story, and I'm toying with the idea of adding the bizarre house-swop between Paula and Bob (he took over Hutchence's London house when him & Paula first split and Paula had the kids, and Michael moved into Bob's house...)

...and also the nugget you just gave me about Terence Trent D'Arby singing for INXS? That *is* weird.

Should I add them? Certainly makes for interesting reading...

FM: I've removed the sentence "Having this all played out in public for the delectation of strangers must have been doubly humiliating for Paula" - I agree with you, it doesn't belong. It's my personal opinion reflected there, *I* would have been doubly mortified, Paula might have loved the attention.

Hmm

"Paula sprang to fame presenting the Channel 4 show The Tube, where she first met Michael Hutchence"

so says http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/930460.stm

Did she meet him on The Tube? Or The Big Breakfast?

It was whichever the show was that featured a bed.

Hi Galaxy Babe!

Looking good !

For your Trivia bit at the end - Paula had a cameo role in the now defunct soap opera 'Brookside', where I believe (from memory ) she was interviewed in a boat by the character 'Karen Grant'. You may of course wish to ignore this nugget

Jules

This is what a website says:

'Yates, former presenter of cutting-edge music show The Tube, left Geldof for Michael Hutchence, singer with INXS, whom she met when interviewing him on The Big Breakfast, the show produced by Geldof's production company after it won the contract to provide a morning news and entertainment show for Channel 4'.

I've been looking around lots of websites and some give Paula's DOB as 1960. As IMDb and Wikipedia both do, I've changed her date.

I never saw Brookside, and I've checked on the listing at IMDb and Paula isn't mentioned it's not on Paula's IMDb either.

That BBC webpage must be wrong then, the timeline certainly is, if she met him on The Tube.

Number 65 on here:

http://pages.eidosnet.co.uk/neils/brookside/page/facts3.htm

But this isn't an official site, I admit, although I personally watched that episode so it must be true

As I said, it's very trivial trivia!

...but worthy of inclusion no less!