Posted January 7, 200817 yr Amy, Pete and Lily show a new resolve in 2008 Winehouse is smiling and has a tan, Doherty has hired a personal trainer, and Allen is chastising the youth of today for not using any vowels in their text messages. Yes, you read all of that right Paul MacInnes Monday January 7, 2008 Guardian Unlimited Those of us who write about misbehaving pop stars and then go home and flagellate ourselves with shredded copies of that day's 3am have what we like to call our own "unholy trinity", the characters who make our life a lot easier and readily expand to fill the limitless void of the internet. As is often the case with a trinity, there are four of them. Top of the heap is Britney Spears, who is in such a state of existential chaos that she gets her own story elsewhere. But as she is American, then it is not our problem that American authorities allow her to walk out of a hospital some 36 Hours after reportedly holding her children hostage with a gun after an apparent nervous breakdown........ So onto our troubled Brits. Amy has now appeared in this column for 3,546 days straight and very rare have been the days when the news has been good. We are grateful, however, to report today that there is some sunshine in the studied soul singer's life. That it involves dossing down on an airport bench should remind us all that there is happiness in the smallest of things. "[Amy Winehouse] was in high spirits as she waited for her return flight from Barbados, posing for pictures with tourists," reports 3am this morning with accompanying pap snaps of people taking their own snaps (definitely not pap) with Amy before the singer took a kip on the aforementioned bench. In the photos, she can even be seen to be smiling. Which is nice. And there is also some colour to her skin. All of which suggests that a fortnight in the company of Bryan Adams can prove beneficial to even the most troubled of souls. Either that or a fortnight in luxury Caribbean surroundings is the difference, we're not sure. On the next rung of the holy-trinity ladder is Pete Doherty - or Peter to his acolytes, who hold etiquette and good manners in high regard. Pete, at the end of last year (known by the soubriquet 2007), had been spotted running on the streets of London. This seemed to contradict his reputation as a self-destructive junkie, but also conform to his image as a contrarian sort who would never do anything you'd expect him to. This conundrum is only put into greater relief by today's news, as reported by the estimable The Goss column in the Daily Star, that Pete has hired himself a personal trainer in the way of, say, an investment banker who's reached the age of 30 and realises that they may have money and the perfect house in Fulham but their body is the equivalent of the slops from a fishmonger's floor. Reports the Goss: "Pete is so serious about getting fit - with plans that include running the London Marathon - he sees a personal trainer called Jess six days a week. "Our mole said: 'Peter works out with Jess every day [Pete observes the Zoroastrian six-day week]. They run together, do weights and three times a week work out with Pilates moves.'" With all that exercise going on, how will he fit in the smack? Finally, on the bottom rung of the trinity, lies Lily Allen. She lies there because, unlike her peers, she doesn't push the boundaries of decent behaviour very often. Instead she just shoots her mouth off, which is fine by us, especially when its slightly hypocritical. See, for example, her slating of teens who use text-speak rather than the Queen's English. "I get upset about illiterate young people. Someone texted me in f***ing text-speak without any vowels, so I replied just in vowels." As 3am themselves point out, this from the girl with the hit single LDN. But also the girl who, like, is always chatting street right? And also feels the need to stick the f-word in the middle of her diatribe against poor English. Do you think Pete is turning the corner on the road to recovery or not?
