Grist For The Mill(s)

Kerry Packer's Call Girl

It's old news that there are allegations that Heather Mills was a call-girl. The new bit is that Kerry Pack may have been one of her clients, as well as Adnan Kashoggi.

A new documentary outs Kerry Packer as a "sugar daddy" of Heather Mills when the ex-wife of Beatle Paul McCartney was working as a high-class call girl, according to London's Daily Mail.

Denise Hewitt, who says she worked as a £10,000 escort with Ms Mills in the Eighties, makes the claims in a program to be aired on the UK's Channel 4.

Ms Hewitt, 44, is quoted as saying: "We went into high-class prostitution behind closed doors and nobody knew about it...[billionaire arms dealer Adnan] Kashoggi, Kerry Packer and one of the Royal princes of Saudi, they were the big fish and there were a couple of others that were classed as Heather's sugar daddies.

"We used to get a lot of jewellery as gifts - rings, watches, Bulgari bracelets, cars. The world was our oyster. We enjoyed it.

"No one knew what we did and we didn't expect it to come out. I don't look on it as sleazy."

Hooray for the freedom of press. This woman does attract a lot of vitriol. Down in the page concerning her public image on Wikipedia is this paragraph:

Criticism of the press coverage
The extent and nature of the British press coverage of Mills has been criticised. Publicist Mark Borkowski writes in the Independent on Sunday that, "Not since the cult of Myra Hindley have we encountered so much vitriol aimed at one woman."[55]. Feminist writer Natasha Walter has compared the coverage to that of Britney Spears.[56]while Kira Cochrane, writing in The Guardian, has said that "every misogynist epithet available" has been used against Mills. "She has somehow become the vessel through which it is acceptable for both pundits and the public to express their very worst feelings about women."[56]

It may be true, I don't know. When I quickly think about it, she strikes me as the archetypal 'Second Wife'. She seems to bask in the light of publicity yet we're not entirely sure how she came to prominence in the first place but for her looks. She's earned some kind of credibility through losing a leg and still insisting on her largely appearance-driven celebrity-hood, which is odd. Then she marries a Beatle for money, and insists on a huge settlement in the divorce - a demand the judge laughed out of court; then her ex-lover comes forwards with sordid stories of electric dildo collections. What's not to dislike?

What I find interesting is how of all these famous people with whom she brushed shoulders, none of them have really defended her except Sir Paul during their marriage. Which got me to ponder this question: Is a night with Heather Mills at the peak of her beauty worth AUD$25,000? For $25,000, you could perhaps do a lot more different things than shag Heather Mills in her 2-legged-phase of her *career*. It is distinctly possible that people simply do not like somebody who so blatantly can put a price on themselves - which is essentially what prostitutes do - which makes them uncomfortable in accepting her.

Never Meet Your Heroes

Over the years I've liked John Cusack. I admire his work greatly. He's got a charming presence on the screen which is hard to dislike, and he has a way of saying things in a way that we would all like to say them with much charm as we would take a tilt at hypocrisy or social mores. He's a Gen-X phenomenon all on his own, managing to mix a weird kind of conceit with a self-effacing humour. In a perfect world, we'd all like to be characters that John Cusack plays and deliver lines to our lives with much charm and sardonic wit.

So it comes as a bit of a let down to find out that he's a total and utter prima donna, who is insufferable and dislikeable for being so unlike his screen persona.

Travelling to oversee the Canadian production of The Factory with fellow writer Morgan O'Neill last year, Leyden said the American star cost the production with his diva antics and lateness.

"John Cusack was one of my favourite actors until I met him," Leyden said yesterday.

"I have to say one thing - and this is my favourite line when people ask me what I think of John Cusack - he plays nice guys on film. So, read between the lines."

Prodded by a radio interviewer to dish more dirt, Leyden accused Cusack of often arriving "hours late" for work.

"He cost us a lot of money and he was getting his biggest pay day on this film.

"He was getting paid a lot of cash and he would just be two hours late to set, wouldn't apologise for keeping everyone waiting in the snow . . . a real prima donna.

"Everyone thought he was a really nice guy (prior to filming) and all I can say is that it was a really nice day when he wrapped," Leyden said.

There you go. He's certainly not the first star not to live up to his screen persona, and you do take this stuff with a grain of salt. The lesson of the story? NEVER meet your heroes.